When the Super Group was announced there were many different reactions. Some said PNG was hard done by, and its hard to disagree. England immeditaly felt confident, Australia said the group would be there while New Zealand was too busying falling to pieces to care. The Super Grouping works really well for the Rugby League…
Well the World Cup kickoff is getting closer and it seems very strange to me. I remember when they announced the tournament would be held in 2008, I thought it was way to far away. Now, I hardly have enough time to book all my flights! I’ve talked about some of the negatives in regards…
Stephen Kearney and Wayne Bennett have already made their mark on the New Zealand test side, picking the first Kiwi test side in a long time that looks perfectly set for the modern day game. Gone are many of the players that get selected year in year out no matter how unfit they are or…
Well the World Cup Countdown has begun and if you are following some of the squad selections at the moment you will find that some players are being named in more than one squad. Because this kind of muddies the waters, the RLIF (See ARL via an fancy letterhead) decided to clear things up. The…
Australia has beaten New Zealand 28-12 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in a good, entertaining match. Australia looked like they were going to run away with the game after scoring 22 points in the first 22 minutes, but a turn of possession saw the scoring halted as the Kiwi’s floated in and out of the…
Leading into this Fridays on of Test between Australia and New Zealand, we have once again been told by anyone wearing a small, flightless bird on their t-shirt that they ar proud to play for New Zealand and to be a Kiwi’s Test player. Pull the other one! For well over 10 years now the…
Billy Slaters amazing form has been rewarded despite a major push by some media types for Manly Fullback Brett Stewart to retain his place as the Australian fullback. Slater joins back rower Paul Gallen and prop Carl Webb who are also making their debut in a great looking Australian lineup that is probably a bit…
Well the mid season Test Match is coming up and there is a lot of talk about who should, and shouldn’t make the side. Australia has so many form players to choose from with only prop being a bit of a problem because of injuries to Luke Bailey and Brett White being suspended. The Kiwi’s…
Stephen Kearney has been announced as the New Zealand Kiwi’s new coach. He will be helped along by Wayne Bennett who will take an “advisory role”, what ever the hell that means! This saga has dragged on for so long that quite frankly I’m sure all Kiwi Rugby League fans are over it. Its been…
Gary Kemble has resigned his position as New Zealands test coach effective immediatly. At the end of the day Gary Kemble put himself out of his own misery and quit as coach of the New Zealand Test side. After a disasterous term as Kiwi coach and with players speaking out against his lack of experience,…
Before I start I just want to ask one question. Does Wayne Bennett actually want to coach New Zealand? We all know the complete disaster New Zealand Rugby League went through in 2007. From issues with the running of the game in New Zealand, to the shambolic performance of the Test side, 2007 was a…
Samoa have scored a 38-16 win over Lebanon to secure the tenth and final place in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup. Lebanon tried hard all game and for a while in the second half looked like they were on the comeback trail, but the Samoan side just had way to much fire power. The…
Great Britain has scored an unconvincing 28-22 win over New Zealand to take a 3-0 series win for the first time since Moses was a lad. As with this entire series New Zealand played well below par and Great Britain did what they needed to score a fairly easy win. Rob Burrow was named man…
In 2007 New Zealand Rugby League was supposed to be celebrating 100 years of international competition. Instead, it has been brought to its knee’s as a century of incompetence hits a new low and the game in New Zealand becomes a shattered shell compared to the long awaited promise of success. With the Bardercard Cup…
Great Britain has beaten New Zealand 44-0 in a very, very average Test match. The Lions didn’t really do anything special, New Zealand were just nothing short of atrocious. After setting a laughable goal for New Zealand coach Gary Kemble to win at least 75% of his games in change of the Kiwi’s, his record…
The Rugby Football League has always been soft on things like gambling, drugs use and illegal play, and once again this week the English governing body has turned the game into a laughing stock. In the last 7 days we have see 3 of the worst head high tackles in International football in recent memory,…
Great Britain has defeated New Zealand 20-14 in Huddersfield to take a 1-0 series lead in a pretty average match without any real highlights. New Zealand were the better side over the course of the game but gifted Great Britain 6 points with a horrible mistake in goal by Sam Perrett that allowed British winger…
The New Zealand All Golds beat the Northern Union side 25-18 in Warrington last night. It was an interesting game to watch and certainly helped me get my footy fix for the weekend as the All Golds dominated for most ofthe match. It was only a 20 minute period in the second half where the…
The World Champion Australian Rugby League team has demolished New Zealand by a score line of 58-0. It took Australia about five minutes to kick into gear and once that happened they just looked three classes above New Zealand. The youngest backline in Australian Rugby League history was just oustanding showing power, speed, skill and…
There is one rule in Rugby League that you should never, ever break… SHUT UP! You never, ever give any opposition a reason to fire up by talking yourself up before a game. It always ends in tears. So when NZRL chairman Andrew Chalmers this week game about the best ammunition I have ever seen…
New Zealand have named a powerful side ahead of this weekends test match against New Zealand in Wellington. The Kiw’s have gone for a great mix of impact, stamina and skill and will learn a lot about the type of lineup they want heading into next years World Cup. When you consider New Zealand are…
Well its seems as though the footy gods are handing a number of deserving players Australian test jerseys they should have got in the first place! Paul Gallen has been ruled out of the Australian side to take on New Zealand next week with a shoulder injury, prompting the promotion of Storm lock Dallas Johnson…
In some exciting news for the game, teenage sesnation Israel Folau has been called into the Australian Test team to replace center Justin Hodges who was ruled out today with an ankle strain. Folau will become of of the youngest players ever to play Test football and will add to an amazing, young backline that…
In an ironic move by the New Zealand Rugby League considering the name of the Test is the ANZAC Test, the NZRL has said that the 2008 game will be their last mid season test against Australia because they are unable to compete with the World Champions in the fixture. Despite the fact the game draws big…
Much has been made of the short preperations both Australia and New Zealand had in the leadup to the ANZAC Test in Brisbane last Friday night. There has been calls for players to be stood down from the preceeding club game, calls for Test matches to be played as stand alone events on a weekend…
Australia’s 30-6 win in Brisbane may not have been the best Test match in recent years, but both sides will have taken a lot out of the match. For Australia, Karmichael Hunt and Brent Tate showed that selectors did well to show them loyalty but other players failed to step up to the next level….
The New Zealand Rugby League has announced a 19 man squad for Friday nights ANZAC Test Match against Australia. There are four new caps in the Kiwi’s lineup with you fullback Krisnan Inu, Brisbanes Greg Eastwood and Warriors props Sam Rapira and Evarn Tuimavave all breaking their way into the elite squad. Its a very…
Sure they had a few decisions go against them, but Great Britain was well beaten by New Zealand in Wellington on the weekend. Now, down on confidence, the Lions face an Australian side in Brisbane thats looking for revenge. So can they come back and make their way into the final? With Sean Long having…
Suggestions that the move by Johns to be “excused” from playing the opening Tri Series match will just degrade the Australian test jersey are laughable. Let me get this straight. So in 1995 the ARL decides it wont select players that have signed up to the new Super League competition. It goes on to not…
Well first off, lets wrap up the first Rugby League Test match of 2005. Its wasnt the best Test match ever, but they are not all going to be gifts from God are they. I thought Australia did what they had to, they never got out of first gear and they got the job done….