Combined Nations All Stars Squad

[RigbyLuger]

22 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Was all of this avoidable? Not really. For paid journalism, Matthew Shaw’s “we shudda played 23 games” is shortsighted and he’d then only be moaning we handed back so much money to Sky after having to do so last year too. Both The RFL and Super League have loaded their fixtures beyond 21st June because that was initially “freedom day”, understandable so, too. We couldn’t really justify playing an exhibition game much later than this because of the cup final on 17th July and then the run in before the play-offs. 

Exactly right. It's not as if "don't play SL the same night as this" is a revolutionary thought that no-one mentioned before he did either.

Good opportunity to see some of these great academy products that haven't been sent on loan!

[Hela Wigmen]

1 minute ago, RigbyLuger said:

Exactly right. It's not as if "don't play SL the same night as this" is a revolutionary thought that no-one mentioned before he did either.

Good opportunity to see some of these great academy products that haven't been sent on loan!

That worked so well last year! I can remember Cas and Salford moaning for weeks about injury and fatigue and Salford even cancelled a game citing player welfare, unable to raise a side. 

The ripple effect from a mid-season exhibition is quite wide. 

[Eddie]

Even by English RL’s impossibly low standards this is turning into an unimaginable farce. 

[MZH]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

Even by English RL’s impossibly low standards this is turning into an unimaginable farce. 

Unimaginable? Clearly you aren't very familiar with English RL.

[glemiln]

 

[Damien]

From Dave Woods:

Rugby league in England is in danger of becoming a laughing stock.

It's a World Cup year. The sport is set to get its biggest profile and attract more eyeballs than it's had for a long, long time when that tournament kicks off in England in October.

A successful England side would generate a whole heap of interest and enthusiasm that could well lead to more fans being drawn in to watching the game, more sponsors being attracted to the product and more youngsters being tempted to play.

It's vital, you'd think, that England and their new coach Shaun Wane are given every chance to prepare as best they can for what could be a huge turning point for a code that consistently fails to hit the headlines.

But this is rugby league.

It has a soul-destroying habit of being run by self-interest and small-mindedness that fails to see the bigger picture on a staggeringly consistent basis. And the central governance - the Rugby Football League - lacks the strength to ride roughshod over that parochialism.

When England play the Combined All-Stars - in theory the best non-English players in Super League - on Friday, it will be against a backdrop of petty pouting and posturing by club officials that even threatened to put the match in doubt at one stage as they stubbornly refused to release players to take part.

Those clubs are griping about releasing players for the international game. They are effectively saying that mid-season Super League games - that are astonishingly being played on either the night before or on the same night - are much more important than long-term international success.

Yet it's those same clubs who chose to design a fixture list that allowed those domestic matches to be played this weekend in the first place, when they knew full well that the England game had already been arranged.

The clubs chose to let that happen, and now some of them are complaining that it's happening!

Super League clubs are failing to see the bigger picture in a World Cup year - BBC Sport

[Odsal Outlaw]

1 hour ago, RP London said:

This, this, and thrice this

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/57561652

Agree with everything Dave Woods says. That’s quite a strong opinion piece for him actually and really shows the issues at play. 

[jacobus]

28 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Even by English RL’s impossibly low standards this is turning into an unimaginable farce. 

how do I defend this to non RL loving mates... my union buddies will be loving this. 

[Eddie]

Just now, jacobus said:

how do I defend this to non RL loving mates... my union buddies will be loving this. 

I doubt any of them will even know it’s happening, which offers a crumb of comfort. 

[The Rocket]

6 minutes ago, Damien said:

From Dave Woods:

Rugby league in England is in danger of becoming a laughing stock.

It's a World Cup year. The sport is set to get its biggest profile and attract more eyeballs than it's had for a long, long time when that tournament kicks off in England in October.

A successful England side would generate a whole heap of interest and enthusiasm that could well lead to more fans being drawn in to watching the game, more sponsors being attracted to the product and more youngsters being tempted to play.

It's vital, you'd think, that England and their new coach Shaun Wane are given every chance to prepare as best they can for what could be a huge turning point for a code that consistently fails to hit the headlines.

But this is rugby league.

It has a soul-destroying habit of being run by self-interest and small-mindedness that fails to see the bigger picture on a staggeringly consistent basis. And the central governance - the Rugby Football League - lacks the strength to ride roughshod over that parochialism.

When England play the Combined All-Stars - in theory the best non-English players in Super League - on Friday, it will be against a backdrop of petty pouting and posturing by club officials that even threatened to put the match in doubt at one stage as they stubbornly refused to release players to take part.

Those clubs are griping about releasing players for the international game. They are effectively saying that mid-season Super League games - that are astonishingly being played on either the night before or on the same night - are much more important than long-term international success.

Yet it's those same clubs who chose to design a fixture list that allowed those domestic matches to be played this weekend in the first place, when they knew full well that the England game had already been arranged.

The clubs chose to let that happen, and now some of them are complaining that it's happening!

Super League clubs are failing to see the bigger picture in a World Cup year - BBC Sport

Depressing, to say the least.

[Szymala]

10 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

Depressing, to say the least.

I stopped reading at 'in danger'.  

[Dave T]

What exactly is the issue here? Club versus governing body battles over players for internationals is a very regular occurrence in many sports.

Are clubs not releasing players or something, because we keep hearing all these criticisms of the SL club, but other than staging games on the same night, I'm not seeing much else being an issue. Covid is obviously having an impact - Hull KR players withdrawn from Exiles for example.

But I am seeing Warrington with 5 players in the England squad, Saints with 4, a couple from Wigan, a couple from Leeds and Catalans - so what is the complaint about these clubs exactly?

SL clubs have a long history of releasing players for internationals, and they will do so again this Friday. 

But at a time when we are seeing SL games called off due to players isolating, and this even affecting the England and Scotland Football teams in a huge tournament, we shouldn't be too surprised that there are some logistical problems in getting the game on.

[Spidey]

4 minutes ago, Dave T said:

What exactly is the issue here? Club versus governing body battles over players for internationals is a very regular occurrence in many sports.

Are clubs not releasing players or something, because we keep hearing all these criticisms of the SL club, but other than staging games on the same night, I'm not seeing much else being an issue. Covid is obviously having an impact - Hull KR players withdrawn from Exiles for example.

But I am seeing Warrington with 5 players in the England squad, Saints with 4, a couple from Wigan, a couple from Leeds and Catalans - so what is the complaint about these clubs exactly?

SL clubs have a long history of releasing players for internationals, and they will do so again this Friday. 

But at a time when we are seeing SL games called off due to players isolating, and this even affecting the England and Scotland Football teams in a huge tournament, we shouldn't be too surprised that there are some logistical problems in getting the game on.

We’ve not yet seen who’s been released for the Combined Nations. That’s where the problem is

[Dunbar]

I'm not going to defend our sport's attitude to the international game as I would love to see more focus on it but it is interesting how the same situation can have either positive or negative connotations defending on spin.

In Rugby Union, when Premiership games are played on the same day as an England international and the clubs release their players to play the international it is seen as evidence to how the sport values the international game.

In Rugby League when Super League games are played on the same day as an England international and the clubs release their players to play the international it is seen as evidence to how the sport doesn't value the international game as the clubs continue to play their fixtures.

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, Spidey said:

We’ve not yet seen who’s been released for the Combined Nations. That’s where the problem is

It is crystal clear that Covid has thrown a spanner in the works, it's already been highlighted that Hull KR players have had to be withdrawn from the squad. 

This isn't normal times, as much as I enjoy a pile-on at RL's incompetence, maybe we just give people a break right now who are trying to do the best they can to get an England game on.

[Spidey]

1 minute ago, Dave T said:

It is crystal clear that Covid has thrown a spanner in the works, it's already been highlighted that Hull KR players have had to be withdrawn from the squad. 

This isn't normal times, as much as I enjoy a pile-on at RL's incompetence, maybe we just give people a break right now who are trying to do the best they can to get an England game on.

That’s one club. What about the rest?

 

[Damien]

10 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

I'm not going to defend our sport's attitude to the international game as I would love to see more focus on it but it is interesting how the same situation can have either positive or negative connotations defending on spin.

In Rugby Union, when Premiership games are played on the same day as an England international and the clubs release their players to play the international it is seen as evidence to how the sport values the international game.

In Rugby League when Super League games are played on the same day as an England international and the clubs release their players to play the international it is seen as evidence to how the sport doesn't value the international game as the clubs continue to play their fixtures.

I'm not sure how valid comparisons are with a sport that plays countless internationals every year that in large part sell to a completely different audience than the run of the mill weekly club games. Lets also not forget that the RFU pay clubs handsomely for the privilege of getting access to these players and this allows clubs bigger squads to compensate. RU has a mature enough international scene that these obstacles are easily overcome. RL with its sporadic home matches every blue moon is far from that.

Does anyone outside of RL even know this game is taking place? It is quite clear that this game is getting flogged to the same small market that RL already sells to. Club games at the same time severely will restrict the numbers that go to this game. A game at Warrington doesn't really scream of a sport valuing the international scene to me. At the very least if club games were taking place at the same time then the England game should have been taken well away from the heartlands and sold elsewhere.

[Man of Kent]

Good on Dave Woods. It is a joke and needs calling out as such. 

[Dave T]

34 minutes ago, Spidey said:

That’s one club. What about the rest?

 

If one club provided 3 players and they pulled out, maybe the stumbling block is replacing those three? 

I genuinely may have missed something, but for all we know they may have a squad of 16 confirmed and ready to go.

[Spidey]

11 minutes ago, Dave T said:

If one club provided 3 players and they pulled out, maybe the stumbling block is replacing those three? 

I genuinely may have missed something, but for all we know they may have a squad of 16 confirmed and ready to go.

There’s no confirmation either way, lots of journos implying problems though. One indicated Championship clubs were being approached as well  

[Scubby]

Can we play this as a 9s match. 10 minutes each way and everyone is happy.

I would be amazed if 3k turn up to watch this even with the restrictions.

[gingerjon]

1 hour ago, Dunbar said:

I'm not going to defend our sport's attitude to the international game as I would love to see more focus on it but it is interesting how the same situation can have either positive or negative connotations defending on spin.

In Rugby Union, when Premiership games are played on the same day as an England international and the clubs release their players to play the international it is seen as evidence to how the sport values the international game.

TBH, to this outsider at least, it's seen as evidence of how little relative value the club game in RU has compared to the international game. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, Dunbar said:

I'm not going to defend our sport's attitude to the international game as I would love to see more focus on it but it is interesting how the same situation can have either positive or negative connotations defending on spin.

In Rugby Union, when Premiership games are played on the same day as an England international and the clubs release their players to play the international it is seen as evidence to how the sport values the international game.

In Rugby League when Super League games are played on the same day as an England international and the clubs release their players to play the international it is seen as evidence to how the sport doesn't value the international game as the clubs continue to play their fixtures.

Yes that is my thinking

We know that if internationals are played then then the Prem has less stars for that week. Same in cricket. I really don't sed the problem with releasing players.

I do think they should have had the SL fixtures not on the Friday though. Why can't they be played across Sat/Sun for this weekend? 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

47 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Can we play this as a 9s match. 10 minutes each way and everyone is happy.

I would be amazed if 3k turn up to watch this even with the restrictions.

Yeah I think they won't sell full allocation of 4/5000. Tickets are still buyable

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

3 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Yes that is my thinking

We know that if internationals are played then then the Prem has less stars for that week. Same in cricket. I really don't sed the problem with releasing players.

I do think they should have had the SL fixtures not on the Friday though. Why can't they be played across Sat/Sun for this weekend? 

Is part of the problem Super League clubs don’t have reserve sides, most have academy sides but some don’t have those either. Without them fielding a team could genuinely be a problem for some.