Sat 5th Jun: Women's Challenge Cup Final: St Helens v York City Knights KO 11.15 (TV)

[dkw]

Enjoyable game, some good tries and great effort from both teams. Saints just had more skill and a better attacking plan to York, and crucially the passes stuck where York dropped too many. Well done Saints.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Full-time. 34-6.

Saints are the 2021 Challenge Cup winners. 

[Dunbar]

Well done Saints.

[dkw]

1 hour ago, muckymunksy said:

This should be on comedy channel. 

Pathetic, tedious moron.

[ATLANTISMAN]

Good luck to them but not for me.

I hope that we dont end up like cricket where the girls team now seems to be more important to the ECB than the county clubs :(((

 

P 

[Irish Saint]

Congratulations to all involved in a very enjoyable game.

None of these ladies are professional most having to train after a long days work and others have family commitments.

Thanks to the BBC for the coverage hopefully the game will go from strength to strength.

[Futtocks]

19 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

You are sitting on the Internet showing your bitterness. 

Not to mention some massive insecurities.

[glossop saint]

3 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Good luck to them but not for me.

I hope that we dont end up like cricket where the girls team now seems to be more important to the ECB than the county clubs :(((

 

P 

You've already mentioned that it's not for you. That's fine. No problem. But then why stay and comment again that it isn't for you? Seems like you need more going on in your life, or at least on your Saturday afternoons.

Also, I wonder if you would like to watch men's beach volleyball as much as you would prefer to watch women's? Is it the sport that attracts you or something else?

[Damien]

4 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Good luck to them but not for me.

I hope that we dont end up like cricket where the girls team now seems to be more important to the ECB than the county clubs :(((

 

P 

You've already said its not for you so why bother repeating yourself or even bother looking at the thread?

[Dunbar]

7 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Good luck to them but not for me.

That's very gracious of you. But no need to sacrifice yourself, I wish you luck as well.

[JonT]

31 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

YAWN for me sorry prefer watching the girls play beach volleyball or the high jump watched for 3 mins and that was enough.

Sorry and on a side issue the girls from down under are going to run up some cricket scores in the WC.

 

P

Yep, can fully imagine your experience with women is limited to leering over them on the tv.

[Gav Wilson]

36 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

YAWN for me sorry prefer watching the girls play beach volleyball or the high jump watched for 3 mins and that was enough.

Sorry and on a side issue the girls from down under are going to run up some cricket scores in the WC.

 

P

You didn't need to post this, did you?

[Damien]

I actually think the women's game in this country has come on leaps and bounds since the advent of the Super League. The skills, standard and fitness is far superior to the last World Cup in my opinion. 

Yes we are still well behind the Southern hemisphere but started off years behind and from little with a fraction of the resources. Australia and NZ with touch football always had a much stronger starting point when it came to female participation in the game. I don't think anyone is under any illusions about what will happen come World Cup time but what has been achieved over the last 4 years should be applauded, not ridiculed.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

4 minutes ago, JonT said:

Yep, can fully imagine your experience with women is limited to leering over them on the tv.

Boom!

[Gav Wilson]

15 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Good luck to them but not for me.

I hope that we dont end up like cricket where the girls team now seems to be more important to the ECB than the county clubs :(((

 

P 

You are that dinosaur Danny Lockwood and I claim my £5.

[Chris22]

There's something about women playing sport that seems to rile people and I cannot figure out why.

It's not the same level of quality of the men's game. But that's probably because the players are amateurs who give up their time to play the sport. And they have only been playing even at this level for a couple of years with a year out due to the pandemic.

I saw a comment on Twitter before that you can tell which players are the most experienced and I agreed. With time, more high quality players will develop and the product will improve.

Saying that, St Helens scored some classy tries. The Gaskin cut out pass was submline, as was Cunningham's ball onto (I think?) Rudge, who hit a great line before half time.

The only thing stranger than people who get annoyed at women playing sport are those who go out of their way to criticise and belittle them. If you aren't interested, you could always avoid it? A bit radical I know...

[RigbyLuger]

RHP was bloody awful.

[Dunbar]

Such a pity we didn't see more of Gaskin after that freak injury.  It would have made no difference to the result but we missed out on plenty of skill.

Hope she is not out of the World Cup with a serious injury. 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

14 minutes ago, Damien said:

I actually think the women's game in this country has come on leaps and bounds since the advent of the Super League. The skills, standard and fitness is far superior to the last World Cup in my opinion. 

Yes we are still well behind the Southern hemisphere but started off years behind and from little with a fraction of the resources. Australia and NZ with touch football always had a much stronger starting point when it came to female participation in the game. I don't think anyone is under any illusions about what will happen come World Cup time but what has been achieved over the last 4 years should be applauded, not ridiculed.

I quite agree. I mean this game, what was actually wrong with it?

It was ever so slightly slower than the men's game perhaps but there was still some great runs and breaks and the last two Saints tries saw some really swift movement of the ball across the field, decision making close to the line was a bit unimaginative at times but really only from York who still managed to get over the line a few times to be held up. Handling could have been better but it was a very hot day and I imagine the ball was very slippery, I've seen far bigger dropfests in the men's game. I didn't think the kicking was particularly bad, some great last tackle kicks were put in, I especially liked the banana kick from York in the first half that almost put them over. The defence was very good, shown by the number of times both teams were held up over the line and the amount of final tackle kicks and grubbers that were defused. Discipline was very good, very few penalties given away, no more than the average men's game.

I honestly can't see what people are complaining about here, it was a very entertaining, very good quality game, maybe people should just drop their Victorian-era prejudices and enjoy an entertaining game of the sport they claim to love!! 

[Blind side johnny]

Good game and the Saints team were quality. A well deserved victory.

[unapologetic pedant]

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Saints certainly seem to look a lot more creative and structured close to the try line. That stat that was put up on the screen close to the end of the half was interesting. I believe it was York 22 plays in opposition 20 metres, Saints just 11 and yet they are 4 scores up, granted 2 of those tries have come from breaks around the halfway line which just backs up the feeling they are more structured and alert, seeing the gaps in York's defence to be able go make these great breaks. 

Didn`t notice it in the semi, but York really lack a creative, slick pivot. 

We saw in the semi Andrade is a strike weapon, but there was nobody to bring her into the game.

[bromleybulldog]

I started out watching this and really wanted it to be good but have to say I switched off at half time. There was enthusiasm aplenty and some well taken tries but the level of basic skills  (catching and passing)  did rather leave a lot to be desired. Understand that it was hot, the ball might have been slippery, it was a final, so nerves may have been involved but I was really disappointed in the game.

[flyingking]

Enjoyed the game and appreciated that the final was shown live on the BBC. Acted as a great appetiser for the World Cup and I look forward to seeing some of these players in the Autumn. One thing I did not like is the Player of the Match is not honoured in the same way as in the Men's Challenge Cup Final. If we are going to have true equality, let's have the women's equivalent of the Lance Todd trophy. Hopefully from next year, the best player on the pitch will be presented with an award, that honours someone who has promoted women's sport and Rugby League, and so lifts the Clare Balding Trophy.

[unapologetic pedant]

29 minutes ago, Damien said:

 The skills, standard and fitness is far superior to the last World Cup in my opinion. 

Yes we are still well behind the Southern hemisphere but started off years behind and from little with a fraction of the resources. 

Hard to say for certain, but I saw all our games at the 2017 women`s WC on TV and I don`t think we`ve moved forward much at all. Whereas the Aussies have exponentially. Pandemic of course has affected us more.

Twenty years ago we were roughly on a par with Australia. NZ were the top side. That was before the Aussies took female RL seriously, which they started to in the years leading up to the 2013 WC. Even at that competition we hadn`t yet fallen too far behind. I fear we have since, with the gap widening all the time.

Would be delighted to be proven wrong later this year.

[unapologetic pedant]

2 hours ago, corvusxiii said:

These Set Restarts can be underhand and sneaky imo.

Ref called audibly what each restart call was for, "hand on the ball", "not clearing the ruck" etc.

Followed by a wake-the-dead blast on the foghorn.

In what way is that "underhand and sneaky"?