Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the international waters, the idiots running this game destroy any hope or enthusiasm you might have had. Today the RFL announced the details for the Four Nations competition to be held at the end of the year between World Champions New Zealand, Australia, France…
Are the days of England being an easy out for trouble making players coming to an end I wonder? Right now a number of players who have signed with Super League clubs are still waiting back home in Australia and wondering if their past behavior has finally closed a door on them. British officials have…
Well, Leeds beat St Helens in the Grand Final and made it back to back titles. I have to confess that I haven’t watched the game yet and to be honest, I don’t think I will be chasing it down. There has been a bit of whinging because St Helens players didn’t wait around after…
One of the major stories out of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup was how poor England played. Winning just one of their four games played at the World Cup, and then only just beating Papua New Guinea, the England side went to Australia talking themselves up and left with their tail between their legs….
I remember when I was in Primary School and we had our Library lessons, ever so often you’d pick up one of those choose your own adventure books, skip through all the directing pages, and just get to the end and see what happens. Yeah, Primary School was the best 17 years of my life….
It was very strange seeing New Zealand doing a victory lap with what I consider to be OUR World Cup, and while it was great for the game to see it happen make no mistake, I wanted Australia to win the big one. Having said that, I think the reaction by some within the Australian…
Its mind blowing to me that a nation that claims to be the second best in the Rugby League World, but who has not beaten the best in the world for 30 years, can honestly think its doing things right and is just down on its luck. As an outsider, its hard to know how…
All the profits from the 2008 Rugby League World Cup will go into a fund to develope Rugby League around the world. On top of this there is $2,000,000 in prize money on offer that will be spread across all ten World Cup teams depending on where they finish the tournament. This is all fantastic…
News that Wakefields plans for a new stadium have been scrapped means the club now finds itself without a suitable stadium to use for the future. The RFL has already told the Wildcats that they will be kicked out of Super League the next time their license comes up for renewal because their current ground…
So Super League has finished its latest expansion and we now have a Welsh team in the competition which is great. However already eyes are turning towards a few years from now when all current clubs Super League licenses will come up for review. That means teams with below standard stadiums, poor finances and poor…
We all know I’m the first to bag Super League when I think its needed, but when it comes to expansion Super League officials obviously have a goal and are doing everything possible to achieve those goals. The first signs of this push to expand Super League came when Welsh outfit the Celtic Crusaders were…
And the winners are the Celtic Crusaders and the Salford City Reds. As you can imagine there have been all sorts of reactions but this is pretty much what I expected to happen. The Crusaders are the first Welsh Super League club and have had a major amount of support by the RFL to get…
This pretty much sums up Super League this move… The Huddersfield Giants have signed St George/Illawarra Tampons coach Nathan Brown to a three year deal. Brown, who’s long reign at the St George/Illawarra has been nothing short of a tragic mess, has shown nothing at all to suggest that he would be a good coach…
Well its just a matter of going from one farce to another when it comes to English Rugby League. This week came news that Hull FC had fielded an ineligible player in their last two Challenge Cup Ties. Forward Jamie Thackery signed with Hull FC, from Leeds on March the 27th, two weeks after the…
This week has seen a tug of war between the NZRL and Super League clubs over the availability of two players for the upcoming Test match in Australia next week. Leeds fullback Brent Webb and Wigan halfback Thomas Leuluai were both selected by the NZRL. They were the only two Super League based players selected…
We all love a good laugh at the Poms, and they seem to love giving us material. Seriously, someone could put together a whole web site that does nothing but take the piss out of them…. Today we had three of the best. First of all, good old Leon Pryce. When God was handing out…
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,…
As many of you know I have always been against the high number of imports in Super League. I have fought with countless people over the effects of imports on the British game….and now that fight is about to end. I’ve come to the conclusion that Super League is no longer a British competition. The RFL and its…
Anyone that had read my opinions in recent years knows I am 100% behind the Franchise system that Super League will have in place from 2009. Promotion and Relegation does not work and that can be seen in the financial position of a number of National League clubs who have gone broke trying to gain promotion. However,…
With the announcement that Super League would be moving towards a franchise system and scrapping Promotion and Relegation, we have seen a number of lower grade teams in the UK making a big song and dance about why they deserve to be in the final Super League lineup. Among those were the Widnes Vikings. You’d…
On the back of news that Australian selectors enquired about the Australian eligibility of Parramatta Eels forward Fui Fui Moi Moi comes word that St Helens Samoa-born forward Maurie Fa’asavalu has put his hand up to play for Great Britain. Now I could could on about the squad stacking that the ARL, NZRL and RFL…
Does three decades of losing make people crazy? Can you bring up a generation of sports fans that are so ill informed that they don’t realize what they are seeing is the death of their own game? After decades of being on the wrong end of beatings at International level, the British game has taken a stand and…
With so many Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands players in Super League you have to wonder what would happen if the RFL managed to make a real decision in regards to the number of Imports in Super League and force many of these players to head back home. There is no doubt that there are a…
On the same day that Danny Buderus announced that he would not be taking part in the 2006 Tri Nations in Australia due to personal reasons, Keiron Cunningham announced that he would retire from test football all together because…well, he wants to. Two international hookers of a similar age. One stepping down for the series,…
For Great Britain the 2005 Tri Nations is over. Many people in the UK went into this series full of confidence. They felt that last years thrashing in the Tri Series Final was not an indication of their standing in the game. Thats why 2005 comes as a rude reality check for some. Personally, this…
Well the RFL is starting to get serious about drug testing and its now handing out real suspensions for players that get caught. Well done to them. Now if only they could go back 6 months and take a look at the handful off excuses they accepted including two team mates that just happened to…
Well in case you didn’t know, the RLIF has been meeting this week and a few key announcements were made. First, news that Great Britain would be broken up into England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland heading into the 2008 World Cup was surprising. Just as the Great Britain Lions have started drawing sizable crowds in…