Sat 28th Oct: International: England v Tonga KO 14:30 @ Huddersfield (BBC)

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, Just Browny said:

 

I took a newbie who had literally never watched a RL game before and she enjoyed the simplicity (versus RUWC) and wanted to see a Super League game.

 

You old romantic  

[Damien]

4 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

No idea. Class player. Natural centre. Reminds me of Martin Gleeson (but left side of course). I think a centre partnership with Farnworth could be devastating. 

Yeah for sure. That would definitely be my centre partnership with a full team. 

Imagine a three quarter line of Young and Johnson on the wings and Wardle and Farnworth as centres. We've never had a set of three quarters with the size and athleticism of those.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Damien

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

2 minutes ago, Eddie said:

You old romantic  

Ha I was just thinking that !!

In fairness for my third date with my wife in 2008 I took her to a Broncos game and fifth date to watch the WCC in a pub in Watford.....married with two sprogs now....she knows a lot about various northern towns these days !! 

Huddy is cold but fun so far!

 

[GeordieSaint]

2 minutes ago, Damien said:

Yeah for sure. That would definitely be my centre partnership with a full team. 

Imagine a three quarter line of Young and Johnson on the wings and Wardle and Farnworth as centres. We've never had a set of three quarters with the size and athleticism of those.

Yep. With Welsby out back and Williams and Smith in the halves. Very strong. 

Just worried about the forwards…

[17 stone giant]

2 hours ago, GeordieSaint said:

We put way too much pressure on ourselves as a sport. So desperate to be loved by all, we want a classic every single game. We really need to have a bit more confidence in ourselves. Every game is not going to be a classic.

I completely agree. I watch lots of other sports and I've seen an awful lot of matches that I would rank lower than todays in terms of quality and entertainment.

I think part of the problem might be that there are so few international matches, that people desperately hope that these games will always showcase the best of rugby league - especially when it's England and on the BBC in front of a different audience than normal.

As a result they're a bit disappointed if it doesn't quite deliver what they know the sport can produce, as they feel it's a wasted opportunity.

[Eddie]

3 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Ha I was just thinking that !!

In fairness for my third date with my wife in 2008 I took her to a Broncos game and fifth date to watch the WCC in a pub in Watford.....married with two sprogs now....she knows a lot about various northern towns these days !! 

Huddy is cold but fun so far!

 

It’s the way forward. A week or so after me and my wife met I took her to Rotherham v Norwich, it was 4-4 and we equalised in injury time, I was the only man for her after that. 

[Ullman]

1 hour ago, Just Browny said:

England controlled the game; Tonga did not throw enough at us to make it a thriller.

I took a newbie who had literally never watched a RL game before and she enjoyed the simplicity (versus RUWC) and wanted to see a Super League game.

England were comfortably the better side today.

Think you've hit the nail on the head. It wasn't a terrible game by any means but it just lacked that edge because Tonga were really off.

Glad your newbie enjoyed it.

[Damien]

Just now, GeordieSaint said:

Yep. With Welsby out back and Williams and Smith in the halves. Very strong. 

Just worried about the forwards…

I agree and it's weird thinking that's the case, in a good way. You'd probably have to go back to the early 1990s when anyone could argue the were stronger in the backs than forwards.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

12 minutes ago, Eddie said:

It’s the way forward. A week or so after me and my wife met I took her to Rotherham v Norwich, it was 4-4 and we equalised in injury time, I was the only man for her after that. 

She's a lucky women like my wife 

God bless men like us Eddie 

Edited October 28, 2023 by Bedfordshire Bronco

[Exiled Wiganer]

As a sign of how well we are doing, I was musing on what an alternative England 13 might look like, with none of today’s team in it. Any help with filling in the gaps v welcome (and apologies for a Wigan bias)… I think that back line looks particularly potent:

1 Farnworth 

2 Makinson 

3 Wardle 

4 Percival

5 Young 

6 Williams 

7 ? (Dodd)

8 Walmsley 

9 ? (Walker/Ackers?)

10 Havard (maybe early, but he looks the real deal to me) 

11 KPP (as above)

12 Knowles 

13 Thompson 

[Northern Eel]

4 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

As a sign of how well we are doing, I was musing on what an alternative England 13 might look like, with none of today’s team in it. Any help with filling in the gaps v welcome (and apologies for a Wigan bias)… I think that back line looks particularly potent:

1 Farnworth 

2 Makinson 

3 Wardle 

4 Percival

5 Young 

6 Williams 

7 ? (Dodd)

8 Walmsley 

9 ? (Walker/Ackers?)

10 Havard (maybe early, but he looks the real deal to me) 

11 KPP (as above)

12 Knowles 

13 Thompson 

I would be thinking about Tom Davies too.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I've just finished watching the game. Tonga way off today, certainly wasn't the most thrilling game but will still be the most exciting game of rugby played in Europe today! 

[Barley Mow]

7 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I've just finished watching the game. Tonga way off today, certainly wasn't the most thrilling game but will still be the most exciting game of rugby played in Europe today! 

Greece v Ukraine and Czechs v Netherlands rugby league matches didn't take your fancy then?

[Dunbar]

45 minutes ago, Damien said:

Yeah for sure. That would definitely be my centre partnership with a full team. 

Imagine a three quarter line of Young and Johnson on the wings and Wardle and Farnworth as centres. We've never had a set of three quarters with the size and athleticism of those.

This is what I said in March of 2022.

"Young, Farnworth, Newman and Johnstone are all superb athletes so that would be my backline."

I got a bit of stick at the time but I maintain that they could be one of the best backlines we have had in 30 years.

Wardle is also a great athlete as well but I still think Newman can be special.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

4 hours ago, Archie Gordon said:

I worry about posters who seem to take it personally when another just doesn't enjoy a game.

I didn't enjoy that game at all. It felt flat, was full of errors, and my ears were bombarded with horns, drums, Jack Smith, and a BBC team that were poor today. I also feel disappointed in Tonga.

But I'm already looking forward to PNG-FIJ tomorrow, plus a bunch of test matches next weekend. 

 

It was good in the ground at least Archie 

In fairness the Vuvuzelas were sometimes the only noise

Edited October 28, 2023 by Bedfordshire Bronco

[daz39]

Well i enjoyed the occasion, i forgot to count the seats and couldn't care less how many there were there, the game wasn't the best but I saw International rugby league again with 2 committed teams and a crowd who on the whole seemed engrossed in the action, although there were plenty of folk backwards and forwards all the 1st half.

The atmopshere in the ground was as it is for most internationals i've been to, pretty quiet with the occasional burst of noise, walking down to and back from the ground everyone seemed very jovial.

Unless it's against Australia it's rarely going to be anything different but any international RL is better than none and we've won the series against a pretty strong Tongan squad.

Sorry for not being more negative,

[Dunbar]

3 minutes ago, daz39 said:

Sorry for not being more negative,

Take a good long hard look at yourself and just do better next time.

[Lowdesert]

Worth looking at the comments section.  Was this the same game?  

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/67250912

[Northern Eel]

9 minutes ago, Lowdesert said:

Worth looking at the comments section.  Was this the same game?  

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/67250912

Makes interesting reading with some positive comments from newcomers. There's a few Aussie trolls knocking about further down the page with less positive things to say. 

[Padge]

4 hours ago, SUPERSTUD said:

Poor product. Wait it all for me every time the camera panned out to the crowd. The crowd looked bored out of its brains.

Have you ever watched county cricket on TV?

[Phil]

Strangely enough I enjoyed the game more watching the recording at home than live in the ground, but, the commentary, within 10 minutes yawnion was mentioned twice, meh, so what you say?

It’s just why do our commentators feel the need to mention it? Is it a genuine inferiority complex? 

 

[M j M]

So do we think Wane would have been as offended had it been someone other than an ex-St Helens coach, with a St Helens assistant, that made those comments?

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

54 minutes ago, daz39 said:

Well i enjoyed the occasion, i forgot to count the seats and couldn't care less how many there were there, the game wasn't the best but I saw International rugby league again with 2 committed teams and a crowd who on the whole seemed engrossed in the action, although there were plenty of folk backwards and forwards all the 1st half.

The atmopshere in the ground was as it is for most internationals i've been to, pretty quiet with the occasional burst of noise, walking down to and back from the ground everyone seemed very jovial.

Unless it's against Australia it's rarely going to be anything different but any international RL is better than none and we've won the series against a pretty strong Tongan squad.

Sorry for not being more negative,

Agree on all of it but next time have that burger van outside the ground like for Giants games ...the chips from there are nice 

[East Hull Robins]

1 hour ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

As a sign of how well we are doing, I was musing on what an alternative England 13 might look like, with none of today’s team in it. Any help with filling in the gaps v welcome (and apologies for a Wigan bias)… I think that back line looks particularly potent:

1 Farnworth 

2 Makinson 

3 Wardle 

4 Percival

5 Young 

6 Williams 

7 ? (Dodd)

8 Walmsley 

9 ? (Walker/Ackers?)

10 Havard (maybe early, but he looks the real deal to me) 

11 KPP (as above)

12 Knowles 

13 Thompson 

Jordan Abdul & Jez Litten would be above those options mentioned for me, accept there’s some slight bias there.

honourable mentions to Jake Connor, Will Pryce, Ryan Sutton, Elliot Minchella

[Yorky]

1 hour ago, 17 stone giant said:

I completely agree. I watch lots of other sports and I've seen an awful lot of matches that I would rank lower than todays in terms of quality and entertainment.

I think part of the problem might be that there are so few international matches, that people desperately hope that these games will always showcase the best of rugby league - especially when it's England and on the BBC in front of a different audience than normal.

As a result they're a bit disappointed if it doesn't quite deliver what they know the sport can produce, as they feel it's a wasted opportunity.

Today wasn't bad, it certainly wasn't as good as last week. Felt a bit flat and seemed to take a while for Tonga to switch on but it was still relatively competitive and good competition is what the sport needs most of all.

I'm relatively new to the sport (world cup last year converted me) and you are correct imo in that Internationals are where the sport really puts itself in the shop window to the casual sports fans it hopes to attract. Their seems to be a lot of criticism on this board of the sports governing bodies regarding this series and the promotion of it, but I think its been a success so far and from a marketing pov my email and social media feeds have been full of adverts for tickets (reasonably priced).

I think the only mistake they have made as others have mentioned is to have games in Leeds & Huddersfield- really should of been one or the other. In any 3 game series I think it would be smart to play 1 game in London, failing that why not have held 1 in Hull