World cup - the bookies odds thread

[SydneyRoosters]

56 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

 

 

 

So were they or weren't they?

And why could the national team swap from England to GB and back again those years, but couldn't in 2019? You seem to have missed that information out in your strange take on things.

I was quoting you hence the speech marks. England were used during the world cups so were the official national team from 1995-200. 

[UTK]

14 minutes ago, Mojo said:

The fact that most of the English fans in here thinks that coming 1st in pool A over samoa so confidently makes next week's opener so much more exciting. I'm picking Samoa for the win but it'll be a close match. Which is why Samoa are the favourites now

Yeah no Samoan fans have brought any overconfidence regarding their sides ability to the conversation surrounding the opener. 

Luciano is a loss, think Samoa might be regretting naming 83 props in a 24-man squad now. Haven't heard anything about a replacement yet but surely RFM would have to be next in line, though if he was available I assume he would've landed in the initial squad but who knows.

[Dunbar]

32 minutes ago, Mojo said:

I'm picking Samoa for the win

I am curious how you come to this decision when you haven't seen so many of the players in action.  What process do you use to pick a winner without actually knowing the players involved?

You may be right with this pick, you may be wrong, but I am fascinated to understand how you arrive at this conclusion.

[Mojo]

Just now, UTK said:

Yeah no Samoan fans have brought any overconfidence regarding their sides ability to the conversation surrounding the opener. 

Luciano is a loss, think Samoa might be regretting naming 83 props in a 24-man squad now. Haven't heard anything about a replacement yet but surely RFM would have to be next in line, though if he was available I assume he would've landed in the initial squad but who knows.

Me as a Samoan knows Exactly why we don't get over confident lol it's because this teams so good we don't want to jinx it. We've had strong squads in the past but have always underperformed. This squad for me is different because we've got most of the players that usually commit to the kangaroos but have turned them down. This has never happened before, especially with that amount of players.

Whenever I see the media saying samoa are locked in to the final or they're easily going to beat England I cringe because I hope the samoan players don't read any of that or get into the hype and think it's going to be a easy match. That's always been samoa's weakness getting overconfident and turn up with the "we've got this easy" mindset.

Which is why the kangaroos,kiwis and England are always consistent and professional on the field. I do hope this samoan team plays to there potential, they're too good of a side to play poor tbh. They have the Panthers connection and actually solid halves who have played a few games together and also old heads in the forwards to keep the team together in tough times. The English for me are always tough no matter how weak people say they are. But like I said before this samoan team is different and I can say this confidently this is the best samoan team ever.... on paper lol doing it on the field well have to wait and see. I'm just happy the international game is up and alive.

[Mojo]

14 minutes ago, UTK said:

 

Luciano is a loss, think Samoa might be regretting naming 83 props in a 24-man squad now. Haven't heard anything about a replacement yet but surely RFM would have to be next in line, though if he was available I assume he would've landed in the initial squad but who knows.

Just by looking at the Samoan social media page. They're looking at Sione Mata'utia to replace him. I know he's been injured for most of the season but I haven't seen any of his SL games so I don't if he's still good. Playing for St Helen's must be a good thing tho?

[SydneyRoosters]

3 minutes ago, Mojo said:

Me as a Samoan knows Exactly why we don't get over confident lol it's because this teams so good we don't want to jinx it. We've had strong squads in the past but have always underperformed. This squad for me is different because we've got most of the players that usually commit to the kangaroos but have turned them down. This has never happened before, especially with that amount of players.

Whenever I see the media saying samoa are locked in to the final or they're easily going to beat England I cringe because I hope the samoan players don't read any of that or get into the hype and think it's going to be a easy match. That's always been samoa's weakness getting overconfident and turn up with the "we've got this easy" mindset.

Which is why the kangaroos,kiwis and England are always consistent and professional on the field. I do hope this samoan team plays to there potential, they're too good of a side to play poor tbh. They have the Panthers connection and actually solid halves who have played a few games together and also old heads in the forwards to keep the team together in tough times. The English for me are always tough no matter how weak people say they are. But like I said before this samoan team is different and I can say this confidently this is the best samoan team ever.... on paper lol doing it on the field well have to wait and see. I'm just happy the international game is up and alive.

Yeah at the end of the day who cares who wins. The fact that we have an international game, we’re the winner is not already decided weeks before is a big win for the game.

[SydneyRoosters]

1 minute ago, Mojo said:

Just by looking at the Samoan social media page. They're looking at Sione Mata'utia to replace him. I know he's been injured for most of the season but I haven't seen any of his SL games so I don't if he's still good. Playing for St Helen's must be a good thing tho?

He’s been pretty solid this year. One of the better back-rowers in super league. 

[UTK]

1 minute ago, Mojo said:

Just by looking at the Samoan social media page. They're looking at Sione Mata'utia to replace him. I know he's been injured for most of the season but I haven't seen any of his SL games so I don't if he's still good. Playing for St Helen's must be a good thing tho?

That probably makes sense given he's already over there, adds a bit more versatility to the squad - played off the bench in the SL Final.

[Mojo]

2 minutes ago, SydneyRoosters said:

Yeah at the end of the day who cares who wins. The fact that we have an international game, we’re the winner is not already decided weeks before is a big win for the game.

I used to watch the Kiwis team in the past full of Samoans and I always wondered how Toopi, David Solomona, Francis Meli, Thomas Leuluai, Ali Lauititi would look in a Samoan team. Back than it was rare to see a Samoan in a aussie nrl team and they we're all in the warriors team. Now literally every nrl teams has a dozen Samoan players playing for them. It honestly feels like a dream because I know every Samoan and Tonga kid always has that "what if" Samoan and Tongan dream team. Which is why people don't know how powerful what Taumalolo and Fifita did the last world cup. They will go down as legends who changed the international game forever. Turning down big money from the 2 biggest nations to make there family proud and represent there heritage nation. 4 years later and the Samoans followed there lead and we've basically got 5 nations who could win it all

[DavidM]

11 minutes ago, Mojo said:

Just by looking at the Samoan social media page. They're looking at Sione Mata'utia to replace him. I know he's been injured for most of the season but I haven't seen any of his SL games so I don't if he's still good. Playing for St Helen's must be a good thing tho?

Not seeing players play usually doesn’t stop you making a judgement on them 

[SydneyRoosters]

5 minutes ago, Mojo said:

I used to watch the Kiwis team in the past full of Samoans and I always wondered how Toopi, David Solomona, Francis Meli, Thomas Leuluai, Ali Lauititi would look in a Samoan team. Back than it was rare to see a Samoan in a aussie nrl team and they we're all in the warriors team. Now literally every nrl teams has a dozen Samoan players playing for them. It honestly feels like a dream because I know every Samoan and Tonga kid always has that "what if" Samoan and Tongan dream team. Which is why people don't know how powerful what Taumalolo and Fifita did the last world cup. They will go down as legends who changed the international game forever. Turning down big money from the 2 biggest nations to make there family proud and represent there heritage nation. 4 years later and the Samoans followed there lead and we've basically got 5 nations who could win it all

I really hope the game grows in Samoa and Tonga after all of this hype around the national team. I would love to see Tongan or Samoan domestic player who has come through a rugby league system make first grade. The Cook Islands have done it with one 10th of Samoa’s Population so there’s no excuses.

 

[Skirmish]

I just want to say that I really enjoy reading all the different opinions on this forum.

This is probably the best site I’ve come across, when it comes to Rugby League discussions.

It has been really informative. I’ve learnt so much just by reading all the comments in this forum, for the last few months.

I think Samoa will win by 10+ points. 
My opinion is purely based on watching very little Super League and the Panthers connection. 
 
But I’m not as informed as everyone else here so I put very little weight behind that prediction.

[Mojo]

16 minutes ago, SydneyRoosters said:

I really hope the game grows in Samoa and Tonga after all of this hype around the national team. I would love to see Tongan or Samoan domestic player who has come through a rugby league system make first grade. The Cook Islands have done it with one 10th of Samoa’s Population so there’s no excuses.

 

We'll the development in samoa has already started. Matt Parish who I was always critical of was in samoa helping out alot with the samoan version of State of Origin and Josh Schuster was also helping out after Manly's season.

[SydneyRoosters]

1 minute ago, Mojo said:

We'll the development in samoa has already started. Matt Parish who I was always critical of was in samoa helping out alot with the samoan version of State of Origin and Josh Schuster was also helping out after Manly's season.

We’ll see how it turns out, but if in 10 years time Samoa is still 90+% heritage players I will be extremely disappointed. 

[Mojo]

7 minutes ago, SydneyRoosters said:

We’ll see how it turns out, but if in 10 years time Samoa is still 90+% heritage players I will be extremely disappointed. 

In 10 years Samoa's population overseas is going to be close to 2 millions and the island based will always be 100+ thousand. Good luck with that lol

[Mojo]

35 minutes ago, DavidM said:

Not seeing players play usually doesn’t stop you making a judgement on them 

Name one English player I've made judgement on

[Mr Frisky]

1 hour ago, Mojo said:

Me as a Samoan knows Exactly why we don't get over confident lol it's because this teams so good we don't want to jinx it. We've had strong squads in the past but have always underperformed. This squad for me is different because we've got most of the players that usually commit to the kangaroos but have turned them down. This has never happened before, especially with that amount of players.

Whenever I see the media saying samoa are locked in to the final or they're easily going to beat England I cringe because I hope the samoan players don't read any of that or get into the hype and think it's going to be a easy match. That's always been samoa's weakness getting overconfident and turn up with the "we've got this easy" mindset.

Which is why the kangaroos,kiwis and England are always consistent and professional on the field. I do hope this samoan team plays to there potential, they're too good of a side to play poor tbh. They have the Panthers connection and actually solid halves who have played a few games together and also old heads in the forwards to keep the team together in tough times. The English for me are always tough no matter how weak people say they are. But like I said before this samoan team is different and I can say this confidently this is the best samoan team ever.... on paper lol doing it on the field well have to wait and see. I'm just happy the international game is up and alive.

Where were you born in Samoa mate? I spent 2 months there when I was travelling in 1997- I gave a kid a Workington town top who was playing Rugby in a park.

[Mr Frisky]

35 minutes ago, Skirmish said:

I just want to say that I really enjoy reading all the different opinions on this forum.

This is probably the best site I’ve come across, when it comes to Rugby League discussions.

It has been really informative. I’ve learnt so much just by reading all the comments in this forum, for the last few months.

I think Samoa will win by 10+ points. 
My opinion is purely based on watching very little Super League and the Panthers connection. 
 
But I’m not as informed as everyone else here so I put very little weight behind that prediction.

Are you Shaun Wane?

Edited October 7, 2022 by Mr Frisky

[Mojo]

16 minutes ago, Mr Frisky said:

Where were you born in Samoa mate? I spent 2 months there when I was travelling in 1997- I gave a kid a Workington town top who was playing Rugby in a park.

I was born in Nz and than moved to samoa when I was 1 years old. And than came back to nz when I was 10 and never went back again. Oh nice you we're in samoa in 97! That's a long time mate. Must've been a good 2 months in the islands. It's alot different now than it was in 97

[Wellsy4HullFC]

1 hour ago, SydneyRoosters said:

I was quoting you hence the speech marks. England were used during the world cups so were the official national team from 1995-200. 

England were used in World Cups on those years. They didn't play any games in 1997, 1998 or 1999. Those were GB teams. Were GB still not the official national team then?

If no, then England were the 2008 WC team. Does that mean England were the official national team 1995-2008? And if not, why not?

It's a very strange and selective logic you're using here.

[SydneyRoosters]

55 minutes ago, Mojo said:

In 10 years Samoa's population overseas is going to be close to 2 millions and the island based will always be 100+ thousand. Good luck with that lol

I’m saying I want the Samoan team to be filled with players from Samoa. Just like every Samoan national team in every other sport.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

16 minutes ago, SydneyRoosters said:

I’m saying I want the Samoan team to be filled with players from Samoa. Just like every Samoan national team in every other sport.

I just looked at the national football team of Samoa from 2019. Around half of their squad are from Australia, some even from Hawaii. I imagine it's similar for other sports where the nation is incredibly small.

[SydneyRoosters]

6 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

I just looked at the national football team of Samoa from 2019. Around half of their squad are from Australia, some even from Hawaii. I imagine it's similar for other sports where the nation is incredibly small.

Yeah some Samoan sports teams have around 30-40% Samoan born players. But all of them are still a lot more then there league team. I’m not at all saying Samoa should have 100% domestic players I just want some effort to include domestic players I would be perfectly fine with them have 30-40% samoan players in 10 years even 20-25% would be pretty good.

[Mojo]

26 minutes ago, SydneyRoosters said:

I’m saying I want the Samoan team to be filled with players from Samoa. Just like every Samoan national team in every other sport.

What teams are there that's filled with local players from Samoa? Rugby Union has a few local players but it's mainly heritage players from nz. Rugby 7s is filled with locals. Let's be honest if Rugby Union had the same eligibility rules as Rugby league that samoan team would be filled with heritage players from Nz and Australia.

[SydneyRoosters]

5 minutes ago, Mojo said:

What teams are there that's filled with local players from Samoa? Rugby Union has a few local players but it's mainly heritage players from nz. Rugby 7s is filled with locals. Let's be honest if Rugby Union had the same eligibility rules as Rugby league that samoan team would be filled with heritage players from Nz and Australia.

Samoas rugby union team had 45% samoan born players at the 2019 World Cup. There’s a reason union don’t have the same eligibility rules as league, Because they don’t want this to happen. Unlike league, Samoa in union actually see a positive in selecting players from Samoa so even if the rules were changed they would still leave a lot of places in the side for Samoan domestic players.

By the way I am not at all saying Samoa should have 100% domestic players all I want I some effort to have domestic players even 20% would be very good.

As you are Samoan what is your opinion on this. Would you like to see Samoa selecting a few domestic players per tournament even if it does bring down the quality of the side a bit.