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Wales vs Western Samoa 1995 RLWC


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5 minutes ago, Jeff Stein said:

I'm trying to remember Hemeling Lager 

It rang zero bells for me, 'til I found a reference to one of their adverts, with the tag-line "Wouldn't you rather be Hemeling?"

That brought back memories of a Not the Nine o'Clock News sketch set in a pub, with the line "Or would you rather be haemorrhaging?" - a joke I never got 'til about 5 minutes ago.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I really enjoyed that, and have let the Scrum V people know how much I appreciated their showing this match.

Who knows; with some more positive feedback, they might show more RL once in a while?

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It's hard not to feel sad thinking about the Wales of today when you watch them play in a big ground in front of a passionate crowd like that and with a very competitive team.

There is just so much potential in Wales but RL has never had the backer or perseverance to really gain a strong foothold and presence.

 

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1 hour ago, Damien said:

It's hard not to feel sad thinking about the Wales of today when you watch them play in a big ground in front of a passionate crowd like that and with a very competitive team.

There is just so much potential in Wales but RL has never had the backer or perseverance to really gain a strong foothold and presence.

It could have been done when SL started, a Cardiff-based group wanted to play in SL but were made to play in the third tier instead.

If they'd been included in SL and allowed their pick of those Welsh Union converts they might have been a big success, but of course the traditional clubs could never allow something like that could they?

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There have been so many lost opportunities in Wales. If the game had persevered with a Tri-Nations type tournament with Wales and France in the 80's who knows what it could have become with the increasing influx of Welsh RU players. It was run from 1975-1981, bar one of those years then stopped until 1995. Looking at the results from the 1995 and 1996 European Championship the game would love fairly close matches like that today.

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On 11/07/2020 at 22:53, Big Picture said:

It could have been done when SL started, a Cardiff-based group wanted to play in SL but were made to play in the third tier instead.

If they'd been included in SL and allowed their pick of those Welsh Union converts they might have been a big success, but of course the traditional clubs could never allow something like that could they?

SL has a decent history of allowing clubs to join SL in non-traditional ways. If there had been a strong bid, I have no doubt they would have been in.

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25 minutes ago, Dave T said:

SL has a decent history of allowing clubs to join SL in non-traditional ways. If there had been a strong bid, I have no doubt they would have been in.

From my recollection the talk of this was around the time of the 1995 World Cup when it wasn't possible to do what you say. By the time the Super League kicked in with the likes of PSG parachuted in a lot of the Welsh players had already gone back to RU and the bid had gone.

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2 hours ago, rlno1 said:

Heard recently on a podcast with the great Jonathan Davies that he didn't want to go back to union but did not receive a good offer to stay.

He also said he was better suited to rugby league.

Another case of RL not failing to miss an opportunity.  Do you have a link for that podcast by chance?

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3 hours ago, rlno1 said:

Heard recently on a podcast with the great Jonathan Davies that he didn't want to go back to union but did not receive a good offer to stay.

He also said he was better suited to rugby league.

 

1 hour ago, Big Picture said:

Another case of RL not failing to miss an opportunity.  Do you have a link for that podcast by chance?

Davies was under contract at Warrington until 1997. Cardiff bought him from Warrington as RU turned professional. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/davies-deal-in-doubt-1576270.html

Davies' wife was ill and they returned to South Wales with Cardiff before he retired in 1997.

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8 minutes ago, Dave T said:

 

Davies was under contract at Warrington until 1997. Cardiff bought him from Warrington as RU turned professional. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/davies-deal-in-doubt-1576270.html

Davies' wife was ill and they returned to South Wales with Cardiff before he retired in 1997.

I think Warrington were in severe financial difficluties too at the time.

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On 08/07/2020 at 08:01, Man of Kent said:

Wow. Saturday night prime time!

Perhaps Covid isn’t all bad 😜

It was more than prime time, i think it was on Scrum V which is a Ra Ra show.

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5 minutes ago, Damien said:

I think Warrington were in severe financial difficluties too at the time.

We were living hand to mouth for a fair spell around then, but things got worse a year or two later. 

Interestingly in the season in question, our squad started the year with Jonathan Davies, Greg Mackey, Iestyn Harris, Paul Sculthorpe and we signed a couple of Tongan World Cup players including an Olympic sprinter. I remember being excited about that season. Until about Round 2.

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28 minutes ago, Dave T said:

We were living hand to mouth for a fair spell around then, but things got worse a year or two later. 

Interestingly in the season in question, our squad started the year with Jonathan Davies, Greg Mackey, Iestyn Harris, Paul Sculthorpe and we signed a couple of Tongan World Cup players including an Olympic sprinter. I remember being excited about that season. Until about Round 2.

Was that Mateaki Mafi?

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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2 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Was that Mateaki Mafi?

Yeah, I remember being pretty excited about having some genuine pace. 

Unfortunately  he wasn't that great at Rugby League. We also had Salesi Finau, who we signed as a centre. He ended up a decent prop forward for us :kolobok_biggrin:

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7 hours ago, Damien said:

There have been so many lost opportunities in Wales. If the game had persevered with a Tri-Nations type tournament with Wales and France in the 80's who knows what it could have become with the increasing influx of Welsh RU players. It was run from 1975-1981, bar one of those years then stopped until 1995. Looking at the results from the 1995 and 1996 European Championship the game would love fairly close matches like that today.

That is often the biggest problem RL faces when looking to expand, for some reason (and it may be financial), the sport lacks patience and seems to want instant success, but guess what, successful expansion not only needs money, it needs time and patience to stick at things. The great junior work happening in the North East is a result of many years work, too often we seem to want to either change things or abandon things if we don’t get the perfect result in 2 years.

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  • 1 year later...
14 minutes ago, GeorgeW said:

Hi everyone

Sorry to bump an old thread but did anyone happen to record this match? I'd love to see it in decent quality. 

I know there is one on YT but the quality is terrible.

 

Thanks

Most of that RWC's matches were broadcast by the short-lived L!veTV. I don't know if this was one of them, but if it was, you'd have to find out who now owns their archive (if it still exists). I still hold out faint hope of the Tonga v PNG epic turning up in decent quality from that tournament.

But during that era, it'd almost certainly have been archived on video, not film*, so you have a low-ish quality ceiling that can't be got around.

*when the BBC showed a series of extended Challenge Cup highlights a year or so ago, the drop-off in picture quality from the early selections to the Nineties content was very stark.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 25/09/2021 at 23:22, Futtocks said:

Most of that RWC's matches were broadcast by the short-lived L!veTV. I don't know if this was one of them, but if it was, you'd have to find out who now owns their archive (if it still exists). I still hold out faint hope of the Tonga v PNG epic turning up in decent quality from that tournament.

But during that era, it'd almost certainly have been archived on video, not film*, so you have a low-ish quality ceiling that can't be got around.

*when the BBC showed a series of extended Challenge Cup highlights a year or so ago, the drop-off in picture quality from the early selections to the Nineties content was very stark.

Thanks for the reply. 

This match was rebroadcast on BBC Wales last year during Covid and was available to stream on the website for a month. Unfortunately I found out too late and it was long gone. Perhaps BBC have the right? 

I know SKY are sitting on a goldmine for the 2000 RLWC. They replayed both Australia vs Wales and England vs Ireland in HD widescreen. 

Fox Sports in Australia rebroadcast the 1995 RLWC final last year in HD. But it was a condensed 60 minute game. Which was not so bad as it cut out a lot of injury time ..... and the female streaker. 

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