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England win the World Cup or your club win their division?


Eddie

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18 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Yeah and it could be Jamaica v Greece. I said try to manufacture, I didn't say they have manufactured it to definitely, no question about it, be that final. The draw has clearly been worked out to keep England and Australia apart so that they could only possibly meet in the final because that is the big blockbuster game in international rugby league, doesn't exactly take a genius to work that out. 

Very disrespectful to Tonga and New Zealand, who both have sides who are capable and have actually beat both Australia and England in recent years. Samoa, Fiji and PNG are also capable of an upset as they have shown in recent years, we’ll certainly see one or two across the tournament.

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3 hours ago, Smudger06 said:

RL is a club sport. So Club. Only a small number of nations with a GDP larger than that of Wigan or Wollongong are capable of competition at the highest level. That's unfortunate but just the way it is. Not to say I'm not fully behind the World Cup and the English team of course I am. I also think the England brand is maxxed out with Football, Cricket and Union so was silly to change from the established, much more unique brand. I look at the NFL and others and know the International game is not the be all and end all and that the Club game is the heart and soul. 

Every sport is a club sport first. Only union seems to put more focus on internationals. This would be good point if the club game was a lot bigger. The NFL is in the richest country in the world with a population of 320 million people. Plus massive markets in Canada and Mexico.

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29 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

This is a good thing cos it means some of the qualifying matches should spark a bit more interest and publicity and be more competitive as well with the Pacific Island teams taking part and the return of a Middle-East/Africa qualifier seen as there wasn't one this last time with Lebanon's automatic qualification. That will be good if developing nations like Nigeria could enter cos there seems to be some real progress being made there and in a couple of other African countries. You mention Serbia and with the development work going on in so many other European countries, Euro qualifying could be quite a big deal. 

I think a cap of 7 heritage players should be used for the qualifiers. Italy right now aren't doing anything for the sport. I would much prefer if Serbia made it to the World Cup.

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6 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

How about a WC win with a majority Broncos developed players.... lots of Cockley accents in the post game would be good

Cockneys mostly live in Essex or Kent now. The MLE accent has taken over now. London is 40% BAME and 15% White Other (Irish, Polish, Greek, ect) so a team full of Cockneys wouldn't really be that representative.

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10 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

I bet if you polled Australians a good amount would prefer us or someone else to win it. Assuming they'd see the overall benefit 

Possibly the majority of them would?

Pretty sure Rocket would prefer a non Australian win?

If I had to choose between Australia winning the WC or the Raiders winning  the NRL, I’d pick winning the NRL.

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8 hours ago, Copa said:

If I had to choose between Australia winning the WC or the Raiders winning  the NRL, I’d pick winning the NRL.

Yep I get that (and yes that was the original question)

I was saying that if it was a question only about who wins the WC.....would you prefer a non Aus win - in the interest of the wider game?

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15 hours ago, EagleEyePie said:

For me it's about what I feel most connected to, which is my town far more than my country, so to be honest if it was one or the other I'd pick Wigan winning Super League, but obviously that's not saying I don't care about the international game. I'd be as happy as anyone if England won the World Cup.

I can understand fans of clubs who haven't won the league for years, or ever, preferring to win the league but I do struggle to understand this as a Wigan fan. For fans of clubs like Salford, London or Warrington yes it would be huge and I can see why they would possibly prefer to win the league. As a Wigan fan who has seen their team win the league plenty of times, yes it nice but its nothing I've not seen before. Ditto fans of Saints or Leeds. England winning the World Cup would be huge for the game, and for me so far a once in a lifetime event, and something truly special.

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47 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Yep I get that (and yes that was the original question)

I was saying that if it was a question only about who wins the WC.....would you prefer a non Aus win - in the interest of the wider game?

I don’t really care who wins the WC. I’ll enjoy the tournament though.

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14 hours ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

How is it manufactured for an England v Australia Final? The Final could be Tonga v New Zealand 

In the same way France and Brazil were "never going to play eachother before the final" at the World Cup in 98.

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I thought somebody would have said they lack passion for the England RL team because they hardly play. Anyway like I say, Oldham mean way more to me. Same with football, Barnsley over England by miles. But I cannot wait for the World cup. 

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19 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

I bet if you polled Australians a good amount would prefer us or someone else to win it. Assuming they'd see the overall benefit 

Possibly the majority of them would?

Pretty sure Rocket would prefer a non Australian win?

I have to tell you mate very few Australian Rugby League fans would want England to win, even if it was for the good of the game.  In fact most Aussie League fans would be completely oblivious of the travails of English Rugby League, all they would know is that they are the old enemy and should be flogged accordingly. You only have to watch the cricket to know that.

I think if push came to shove and they had to choose a second team most would probably back Tonga.

Personally one of my favourite games at past World Cups has always been England vs. N.Z. because often they are a pretty good match-up, this World Cup we have about 5 or 6 of those match-ups, starting with England vs. Samoa which I think will absolutely set the tone for the whole tournament.

Who do I want to win ? I think if we get a full house at the final with millions watching on T.V. and assuming that Oz are there, if anyone is good enough to match it with Tommy, Teddy , Latrell, Addo-Carr, Payne Haas and co. then fantastic, but either way it should be be one hell of a show. There won`t be anything else quite like it and at the end of the day that`s what we want.

 

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42 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

I have to tell you mate very few Australian Rugby League fans would want England to win, even if it was for the good of the game.  In fact most Aussie League fans would be completely oblivious of the travails of English Rugby League, all they would know is that they are the old enemy and should be flogged accordingly. You only have to watch the cricket to know that.

Fair enough Rocket though that means the Aussies have dropped even further in my estimation (present company accepted of course)

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44 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

 

Personally one of my favourite games at past World Cups has always been England vs. N.Z. because often they are a pretty good match-up, this World Cup we have about 5 or 6 of those match-ups, starting with England vs. Samoa which I think will absolutely set the tone for the whole tournament.

 

 

Agree some match ups are good though I think we'll comfortably beat Samoa 

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3 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Agree some match ups are good though I think we'll comfortably beat Samoa 

Have you never watched any NRL, or are you just not aware of Samoa’s likely line up? In this World Cup they will have their best ever squad and are one of 5 sides who imo have a genuine chance of reaching the Final.

When Joey Johns arrogantly announced he’d like to take the Samoa head coaching job recently, he said he thought they were capable of winning the World Cup. It was wrong of him to attempt to take over a National side in such a way, but he’s right they have the players to do it, just as Tonga do.

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59 minutes ago, Cw25 said:

I thought somebody would have said they lack passion for the England RL team because they hardly play. Anyway like I say, Oldham mean way more to me. Same with football, Barnsley over England by miles. But I cannot wait for the World cup. 

That’s also a thing for me. England barely play. When they do, it’s New Zealand or the abomination of the Exiles or the Combined Nations. I got bored, even as a neutral, of England v NZ long ago and England v a rep team does nothing for me and I’d rather my club’s players weren’t involved. 

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16 minutes ago, Jughead said:

That’s also a thing for me. England barely play. When they do, it’s New Zealand or the abomination of the Exiles or the Combined Nations. I got bored, even as a neutral, of England v NZ long ago and England v a rep team does nothing for me and I’d rather my club’s players weren’t involved. 

Agreed on that we play New Zealand too much, if you look at England’s last 20 or 30 games, a large proportion of them have been against New Zealand, far too many. It’ll make a refreshing change for me that we can’t face them in the World other than in the Final.

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1 minute ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

Have you never watched any NRL, or are you just not aware of Samoa’s likely line up? In this World Cup they will have their best ever squad and are one of 5 sides who imo have a genuine chance of reaching the Final.

 

Yep loads of it and I'm aware of most of the players to know they will be a good side when they have dozens of NRL players to choose from

This was also mainly the case previously and they have been way off England though as they have been in our last 3 games against them

In addition plenty of their available NRL stars they 'could' select apparently don't want to play in the current set up

We will also be in Englidh conditions with a loud home crowd 

Bookmark this if you like....I don't think it will be close 

 

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49 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Yep loads of it and I'm aware of most of the players to know they will be a good side when they have dozens of NRL players to choose from

This was also mainly the case previously and they have been way off England though as they have been in our last 3 games against them

In addition plenty of their available NRL stars they 'could' select apparently don't want to play in the current set up

We will also be in Englidh conditions with a loud home crowd 

Bookmark this if you like....I don't think it will be close 

 

Granted there isn’t much to go on but since the last World Cup if we look at the results of the 2 sides, which are below, Samoa have the better record. I believe England faced Samoa last in 2017 and 2014, winning one by 20 points and one by 8 points, Samoa are much improved since then. It would be very foolish to underestimate this Samoan side imo.

Samoa Results

Samoa 44 - 18 Fiji

Samoa 24 - 6 PNG

Samoa 22 - 38 Tonga

England/GB results

GB 10 - 28 PNG

GB 6 - 14 Tonga 

GB 8 - 23 NZ, GB 8 - 12 NZ, Eng 18 - 16 NZ, Eng 20-14 NZ, Eng 0-34 NZ

Eng 30-10 France 

Eng 24-26 All Stars

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4 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

Granted there isn’t much to go on but since the last World Cup if we look at the results of the 2 sides, which are below, Samoa have the better record. I believe England faced Samoa last in 2017 and 2014, winning one by 20 points and one by 8 points, Samoa are much improved since then. It would be very foolish to underestimate this Samoan side imo.

Samoa Results

Samoa 44 - 18 Fiji

Samoa 24 - 6 PNG

Samoa 22 - 38 Tonga

England/GB results

GB 10 - 28 PNG

GB 6 - 14 Tonga 

GB 8 - 23 NZ, GB 8 - 12 NZ, Eng 18 - 16 NZ, Eng 20-14 NZ, Eng 0-34 NZ

Eng 30-10 France 

Eng 24-26 All Stars

Not saying they are rubbish I just don't think they are anymore than 3-1 outsiders to beat us which is big in a 2 horse race 

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9 hours ago, Damien said:

I can understand fans of clubs who haven't won the league for years, or ever, preferring to win the league but I do struggle to understand this as a Wigan fan. For fans of clubs like Salford, London or Warrington yes it would be huge and I can see why they would possibly prefer to win the league. As a Wigan fan who has seen their team win the league plenty of times, yes it nice but its nothing I've not seen before. Ditto fans of Saints or Leeds. England winning the World Cup would be huge for the game, and for me so far a once in a lifetime event, and something truly special.

I don't share your point of view here. Having seen it before doesn't diminish how it feels when you see your team win the league. I'd be surprised if Saints fans went into this season not caring if they win because they've seen it happen before. I'd want to see my team win the league every year whether it's been 100 years since it happened or 1 year. I've seen Wigan win a few times (not as many as older fans of course) and different games are special for different reasons.

I can understand why it would be bigger for sport in this country to have a world cup win, but honestly it just doesn't mean as much to me. I'm not as interested in the England team as I am in Wigan. I don't feel the same connection sat in a stand with England fans as I do sat in a stand with Wigan fans and when Wigan win I'm happier than when England win. So obviously I'd be happier if Wigan won the Grand Final than if England won the World Cup, though I'd be ecstatic if both happened.

It's the honest answer even if I'm aware it's not necessarily the logical one when you consider England winning the world cup would have a bigger impact for the sport as a whole.

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