Sat 12th Nov: RLWC SF: England v Samoa KO 14:30

[Mojo]

Just now, Niels said:

Exactly.

You don't play half back for dual NRL winners unless you are the best. 

 

Imagine winning back to back premierships and winning origin and people still think your useless. 

[Jughead]

1 minute ago, Big Picture said:

Defeat to a poor, tiny country less populous than Southampton is a "massive result" and the development of such countries is "superb" is it?  What planet do you live on?

Get real, having a team from such a no-account country get past the group stages let alone reach the final is only going to showcase how minuscule the game's footprint in the world is and there's nothing good about that.

Yes it is a massive result and it was superb to see the outpouring of emotion and the clear meaning that had for Willie Poching, in particular. Samoa are a relatively big name in rugby. 

The development of international rugby league that we now have four or five nations of such quality is huge, compared to generation after generation of three teams being the major nations. 

[Colin James]

10 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Right I've taken a breath. 

Well done Samoa, I'm very happy for you. It was a well deserved win and it will do wonders for RL.

I disagree with it doing wonders for the sport. It's already big down there, I don't think it will have a huge impact and I fully expect Australia to win at a canter next weekend. It's a disaster for the sport in the northern hemisphere.

[Keith989]

3 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

Defeat to a poor, tiny country less populous than Southampton is a "massive result" and the development of such countries is "superb" is it?  What planet do you live on?

Get real, having a team from such a no-account country get past the group stages let alone reach the final is only going to showcase how minuscule the game's footprint in the world is and there's nothing good about that.

Nonsense the PIs are loved and watched around the world in all forms of rugby. They're the only reason why I watch league.

[Chrispmartha]

Just now, Colin James said:

I disagree with it doing wonders for the sport. It's already big down there, I don't think it will have a huge impact and I fully expect Australia to win at a canter next weekend. It's a disaster for the sport in the northern hemisphere.

Having s new name in the Final will do wonders for the game in general, we now have 5 big name teams when for years it was just 3

[andyscoot]

1 minute ago, Big Picture said:

It's both, and the sad fact is that English RL is incapable of changing things.

Basically this. We won't ever get over that hurdle because the Aus player pool and the money they can throw at athlete.

Until RL can become as big as football (even if only on the M62 corridor) you won't beat teams based in Oz regularly.

[crashmon]

Just had a text from my mates

"You should have taken that spare seat we had for the Eng v Japan game"

If I could turn the clock back 4 - 6 hours

Yes if was a great game, but as an England fan, I'd rather see England win 90-0 and be bored out of my seat.  Close exciting games are for teams I don't have an investment in

Edited November 12, 2022 by crashmon

[redjonn]

Yep we made mistakes at key moments. Not least Dom Youngs dropping ball leading to pressure ending in a try so not sure picking Welsby or Watkins out as per some comments.

For once on the back of good England play in earlier games had high expectation.Something I don't normally have. So yes England have moved forward. Lack of regular international against top teams impacts us. Can't blame individual players for that.

Pity whitehead won't be around for next WC he was immense today.

Maybe that was a game for Snyed or Atkins.

The ptb was really slow, another ref would have given more set restarts. It was surprising how few. 

Williams didn't get enough ball and hence loss of attack cutting edge. Welsby didn't link up well with Williams today.

 

[Big Picture]

Just now, Jughead said:

Yes it is a massive result and it was superb to see the outpouring of emotion and the clear meaning that had for Willie Poching, in particular. Samoa are a relatively big name in rugby. 

The development of international rugby league that we now have four or five nations of such quality is huge, compared to generation after generation of three teams being the major nations. 

A country less populous than Southampton being a relatively big name in rugby just shows what a small game rugby must be, doesn't it.  Then again in the sport which the public at large think of as rugby the likes of Samoa never get past the group stages, all they do is make up the numbers.

[Damien]

4 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

That factor has encouraged exactly 1 of those teams to come here (outside of the world cup) since the end of 2016. 

I mean Australia were meant to come in 2020 but couldn't because of Covid. 2021 and 2022 was out because of the World Cup. GB toured down under in 2019 and we had the kiwis here in 2018 with the World Cup in 2017. I'm not sure when you really expected anyone to come.

[Chrispmartha]

Just now, crashmon said:

Just had a text from my mates

"You should have taken that spare seat we had for the Eng v Japan game"

If I could turn the clock back 4 - 6 hours

Yes if was a great game, but as an England fan, I'd rather see England win 90-0 and be bored out of my seat.  Close exciting games are for teams I don't have an investment in

Im the opposite but as I say im not very patriotic I went to the greece game and it was utterly boring and I left early

[Farmduck]

11 minutes ago, Damien said:

Internationals in England make far more money in England than elsewhere and always have done.

??? Of course they make more money in England because if they weren't in England they wouldn't be "Internationals in England." Am I missing something?

[Wendigo7]

2 minutes ago, Jughead said:

Yes it is a massive result and it was superb to see the outpouring of emotion and the clear meaning that had for Willie Poching, in particular. Samoa are a relatively big name in rugby. 

The development of international rugby league that we now have four or five nations of such quality is huge, compared to generation after generation of three teams being the major nations. 

Kind of. Longer longer term, those SH nations will have to grow the NH game. 
it isn’t going to grow much having Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. That’s not even insulting. I’ll root for Samoa in the final etc but, they need to find a way of getting England, France, Wales and co the same level. 
otherwise all these words are just vapid sentiment.

[Tommygilf]

7 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

NH Rugby League is behind SH Rugby League, England getting to the WC final wouldn’t change that.

Of course, but losing to Samoa further advances that argument beyond all doubt.

[Damien]

6 minutes ago, The Legend said:

Was it worth taking Ryan Hall to the World Cup to just play against France and Greece? 

Wouldn't his experience been more important in the pressure games? 

I get the arguments for Young to play today but Hall's experience would have suited us better with hindsight of course 

Dom Young is not why England lost today. He's not even on the list of reasons for me.

[Big Picture]

2 minutes ago, Keith989 said:

Nonsense the PIs are loved and watched around the world in all forms of rugby. They're the only reason why I watch league.

Loved and watched by who exactly, other than existing followers of those forms of rugby?

[SalfordSlim]

22 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

While we are here, can we forget about blaming the coach? We've done this a 100 times and it's more deep rooted than just changing the guy in charge. 

As great as some of the rugby played by England in this tournament has been he can't be absolved of any of the blame for the defeat today.

He's made some awful selection picks (I have sympathy in the fact he lost 2 or 3 key players) and, whilst the players themselves take the majority of the blame, he's partly culpable.

[Padge]

36 minutes ago, 7723 said:

Won’t happen though. Australia are to professional, it won’t be close.

I remember that being said about the Kiwis in one World Cup.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Padge

[Charlies Bott]

26 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

But SL was supposed to put us on a par with Australia and New Zealand,still waiting.

Unfortunately Australia's competition didn't standstill.  Without SKY money we would still have been a semi professional competition and we would be well behind Samoa, Tonga and Fiji who would then have more fulltime professionals that us and we would be about PNG's standard and potentially going behind them.

[Keith989]

5 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

A country less populous than Southampton being a relatively big name in rugby just shows what a small game rugby must be, doesn't it.  Then again in the sport which the public at large think of as rugby the likes of Samoa never get past the group stages, all they do is make up the numbers.

Fiji are the biggest name and draw in 7s, didn't stop that sport from making it into the Olympics...

[Tommygilf]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

I mean Australia were meant to come in 2020 but couldn't because of Covid. 2021 and 2022 was out because of the World Cup. GB toured down under in 2019 and we had the kiwis here in 2018 with the World Cup in 2017. I'm not sure when you really expected anyone to come.

Australia were actually meant to come here in 2019, they declined. 

Covid may have stopped the World Cup because of essentially Kangaroo tantrums, but there was no reason anyone else couldn't actually come and arrange a test series in 2020 or particularly 21 (as happened in other sports).

The cynic in me would say Australia weren't that bothered about losing out on the cash from the Ashes being cancelled, nor will they be too hasty to re-arrange 

[Charlies Bott]

22 minutes ago, Mojo said:

Ref had some shocking calls against samoa the whole match and England still lost

Don't be ridiculous he could have sent Paulo off for the spear tackle.

[Colin James]

4 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

Having s new name in the Final will do wonders for the game in general, we now have 5 big name teams when for years it was just 3

Might as well let the two Origin sides in to get a different name in the final then. Having Australians under a different name does nothing for the sport.

[Tommygilf]

1 minute ago, Keith989 said:

Fiji are the biggest name and draw in 7s, didn't stop that sport from making it into the Olympics...

Croatia has a smaller population than Yorkshire yet it made it to the last FIFA WC final, beating England no less.

[The Legend]

5 minutes ago, Damien said:

Dom Young is not why England lost today. He's not even on the list of reasons for me.

I've not said he was. But Samoa did get their most joy down his side and he made a big error leading upto one of their tries. 

I'm not knocking him because he's only a puppy who's still learning. I just think Hall would have gone better today in the pressure cooker. 

Edited November 12, 2022 by The Legend