A Tap On The Twenty.

Third rate and rejected antipodeans defeated England

2011-06-13T13:24:00.001+01:00

Is anyone surprised England lost to the Exiles on Friday?

No, me neither.

England were outplayed in a game they needed to win to restore faith in the international set up. British supporters of the game need a successful international team, it is the catalyst for expansion to the rest of the country.

International sport unites the country and fans of the sport. The FIFA World Cup last year was a good example of the country uniting to support Fabio's under-par squad. Despite the failure of the national soccer team, it got people from all classes and walks of life together to support the lads.

The success of the England rugby union national side got the country united for 80 minutes in 2003. Any game against the Australians in any sport does that, see the cricket Ashes as another example. In 2005 the country were fully behind Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison. And the resulting success gifted the sport an increase in participation at grass roots level. Rugby League needs this success, it will be a major boost to the RFL's community game especially in the Midlands and southern regions where the sport tries its best to grow.

Back to Friday's game, and Steve McNamara needs to seriously look at his options ahead of the Four Nations. The squad he chose was no virtually different to that of the past two years. He needs to choose players on form, like Kirk Yeaman who has been on fire for Hull FC. In my opinion he should also consider selecting some of the younger players who have made their debuts, or have developed this season. Jonny Lomax, Jamie Foster, Andrew Dixon and Tom Makinson to name just a handful of worthy players. Admittedly the players named are all from St Helens, but these are players who have been outplaying some of the names already in the England squad.

Welcome back, old friend.

2011-05-26T15:40:00.001+01:00

The observant amongst you will have noticed that for a blog dedicated to rugby league for the past four seasons, there hasn't really been many posts on that given topic. Or any topic for that matter.

Thankfully that is all about to change.

Due to educational commitments my time over the past year and a half has been going into earning myself a shiny certificate from the worlds worst organised university. Needless to say entering a job market that has been one of the worst for a generation should give me plenty of time to write more about a passion of mine, and maybe even point this blog in the direction of a few potential employers as someone who is about to graduate with a journalism degree.

As part of the re-brand (so to speak) it's about time we caught up with the highlights of the action over the past twelve months.

Wigan dominated the 2010 season pretty much from start to finish. After their defeat at home to Huddersfield (where incidentally I pissed myself half laughing, half cheering when it meant the pies were denied the league leaders shield mathematically for another week) I said they would not go unbeaten for the rest of the season.

I was right in the sense that they went unbeaten for the remainder of the regualr season. However despite the loss of Danny McGuire early in the match, Leeds did the unthinkable and topple the league leaders away from home in the first round of the play offs. The rematch at Headingley two weeks later proved to be a one sided affair but it showed that despite their losses, Wigan are a remarkable side and Michael McGuire has done amazing things in the space of one season at the club. As expected, they went onto win the Grand Final over rivals St Helens.

Warrington shocked the attendants at Wembley by not only defeating Leeds in the Challenge Cup final, but by doing so with ease winning 30-6.

It was certainly a game to forget for those travelling down the M1, with 85,000 eagerly expecting a classic game of rugby league. It didn't come.

Warrington showed why they will be future Super League champions in that one game, ensuring the game was won before half time and the cup defended successfully.

Many Warrington supporters will say their favourite moment of that match was Chris Hicks' try, as he plucked the ball from out of the air to score in the corner. For me it has to be Lee Briers' 40-20 halfway though the first half. I think even at that point, deep down, the game was won and Leeds didn't look up to the fight.

Finally the World Club Challenge proved to be a disappointing affair again if you are a British supporter of the game. Or if you just love Wigan.

After putting Sydney to bed in the 2010 NRL Grand Final, St George Illawarra came over to these shores for what the Aussie fans like to call 'a trial game.'

In fairness to those convict armchair supporters, they do occasionally get things right. Wigan were outplayed from start to finish at the DW Stadium, despite winning 15-14 at half time. St George always looked the better side as they eventually wound Wigan down and kept restricting their field possession in the St George half of the field. It would have put a smile on Wayne Bennett's face, who had to fly back to Australia early due to a family illness.

And that's your wrap of the key pieces of silverware that have been won over the past twelve months. I promise I'll update again soon, ta raa!

Copyright: Sky News, http://league.quins.co.uk

A Tap on the Twenty Awards 2010

2010-12-22T19:09:00.001Z

Its that time of year ladies and gents, when the professional season is well and truly over and the Golden Boot has been awarded, that A Tap on the Twenty recognises the achievements and gaffs that have kept us entertained throughout the season.

As ever the Player of the Year will be awarded to the player who has been an all round star, performing to the highest standard each week for club, state and even country.

This year the awards and winners are:

The 'Andrew Voss' little bitch' Award: David Gallop
The Injury of the Year: Luke Burgess (broken jaw V Castleford)
Try of the Year: Nathan Fien V Australia
Match of the Year: Australia V New Zealand (Four Nations final)
Special Mention Award: Michael McGuire (Wigan coach)
Team of the Year: New Zealand
Player of the Year: Benji Marshall (West Tigers & New Zealand)

Its State of Origin time!

2010-05-19T15:31:00.000+01:00

Its that time of year again!

State of Origin kicks off a week today at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. The Australians are celebrating 30 years of what is the most anticipated three matches of the summer. And with that, the two squads were selected and announced on Monday.

Without further ado, the New South Wales side will be:

1. Kurt Gidley (Newcastle)
2. Brett Morris (St George Illawarra)
3. Matt Cooper (St George Illawarra)
4. Timana Tahu (Parramatta)
5. Jarryd Hayne (Parramatta)
6. Jamie Lyon (Manly)
7. Brett Kimmorley (Bulldogs)
8. Michael Weyman (St George Illawarra)
9. Michael Ennis (Bulldogs)
10. Josh Perry (Manly)
11. Trent Waterhouse (Penrith)
12. Ben Creagh (St George Illawarra)
13. Anthoney Watmough (Manly)

14. Jamal Idris (Bulldogs)
15. Tom Learoyd-Lahrs (Canberra)
16. Luke Lewis (Penrith)
17. Brett White (Melbourne)

I said it last year, and I will say it again this year. New South Wales are missing the quality of half backs that Queensland will have. Its what has cost them the last four series. It was more evident last year than ever when Jamie Soward should have been selected. Terry Campese flopped in game one and they replaced him with Trent Barrett, who past his best before he moved to Wigan and went back to the NRL.All of this was despite Campese had the better game between him and scrum half Peter Wallace. But Wallace gets the second shot in game two and when the series is over by game three they select two players with the combined age of 63 years to run in the halfs and past their best five years ago.

This year they have brought in Jamie Lyon at five eighth. A man who wants to play Origin one minute, then changes his mind the next. Because the selectors for NSW can see that the tried and tested partnership of Darren Lockyer and Jonathan Thurston works for Queensland, they think it will work for them. The only difference is, Lockyer and Thurston have been playing together at representative level for years. They have played together for Australia since Andrew Johns retired, so have developed a winning partnership that finally clicked many moons ago. The same hasn't developed for NSW because the selectors want immediate success, and after four straight Origin losses who can blame them? But they won't get that series win unless they can gel two players together in the halfs. Then NSW half backs can start to claim that green and gold jersey.

So what of the Queensland team? Here is it:

1. Billy Slater (Melbourne)
2. Darius Boyd (St George Illawarra)
3. Greg Inglis (Melbourne)
4. Willie Tonga (North Queensland)
5. Israel Folau (Brisbane)
6. Darren Lockyer (Brisane)
7. Jonathan Thurston (North Queensland)
8. Matthew Scott (North Queensland)
9. Cameron Smith (Melbourne)
10. Petero Civoniceva (Penrith)
11. Nate Miles (Sydney)
12. Sam Thaiday (Brisbane)
13. Ashley Harrison (Gold Coast)

14. Cooper Cronk (Melbourne)
15. David Shillington (Canberra)
16. Neville Costigan (St George Illawarra)
17. David Taylor (South Sydney)

18. Ben Te'o

For the four Melbourne players, it might be nice to actually play a competitive match for once. Joking aside, that team excels in the half back roles as I mentioned earlier. Other than that, the two teams are very evenly matched. The Queensland backs may have the edge on New South Wales, but I feel the NSW pack is a lot stronger. On paper it might seem very close, but my pre series predictions are an easy pick.

Game one winner: New South Wales. They are on home turf and I think they could be motivated to get that first win on the board early.

Series winner: Queensland. Overall, I can't see anything but a fifth straight series win for the Maroons.

Fax thrown out of the cup.

2010-05-12T00:26:00.000+01:00

Halifax have been thrown out of this year's Challenge Cup, after the Yorkshire club were found to have fielded an ineligible player in their fourth round tie with Swinton.

Halifax fielded Michael Ostick, currently on loan from Roachdale, who the prop forward had already played for against Lezignan in round three.

The misconduct was spotted by a Halifax supporter, who revealed the information on a fans forum. It was only after this revelation that the RFL took action, and postponed Halifax's fourth round tie with Batley on Sunday hours before kick off.

Two things strike me as odd in this scenario.

Number one, why did the player not own up before being selected to play against Swinton knowing full well he had already played for Rochdale? Were the coaching staff not aware there was a possibility Ostick played in the third round?

Number two, why did it take a fan of the guilty club to reveal this information on a fans forum before the RFL acted? Did the RFL not know about the breach in competition rules until this point, and if so, why not?

In my opinion there are two incompetent parties here, the RFL and Halifax RLFC.

Halifax should have done their research and background checks before signing the player on loan and fielding him in the cup. Its completely unacceptable that they did this. Matt Calland, if he is being held responsible, has every right to be suspended pending further investigation as to why this happened.

As for the RFL, they shouldn't have to leave it to a supporter in order to find out breaches in the rules. This should have been checked after the fourth round tie, and not hours before the fifth round was about to kick off. Again, this is unacceptable of what is supposed to be a respectable governing body. Thankfully the information came to light just in time, but in my opinion the RFL's blushes haven't been spared. This should have been checked earlier and punishment have been dealt out a lot sooner.

Australia scrape by in appalling conditions.

2010-05-08T21:27:00.000+01:00

Australia won the ANZAC Test 12-8 at the opening of AAMI Park, but had the weather conditions been kinder the game could have been a lot more exciting.

The new rectangular purpose built stadium looked great at its opening match, and will suit the Melbourne Storm and future internationals played at the ground. Credit must go to the ground staff, for not only producing a carpet like pitch in the first place, but to be able to maintain the surface in horrible conditions.

In my opinion the weather conditions seemed to have an effect on the match. There were more knock ons and errors than I would have expected to see, but they were from both sides which was testament to New Zealand who underperformed in last season's Four Nations.

But don't let that suggest New Zealand were the better side. It would have been nice to see them win, but their first half attacking play was woeful. They were too flat on Australia's line, and I feel Benji Marshall could have done better to organise his team in such a scenario.

That said, New Zealand had their chances but they didn't have many. For most of the first half Australia seemed to make better use of possession, and under performed in that they should have gone into half time 12 or 18 points ahead. Again, the weather did not suit Australia's style of play. They seemed to think they were the 'Australian Globetrotters' and insisted on offloading the ball in unbelievable situations with a great degree of difficulty. It was justice in a way that they did have the lead at half time, but it should have been more.

But by the end of the game it was only two missed conversions that cost New Zealand the game, with both teams scoring two tries apiece. A credit to the Kiwis, but they must know they have a long way to go before they can match Australia in dryer conditions. They picked up the pace in the final twenty minutes, but playing well for that amount of time is not good enough at international level.

I look forward to the Four Nations, when both teams will undoubtedly be playing in conditions at the height of the southern hemisphere spring when both teams can open the taps a bit more, and play better free flowing rugby league.

Nathan Brown rant is not the first.

2010-05-03T14:15:00.003+01:00

Nathan Brown's rant after his side's loss to Wigan on Sunday is not the first time the man has last the plot in front of the media.

In his post-match comments at Edinburgh, the Huddersfield coach said: "The officials can do better and protect the small players. I'll quite clearly instruct my players if the officials are going to allow people to hit our key players late and in the head, you do it back."

For the former St George Illawarra boss, it is not the first time he has instructed his players to take the law into their own hands. In 2008 he was so appalled by the tackling techniques of Melbourne in a game at Olympic Park, that he then instructed his players to respond with violence, and called on every other NRL club to turn their games against Melbourne into a bloodbath because that was the only way to beat them.

To me, and with the historical evidence at hand, this is a case of the toys being thrown out of the pram. Huddersfield played very well on Sunday, and it was only a lapse in concentration for ten minutes that really cost them the game.

Brown's criticism of the match officials could see him fined by the RFL like Justin Morgan was earlier in the year.

Murrayfield Magic preview.

2010-04-30T23:04:00.000+01:00

This weekend will see the fourth Magic Weekend, the second time the event will be hosted in the Scottish capital city of Edinburgh.

Every round 13 Super League game will be played at Murrayfield Stadium. It gives the fans a unique opportunity to watch every single game in the same round of matches in the flesh, but how does this years event wet the appetite compared to previous years in Edinburgh and Cardiff?

When the draw for this year’s Magic Weekend was made during the close season, there were very few games that would catch the imagination of the neutral fans on paper. As the trip to Edinburgh is less than a week away, a quick glance at both the weekend’s fixtures and the current league table shows that the next seven games may not be as predictable as many people suggested at the start of the season.

If certain results go in favour of a particular team, there could be several changes to the league table on bank holiday Monday. Super League may have a new league leader, a new top four and a reshuffle of the eight play off places. It all makes for an exciting weekend of rugby league in Scotland.

There are fans who would have preferred to see the return of the derby matches that proved to be a unique selling point for the original Millennium Magic weekend back in 2007. These fans will no doubt argue there is more at stake than just the two competition points, and that more fans are compelled to travel the greater distance to support their team against a local foe. But close proximity between two clubs geographically does not always provide a classic rugby match. It is often the case when two teams close to each other in the league table provide a much more thrilling contest, and a fantastic advert for the game on both live television and on ‘foreign’ ground away from the M62 corridor.

Every club has something to play for at this stage of the season, and so there is every chance that each game can be a thrilling encounter as we look ahead to this years Magic Weekend.

Bradford Bulls V Crusaders RL – Saturday May 1, 1pm.
After their demolition of Hull KR at home, Bradford go into this game full of confidence against a 11th place Crusaders. The appointment of Steve McNamara as the new England coach obviously blew the wind in the Bradford sails as they were able to score six tries past a tough Hull KR side last weekend. They have no new injury concerns ahead of travelling to Edinburgh which is good news for McNamara’s side, although Nick Scruton is facing charges in front of the RFL’s disciplinary panel for a high tackle in Sunday’s win over Hull KR. They face the Crusaders, who secured their first ever Super League win against the Bulls last season at the Grattan Stadium.

Crusaders will be boosted ahead of this game by the presence of Gareth Thomas for the entire 80 minutes last weekend, as well as the expected debut appearance of Jarrod Summut. But Brian Noble will be expecting his side to begin the game better on Saturday, which would be in stark contrast compared to what they did against Huddersfield at home last weekend. Crusaders also have no more injury worries as they look to avenge their 20-16 loss earlier on in the season against Bradford on Easter Monday.

Hull FC V Harlequins RL – Saturday May 1, 3pm.
Harlequins will be travelling to Edinburgh after competing one of the biggest upsets of the season so far. Despite being down 24-6 at half time away to Wigan, the London-based team went 40 minutes without conceding a try to win the game 38-26. Before the game it was bottom verses top of the league, and Quins were able to win the game proving that there are no guaranteed victories in Super League. This could well be a lesson that Hull FC should learn before taking on the Quins in the second game of the weekend at Murrayfield. However despite the win, Quins are to be without Ben Jones-Bishop for six weeks with a fractured skull.

Hull FC are still missing Sean Long and Craig Fitzgibbon who are just two of their key players out through injury, but Kirk Yeaman is expected to make his return after missing his sides 12-8 victory over Wakefield with a leg injury. Hull are just one point behind Bradford in the league table, and should the Bulls lose against Crusaders Richard Agar’s men will be expected to make the jump from sixth to fifth with the same number of wins as top four side Huddersfield.

Salford City Reds V Warrington Wolves – Saturday May 1, 5pm.
When these two teams met on Good Friday, it was Salford that had all the reason to feel confident at half time despite being behind at the break. And despite the one sided score line of 32-2, the result didn’t reflect the hard work Salford put in to prevent Warrington from scoring more than two tries in the first half. They also kept Wigan to a low score line, only losing 18-4 at home to the current league leaders. Shaun McRae will want his side to repeat three of their last four performances, forgetting what will hopefully be a blip against Castleford last weekend.

Warrington welcomed back Lee Briers to full fitness against Catalan on Sunday, after missing several games through injury since his sides home loss to Wigan in round three. Warrington have met Salford during the Magic Weekend once before in 2007, in which the Wolves thrashed the Reds 50-18 at the Millennium Stadium. Tony Smith does have one injury concern after Ben Harrison was taken off within the first five minutes against Catalan and failed to return. Gareth Carvell is still on the sidelines after picking up an injury two weeks ago against Hull KR.

Leeds Rhinos V Wakefield Trinity Wildcats – Saturday May 1, 7pm.
Leeds are expected to bounce back from their disappointing loss to last years fellow grand finalists on Saturday, which will conclude the first day of this years Magic Weekend. Leeds were heavily defeated against St Helens 41-20 at the GPW Recruitment Stadium. But they will face the tough task of beating Wakefield, who happen to be tucked neatly inside the top eight one point above Leeds who are currently in ninth place. When the two teams last met in round two, it was Wakefield who came away victorious with a 28-18 win at the Hearwell Stadium.

Leeds will want to avenge that loss, and potentially move up two places in the league up to seventh. Wakefield narrowly lost to Hull FC on Friday in a very stop, start game that saw 20 scrums and 20 penalties. Wakefield coach John Kear will want to make sure his side improve on their ball retention, or else he could see his side take a battering against the champions. Leeds are expected to bring back Ali Lauitiiti from injury, subject to the second rower passing a fitness test before the game.

Castleford Tigers V Catalan Dragons – Sunday May 2, 2pm.
Despite winning 30-12 against Salford last weekend, Castleford will be happy to have an extra game away from home, as their form at the Jungle is a dire one. They have only won two of their seven home games this season, including a Challenge Cup loss to Barrow the weekend before last. Things weren’t much better last year, as Terry Matterson’s team only chalked up four home wins during last season’s league campaign. On the other hand Kevin Walters will want an all round improvement as his side were comfortably beaten at the weekend away to Warrington 40-6.

Castleford have no more injury concerns after their win against Salford, although Catalan’s Cyrille Gossard will miss the trip to Edinburgh after sustaining a sprained ankle during the Dragon’s loss at the Halliwell Jones Stadium. The Dragons did receive some good news as Jean Philippe-Baile will not be charged with fighting against Warrington’s Chris Riley by the RFL disciplinary panel, and is free for Sunday’s game.

Huddersfield Giants V Wigan Warriors – Sunday May 2, 4pm.
Huddersfield have been dealt the news that fullback Brett Hodgson will be out for at least a month after picking up a thigh strain. The Giants captain rejected a 12 month contract extension and is rumoured to be signing for Warrington in time for 2011. However, Nathan Brown was given good news as Shaun Lunt will be back a lot sooner than expected. Lunt has an Achilles injury, and should be back on the pitch in two or three weeks. Brad Drew’s return from injury is also imminent, and should give the Giants a boost ahead of their game against third place St Helens who are just above Huddersfield in the league.

In what is arguably the game of the round, Wigan will be looking to put their 38-26 loss at home to Harlequins behind them. Wigan have lost only twice in 2010, and on both occasions they threw away a healthy half time lead. Wigan’s injury concerns are minimal, with Martin Gleeson expected to return after suffering a calf injury in the week leading up to the Quins game. Thomas Leuluai will be out of action for a further two weeks while Harrison Hansen will be out until June at the earliest.

Hull KR V St Helens – Sunday May 2, 6pm.
In the final game of the Magic Weekend both teams go into this game in opposite for to each other, with one team conceding 40 points last weekend, the other scoring over 40. After a disappointing loss to Bradford, Hull KR will be hoping to close the gap between them and the top six, which includes overtaking their city rivals. Justin Morgan will want to see an improved disciplined performance after conceding 14 penalties against Bradford on Sunday.

St Helens will be flying high after a comfortable win over the champions, which included a team of lesser known young players proving that Saints have huge strength in depth. James Foster made his debut for the Saints on the wing, and despite the presence of Kyle Eastmond, was able to convert eight goals from eight attempts. Saints were able to rely on youngsters Andrew Dixon, Gary Wheeler and Matty Ashurst, who stepped up to arguably their biggest challenge in their careers and succeeded proving the production line is still open for business at St Helens.

Melbourne Storm - the immediet impact.

2010-04-28T23:02:00.000+01:00

What a turn around for Melbourne Storm.

I don't think too many people expected a crowd of over 23,000 at the club's first home game since the scandal broke in the Australian media. On the day, many people threw down their memorabilia outside the club's HQ with emotions of anger, denial and depression.

Many expected this to be the end of rugby league in Victoria and Melbourne. It appears the exact opposite has happened, confirming that rugby league has a permanent home in AFL territory. Memberships for the club have surged at 100 per day since the news broke, with many of those who requested to cancel their membership having sent withdrawal emails asking to continue their membership.

This is fantastic news for the club and rugby league in general. Granted the club will not play for any points throughout the rest of the season (which is only fair as they are still over the cap) it seems the fans still want a rugby league club in Melbourne.

Overall its fantastic news for the short term future of Melbourne Storm. I'm fully hopeful the club can come away from the scandal better for it. The fans have shown their full support already knowing full well any future success from 2011 onwards will have been hard earned and honest.

The biggest news since Super League ruined the sport.

2010-04-27T22:46:00.000+01:00

Wow!

Just, wow!

Rugby League really did produce one of those 'where were you when' moments. I remember where I was on April 22, when I found out Melbourne Storm had broken the salary cap and had been stripped of both NRL Premierships and Minor Premierships since 2006. I was being my typical student self. having just woke up, I switched on my laptop, accessed the News Now website and thought I had woken up on April 1.

I don't think there has been a punishment like it, and highly doubt there ever will be another like it. This was truly a once in a lifetime moment for rugby league fans in both Australia and across the world. On top of the stripped titles, the club will pay back $1.1million of prize money to be distributed between the 15 remaining clubs, and be fined $500,000.

To summarise, under the leadership of then chief executive Brian Waldron, Melbourne Storm operated their salary cap with two sets of books. One to show the cap invigilators, the other to show the real accounts for the club's finances. Once Waldron jumped ship to the new rugby union franchise in Melbourne, the new owners responsible for the running of the club blew the whistle and came clean. From what information was released, the club have over spent on the salary cap for the past five seasons, including a $400,000 breach in 2009, and a projected $700,000 breach for this season.

By all accounts it was a clever system, designed so that there was no possible way the NRL could discover it by themselves. It is also believed to the the brainchild of Waldron, and that none of the players in the past five years knew anything about it.

So where do we begin to dissect the news here?

Lets start with the punishment. Was it justified? Yes, it was. Is it fair on the players and fans? No, not at all.

The reason its justified is that as a club they cheated. Not everyone in the club was aware of the wrong doings, but the senior figures did, and as a result the club has been punished. However, it is deeply unfair on the players, who are only going to take whatever lucrative deal was offered to them individually. As a team and a group of mates, you do not talk about what each player is earning. Deep down you may know you aren't earning as much as the guy next to you, but it is never talked about. You get on with the job of succeeding on the field and playing well.

As for the fans, well they have been cheated. They have been royally screwed over by the club many of them have supported since 1998. The small consolation is, and this goes for the players too, David Gallop can never take away those feeling of joy that were being expressed on September 30, 2007 and on October 4, 2009. Whilst in hindsight those memories may now be tarnished, the thoughts back to that day will still live in the memories of players and fans alike.

Steve McNamara appointed ne England coach.

2010-04-22T00:10:00.000+01:00

Steve McNamara was appointed the new England coach yesterday, with former Bradford coach and current Sydney coach Brian Smith appointed as his mentor.

What has been public knowledge for several days, the whole scenario stinks of a copycat New Zealand similarity, which eventually won New Zealand the World Cup. The only difference is that Wayne Bennett is a proven winner, never mind a tactical genius, and was the puppet master in Stephen Kearney's triumph.

The only thing McNamara and Smith have won between them is a raffle.

McNamara was promoted from within after Brian Noble left Bradford to join Wigan in 2006. Since then he has not been able to guide the club to anything near the success Noble did at the West Yorkshire club, having achieved a grand total of zero finals in four years.

Smith on the other hand is a perennial underachiever, and has lost every single major final he has ever guided a team to. That is including English Premierships (pre Super League,) Challenge Cups, and ARL/NRL Grand Finals. He has not won a single thing ash head coach, that that is where the similarity between New Zealand of 2008 and England of 2010 starts and ends.

I don't rate McNamara, and have been saying consistently for a number of years that Bradford will begin to slide down the table. Last year they did. At the same time, McNamara seems to be always hanging onto his club job by the skin of his teeth before an unexpected result goes his way. See Super League round 5, Bradford 22-20 Wigan for a perfect example. Before that game, McNamara was halfway out of the door. After the final hooter went, he had a months grace before scraping a draw against Leeds.

The RFL must have seen the warning signs immediately after the announcement when Bradford fans were happy McNamara was on his way out of their club. Its not often you see a scenario like that in professional sport.

But what's done is done, and I for one am hoping that England do not finish last in this years Four Nations. Last time we went to Australia we badly under performed, and fear Papua New Guinea revenge for that 32-22 win in Townsville will be on the cards. A last place finish will not only erase whatever credibility the national side has recovered over the past 12 months, but it will set off enormous warning bells in the RFL's preperation ahead of the 2013 World Cup.

NRL is back on our screens.

2010-04-17T16:04:00.000+01:00

Forget trying to google a dodgy internet connection in order to see some live NRL action this year. The best domestic rugby league competition is back on UK screens thanks to Premier Sports.

Available to Sky subscribers only for the time being, Premier Sports looks like a re-branded version of Setanta Sports. The channel consists of plenty of Gaelic football and other Irish sports along side the weekly NRL matches.

Premier Sports will show three weekly NRL matches per week. But here is the good news for fans of the Australian game. Sky Sports will show the biggest five games in the NRL calendar. These games include the upcoming ANZAC Test match between Australia and New Zealand, all three State of Origin matches and the NRL Grand Final.

But here is a little tip. If you do not have Sky, Bet365.com and Ladbrokes.com are still streaming the non televised games live on their betting websites. All you have to do is register an account and your away. You don't even need to enter any credit card details in order for you to watch it. Simples.

Junior rugby switch is a good move.

2010-04-14T22:47:00.001+01:00

Imagine for a moment that you are nine years-old. It is currently the middle of December, and you play for a local junior rugby league club. Your team train on a tiny floodlit field every Tuesday and Thursday night, but the pitch is in continual use from other teams and has become very boggy.

The weather is cold, damp and there is a constant shower of rain and sleet. Your coach tries to keep the sessions fresh and interesting, but he cannot teach you the skills to develop because of the harsh weather conditions and the limited players available.

Are these suitable conditions to teach a child how to play rugby league? Would a parent like to stand in the cold for an hour while they watch their child slowly becomes disheartened is uninterested?

The call made for amateur clubs to switch their playing season from winter to summer is starting to carry some weight, and there are many reasons why teams affiliated with BARLA should make the switch.

While the original call is for teams at all age groups to make the switch, the teams in the lower age groups should be allowed to play in summer regardless of when the open age teams play their matches. A switch of junior clubs from winter to summer would see a significant increase in playing numbers. It would retain the children who also play both football and rugby league during the winter, as well as attract those who play football and would like the opportunity to play rugby league.

The switch would also benefit the young players who can train in better conditions, and therefore learn the skills of rugby league much quicker in a better environment. Ask any junior coach and they will say it is easier to coach kids during a summer evening when the weather is much cooler than during the day.

As a result of training in less harsher conditions, this will increase the potential talent pool of young players. This will benefit the England squad in the long term as players will have mastered the skills in a better environment compared to their winter counterparts. The quality and level of skill will improve in the Super League and Championship in years to come as the players being selected at under 16 will have played their entire careers in the summer, and won’t have to adapt from winter to summer in preparation for the under 18 academy competition.

Should the amateur clubs choose to continue playing their open age playing season in the summer, then the transition from summer to winter will happen immediately after under 18 and not to the benefit of the players should the junior teams make the switch. Therefore it may be beneficial for the youth teams to continue playing in winter. But playing numbers across the under 17-18 age group take a dive, and this may be partly down to the fact these players have just left high school.

Many players take on jobs and apprenticeships once they leave secondary school, while the rest go into further education. These young adults are capable of making their own decisions with regards to if they want to play rugby league, so the winter playing season may not be a greater factor as the players grow up. However, they are becoming young adults and are tempted by the lure of alcohol and going out with their friends on a Saturday night. Therefore it may be beneficial for these age groups to play on a Saturday afternoon parallel to that of the open age team.

This time is much more flexible socially and gives the players a chance to socialise with their team mates and non-rugby playing friends during the evening. As a result the player drop out would decrease significantly, and may attract new players who would like a social activity to participate in on a Saturday afternoon.

Whatever the outcome of the open age switch to summer rugby, whether it goes through or not, the junior and youth teams must consider a separate opportunity to change from their traditional winter Sunday morning kick off times. They must take into account their player’s other commitments and work with them to increase and retain playing numbers.

NRL on the small screen - TV or PC?

2010-03-23T16:51:00.001Z

Anybody been able to watch much NRL lately? Anybody aware the domestic season in Australia has even started?

Didn't think so.

Ever since the collapse of Setanta Sports a day before a crucial State of Origin game last year, the NRL has been shown on live streams via the Telstra owned Australian internet giant, Bigpond. It was very kind of them to allow us international based fans a chance to watch the greatest domestic league this sport has to offer.

Towards the back end of the season ESPN showed coverage of both elimination semi finals, and broadcast the Grand Final live in the early hours of the morning in the UK. That was the last time any NRL action was shown of British television screens. We are two rounds into the new season and there is no television deal that allows NRL matches to be broadcast of British television. It is a situation that should worry the NRL, as without good international figures it is another hurdle David Gallop must overcome if he is to negotiate a better domestic television deal with Australian broadcasters on behalf of all 16 clubs.

So far British fans of the NRL have had to settle for live streams via the internet, on either Bigpond or Bet365, who last weekend streamed live coverage for its account holders. Ladbrokes also did the same apparently for its own users. Their aim is to get its users betting during the match, but you can sign up and view via Bet365 without registering a credit or debit card. They do ask you to log in or register, but your account can be cancelled once a TV channel picks up the coverage. Not all games were shown on both websites, but there was a nice split with Bet365 showing Friday and Monday night games, while Bigpond showed every Saturday and Sunday games last weekend.

So while there is a legal way of viewing the NRL, this is a temporary measure. IMG Media have struck a deal with the NRL. IMG Media act as agent in order to try and sell broadcasters the rights to matches. It was IMG who sold the 2008 World Cup television pictures to broadcasters including Sky Sports in the UK and to the New Zealand sports channel by the same name. According to reports on another website, a deal in the UK is imminent.

I should stress a deal has been imminent for quite a few months now, so how imminent it will be before the pictures are shown on our screens remains to be seen.

Welsh union legend joins Crusaders.

2010-03-04T16:18:00.015Z

Is this a publicity stunt?

Well it could be. The Crusaders have had a terrific off field start to Super League, with all the doom and gloom merchants being asked very kindly to leave for a few months while the club basks in its new found success.

The club which hired players with suspicious visas and upped sticks moving to Wrexham from Bridgend has become a creditable rugby club all within a few months.And now they have pulled off their biggest coup yet with the signing of Welsh rugby union legend Gareth Thomas.

The openly gay union star wants to try a proper sport before his body gives up on him. At 35, he has a big challenge ahead of him to be able to make the starting 13 on a regular basis. But at the same time, I can't help but think this is nothing more than an attempt to keep spectators at the Racecourse Ground visiting on a regualr basis. And if it is, good luck to the club, because if Thomas is no good at the sport the attendances will start to subside. The Welsh fans will want Thomas to make a success of it and if he doesn't, it could drop Crusaders into a similar situation less than six months ago with poor attendance figures and once again the club will be struggling to survive.

2013 World Cup is set in motion.

2010-02-27T17:52:00.000Z

Before a ball had been kicked, the 2008 World Cup was under criticism from fans and the media for its ten team tournament structure. The fact that three teams could progress into the semi finals from one group of four was scandalous, a mockery to the sport, and downright embarrassing.

And maybe it was. For those unfamiliar to modern day rugby league, we are not in a position to draw up a "fair" tournament and expect attendances, revenue and TV audiences to remain consistent. The 2008 World Cup was a success because it was biased and because the top nations in rugby league were guaranteed to play each other in the early rounds keeping fans interested throughout the four week competition. It generated a good amount of interest, attendances and TV audiences for the pinnacle of international rugby league. More importantly, it generated enough money to make a profit and wet the appetite of smaller nations for more international rugby league in the near future. So the news this week that the 2013 World Cup will consist of 14 nations, with 12 being granted automatic qualification, should not be criticised until we have the full facts about the tournament structure.

Rugby League hasn’t been afraid of introducing innovative ideas to draw in new fans and dive into fresh territories, all in the name of expansion. The Magic Weekend was considered by the Premier League, albeit on a larger international scale, in that each team plays one more league game on neutral territory. This shows that the Rugby Football League and the Rugby League International Federation must be doing something right if the smartest businessmen in world sport want to copy an idea from a small sport from the north of England. So what new hair-brained scheme must the International Federation some up with to make the World Cup an even bigger success? Here is my ideal tournament structure for a fourteen team competition.

They can start with including the ten teams that competed in the 2008 tournament. That leaves the RLIF a choice of three teams for two remaining automatic places. The most realistic choices would be between Wales (the current European Cup holders,) Cook Islands (who surprised everyone to reach the 2009 Pacific Cup final,) or Lebanon who earned a massive amount of credit from neutral fans for their performances in the qualifying process for the 2008 World Cup.

It’s important for the top three teams to play each other early and carefully seed the competition so that interest is created early on in the tournament. Therefore a ‘Super Group’ is the only way to go. Include Australia, New Zealand, England and the fourth team from the 2011 Four Nations tournament, which would be the last before the World Cup. From there the remaining ten teams are split into one group of four and two groups of three. Have three teams qualify from the groups of four and one from the two groups of three leaving eight teams remaining in the quarter finals. Teams should be carefully seeded to keep TV interest and try to prevent a team whitewashing another.

The groups of three should be the sides of the lowest quality, including the two qualifiers in each group. The winners of the groups of three (pools three and four) will play the winners of the two groups of four (pools one and two.) The runners up from pools one and two will play the team finishing third in both groups. Moving onto the semi finals it would be the winner of those games that meet each other in the first semi final, with winners of the first two quarter finals meeting in the remaining semi final.

The above tournament structure is only a theory, but following the same style of the 2008 competition in seeding the top teams, it will guarantee competitive games as well as giving the better sides in pools one and two an advantage. As I’ve mentioned countless times already, TV audiences and revenue is what will make the tournament a success in this country. The aim is to build on the success of the 2008 competition and provide international rugby league with a secure long term future.

Power play doesn't work.

2010-02-27T16:31:00.000Z

The NRL Indigenous All Stars defeated the NRL All Stars 16-12 in a high intense game at Skilled Park last week. While the game signalled the end of Wendell Sailor's career, it kick started that of Sam Burgess' who was called into the NRL All Star side without making his first grade début for South Sydney. It was encouraging to see that he didn't show himself up unlike so many British players plying their trade on the other side of the world.

The match was one of many trials and tribulations, Sam Burgess' appearance was one of the less significant ones on a night that could see the beginning of a new era for the sport of rugby league. Considering the game was merely an exhibition game, similar to that of the NFL Pro Bowl or the NBA All Star game, it gave the organisers a chance to implement and test a set of new rules designed to make the game more appealing. Well, when I say appealing, I actually mean similar to American Football.

The big changes were to split the game into four quarters and the introduction of a power play opportunity after a try is scored. While the split into four quarters may also have been down to the fact the Gold Coast is one of the hottest places on earth in mid February. It also gave Channel Nine, the host broadcaster, a perfect chance for extra revenue through advertising.

I prefer to see rugby league split into two halfs, so with this in mind I would rather see the game be stopped for five minutes after a break in play mid way through the half for what can be called a 'water break'. It wouldn't be the first time this has happened in both the NRL or Super League. The game can then restart where it left off without a needless kick off to restart the half.

Secondly, I don't think the power play worked and showed to be another gimmick to draw in the fans.

The idea was that play restarted on a white circle 25 metres from the try line. The try scoring team had one play in an attempt to score another try. If play was interfered with a knock on, penalty to the defending side, an interception or a tackle then the game would be restarted with a kick off as usual. The attacking team were not allowed to kick the ball, which meant at one point the attacking team was forced back to almost their halfway line.

I think the biggest flaw in this was that too many players were on the field. Yes, the defending team were forced to lose their fullback to make it 13 v 12, but it really wasn't much of an advantage. The way it was played and the restarts made it look like a training session. This aspect of the game just didn't appeal to me.

I'm happy to see these new rules implemented in what is essentially an exhibition game, but under no circumstances should the rules be brought into the NRL competition and further the rule interpretations between Super League and the Australian game. With the build up to the 2013 World Cup beginning this week, its important that we build on the success of the 2008 tournament, and not lose the credibility of the game before a ball has been kicked.

Overall the quality of the All-Star game was impressive. For a game played in 30 degree heat at the peak of the Australian summer on the Gold Coast, it was a credit to see these men provide such quality entertainment in testing conditions.

Super League goes global, baby!

2010-02-08T22:44:00.000Z

The news that Super League is attracting record viewing and attendance figures is a very good sign that the sport has the potential to grow over the course of time. Lets not kid ourselves that we'll see RL on a par in the tabloids with football and RU in our lifetime, but steps are in place for the code to slowly become a truly national sport.

Attendance figures and viewing figures on TV are a small but significant sign that expansion is working. According to an article in this week's League Express, 350,000 watched Crusaders host Leeds and is one of the biggest audience figures for a rugby league game other than the Grand Final on Sky television.

And while we're on the topic of TV figures, the RFL have brokered a deal with America One, an American broadcast company that apparently covers the entire country. Their website can be found here and the eagle eyed of you will notice that the Super League is one of three sports advertised on the home page. For those following the game in America, tune in at 7pm eastern time every Thursday in an attempt to see the St Helens V Hull FC game! A week later, Castleford host Warrington at the same time.

This is only good news for the sport to attract itself to wealthy businessmen in the States that would be interested in investing in our sport, or even better, invest in the US domestic league which is still attempting to make itself a fully professional league.

Round one completed.

2010-02-08T22:23:00.002Z

Super dooper league is back in full swing.

There were some shocks in the first proper round of Super League to begin 2010. Castleford came from 10-6 behind at half time to leave the Champions pointless in the second half and go on to win 24-10. Leeds seem to be focusing on their World Club Challenge match against Melbourne as it is idiotic for any team to think that at 10-6 up they can waltz away with victory. The players are out to regain their world title crown and in doing so, they are sacrificing the opening league games in order to prepare for the big game. That said, look out Wakefield next week. You could be in for a bumpy ride with players to prove two weeks before the big day.

Huddersfield played very well against Bradford, in a game I was expecting Matt Orford and Heath L'Estrange to tear the Huddersfield defence in two. It does pile pressure on Steve McNamaram early in the season after a dire performance and dissatisfaction from the fans stretching as far back as 2008. Bradford play St Helens next week at Odsal. More on that game later in the week, which could spell the beginning of the end for one coach.

Wigan brushed Crusaders aside in a thrashing that will spell concern for Brian Noble. After a promising start, this defeat could be bump back to reality as it shows the club and playing staff will have to dig deep in order to gain lost respect this season.

Hull KR beat Salford comfortably at New Craven Park, while Wakefield just got past Catalan in a competitive eight point win against the French side, who were missing star-man Thomas Bosc. Warrington also put 58 points past Harlequins, who must be wondering what happened to them as they failed to score even a point leaving them bottom of the table at this early stage.

The game of the week was difficult to see, but that was mainly thanks to an awful lot of fog at Knowsley Road on Saturday night. However it was a pleasure to see Saints defeated so comfortably as the opening game went from bad to worse for last year's beaten grand finalists. Hull FC made the best of the awful conditions, and outplayed Saints in every department for over an hour. Mick Potter said after the match that his side didn;t make the most of their chances. The truth is, Saints didn't create any chances and sufferend in a humiliating defeat.

Pity nobody saw it.

Crusaders kickoff new era in style.

2010-02-01T00:28:00.001Z

Crusaders finally kicked off their new season in style and in front of over 10,000 people at the Racecourse Ground. That's 9,999 more people than what other critics claimed would be at the first match.

On a pitch covered in freshly fallen snow, the Crusaders battled hard for 65 minutes until Danny McGuire led the Leeds charges onto what was a harsh 34-6 scoreline for the brave Welsh side. If it hadn't been for glaringly obvious errors under no pressure, they might have pushed Leeds all the way. Scott Donald's try should have been safely collected by the winger, instead it went straight through his legs and allowed Donald to touchdown. There was also the kicking of Michael Witt, who guided the ball safely into touch on the full on two occasions when the Crusaders desperately needed field possession.

But overall it was a promising start to the night, which was obviously spoilt by weird refereeing decisions. Ali Lauititi's first try looked dodgy on a first glance, but his second was defiantly held up over the line and should not have been awarded. I can only presume Richard Silverwood was on Leeds -24 at William Hill, who knows?

What was even more exciting for me however, was the amount of people in the stands. Over 10,000 people watched the match in Wrexham, a figure that has kept all the anti-expansionists quiet for the time being. But if the club can so much as keep half that attendance and average 4-5,000 on a weekly basis, then it will have to be said that the move to Wrexham was the right one.

However there is a long way to go in the season, and there will be plenty more written about this topic before the seasons end.

Super League XV preview.

2010-02-01T00:11:00.002Z

Its that time of year again. The Super League season finally kicked off in Wrexham, the first time the season has kicked off outside of England since Paris St Germain did the honors in 1996, and I for one am looking forward to what must should be a ground breaking season in all three divisions of professional rugby league in the UK and France.

The focus off attention off the field will be on both the Crusaders RL (I'm still going to call them Celtic) and South Wales Scorpions (the scorpions bit wont be written ever again.) Both teams came under the spotlight after Celtic moved from their home in Bridgend to move to Newport, then without playing a game and in the space of a few weeks got sold off and moved up north to Wrexham to provide the football club with an extra source of income.

On the field its a case of somebody stopping Leeds making it four straight Super League titles, and becoming the most successful team to date in the Super League era. It'll be a tough ask for the remaining thirteen teams, as Leeds seem to be getting better on paper each year. They have made some enormous signings, and have a tendency to back up all the pre-season hype with some tremendous performances over the course of the season. The only domestic title eluding them is the Challenge Cup, which they haven't won since 1999 which non of the current Leeds squad.

St Helens will have every intention of avenging their previous three Grand Final defeats, and the signing of Sia Soliola will boost their chances of a fifth straight appearance at Old Trafford. But overall I feel the Leeds/Saints GF partnership will finally be broken in 2010 and its Saints that will break up the marriage. They didn't look the same team in 2009 under Mick Potter as his first year as head coach, and the old guard of Leon Pryce, Paul Wellens and Keiron Cunningham didn't look the same as they did in the three years before 2009. There wasn't the same spark or cohesion that Daniel Anderson managed to install into the side, and I think Saints' reign in the top two is coming to an end.

But who will replace them and challenge Leeds for the title? Wigan? Warrington? Hull KR? If I had five pounds, my bet for 2010 dark horse would be Catalan. They have signed some very useful talent to add to their already good side. The signing of the year would have to be Dallas Johnson. He will challenge Malcolm Alker for the most tackles in a season, as he regularly makes over forty tackles a game in the NRL and State of Origin. Throw in their other signing of former New Zealand centre Setaimata Sa and they have a side that can go one better in 2010. They're the type of side that could seriously give Warrington a run for the Challenge Cup come August.

Speaking of Warrington, they should also have high aspirations of challenging for Super League as well. The signings of fringe England players Richie Myler and Ryan Atkins shows that Warrington can attract not just older and experience talent, but they can attract and invest in the long term. Now they have achieved their goal of winning the Challenge Cup after seven years building the foundations, they can become another Leeds or Saints of 2006 two or three years from now. Looking towards the start of 2010, the added signing of David Solomona will give Warrington added bulk into their already strong looking pack of Adrian Morley, Paul Wood and Gareth Carvell. I expect them to make the top four along with Leeds, St Helens and Wigan.

Wigan have high expectations every year, and for the past five years have failed to achieve those ambitions. They are the most successful British club, and with such a tag the coaching job can be even harder than at any other club. In my opinion Brian Noble was unfairly treated last year, and his replacement, Michael Maguire, will have to be careful as to not upset the board behind the scenes. They have brought in Paul Deacon, no doubt as a master the the young apprentice called Sam Thomkins. They are always a threat and very intimidating, but they need to stop losing big matches in order for the glory to return to the cherry and white.

From Lancashire to Yorkshire, and as you cross the pennies on the M62 the first town you come to is Huddersfield. Under Nathan Brown last year they were sensational. Finished third in the regular season but just couldn't handle the pressure of a massive knock-out match. They lost the Challenge Cup final, and unexpectedly bowed out of the play offs early in week two to Catalan. This year they'll want to go one better, and they haven't recruited too badly in order to achieve that goal. Their star signing is David Fa'alogo, the former New Zealand and South Sydney player. They also welcome back Brad Drew, who carried Huddersfield to the play offs in 2007. After two years at Wakefield he has returned to see the town which gave birth to rugby league achieve more success. Except they won't make the top four having narrowly over achieved last year.

Further down the M62 you pass Bradford. Steve McNamara is standing tall after some major signings that easily could change the face of Super League. Considering they have been on the slide since Brian Noble left in 2006, they have attracted Matt Orford, Heath L'Estrange from Manly and Brett Kearney from Cronulla. L'Estrange will add a bit of aggression and bulk into the Bradford back row and is a direct replacement for Sam Burgess, while Orford in his prime was better than Paul Deacon ever will be. While I don't think you will see a better Matt Orford than when he was at Melbourne and his early career at Manly, but I do think he is more than capable of single handedly guiding McNamara's side into the top five or six.

Bradford to Wakefield is the route Terry Newton has travelled this winter, and I can't help but think it'll be business as usual for Wakefield this year. Last year they had two people to play for in Adam Watene and Leon Walker who both tragically died doing what they loved, and when I say business as usual, I mean they'll be struggling at the bottom half of the league. I do rate John Kear as a moderately successful coach, who has transformed countless clubs around with small finances. However their squad this year looks like a whos who of players past their prime and top four rejects. Only Danny Brough looks capable of shining, but he on his own can't transform Wakefield's woes this year.

Swiftly moving onto Castleford, and it'll be a similar story at Whelden Road. Terry Matterson has only brought in two players in Paul Jackson and Steve Snitch, who were average at best for Huddersfield and Wakefield respectively. Michael Shenton and Joe Westerman both need good years this year, as I though Westerman was a little too quiet for my liking and failed to get a game for England after such promise two years ago. Shenton on the other hand had a decent season, but is probably wasted in a team well below his standards.

Lingering below both those two sides will be the cockneys. Harlequins are often questioned along with Celtic as to why they are in Super League, never mind being in existence in the first place. Many people believe they bring nothing to the sport after thirty years, originating as Fulham and playing at Craven Cottage. I expect their performances to be a little below par this year yet again. They seem to have been struggling to attract any half decent players from up north, while focusing their attentions in developing players down south. While that's good for the longer term, short term their star signings for this season seem to be Ben Jones-Bishop, Oliver Wilkes and Andy Ellis. They won't improve under Brian McDermott, in fact they might be standing still if he is in charge for a few more years.

From one expansion club to another, and Crudaders/Celtic will have to do it even tougher this time round. I'd say there were a few more signings yet to come, and they have already played one game so need to get pen to paper pretty quickly. But there are promising signs. Their performance against Leeds was fairly good for an hour, while they do have promise in Michael Witt and experience in Gareth Raynor and Jamie Thackeray. It'll be interesting how they perform on and off the field, with a close eye on their attendances and marketing efforts to attract the nice folk from north Wales. If they can perform the way they did against Leeds for the rest of the season, they will give a few teams a mighty shock or two.

Salford promise progression and improvement every year, but I can't help but think they're on a hiding to nothing. While they did managed to beat more teams other than Celtic last year, they will do even better to move up a position in the league. An unlikely task in my opinion. They no longer have Richie Myler, but the progress of Stefan Ratchford should see him being touted as a future star, obviously not at Salford. They seem to be a dumping ground for fringe players in other teams to learn what Super League is like. Both Matty Smith and Steve Tyrer are on loan from St Helens and can't be far from pulling on that red vee shirt themselves. I'm fairly confident an academy side could beat their first team, and confidence is something Shaun McRae will have to be stocking up on to have any hope this season.

Last but by no means least, we have the two Hull teams. I'd like to end on a positive, so its best to start with Hull FC. Richard Agar is on his very last legs. If he can't get this side playing together then his time has to be up. However despite all the experience in Shaun Berrigan, Sean Long, Mark O'Meley and the one and only Craig Fitzgibbon, all of these players will soon be cashing in their pensions. It'll be difficult to keep these four players on the pitch at the same time without arthritis playing up on them. But in all seriousness, if Agar can pull them together and wrap the four older players in cotton wool on a weekly basis then they can make the top eight. It's fielding a consistent side every week that will be Agar's problem, and good luck to him because it's only a matter of time before he is out of the door.

Across the river Hull and we come to east Hull, twinned with Basra, Iraq. It's also the home to Hull KR who should be aiming to improve on 2009. In my opinion, they struggled to come to terms with their extra time loss to Warrington in the Challenge Cup, and lost the following five out of seven games. Other than that, it was a terrific season and one they can really bounce onwards from. They have kept all the key players that did so well for them this year in Shaun Briscoe, Michael Dobson, Ben Galea and Kris Welham. Justin Morgan is a great coach who has learnt a lot in a short space of time since joining the club from Toulouse in 2005 and would be my pick for the next England coach.

Finally here is how the league will look come September, if all is predicted well. Which it wasn't!

Leeds
Wigan
St Helens
Warrington
Catalan
Huddersfield
Hull KR
Bradford
Hull FC
Wakefield
Castleford
Harlequins
Salford
Crusaders RL

It just ain't rugby league...

2010-01-23T20:01:00.000Z

...without something going wrong.

Half a dozen Huddersfield players have been arrested and released on bail, on suspicion of rape during a pre-season tour.

Now personally I don't care anymore what NRL players get up to in their spare time, but these sort of incidents are usually left best to the experts in Australian rugby league. We don't need these sort of allegations in this country, where rugby league is promoted as a family sport. I'm not saying Australian players were necessarily involved in this specific incident, but after a year when Brett Stewart was accused and Matthew Johns lost his career as a broadcaster due to a similar accusation its vital the spread of off-field behavior doesn't reach these shores any time soon.

Pre season gets under way.

2010-01-17T20:19:00.000Z

There were plenty of games played today thanks to the usual climate conditions arriving back off holiday. It was nice to see some decent rugby being played as well, with some interesting scores to ponder before the season kicks off for real.

I went to the Leigh Sports Village to see the home team take on a full strength Warrington side, where Richie Myler scored four tries to make sure his team won 60-16. Elsewhere George Carmont scored in the last minute to deny Wakefield a win, resulting in Wigan's 40-38 victory. Huddersfield's academy side edged out Whitehaven at the Recreation Ground 22-24. Over at Humberside, Hull FC won 28-16 against their dear rivals from the east of the city, Hull KR. Salford thrashed Swinton 50-12 while Featherstone saw off Blackpool 20-10 at the newly named Bigfellas Stadium. Doesn't quite have the same ring as the Chris Moyles Stadium, does it?

These were just a few scores I was able to get hold of at this time. But at the end of the day I'm just glad rugby league is getting back into the swing of things ahead of the new season. Its been too long since England lost to Australia in Leeds. There are only twelve days until the start of the new season. I for one, cannot wait!

Team of the decade - centres

2010-01-15T15:37:00.000Z

Over the years there have been some amazing centres. Players who wow the crowd with dazzling side steps, outrageous back-door passes and often a short burst of speed. More importantly, a centre has to provide his winger with a large amount of quality ball and area for the winger to run in. He must draw both the opposition centre and winger to him in order for his winger to run through the space created.

Brent Tate
What can I say about Brent Tate that hasn't been said already? Even playing with a neck brace he is one of the best centres to have ever worn the green and gold, on 19 occasions since 2002. No matter what team he was playing for, his winger would always score tries and so would he. He has scored 47 of them in 141 NRL appearances. He started his career at Brisbane where he became a household name thanks to his performances that earned him a Queensland shirt. He made his début for Brisbane in round 21 of the 2001 season against Melbourne. That was one of three games he played that year. The following year he achieved his potential and was selected for both his state and his country. Injury has forced the 27 year-old out of the game for a long time in the past. Most noticeably was when he suffered a career threatening neck injury which resulted in the permanent use of a neck brace whilst playing the sport. Despite the injury, he was still selected for Australia and Queensland the following year, and despite further visits to the physio's room, he continues to be one of the best experienced players in the NRL.

Jamie Lyon
Life is never dull for Jamie Lyon. In 2000 he made his début for Parramatta against West Tigers. The following year he made a bigger impact on the competition, scoring 11 tries and was part of the squad that won the minor premiership, but lost the grand final to Newcastle. His performance for Australia in 2001 against Papua New Guinea earned him a plane ticket to Great Britain, in which Australia won the series 2-1. From there he earned State of Origin call ups in 2002 and 2003. In that time he won several club awards and was well on the way to becoming one of the best players in the game. That was until he suddenly quit Parramatta without warning, and went home. Despite his homesickness a year earlier, in 2005 Ian Millward convinced him to fly to England and play for St Helens. It worked wonders. He was instantly regarded as one of the best centres in the competition, scoring 39 tries in 59 league appearances. Despite not playing in the NRL, he earned selection for Australia in 2006 and played in their 23-12 defeat to Great Britain, the last player to play for Australia not in the NRL at the time. In 2007 he returned to Australia with Manly and immediately made an impact, guiding them to two consecutive grand finals in 2007 and 2008. After winning the grand final in 2008, Manly won the 2009 World Club Challenge.

Mark Gasnier
The nephew of the immortal Reg Gasnier, Mark Gasnier just about lived up to his uncle's legacy. He made his début against Newcastle at the turn of the millennium for St George Illawarra, and ended up playing 141 times for the red vee contingent. He was one of the popular player in Australia, and hardly ever got into trouble keeping his nose clean. His first appearance for New South Wales came in 2004 in which he scored two tries and one goal. From that moment on, he was a regular starting centre and scored two more tries in the 2005 series. I will never forget his final appearance for Australia in the Centenary Test in 2008. It was the perfect send off for a true modern rugby league great. His first try was a stunner, and came off a Jonathan Thurston kick, and a Greg Inglis catch and throw over the head for Gasnier to touch down. A remarkable player.

Shontayne Hape
Along with Lesley Vainikolo, he formed one of the most devastating left flanks in Super League history. While his team mate scored 135 tries, Hape himself was scored 76 tries meaning the total partnership scored 211tries combined. He started his career at Aukland where for three seasons he only managed to appear 28 times. In that time though he scored seven tries, his first two coming against Canterbury Bulldogs in 2000. He only playing one game for the New Zealand based side in 2002 before moving to link up with Vainikolo a year later.

The right centre for the Team of the Decade is Brent Tate, while the left centre is Shontayne Hape.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

2010-01-06T15:15:00.000Z

Recently there was an opportunity given to me to write a 600 word article for the Leigh V Warrington match day programme. They were asking for fans to write about any rugby league related topic and I got given the task. Unfortunately after Leigh's home friendly to Salford got cancelled again, the club has decided to recycle that programme with a few minor changes so it can be sold to us on the 17th January. Anyway instead of letting that article go to waste, I thought I'd publish it on here instead. Enjoy!

If you reading this it must mean that the match has been given the all clear, and the powers that be have put the UK back outside the Arctic Circle. That’s a good thing from a Warrington point of view, as this is our first pre-season game before the start of the season. We will need to be at the top of our game if we are to defeat Harlequins in round one, as their round three fixture against Wakefield is being brought forward three weeks so they can play Melbourne Storm a week before the World Club Challenge.

It appears this has been the worst winter for some time. We have had sub zero temperatures, 11 inches of snow and we’ve had to put up with Rage against the Machine being the Christmas number one. Rugby League has been affected too, with countless matches for both amateur and professional teams being postponed due to the adverse weather conditions. The entire amateur programme was postponed the weekend before Christmas due to the frost, while two of the three county cups were originally postponed the day after Boxing Day. The entire Challenge Cup programme fell foul of the weather as we welcomed in 2010, while very few scheduled games went ahead elsewhere across the country. Warrington’s pre-season plans have already gone pear shaped after our extravagantly titled ‘World of Beds Cup’ match against Widnes was cancelled on two occasions leaving us with one less game to give the reserve side, plus a few familiar faces, a decent run out. Alas, it would have been nice to celebrate another cup win.

Of course we are not alone in cancelling fixtures. The not-so-friendly friendly between St Helens and Wigan was called off along with what would have been Salford’s visit to this wonderful new stadium. Amazingly there were some friendly matches played over the festive period, all of which seem to have been played in Yorkshire. In all honesty I would have thought that would be the first place to call a game off in the middle of winter, considering I have seen it snow at Belle Vue in the middle of April. Leeds and Wakefield managed to play their Boxing Day contest on the same day Dewsbury and Batley gave their pitch the all clear. The following day York City Knights played against a York Select XIII consisting from players from the local amateur teams. But overall the amount of games called of due to the weather has been alarming this year, and begs the question why the RFL insist on starting the season earlier and earlier each year.

Gone are the days in the summer era of rugby league when the Challenge Cup would signal the start of the season before the league kicked off a week later. The season is starting earlier each year, with Celtic hosting Leeds two weeks after this game in Super League, while the Northern Rail Cup commences with Leigh travelling to York on the 31st January. For me growing up in the nineties and remembering very little before Super League, it was all part of the romance of the Challenge Cup that the season would often start with the fourth round tie. It meant spring was just around the corner and the start of another rollercoaster season was waiting for us after several months without rugby. Of course it wasn’t so romantic if you drew Barrow away only to find there was more water floating down the main road than there was in Morecambe Bay during a heavy spell of rain. Summer rugby, eh?

Team of the decade - winger

2010-01-04T23:49:00.000Z

It appears the attributes and requirements of a winger have grown in recent years. There is no longer a small speedy winger in the modern game who can handle the rough and tough of the middle of the field, as as a result the species that brought us Martin Offiah, Brian Bevan and Jason Robinson are a dying breed. Warrington's Kevin Penny is the last player who earned his first team selection based on speed alone, and while it proved successful early in the young lad's career, he was vulnerable to many aspects of the game and his weaknesses were quickly exploited.

Today, fast paced and speedy wingers are no long an necessity. But they must be successful finishers, calm under pressure, but they must still possess that little bit of pace and acceleration to get past the defence. Just a bit. They must also be build so they can handle the physicality of the modern day game, therefore reducing their speed, but becoming effective in brushing aside the defence.

Ade Gardner
From 2002 Ade Gardner has always been a thorn in the teams playing against St Helens. He scored 114 tries for Saints in Super League and became one of the most respected players in the game. It took him four years to make the Great Britain team making his début in the 2006 international at Knowsley Road against New Zealand in which Great Britain were victorious 46-14. His last international appearance was, ironically, against the Kiwis in the 2008 World Cup, who would later become world champions a week later. But Gardner had already become a world champion himself by this point, playing in St Helens' 18-14 win over Brisbane in the World Club Challenge in which he scored two tries down the right wing. Sadly we may have seen Gardner at his peak in 2006, but during that time he was an effective and dangerous winger.

Brian Carney
There are not too many players who can say they are born and raised in the land of shamrocks and Guinness. Without a doubt Brian Carney is the best player ever to have come out of Ireland, and arguably he is one of the best wingers in the past decade. In his first season of NRL rugby league, he was voted the Dally M Winger of the Year in 2007 after a successful season with Newcastle, a year before he was due to play for the Gold Coast. He was scouted for Gateshead after playing for Dublin Blues RLFC and eventually signed for Wigan where he made his mark on Super League. In 14 appearances for Great Britain he scored eight tries, his last coming in the 2005 Tri Nations against Australia in Hull. But after his successful year in the NRL he made his retirement from both codes of rugby to concentrate on his family life. He later returned rugby union playing for Munster, but was later signed up for the remainder of the 2009 Super League season with Warrington. In four appearances he scored two tries, showing that at the age of 32 he was still capable of performing at a respectable standard. He career at Warrington was short lived after breaking his arm against Leeds, effectively ending his time on a rugby pitch.

Darren Albert
He was once tagged the fastest man in Super League after he won a charity foot race in 2004, and it was very hard to catch him with a ball in hand. In his four seasons at St Helens he helped them to one Challenge Cup win over Wigan as well as a Super League title. Beforehand he played for Newcastle in Australia (at which time was in the middle of the Super League war.) His début in 1996 was against Western Reds in Perth, and in which he scored a try. A year later he would go onto scoring one of the most memorable try in Australian rugby league history in a thrilling ARL Grand Final at the Sydney Football Stadium against Manly. If stats and figures are to be believed, he scored 77 tried in both Australia (ARL and NRL competitions for Newcastle and Cronulla) and Super League in the UK, totalling 154 tries in 217 apperances at first grade level. He showed pace and speed, but also the strength to compete in the middle of the field with the props when he was needed. He was a superb player, and it was great injustice he only ever played one game for New South Wales.

Hazem El Masri
One of the all time great players of rugby league. He broke and achieved a number of records in his career, including the all-time highest NRL career point scoring record scoring 2,418, he achieved 300 career apperances playing for the Bulldogs as well as the most points in a season of the NRL with 342. On top of that, he scored 160 tries at first grade level making him one of the most individual successful players to have played the game. During his time at Canterbury, he was part of a winning NRL Premiership side that defeated Sydney in 2004. El Masri retired after the 2009 season as the best point scoring player of all time against Parramatta in the preliminary finals, but will remain a memorable figure in the game for some time.

Jason Robinson
Jason Robinson left Wigan at the end of the 2000 season, so just about manages to become a nominee for this team of the decade. But before that, he was one of the best three quarters Great Britain had in their attacking arsenal. He had a quick side step and footwork a lot better any I have seen since. And his pace and speed was phenomenal. Eventually he left Wigan and transferred to the dark side of rugby union, where he made a very successful career out of playing that sport playing for England 51 times and the British Lions five times. But in rugby league, he started life at Hunslet before moving to Wigan in 1992 where he would appear for them 286 times and score over 600 points. Between 1993 and 1999 he went on to earn 12 Great Britain caps. A little unknown fact is he is the last person to score a try in a RU world cup final in 2003, as the 2007 final consisted of seven penalty goal kicks.

Lesley Vainikolo
Judging from the size of this bloke, you would never have guessed he played on the wing. But that is exactly what he did, and he did it with style. Along with his team mate, Shontayne Hape, he was part of a devastating left flank Bradford side that made four consecutive Super League Grand Final apperances winning two of them in 2003 and 2005. (Bradford won the 2001 final, but Vainikolo had not signed for Bradford by that point.) He caught the eye of Brian Noble playing for Canberra in which he scored 35 tries in the NRL between 1998 and 2001. This led to the nickname of The Volcano, christened to him by Peter Sterling. Once he settled into English life, he became a force to be reckoned with. He went onto score 135 tries in 136 apperances for Bradford in Super League, once scoring six tries in one match against Hull FC in 2005. A record that has not yet been broken. He left in 2007 to play rugby union for Gloucester but will always be remember for his trail blazing runs down the left flank at Odsal.

Martin Offiah
Martin Offiah left Salford in 2000 after 41 apperances for the club to join rugby union, a place where it seems many a great league winger goes off to collect their pension. He is a Londoner and one of the greatest wingers of all time. He made his name in the 1990s playing for Widnes, Wigan, St George, Eastern Suberbs and London. He scored 501 career tries playng in the UK and Australia, second to Brian Bevan.

For the team of the decade, on the right wing is Brian Carney and on the left wing is Lesley Vainikolo.

Steve Prescott MBE

2010-01-04T02:39:00.000Z

A huge congratulations must go to Steve Prescott for being honoured in the Queen's new year's honours list. Steve will be awarded an MBE for services to rugby league and charity.

Steve played for St Helens, Wakefield and Hull FC but was diagnosed with a rare form of stomach cancer in 2006 and given 12 months to live. Four years later, he is still going strong and has raised thousands of pounds for both The Christie Cancer Hospital and the Rugby League Benevelant Fund, which helps sick and injured rugby league players, via the Steve Prescott Foundation.

Visit www.steveprescottfoundation.co.uk for more information.

From A Tap on the Twenty, we would like to congratulate Steve and his helpers and wish him every success with future charitable events.

Team of the decade - Fullback.

2009-12-24T00:00:00.000Z

Ah, the fullback. The first man on the team sheet every single week. But who would you give the number one shirt to, and why? What are the qualities of a rugby league fullback?

The modern fullback's minimum requirement is to begin the counter attack upon receiving the ball from the opposition's kick down field. They obviously need a good set of ball handling skills in order to not drop the high ball. He is also the last line of defence, meaning once the opposition get past this fellow, you've had it so a good tackler is essential. But what makes a great fullback is the way they perform their minimum requirements as perfect as possible, as well as their attacking qualities adding more options to the attacking structure for the half backs to use. The full back can slot into any side of the attacking line next to the second rowers and the centres, so they act as extra option runners or carriers. In effect, the defence can be playing against five three-quarters (If that makes any sense.)

Below are A Tap on the Twenty's four nominees for fullback of the decade, who all possess the key skills to becoming an excellent fullback.

Anthony Minichello
Minichello was one of the reasons I used to like watching Sydney when I was younger. He is always in support of his line breaking team mates and has scored 89 tries in 181 NRL appearances because of his ability to back up the runner. His hard work failed to go unnoticed having represented his country 18 times in test matches, with a further nine tries to his name. His début against Canterbury in 2000 saw him play on the wing for the first few seasons, but the retirement of Luke Phillips in 2003 sparked a career that also saw him represent New South Wales nine time scoring six tries in the position of fullback. Thankfully for Sydney, he has saved that team more tries than they care to think. But despite a reoccuring back injury in recent seasons, he has always been a real asset to the club and a local hero being part of a team that saw him win the NRL in 2002 and become grand finalists in 2000, 2003 and 2004.

Billy Slater
Easily the best fullback in the game currently. Unfortunately for this exercise it does not automatically qualify him for that imaginary fullback spot when you consider half the nominees either are retired or play elsewhere on a more regular basis. Slater is one of the more acrobatic players in the game. Cameron Smith's try is a perfect example of that, when it was Slater who knocked the ball away from the dead ball line for Smith to score. Slater is also one of the few players who catches the ball on the full every single time it is kicked towards him. It was a real pain to see Eastmond's or Thomkins' kicks go straight to Slater every time. Since 2003 when made his début against Cronulla at centre, he was quickly moved to fullback after seven games and has since set the world alight with his brilliance.

Darren Lockyer
Darren Lockyer spent the early part of his career playing at five-eighth (stand off for us English folk.) This was at the early stage of his playing days at Brisbane in which he spent a lot of time coming off the bench from 1995 until 1997. From that point on he was a fullback, and a fine one too. He later went back to five-eighth at a later stage, but for now we will discuss his performances wearing the number one shirt. He was such a brilliant fullback that when Wayne Bennett moved him to five-eighth, I immediately cast doubt over his selection on the hypothesis that it seemed silly moving a player who has done so well at fullback playing for both his state and country in the number one shirt, to the number six shirt. But as the last line of defence, he was excellent. But he wasn't as flashy as Billy Slater. but equally effective. He would always find the extra yards to begin the counter attack that no other player at the time could. He didn't waste time letting the ball bounce either. He would collect it either on the full, or on the half volley. He always had his body in the right position to collect the kick without wasting chasing it down. A brilliant fullback in his day.

Kris Radlinski
Arguably the best British fullback since Jim Sullivan in the 1920s. Radlinski is of Polish decent, but was born and grew up in Wigan for whom he played 332 games for. His international debut came in 1995 for England, and made the Great Britain side a year later. Despite retiring and making a comback, his finest hour was during the 2002 Challenge Cup final, in which he won the Lance Todd Trophy award for his man of the match performance. I'll always remember his tackle on Tim Jonkers ten minutes into the final, when despite being in hospital all week he was passed fit, he managed to prevent what would otherwise have been a certain try for Saints. In his career he played for Lancashire as well, but always gave 100% for whatever side he represented. He demonstrated a brilliant attacking flaire, earning himself 183 tries for Wigan, but only two in an eight year stint playing for GB.

The 2000s fullback of the decade is Anthony Minichello.

Team of the decade - 2000s.

2009-12-23T00:00:00.003Z

A post on the ever popular Rlfans.com forum on the Warrington board recently posted asked fans to name their team of the decade. Listed were some brilliant forgotten names such as Allan Langer, Danny Farrah, Allan Hunte, Darren Burns and Tawera Nikau. As a Warrington fan myself (I make no secret about it) I couldn't resist a stab at my own Warrington XIII over the past ten years. Below is my selection.

Allan Hunte
Henry fa'afili
Martin Gleeson
Toa Koe Love
Brent Grose
Lee Briers
Allan Langer
Adrian Morley
Danny Farrah
Paul Rauhihi
Logan Swann
Ben Westwood
Tawera Nikau

But then it got me thinking on a wider scale. What would be the team of the decade with regards to the rest of Super League? Even better, what would it be with regards to the rest of the world. On the face of it, it seems an easy task to name 13 players who have amazed, shocked and played outstanding rugby within the last ten year. But it isn't. The scrum half position alone has some wonderful nominees who could be placed there. Andrew Johns, Jonathan Thurston and Stacey Jones to name just three players. There are many more who could be worthy to wear that fictional number seven shirt.

So lets begin at having a stab at it shall we? Over the Christmas and New Year period I shall try to name thirteen of the best payers over the past ten years, starting with the fullback. Below are a list of rules that are being abided to with regards to selection.

A player can be nominated as many times as possible for different positions, but in the opinion of the editor (me) they must have played a significant part of their playing career in that position and not just the odd couple of games.
Players can only feature in the final team once and not in multiple positions, despite being able to be nominated in many.
There is no minimum or maximum number of nominees to each position. If a player is worthy of consideration in any given position, he will be nominated.

Independent commission taking its bloody time.

2009-12-19T19:28:00.000Z

Ever since Rupert Murdoch put his nose into the Australian game, things seem to have gone badly for the sport overall. News Ltd's interest in the sport sparked the Super League War, crippling the game in Australia and internationally setting it back years behind other sports such as the AFL and rugby union. While Super League and BSkyB's money on the other side of the world proved to be the ressurection what the game and the RFL needed, Super League has been a dirty word down under for the past twelve years. Many Australian fans feel News Ltd took their game away from them. A game based on community values, friendship and raw emotion.

Now after twelve years, News Ltd are willing to do some good for the game and sell their 50% share of the NRL providing the ARL sell their share. As a result a new independent commission is being set up (ironically with David Gallop and Colin Love at the head of it) to repesent the views of all 16 NRL clubs. The ARL is to be wound up and the money News earn from the deal will be pumped back into the game via the media conglomerate's own club, Melbourne Storm.

So finally it seems the game will be handed back to the clubs. The fans can happily wave goodbye to Murdoch and Co, while the clubs get to elect independent representitives to oversea the running of the game on a fair basis. Except, thats not whats happening.

The clubs want a bigger say in the way the profits are split, while ARL are being fussy over nominating two candidates for the new eight man commission. The way I see it, (and read carefully because this gets tricky) they want nominees from the New South Wales Rugby League and Queensland Rugby League and are rejecting News' offer. As a result, the 16 clubs are threatening to walk away from the NRL and set up Rugby League Australia unless the new commission is set up.

This is a blatent example of the way administrators shoot themselves in the foot. A good offer comes along that will eventually see the game being run effectivly for the first time in 115 years and our origina governing body throws out their dummy. No wonder the game is behind AFL and football. What is concerning is the proposed split that could happen on the 18th January next year. It would be the ikin to the Super League War, but with all 16 clubs walking away instead of oly half of them.

All the ARL have to do is nominate two candidates to sit on this new commission. Any two businessmen, or any two human beings. Hell, I'll do if they like. The last thing rugby league needs is another split twelve years after the last one (which may not happen until at least 2013 making it 16 years) and become further behind the AFL whilst it has to rebuild itself again. Its not fair on the players and its even more unfair on the fans who have had to put up with a lot over the last two decades.

Celtic move north.

2009-12-18T18:21:00.000Z

Celtic Crusaders have dropped the 'Celtic' from their name and renamed themselves Crusaders RL. It was part of a rebranding exersise that has ended up with the club moving away from Bridgend, moving away from Newport and finally they are settled in Wrexham. Wrexham just so happens to be on the other side of Wales nearer to Rhyl and Colwyn Bay for those who don't know. Its much further away from Cardiff and Swansea in between which the club was originally formed and based.

So why has the club been relocated? Money!

Leighton Samuel has screwed over the town of Bridgend twice now, having owned the original rugby union club until it went bust and Samuel switched codes. But while crys of outrage are heard from Widnes to Halifax and the RFL is slammed for not stepping in and saving the club from embraressment, (which if they had done, the flat-cappers against expansion would be waving their whippets and setting the dogs loose on Red Hall) the deal brokered between Wrexham FC and Mr Samuel has seen the club based in another area of untapped talent and is still classed as an expansion club despite only being 30 miles away from Widnes.

But the club wasn't bought by its new owners to spread the gospel of RL. It was bought to save the struggling Wrexham FC. The statement from the Wrexham chairman went something along the lines of, they couldn't afford to run the football club with only a few thousand turning up each week. He was talking of figures similar to when Celtic were based in Bridgend, averaging 3,000. In fact if you want to be more specific, in Bridgend last season Celtic averaged 3,500. Wrexham have so far in the 2009/10 season averaged 3,200. Considering it would take less time for the majority of teams and fans to travel toWrexham than Bridgend, the new owners must be banking on a lot of away support to raise revenue. I dread to think if the likes of Saints, Wigan and Warrington were to outnumber the home fans whilst invading Wrexham.

But South Wales has not been forgotten in all this. While Super League may be moving up north in the valleys, South Wales RLFC will step into Celtic's old shoes and be based in Neath. The newly formed club will be overseen by a Welsh businessmen, but will consist of board members from Wales Rugby League governing body. They have been admitted into the Championship 1 for the 2010 season, but will not compete in either the Challenge Cup or Northern Rail Cup for this season at least.

It appears they will act as a feeder club to the Crusaders Super League team for the time being, and in my opinion they should not be rushed into applying for a Super league lisence. While it would be nice to see a south Wales side in SL again, they need to develop a bigger fan base than what Celtic did for them not to be forced from their home or go financially broke. An increase in amateur players in the RLC and schools competing in the Champion Schools proves there is an appetite for rugby league in south Wales, and if Crusaders can spread the game like they did in Bridgend and the rest of south Wales then I'm sure Wales can eventually become familiar with rugby league in the end.

A Tap on the Twenty awards 2009.

2009-11-20T21:23:00.000Z

And so once again another season comes to a close. 2009 has seen us witness some great rugby league, although I feel us pommies were let down by Setanta Sports with the lack of NRL coverage resulting in the Irish company's demise in the UK. However, Super League has provided some wonderful talking points, a few of which will be discussed and reviewd at a later date.

So for now it is time for the second annual A Tap on the Twenty awards. These awards range from the absurd to praising the achievements to these hardened warriors in our own special way. Either way, they still have more credability than the Golden Boot award.

Below are the official awards for 2009.

The unofficial 'Stuard Fielden Award in Extreme Incompetence': Setanta Sports
Chocker of the Year: St George Illawarra
Try of the Year: Cameron Smith V England (Novemeber 2009)
Match of the Year: Australia V New Zealand (Four Nations, week one)
Special Mention Award: Jarryd Hayne (Parramatta, New South Wales & Australia)
Team of the Year: Parramatta
Player of the Year: Brett Hodgson (Huddersfield)

News on the Challenge Cup.

2009-11-20T13:14:00.000Z

A lot has been made so far of the removal and inclusion of certain sporting events that have been reccommended to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. England cricket home tests have been included on the recommended list of protected sports for free-to-air viewing, while The Derby and our own Challenge Cup final have been removed.

If this list is approved, then that does not mean that the BBC will drop its coverage, it simply means that when the next TV deal is negociated, Sky, ESPN or any other cable or sattillite broadcaster can bid for live coverage of the final. The other preceding rounds are not already protected anyway.

The inclusion of the Ashes and other home tests has infuriated the England and Wales Cricket Board, and they have spoken against the proposed list. Their reason is that they will lose a lot of money they are relying of Sky for their money from broadcast rights. If Channel 4 or the BBC for example, bid for the rights they are afraid they will not get enough money to fund their grassroots programmes.

from a rugby league point of view, Sky don't need to bid for the Challenge Cup rights. Thery are a profit making organisation and make most of their money from selling TV boxsets. In purchasing exclusive TV rights for Super League and Championship games, they already have every rugby league supporter who can afford Sky or cable television. As an expansionist myself, its important to have the Challenge Cup on free-to-air TV to show the rest of the country what a wonderful game rugby league is. We have the best of both worlds currently in that the BBC will show the Challenge Cup nationally and spreading the game nationawide, and we get Sky's money for Super League.

Anybody who says that Sky must have the Challenge Cup broadcast rights is dillusional.

England 16-46 Australia - Four Nations final.

2009-11-15T22:00:00.000Z

It has been 37 years since an English/Great Britain side defeated Australia in a test series. After last Saturday's defeat in Leeds, England will have to wait another year at least until they can have another chance to defeat the old enemy from down under.

Leaving Leeds there was a mixed feeling of emotion. On the one hand, for 60 minutes we played like marines. We were able to match Australia in every department. Our backs looked capable of handing the 'superstars' of Greg Inglis, Jarryd Hayne and Darren Lockyer. Even Kyle Eastmond's kicking game made Billy Slater look average at fullback. Then the tide turned against us.

Both teams were constantly trading scores and handing each other the lead for an hour. Sam Burgess' first try showed why South Sydney are signing him up. He was able to dummy both Petro Civoniceva and BILLY SLATER! Even with Eastmond on his side, it was a brilliant try worthy of any future star in the NRL. England piled on the pressure in the ten minutes. When England were on the Australian line again, James Graham's offload found Jonathan Thurston who immediately started the counter attack. Brett Morris finished off the resulting set in the corner.

Peter Fox scored a sensational try from Eastmond's kick which was expected to fall straight into the hands of Jarryd Hayne. Fantastic Mr. Fox outjumped the Dally M Medal winner, who has had an extremely quiet tournament not really living up to the hype generated in Australia.

Australia scored a again with arguably a very contencious try while Jonathan Thurston added a penalty goal just befire half time to take the game into half time 14-10 to the Australians. England were not out of this game yet. They had matched the Australian pack and threatened to tear apart their superstar back line. And things looked promising when Sam Burgess crossed for his second try to edge the hosts into the lead. But then the floodgates opened and Austrlian showed what they have been threatening to do all tournament, but had never achieved. They started to play to their real potential. And boy was it a pleasure to watch.

It was disappointing that England couldn't match the Australian level of fitness and skill. They had tried so hard for 60 minutes and done so well over the past 180 minutes leading up to the Aussie torchure that you couldn't help feel sorry for Burgess, Peacock and Smith at the end of the day.

Australia dominated with a couple of spectacular tries, and some shockers that england should have dealt with. Cameron Smith's try stands out when Billy Slater knocked the ball back allowing Smith to pounce on it. Slater's own try in the corner was demoralising. After some superb scrambling defence on England's line to prevent one try, Slater dived in over from dummy half less than one metre out for a disappointing try to concede.

But at the end of the day, Australia have redeemed themselves after losing the World Cup. They have been the best side in the tournament on the basis they didn't lose a match in the tournament. But they will know themselves that they could have performed better over the course of the four games. They didn't really get out of second gear for a large proportion of the tournament, excelling against England for a grand total of 60 minutes over the two games, and they got out of jail against New Zealand in London during their first game of the tournament. Against France, they were outperformed in the first half, despite fielding a weakened side. But in the second half they stepped up several levels and put France to the sword.

Like I said, deserving winners, but an Australian side at full strength and in top gear will be one that can enilate any team on the planet.

Four Nations final - England V Australia.

2009-11-13T17:26:00.001Z

"Kyle, who?"

That was Jonathan Thurston's reponse when asked by an in-house journalist if he felt intimidated by Sam Thomkins and Kyle Eastmond before the big show down at Elland Road tomorrow evening. After last week's England performance against New Zealand, this comment will only add to the fire burning within the host's camp and bring the squad together as a group. Ultimatly, its a good thing.

In my opinion, tomorrow will see England be provided with their best chance of winning a test series against Australia since Great Britain's chance against a depleated Australian squad in 2003. Australia look a shadow of their former selves and have failed to get out of second gear on a consistant basis throught the tournament. They scraped a draw against the world champions, they sat back in the second half against England at Wigan, and for half an hour France were the better side last week. Its a worry for Tim Sheens who would have been expected to insert some pride into the green and gold jersey after Ricky Stuart lost the world cup last year.

Looking at the team line ups, England remain unchanged from their 20-12 defeat of New Zealand last week, while Australia bring back two familiar names in Billy Slater and Cameron Smith from the France game replacing Kurt Gidley and Robbie Farrah but with the former being named in the 19-man squad. John Morris misses out in favour of Greg Inglis but only the back row has been changed in the starting 13 from the one that faced England two weeks ago. Luke Lewis replaces Anthony Watmough.

And now for the tired old preview that was issued out this time two weeks ago. England CAN beat Australia if the forwards perform. And for forty minutes in Wigan the English forwards did just that. It was the first half which let the side down massivley. With no Lee Smith or Tom Briscoe on an exposed right wing, the figures of Peter Fox and Chris Bridge provide some defensive stability to stop Greg Inglis and that left win threat in green and gold.

With Australia having not convincingly performed on a consistant basis all tournament, England will not have a better chance to beat the old enemy for the first time in 37 years.

Picture: Uploaded from Wikipedia.org. Contact author if your copyright has been affected.

England through to Four Nations final with Australia.

2009-11-10T21:23:00.000Z

England and Australia both qualified for the Four Nations final with successful defeats of both New Zealand and Australia respectivly.

France 4-42 Australia
Australia were pretty much assured of a final apperance despite having still not mathematically qualified beforehand. Only an enormous upset from the French and an unpredicted England win over New Zealand could have stopped them from appering at Leeds. But the Morris twins made sure Australia had the chance to avenge their world cup defeat with two tries apiece along with contributions from hat-traick hero Michael Jennings, and Penrith's Luke Lewis.
But Australia still failed to get out of second gear making their consistancy a real worry for Tim Sheens going into the final showdown. The French showed the same grit and determination they had displayed throughout this tournament in the first half, but eventually collapsing due to the fast paced nature of the Australian's, who lead only 8-0 at half time. It was arguably one of the worst Australian performances I have seen in the first fourty minutes despite the lack of big named Aussies in the starting seventeen.

It wasn't a full strength Australian side that stepped onto the field where Super League began all those years ago, but not many players would have made an impression on the coaching staff as Australia were allowed to be dominated by Bobbie Goulding's French side, who have clearly been given a new breath of fresh air by the former Great Britain scrum half after their dismal apperance in the world cup. France can look forward to a bright future with Goulding at the helm. He has installed some disipline and patriotism into the squad and they look like a future threat to any of the 'big three' in future years.

Australia meanwhile must live up to their pre-tournament hype and become the team that threatened to brush aside the competition.

England 20-12 New Zealand
England were quite good against the current world champions.

Now there's a sentence I didn't think I would be writing this time last week. England looked like a side capable of actually competing with the best in the world. With Kevin Sinfield at hooker and the inclusion of both Peter Fox and Chris Bridge, they looked solid in defence and showed an attacking flair that had been missing up until that point. Even the troublesome half back combinations seemed to work in Sam Thomkins playing in his usual scrum half role, with the usually unimpressive Kyle Eastmond making an impressive performance.

In defence, England prevented New Zealand, and when I say New Zealand I mean Benji Marshall, from making as many yards and closed them down quickly when they looked like creating half a chance. Jamie Peacock still looked unimpressive out of position in the back row, but Morley, Burgess and Graham made up for him in the prop forwards.

England did exactly what they've been doing all tournament. They played no different to how they performed against Australia the week before in the second half, but this time it was done for 80 minutes and the tactics worked. This shows that England can win this tournament if they play in the same manner and style as they have done for the last 120 minutes of rugby.

Get Leon Williamson to referee in Super League.

2009-11-08T17:25:00.000Z

What a refreshing change to the standard of refereeing we have seen during the international season this year.

New Zealand referee, Leon Williamson, has shown that there are consistantly good referees out there in the world. He has shown in his performance that he has the testicles to make the big calls without the need for video technology for every decision. He showed Jean-Phillipe Baile the red card for an awful stiff arm tackle on Richie Myler when England hosted France in this year's Four Nations opener. He sin binned four players in Scotland's European Cup game against Lebanon. Two players were sent to the sideline for persistant lying on at the play the ball after several warnings, and two for violent conduct.

We have also seen that he can use the 'on report' system the way it was meant to be used, and not as a cop out so the referee can't be blamed for changing the game. David Ferriol was placed on report and eventually banned for a sly elbow to Kevin Sinfield's face away from the view of the referee and Liam Ayoub of Lebanon was put on report for the same offence.

He has the ability to control the big international teams, having refereed both Australia and England despite having never been a senior ref in either Super League or the NRL. His performance yesterday during the France V Australia game showed he is not out of his depth, and as a neutral neutral referee would be the perfect candidate to control the Four Nations final next week.

However, Australia refused both his and French referee Thiery Alibert's services for the England game in Wigan on the grounds that "neither are full-time referees." Englishman Steve Ganson stepped in, but I can't help but assume that this time Shane Hayne will step out onto Elland Road regardless of the fact he is Australian. Its a kick in the teeth for those who believe in the international game and want to see it expand. One factor is the use of neutral referees in all international games that will give the game credability internationally, but this is being handicapped by Australian officials who insist on using referees who they claim to be full-time.

Which is why, if its possible, the RFL should bring Leon Williamson to Super League and become a full-time official. He could fill the remaining gap left after Ashley Klein's departure from this country and the increase of Super League teams from 12 to 14. He would arguably be the most consistent in Super League based on his performance in the Four Nations.

England fightback too late against Australia.

2009-10-31T19:45:00.000Z

England 16-26 Australia
It wasn't pretty was it?

To summarise the first half from and England perspective, it was nothing short of abysmal. Poor defence, poor organisation and a one dimensional attack thanks to a lack of organisation from both Danny McGuire and Sam Thomkins.

Greg Inglis consistently ran through the England right wing like a knife through butter. Tim Sheens used the obvious tactic and targeted Tom Briscoe on that right hand side, taking advantage of Briscoe's lack of experience. They did it by streaching the England defence, and it looked like they were able to do it on any area of the pitch.

Billy Slater scored what I would consider the try of the game. From a play the ball on the Australian right side,Cameron Smith passed what the players call an 'X ball' (where the recieving player runs behind an option runner, but its timed so to not obstruct the defence) to Thurston, who did the same to Lockyer, who did the same to Slater to score in the other corner.

Once the floodgates opened early on, it looked like Australia would repeat their 52-4 mauling of England in Melbourne last year. Thankfully, Australia decided not to to enflict their wrath and the second half reflected that.

The million pound question has to be, did Australia take their foot off the gas or did England actually play some decent rugby in the second half?

The second half allowed England to throw the ball around a bit more. They were able to get into their opponents half, which Australia prevented in the first half. Eorl Crabtree put his hand up and showed he is a good prop after all, out playing both Adrian Morley and the out of position Jamie Peacock.

Sam Burgess, the worst England forward on the pitch in the first half, improved his work rate and ultimatly scored his try before he deserved it. But it lifted the spirits of both the England players and the fans.

Even Thomkins showed a spark of cretivity and doubled a one dimenstional attack with the help of Kevin Sinfield, and Kyle Eastmond later in the game. Although he didn't have the perfect game. His execution was too slow against the fast paced Australian defence, which meant most of the time he was forced to take the tackle which lost momentum for the English side.

As for McGuire, it was ironic when he was finally taken off that so many fans jeered the Leeds stand off. He didn't show any enthusiasm and looked like he didn't know what he was doing most of the time.

So where now for England?

I firmly believe if the second English side turn up to Huddersfield to face New Zealand on next week. If England can throw the ball around a bit and the halfs are given the space to move around, then England can defeat New Zealand and secure their place in the final at Leeds.

The New Zealand side, whilst good, are very young and may suffer from jet lag and the amount of travelling they will have to face. They looked bery dodgey in the first half against France and looked very exposed.

Its do or die for both England and Tony Smith.

Four Nations preview - England V Australia.

2009-10-29T15:26:00.000Z

The England line up for their match against Australia is as follows.

Shaun Briscoe
Tom Briscoe
Lee Smith
Michael Shenton
Ryan Hall
Danny McGuire
Sam Thomkins
Adrian Morley
James Roby
James Graham
Gareth Ellis
Jamie Peacock
Kevin Sinfield

Sam Burgess
Eorl Crabtree
Kyle Eastmond
Ben Westwood

Compare that to the Australian team that line up as follows;

Billy Slater
Brett Morris
Greg Inglis
Brett Hodges
Jarryd Hayne
Darren Lockyer
Jonathan Thurston
Ben Hannant
Cameron Smith
Petro Civoniceva
Anthony Watmough
Paul Gallen
Nathan Hindmarsh

(From four of the following)
Brett White
David Shillington
Luke Lewis
Robbie Farah
Kurt Gidley
Trent Waterhouse

They say rugby league is a seventeen man game. Now without disrespecting the Australians, their bench doesn't look as threatening as I first feared no matter who is filtered out. But their starting thirteen is more threatening than when they annihilated England in Melbourne last year.

As I said twelve months ago, England's forward pack can beat Australia on top of their game. Its the English back line I fear will let the side down. Tom Briscoe's nerves must be shaking like a Tickle Me Elmo with the thought of facing up to who was considered the NRL's best player, Jarryd Hayne. With 26 first team apperances and 13 tries, its a complete mis-match in terms of experience when you consider Hayne has starred in 109 NRL and representative games scoring 90 tries in total.

Despite his man of the match performance against Wales, I wish Sam Thomkins all the luck in the world when he faces the four time consecutive State of Origin winning half back pairing of Darren Lockyer and Jonathan Thurston. Thomkins will be buoyed by playing on his club's home ground at international level. But he will have to be on top of his game to even have a chance of out smarting Lockyer or Thurston.

Its a worrying thought that England's 52-4 defeat last year may not have been a one off after all.

Aussies can't have it both ways.

2009-10-27T21:41:00.000Z

Australia are unhappy with the appointment of Steve Ganson as the referee of their crucial game against England on Saturday. According to sources, ARL Chief Executive, Geoff Carr, refused to accept a neutral referee claiming both the New Zealand and French representatives (Leon Williamson and Thierry Alibert) were not full-time referees.

This left Stuart Cummings (RFL Match Officials Director) with no option but to appoint one of Steve Ganson or Australian, Shane Hayne. He eventually settled on Ganson, no doubt under the pressures of the RFL to select the English referee like Tony Archer was appointed in the corresponding fixture 12 months ago.

But this appointment left the Australian coach, Tim Sheens, in fury after Sheens was disappointed with Ganson's performance in his side's 20-all draw with New Zealand.

So to cut a long story short, the Aussies are not happy they can't have their own way and have their own man in the middle of the pitch. What amazes me is that they can throw their dummy out of the pram, knowing full well they can beat England fair and square in the first place.

This is a prime example of one of the obstacles the international game has to overcome if it is to expand and become more creditable. Neutral referees must be appointed at international level, regardless of the persistent argument that certain referees are not up to standard.

Geoff Carr's excuse doesn't even make sense to begin with, as Thierry Alibert has been officiating full time for two years in the Super League.

This issue, along with player eligibility with players supposedly swapping and changing nations, are two key issues that in the short term the RLIF must address for the international game and its post-2008 World Cup era to flourish to the best of its ability.

Four Nations - Week One.

2009-10-27T15:36:00.000Z

The first round of the Four Nations has come and gone, and what a weekend it was. There were near misses, heart warming performances and great escapes that would make Steve McQueen blush. There was also relatively impressive attendances to both games in Doncaster and in London, which shows twelve months after the World Cup the hunger for international rugby league was not a one off.

England 34-12 France
The highest crowd for a Anglo-French test match signified the beginning of a new era for international rugby league in the UK. The attendance of 11,529 exceeded anyone's expectations for what are usually one-sided contests. Bobbie Gouling and his team had other ideas and gave the hosts an early Halloween scare when France went 12-4 ahead at half time. Tries from Vincent Duport and Kane Bentley were both converted by Thomas Bosc.

It was a poor first half performance from England by anyone's standards. The half back combination of Danny McGuire and Richie Myler looked one dimensional on the French goal line, and the defence at the opposite end of the field stood solid like a wet paper tissue towards the final moments of the half. It was a stark reminder of twelve months ago in Townsville, when Papua New Guinea went into the half time break leading 16-12 in the World Cup opener.

But thankfully the scriptwriters had included the same ending. England changed a few tactics around and started to play with a bit more flair and creativity. Myler pushed forward in attack and did well to support the line breakers, which he was rewarded with his second try when Kevin Sinfield found he gap on the French line. The game was wrapped up by the English when Ryan Hall intercepted Thomas Bosc's pass out intended for Duport, and the Leeds' winger showed his pace to beat Clint Greenshield to the corner post.

Despite the strong efforts from France, David Ferriol and Jean-Philippe Baile both faced disciplinary yesterday after Ferriol quite badly elbowed Kevin Sinfield in the tackle eight minutes from time and Jean-Philippe Baile caught Richie Myler with a stiff arm to the jaw. Baile was shown the red card by the New Zealand referee, Leon Williamson while Ferriol's incident was put on report. As a result of the disciplinary hearing, Ferriol will receive a one game ban, excluding him from playing against New Zealand this weekend. Meanwhile Baile is free to face New Zealand despite the serious nature of the offence. I can only assume the panel have given Baile the benefit of the doubt after the centre showed remorse to Myler and apologised as he left the field. The news will make life a bit sweeter for Goulding after the French hooker, Remi Castey, was ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a broken hand.

Australia 20-20 New Zealand
12,360 people saw a thrilling contest next to the home of rugby union at the Twickenham Stoop. In fact, it was one of the best games I've seen all year and it was between the two nations that are most likely to get to the final.

The crowd, made up primeraly of Australian and New Zealand ex-pats based in London, witnessed a young New Zealand side fight toe-to-toe with an experienced Australian side that included almost every big name in the NRL. New Zealand caught Australia napping early when Frank-Paul Nuuausala ran on an angle to Adam Blair's offload five minutes into the game. For me personally, the story of the first half was made by New Zealand's SAS-style of defence. For aproximatly fifteen minutes inside the first half, New Zealand were forced to defend consecutive sets of six on their own try line due to disiplinary errors. When they finally recieved posession, they were guilty of handling errors within their own half. It was a minor miracle Australia didn't put ship past twenty points in that time frame. In the end, Brett Morris finally broke through, but the landslide didn't come and the half time scores remained 6-6.

When Jonathan Thurston stripped the ball one-on-one from Lance Hohaia early in the second half, you sensed that all the luck would go Australia's way. This was not the case, as New Zealand stood up and fought back to lead by six points with five minutes left thanks to Frank Pritchard's try in the left corner. But Australia's never say die attitude over powered the New Zealanders and from Thurston's short kick off, Australia forced their way down field. On the back of a penalty, the resulting set of six saw Australia throw the ball around until Greg Inglis spotted the gap in the New Zealand defense and an offload to Cameron Smith gave Australia the try and the conversion oppertunity they needed to tie the game. Thurston, with nerves calmer than a mountain lake, slotted over the vital goal to earn Australia a point.

If England fail to make the final now, I don't think I could care less so long as both these nations play with similar enthusiasm, passion and skill at Elland Road in a few weeks time.

Four Nations preview.

2009-10-21T17:51:00.003+01:00

Twelve months after the World Cup, the biggest names in Rugby League arrive in the UK and France for the start of a rebuilding process for International Rugby League.

If the international game and the RLIF learnt anything from last year's World Cup, its that there is still a hunger for international Rugby League, especially across both Europe and the Pacific.

So with that in mind, France have join England/Great Britain, Australia, and world champions New Zealand in the inaugural Four Nations after the Tri-Nations became an annual success.

With the first game only two days away when England host France at the Keepmoat Stadium, A Tap on the Twenty presents a quick preview focusing on all four teams.

Australia
Despite no longer being world champions after 33 years, Australia will be all out for revenge in order to avenge their 2008 World Cup final defeat to New Zealand when Ricky Stuart's side lost 34-20 in Brisbane. The noise coming out of the Aussie's camp seems to one of vengeance. They want to keep hold of the trophy they won under the Tri-Nations banner when they defeated New Zealand in extra time during the 2006 Tri-Nations final in Sydney. As a result, the bookies only have them at 1/4 to win the tournament.

Despite making one of the biggest errors in World Cup history, Billy Slater is no less of a threat. He will not be looking back that that pass to Benji Marshall that gifted New Zealand a try in the final minutes of the game. He will go about his business as usual like he has done all year for Melbourne.
New to English fan's ear, Jarryd Hayne has been in fascinating form with Parramatta winning the Dally M medal on the back of several perfect performances. As usual, Darren Lockyer, Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurston all strike fear into English fan's hearts when they have possession with the ball.

Prediction - Group & final winners.

England
Its all change for 2009, and with it comes what could easily be described as fresh meat for our antipodean cousins. Names such as Burrow, Pryce, Senior and Wellens are no more. They are replaced with Tomkins, Eastmond, Hall and Briscoe. Of course, a few names remain in Peacock, Morley and Ellis. But like last year, England's strength came in the forwards who worked exceptionally hard down under 12 months ago, but were let down by the halfs and three-quarters.

Jamie Peacock will lead the side from example again, with Adrian Morley being the other experienced prop forward who will continue to mentor James Graham and the Souths-bound Sam Burgess. Looking at Tony Smith's 24-man squad, the three-quarters pick themselves with Smith, Shenton, Hall and the young Tom Briscoe replacing the injured Sean O'Loughlin. The Headache for Smith must lie in the half backs, with potentially five players to pick from McGuire, Eastmond, Thomkins, Myler and Bridge. For me, the answer lies in McGuire at stand off and Tomkins at scrum half. Eastmond doesn't possess the creative flair to penetrate the Kiwis or Kangaroo defence, while his kicking game is one of the worst I have seen in a Saints shirt for some time. Myler is lacking of match fitness having only played one game against Wales since July, while Bridge can play at stand off or scrum half, he hasn't done so since Tony Smith took over Warrington in March.

Prediction - 3rd in group.

France
Adrian Lam and Papua New Guinea will have sympathy for the French, as the Kumuls were in a similar situation last year and certainly made their mark despite not winning a game. While the 'guinea pigs' are now coached by Bobbie Goulding, his presence and knowledge should provide the same attitude and passion Adrian Lam installed into Papua New Guinea. They still have some excellent individuals, but its only individuals. Thomas Bosc is the stand out Frenchman, while Australian-born Clint Greenshields and James Wynne both qualify for France under the residency rule, (a rule A Tap on the Twenty will assess at a later date.)

Elsewhere France hold Jean-Philippe Baile, Oliver Elima and Jamel Fakir and a large proportion of the Catalan squad that made the semi-final qualifiers losing to Leeds with dignity at Headingley.

I fear if England take this team too lightly, there could be a massive upset on the first day of the competition.

Prediction - 4th in group.

New Zealand
World champions New Zealand will be looking to progress after their famous win against their Tasman rivals by clinching the Four Nations tournament away from them as well. They certinaly possess the squad capable of achieveing such a feat. Their squad is littered with big names in the NRL that have brought plenty of talent to the domestic competition. Wests star, Benji Marshall will lead from behind the pack once again, while World Cup winning captain resumes his role.

Leeds-bound Greg Eastwood will add size and power to an already dominant pack, while Kristan Inu adds flair to the back line. Melbourne power-house Jeff Lima will make the front row indestructable with littel Issac Luke frigtening off opponents with is passionate rendition of the hakka in the hooking role.

Theres plenty of talent in this New Zealand side, because I haven't even mentioned Fuifui Moimoi yet. But I fear they may just finish short.

Prediction - Group runners up & losing finalists.

Part-time Wales perform against full-time England.

2009-10-18T20:25:00.003+01:00

It would have been one of the most insignificant upsets in sporting history. For seventy minutes a part-time Wales squad fought toe-to-toe with Super League's finest English players and very nearly succeeded, not for the lack of fitness in the Welsh team.

After conceding 74 points a year ago in Doncaster, the Wales side did their country proud to have limited England's score to less than fifty. They did even better to stay within touching distance, trailing only by eight points after Ian Watson's quick tap from some quick thinking when England were penalised on their own try line early in the second half.

The reason they lost was simply due to the high level of consistency maintained by the English side, which is due to all of its players being full time professionals. The English level of fitness shone in the final fifteen minutes and they ran in 28 points within the final quarter of the game, which was so similar to watching a Super League side take on a Championship team in the Challenge Cup.

But full credit to Iestyn Harris and the entire Welsh squad for giving England a kick up the backside. Its encouraging from an expansionists point of view because it shows Wales are developing, despite the misfortunes of Celtic in recent months. Now what concerns me the most is England's upcoming performance in the Four Nations, and the form of certain individuals who played in this international friendly.

The most concerning of all is Paul Sykes. At full back he was inept at catching the simplist of kicks, with his knock ons giving Wales the ball within England's twenty metres on two occesions.
Admittingly Sean O'Loughlin played out of position in the centres, but even he failed to show his face until his try sixty minutes into the game. Even when he was moved into the loose forward's role, he went missing like a set of house keys minutes before your about to leave.
Richie Myler has an excuse for playing like he did. He hasn't played since July, which makes his inclusion into England's Four Nations squad even more unusual. I think he was played as a chance for him to blow off the cobwebs. I expect him to star in England's opener against France.
As for Thomkins, I would start him at scrum half on Friday. I would start him in the number seven shirt against Australia and I would put him at number seven against New Zealand as well. Yes, it was only a friendly against part-time opposition, but when you consider who else can play in the halfs in that 24 man squad he is easily the best man for the job.

So while Wales can look forward to a exciting European Nations Cup with games against Serbia and Ireland, England will be working hard in preperation to face Australia, France and New Zealand in a weeks time.

A previw on England and the entire Four Nations tournament is coming soon...

Super League Grand Final - The Big Debates.

2009-10-15T16:51:00.003+01:00

Was he onside?

That's the big debate that has arose after Leeds clinched their third successive Grand Final victory 18-10 against the team they beat in 2007, 2008 and now, 2009. On a side note however, it was interesting to note the attendance for the match was the lowest in Grand Final history since Sean Long kicked the winning drop goal against Bradford in 2002. Was it the economic recession that has caused such a steep decline, or was it the fans voting with their feet after three straight Leeds-St Helens Grand Finals? But enough about the attendances. We all know Rugby League fans can't complain enough if there's a drop in the number of bums on seats.

The match itself had its fair share of controversy, not least the winning try eight minutes from full time. But like a soap-opera, we at A Tap on the Twenty like to unfold other unimportant plot lines before the big event gets dissected like a frog in a school science class. So instead we'll begin by having a stab at Kyle Eastmond, an action plenty of opposition fans would like a go at for real.

You may remember an article posted last year by yours truly about the amount of young players getting too much hype early in their careers. Well I'm afraid to say that it seemed I was right about young Kyle. He is not the saviour of English Rugby League we all seem to think he is. Pouncing on top of a kick that should have been safely collected by Scott Donald is not enough to be hailed the next best thing. We have got used to the sheer brilliance of Sean Long so much that after he broke his jaw earlier in the season, Eastmond was put in as replacement and flaws were being discovered in St Helens' game plan left, right and centre. If he is an example of the modern day half back, then he has no creative awareness and his kicking game is one of the worst I have seen in a St Helens shirt. If he is the example of a modern day half back in Super League, I bet Darren Lockyer will be smiling like a Cheshire cat on his flight to this side of the world for the Four Nations.

The next point is about video referee decisions, and despite the full use of technology they still can't seem to get a decision right no matter how small. It was a minor event in the Grand Final, but as a newly qualified match official it caused my blood to boil beyond the need for a thermometer. Kyle Eastmond's disallowed try was indeed the correct call. But Phil Bentham ruled that Eastmond was out of play after hitting the corner post, despite his foot being marginally on the touch line five metres beforehand. In which case, Leeds should have been awarded a scrum on the ten metre line. Instead they were given an optional twenty metre restart. A call which has the difference of ten metres might seem small, but when you consider that half the Leeds attacking line would be in the scrum for the first tackle it becomes significant that the attacking side couldn't have full use of all thirteen players.

And finally, the big debate. It wasn't quite in the same league as Jordon Tansey's infamous offside in Cardiff two years ago, but it was enough to cause controversy as Leeds' knowledge of the offside rule seems to be less than that of St Helens' in recent years. It was a good piece of play from both McGuire and Smith. McGuire saw the gap behind the defensive line and the kick was weighed to perfection under pressure. Smith darted from McGuire's right side, collects the ball before immediately side-stepping the scrambled St Helens defence to dive under the posts. All well and good and congratulations Leeds, except if you weren't a bunch of cheats and scored from an offside position.

But like Leeds on the day of the game, Stuart Cummings' defence of his official was solid. Although it did make me spit out half my coffee in disgust when I read about it in Monday morning's trade newspaper. The fact the camera was slightly ahead of play was used as an excuse to give the try. But if Bentham had used the different shades of grass as a marker, he would know there is more of a lighter shade of grass behind Smith than McGuire, before going back to a darker shade on the Old Trafford turf.

But after all the post match talk about being offisde or onside, Leeds were the better side at the end of the day with Kevin Sinfield giving an man of the match performance. But as he collected the Super League trophy, was it just me or did you think there was a hint of "Goodbye Leeds" in his after-match speech?

Who says the lower leagues are dead? We finally have proof they're not.

2009-10-13T17:20:00.000+01:00

All season Sky Sports have been broadcasting one game a week from either the Championship or Championship 1 on a Thursday evening. It has generally been the most anticipated game of the round from either league that has been shown. As a result, the enjoyment from watching the Championships has been unprecedented. Take the Grand Final as an very good example of what I'm talking about.

While the skill factor is not as high as that in Super League, the level of commitment and desire to succeed in what is becoming a very creditable and unique competition. Due to the high skill gap between the Championships and Super League, for many players winning this competition will be the highlight of their careers. With increased exposure on Sky Sports, the best may indeed end up playing at Super League level. However, due to the attitude of Super League clubs insisting of producing their own players, which is more cost effective, only a handful will ever move without being part of a club's successful license being approved.

But the problem for the RFL is the capture the public's imagination that the Championships are indeed a creditable competition. Having cut off automatic promotion and relegation (something British sport must have for it to be accepted in this countries sporting society, apparently) then an outsider sees the leagues as nothing more than a feeder competition and a graveyard for ex-professionals. This is an obstacle the RFL needs to overcome for attendances to grow and for both Championships to thrive in the local communities. Only after successfully targeting local areas can a club become ambitious because the communiy is the foundation to growing attendances and regular supporters.

Club Call 2009 - Leeds choose to play Catalan.

2009-09-27T13:41:00.004+01:00

Leeds have chosen to play Catalan at Headingley, leaving the biggest game of the weekend at St Helens as the hosts take on local rivals Wigan on Saturday night. To no ones surprise, Brain McLennan and Gary Hetherington chose to play the lowest rank side out of the two preliminary semi final winners, which was the French outfit after they scraped into the play offs in the final round of the season after a dramatic win over St Helens.

But selecting Catalan was not simply down to them being the lowest ranked side. Catalan have to travel from the south of France travelling over 1,500 miles, the fourth time they will have done the trip to the north of England in four weeks. To top it off, the St Helens and Wigan derby is always a fierce contest and the choice to send Wigan down the East Lancs Road and play their closest rivals will tire both teams a week before the Grand Final. Of course, only one can make Old Trafford.

So what will the outcome be come Friday and Saturday night? Well you would think Leeds will walk all over Catalan at Headingley. But as mentioned in the announcement, will Leeds have instantly motivated the Catalan side to prove they are not the worst of the four sides left in the competition? As for Saturday night, its another tough call. Without a doubt Wigan are the form team of the two. But Sean Long can, and has in the past, defeated Wigan single handedly. To make things even more nervous for Wigan fans, this is the last time Sean Long will walk onto the Knowsley Road pitch wearing the red vee shirt.

I'm predicting the Grand Final will host a Leeds V St Helens final.

Leeds and Hull KR dominate Super League Dream Team

2009-09-16T14:30:00.003+01:00

Leeds and Hull KR have dominated this year's Super League Dream Team with four players from the 2009 League Leaders, and four from East Hull have been included in the fantasy line up. The league's top try scorer after the regular season, Ryan Hall, is included along side team mates Keith Senior, Jamie Peacock and Kevin Sinfield. Albert Goldthorpe Medal winner Michael Dobson was selected at scrum half with winger, Peter Fox, and second rower Ben Galea the other two robins selected by a panel of senior Rugby League journalists.

A Tap on the Twenty's favourite for Man of Steel, Brett Hodgson, heads the line up at full back with team mate Scott Moore at hooker. Adrian Morley's ten year wait to be included again has ended after his previous selection in 1999. Matt Gidley is the only St Helens player selected while youngster Sam Thomkins is chosen at stand off.

Brett Hodgson (Huddersfield)
Personally, he is my bet for Man of Steel. He has been a key element for Huddersfield all season leading them to a record breaking third place on the Super League ladder and a first Challenge Cup final appearance since 1962. Nathan Brown has brought out the best in the talented full back, while Hodgson has brought out the best in the rest of the team and lead from the back.

Peter Fox (HKR)
After making his international debut against France last year, Fox has developed into a threatening winger. He is there to score tries, which is what a winger is supposed to do. The skill is to be in the correct position to finish off either a team effort, or a chip to the corner. Whatever the scenario, Fox is always on the end of it.

Matt Gidley (St Helens)
Its not been the perfect season for St Helens. Compared to recent years this has been their worst so far since 2003, with no Challenge Cup or League Leader's shield to call their own. Bu despite the misfortune so far, Gidley has been a shining star in what could be describe as a team of burnt out candles.

Keith Senior (Leeds)
Senior has been one of a pair of a centre and winger partnership with Ryan Hall, being responsible for assistance in 13 Hall's tries. Despite his age and his lack of international form, he is still a key member of Leeds' domestic challenge as he has been for the past ten years.

Ryan Hall (Leeds)
A wonder kid at only 21 years of age, scoring 28 tries in 26 appearances. He has always been on Keith Senior's shoulder to finish off a try in the corner and has speed to burn as he tears up the left side of the Headingley pitch. A true and underrated speedster in the modern era.

Sam Tomkins (Wigan)
Another shining star from the red rose county, this time from Wigan. Easily the best young player of the year with massive potential to team up with Richie Myler at international level in the future. Not without his fair share of mistakes, but his hard working attitude and has earned him selection to the Dream Team this time round.

Michael Dobson (HKR)
I bet you won't believe me when I tell you he is only 25, as it seems he has been around for ages. Which is just as well because he is actually only 23 years of age. And after being given his chances at Catalan and Wigan before going back to Canberra, he has been able to take Super League by storm and become one of the league's best Australian imports.

Adrian Morley (Warrington)
After a ten year wait, he his finally back in the Dream Team. Admittedly a different player now than he was back then, his tackling technique has been cleaned up and his misbehaviour has been erased. What Warrington have now is a strong, powerful international prop forward who rarely gives less than 100% in any given game.

Scott Moore (Huddersfield)
He has been very dangerous for Huddersfield this season. Another English youngster who darts from acting half back and can race round marker defenders with total ease. He has made 250 more metres than Matt Diskin from the same position and can execute perfect passes from anywhere on the field.

Jamie Peacock (Leeds)
As ever, the current England captain has been a spectacular member of the Leeds side. Shaped from a similar mould as Adrian Morley, he is everything that Morley is and more. Never giving less than his best, he has proven a point this year afte leading England to a dismal World Cup campaign.

Ben Galea (HKR)
One of the two Hull KR second rowers selected in this team, the veteran 2005 NRL Grand Final winner has showed his experience and ripped opposition defenders right down the middle of the field consistently all year. The Maltese descendant has truly earned his place.

Clint Newton (HKR)
The second of the two selected Hull KR second rowers and its not just NRL winners medals the two players share. They share the same playing characteristics as each other, which is handy for the KR team as if one is having a bad game the other will undoubtedly rise to the challenge. However is both players are on top form, they can be a dangerous combination.

Kevin Sinfield (Leeds)
No surprise for the loose forward selection. He has lead Leeds from the back of the scrum, and his kicking game is second to none. Leeds always have the edge with his goal kicks, as shown against Warrington on their own patch when they scored less tries but won the game by two points in the dying seconds. A valuable member of the team.

An even briefer lookback on 2009

2009-09-09T22:09:00.005+01:00

A few things I missed previously. It was great news that we were able to secure the 2013 Rugby League World Cup to be hosted away from Australia. While it was a massive success, the same ingredients need to be applied on this side of the world to develop expansion.

The news that the 2013 tournament will consist of twelve teams, an increase of two on the 2008 World Cup, was greeted warmly by senior member of the trade press. Twelve teams will eliminate the need of a "super pool" in the early stages of the tournament, but I feel this is the wrong option for the RLIF to go in keeping every single game as competitive as possible. The presumed format of four groups of three will mean the big three of New Zealand, Australia and England are separated along with whoever the fourth ranked team are in the RLIF Rankings. Qualifiers will then be dispersed or drawn into the four pools containing one of the major teams.

While the planning is in its very early stage, the news of the possibility that certain games may be used as double headers to attract audiences is very good news. Attendance figures was one of several key factors in the 2008 tournament, with more fans turning up than what was expected to make it a successful tournament. Double headers means that fans will be more inclined to attend, as they will be watching two games instead of one big game in the early stages of the tournament. The like of Australia V Scotland at Warrington might not seem attractive as a contest, but double it up with New Zealand V Fiji no the same day at the same venue, for example, and the punters are getting value for money.

NRL on ESPN.

2009-09-09T21:40:00.004+01:00

ESPN will show the final three matches of the NRL finals according to rugbyleague.com.

No announcement has been made, as far as I'm aware, on coverage for the 2010 season. However, ESPN will show both Preliminary Final matches on the 25th and 26th September, with the first match being shown live. The Grand Final on 4th October will also be shown live at 7am.

This comes four months after Setanta Sports went into administration and ceased broadcasting less than 24 hours before the second of this years State of Origin game in Sydney.

While it was nice you could get a live feed via Australian internet provider, Bigpond, it was only a matter of time before the NRL secured a deal with a UK broadcaster to show NRL games. The UK has the biggest TV ratings for NRL games outside of Australia and the league will no doubt have wanted a TV company to show games from this season's competition sooner. But for rugby league fans in the UK, British-born or ex-pats emigrating, this is definatly good news providing you subscribe to the channel.

Video game review: Rugby League Manager 2009

2009-09-08T01:34:00.003+01:00

Rugby League Manager 2009 (inc Patch 4)

RRP: £0.00
Creator: Alex Thomas
Website: www.rugbyleaguemanager.com

They say the best things in life are free, but I fail to agree with that statement. The NHS isn't the rousing success it should be. Many experts agree we are letting our children down in state education, and the Lancashire hotpot given away by my local community centre the weekend before Christmas tasted like plastic in boiling water. But of course, there are exceptions to the rule.

I'm not talking about the toilet attendant who gives you a free lollipop if you freshen up during a night on the town either. I'm talking about one of the most addicting series of Rugby League games ever made. Admittedly the 2005 edition of this RL Manager series looked like an 11 year old had made a website and stuck a few hyper links together, it captured your attention for a whole three seconds. But the 2008 edition was a breakthrough, and set the platform for a scheduled 2010 and 2011 release as well as the current 2009 edition. The achievements of RLM2008 is the foundation to the 2009 game.

The presentation is the same similar theme from RLM08, and almost as if you were playing Football Manager. If it worked for Sports Interactive, it defiantly works for RLM09. The same 2D match play returns, which in my opinion is better than Football Manager's early games. It gives you a realistic bird's eye view of the players down below, as opposed to small circles running around a football field on FM. Away from the matches, the menus from RLM08 have been given a nice paint job to look like the entire game is sponsored by Leeds Met Carnegie, otherwise its exactly the same layout. The same list of managerial aspects down the left hand side. The same layout of player's names after clicking a sub-menu. The same female voice when trying to select the club to start your game with. And yet in an obvious way, this game is different.

Other than the layout and presentation of the game, 2009 it a completely different game to its older brother. You are given a lot more options when choosing your team tactics. They are no longer simply broken down into red zone, orange zone, yellow zone and green zone. Each zone has been split into three sections, meaning you can have different pre set tactics for centre yellow zone and left yellow zone. Up to 12 sections of the pitch can be tactically altered depending on where you are with possession. But here's the clever part, you can only plan up to six different sets-of-six tackles, and assign each set of six (labelled Set A, Set B etc) to any of the 12 sections of the pitch. Not only that, of the available set of advanced moves your team learns while establishing cohesion, only one advanced move for the forwards, and one advanced move for the backs can be used in each set of six. The challenge is finding the right move to use on the right part of the pitch while trying to break down the opposition defence.

Another new aspect is you now have more involvement with both the academy an alliance teams. You now have to pick the sides your young protégés will line up in. Of course the more games a young player plays in, the faster he will develop. As a result I myself am developing a fullback that is good enough to allow me to get rid of Richie Mathers. This more limited approach into young player development means I have more choice in selecting what players I need in specific position to nurture. Thankfully, you don't get to watch either the academy or allience teams play. The result is simulated, which means your not spending too much time with the kids, but that leaves more time to focus on the main squad. After all, even the best of the youngsters won't come to you if your first team isn't winning.

Who that team is, is now up to you. The selection of teams to manage is phenomenal. Every team from Super League and NRL, to both Championships and Rugby League Conference. My only critisism up to now is that conference team line ups are not real players. But who has heard of a bunch of amateurs anyway? Not when you can expand you coaching career beyond the domestic game. State of Origin and the now defunct War of the Roses teams are included, as well as eleven national sides including the ten from last year's World Cup. And all of whom allow you to select your own squads from scratch. Don't like Billy Slater? Don't select him for either Queensland or Australia. Think that Kevin Penny deserves an England spot? Put him on the wing. The choice is entirely up to you.

Now I've never been a fan of games being released for the sake of it. Its annoying when games like the FIFA series take their previous year's game, update the teams and release it as the next instalment. Thankfully this game isn't a carbon copy of last years edition. All the good ingredients that made RLM08 a good game, plus some new elements, have turned RLM09 from an good home cooked meal into a appetising plate full Toby carvery dinner. Its nowhere near the standard of The Ivy, but this game doesn't intend to be perfect. What it does is give you an exciting gaming experience full to the brim with teams, features all nicely packaged and presented with a pretty bow on top. I love it.

Graphics - 8/10
Gameplay - 7/10
Sound - 5/10
Presentation - 8/10

Overall - 7.5/10

A brief lookback on 2009.

2009-09-07T23:52:00.017+01:00

2009.

Eventful. Exciting. Pleasurable. And not without its fair share of controversy. So in the week leading up to the NRL play offs, its best to go over the highlights of what already has been a busy season so far.

I last left you in the aftermath of Martin Gleeson's transfer to Wigan, with a reported £100,000 plus Richie Mathers. I think its fair to say that for Warrington it was the deal of the century. While Mathers hasn't been the perfect fullback, he has performed above expectation considering what his form was like in Wigan's colours. Gleeson on the otherhand missed several games after their loss to Celtic and has done very little in the cherry and white overall since.

Speaking of Celtic, they're starting to remind me of the fictional Harchester United FC which was the focus of the TV drama series, Dream Team. Still only a baby compared to more established clubs, their catapult to the top flight in such a short space of time has seen them struggle to compete this season. An early Challenge Cup exit and with only three wins to their name in the league (Bradford, Wigan and Salford) they have failed to capture anyones imagination, especially the Bridgend locals if you were to read into their home attendance figures. Not wanted by many in Super League to begin the year with, their implosion will have no doubt put a smile on the fans of many Championship clubs. Espicially the fans of Widnes, Halifax and Leigh.
But the real drama occured in August when it was confirmed that no less than six of their first team players were to be deported on the basis of playing and staying in the UK on the wrong visas. The offence is estimated to have occured during the 2007 season in which Celtic were promoted to what was National League One. Captin Jace van Dijk, Tony Duggan, Damien Quinn, Darren Mapp, Mark Dalle Cort, and John Hannay are all alledged to have played under a working holiday visa illegally, despite this practise being allowed in the past and a UK Border Agency rule change preventing this practise between the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Who is to blame remains a closely guarded secret, which may be a first for Rugby League. This story has a million and one complications, as another semi proffesional club had, before the 2007 season, appealed to the UK Border Agency to let its players play under this type of visa and they were granted permission. This was reported in one of the trade newspapaers. So my own personal opintion of this is that is was an administrative error. Thats not to say Celtic shouldn't face the consequences whatever they may be, merely that they may have been careless in applying for visas for their overseas players.

Rugby League is never short of a scandal, and the Australian's have seen to it they are supplying more than their fair share of bad publicity. Countless players have been accused of assault, rape, disorderly behaviour and being intoxicated in a public place. In my opinion the media seem ot be having a field day with the NRL at the moment, reporting on every player that so much as sips a drop of shandy. And if, as an ex-player, you thought no one would expose the wrong doing you did during your day, you can guess again.
I honestly feel sorry for Matthew Johns. Not only has he lost his day job on Channel Nine, but he has no doubt had to relive memories and rebuild his family over events that have occured seven years ago while he was playing for Cronulla. The woman in question is no doubt cashing in on the story being sold to newspapaers. The original police investigation saw no one arrested or found guilty, so why she had to drag these events up is at this time is anyones guess. Although the timing is suspicious after Brett Stewart, Paul Gallen and others were accused of wrong doing in quick succession. Of course these stories do have consequences. I'm talking about the rumours that Coca-Cola were days away from signing a sponcership deal with the RFL to sponsor the Four Nations. League Express reported that a representative of Coca-Cola's visited Australia when a large proportion of player scandals were being unearthed and he reccommended that the multi-million pound company pull out of the deal. If I were Nigel wood at the time, I would have been furious as the RFL have done nothing wrong before the deal collapsed. Its merely Coca-Cola not wanting to tarnish their company's image by associating themselves with a sport that is in a bad light. But amazingly, I don't blame them for pulling the plug.

Now I think its time to talk about some rugby. Queensland secured their record breaking fourth straight State of Origin series win after game two in Sydney. Although in my opinion the player of the series was New South Welshman, Jarryd Hayne. For a player on the losing side, he was nothing short of sensational. A true inspiration which none of his team-mates wanted to follow. when it mattered, New South Wales were outplayed, out-enthused and showed no desire to perform at their best. Overall, NSW's performances can be compared to their captain's, Kurt Gidley. For two games he was more exposed and targeted than Katie Price's breasts on a nudest beach. And for the life of me, I cannot understand what goes on in a NSW selection commitee member's head. They chose to select both the ageing Trent Barrett and Brett Kimmorley in the halfs, while Peter Wallace and Terry Campese were there on merit what they did last season. For me, Jamie Soward can count himself unlucky not to be selected at five/eigth as he has clearly been the best number six in the NRL and as a result St George Illawarra have won the minor premiership, and are odds on to make the grand final.

But as for the NRL, fans in the UK have had a hard time of it over the past few months. Less than 24 hours before game two of State of Origin, Setanta Sports have the plug pulled on them by the administrators after the broadcaster spent millions of pounds it didn't have on football television rights. A well known internet forum almost went into melt down with fans desperatly trying to find illegal internet links that show the game. Thankfully Bigpond, an internet arm of Australian communications giant Telstra who sponsor the NRL itself, saved the day and showed a legal live feed for UK users only. And it would seem that until a UK based broadcaster is found, Bigpond will continue to show NRL matches live for UK users via the net on the following link; http://www.bigpondtv.com/nrllliveuk

More scandal involving rugby league, but this time it was the UK's turn to suffer the humiliation as Gareth Hock was found to have traces of a substance also found in cocaine in a urine sample he presented to random drug testers. Its not uncommon for rugby league players to take recreational drugs. Even the very best took them during their day, didn't they Andrew? Hock's only mistake was that he got caught and as a result he was banned for two years from playing the sport. However, I fail to understand why a young lad with a promising career in front of him would take such substances knowing he could get caught very easily. The RFL take cheating of this kind very seriously, as a result British Rugby League is one of the most scrutinous testers in the eyes of the World Anti-Doping Agency. There are people out there, not just youngsters, who would give their right arm to play Super League and yet Hock has thrown it all away with flour up his nose.

And finally congratulations must go to Warrington for winning their first Challenge Cup since 1974. Also Huddersfield must not be overlooked, as they have looked true dark horses in Nathan Brown's first season in charge, but on the day Warrington were the better side and such is the romance of the Challenge Cup that the best team on the day wins. Bt its seems to have been a year for unexpected successes. Both St George Illawarra and Canterbury have been fighting for the NRL minor premiership all year and as two of Sydney's most well supported clubs both teams successes have seen attendances rise in the NRL despite all the bad publicity. One only hopes that these two meet in the grand final because that is sure to be an exciting climax to the NRL season, and a match not to be missed.

Murrayfield piss-up.

2009-05-04T17:46:00.000+01:00

I don't know about you, but I had a blast in Edinburgh last weekend.

Laziness is a terrible sin - a flashback over the past six weeks or so.

2009-04-22T18:09:00.004+01:00

Manly won the World Club Challenge in a very physical game against Leeds. Jamie Peacock, it seems, needs to learn how to control his temper after being sin binned for the second time in the space of three weeks.

Tony Smith took up a rather fancy role at Warrington. He is not officially a coach, but indeed much higher than that in some sort of capacity, despite still calling the shots. James Lowes therefore, is still 1st team coach, despite being under Smith. To cut through the bull, Smith is coach, Lowes is assistant but yet Lowes still has an assistant. Don't ask! Still, its good news in some ways for Warrington, having won three out of the last five league games. A much better record than when Smith joined the club.

Leon Pryce and Stuart Reardon go up in front of the judge who said they may go to jail soon, for the assault of Mrs Reardon and her boyfriend. Stuart Reardon has since left Warrington to go to Hull FC. They like criminals there, you see. Ben Cockayne was also up in court recently for assault.

Canterbury were docked two points for having fourteen players on the field late on during their 28-26 win over Penrith. The fact that the fourteenth man was on the field when the winning try was scored has seen the appeal turned down. Its nice to see that NRL officials are strict on such offences. In Super League over the years, Saints got away with a 13th interchange and Bradford have also felt the need to field 14 men against Warrington back in 2004. Both teams were 'fined'.

Martin Gleeson has felt the affect of Tony Smith's wrath and has moved to Wigan. Richie Mathers and a reported £100,000 go the other way, putting an end to specualtion that Gleeson will move to the NRL. Rumours are floating around Warrington as to who will be next to go. Favourites include Matt King, Michael Monaghan, both Anderson brothers and Lee Briers.

McNamara should walk the plank.

2009-04-20T20:46:00.024+01:00

Arghh me mateys!

The call from Bradford fans for Steve McNamara to leave gets ever louder, and to be honest I can't blame them. While for me, Friday's match at Odsal was one of the best games I've been to all year. A comfortable Warrington side brush away any traces of testosterone in the Bradford team as they won the match 58-22. A little weak in the defence, but otherwise fulfilling seeing as we've struggled for most of the year.

But I do sympathise with Bradford fans. Tony Smith is the third head coach we have had in twelve months at Warrington at its increasingly frustrating when you know your team should be playing better than what they are. But for me, Bradford have been on this slippery slope down hill since Brian Noble left. Noble not only had the right tactics, he had the right players and desperately tries to bring Wigan up to the same standard as his Grand Final winning years of 2001, 2003 and 2005.

But the thing that stinks heavily for McNamara, is that he has replaced good players like Stuart Fielden, Shontayne Hape and Lesley Vainakolo with a team of nobody's. Nick Scruton? Chris Nero? Rikki Sheriffe? Who? These players aren't as good as the previous bunch. These players are not play off winning material, never mind Grand Final winning material. And judging from Friday's game, McNamara can't coach them. He can't organise or prepare them. For this reason I have been predicting Bradford will crash and burn for the past three years. Its looking likely I'm finally going to be right.

Nows your time Stevie. Will you sink or swim?

Too many games or too many Easter eggs?

2009-04-15T20:43:00.000+01:00

There are times when you think rugby league is like a scratched record, going over the same topics and issues again and again. This time its about the amount of games played over Easter. For people like me who love to watch rugby league, no matter what the game is, it's a wonderful time of the year because there is so much choice. But on the opposite side of the coin, does the quality deteriorate during the second game, and more noticeably the week after?

Jamie Peacock (a player who's team lost both games over weekend) has come out and said that teams play too many games over Easter. In the space of fourteen days they are potentially playing four games, a scenario Peacock thinks is too demanding for the players in what is one of the toughest team sports in the world.

Don't get me wrong. I do feel for the players in this difficult time of the season. I played three games in one week once, and by the end of it I was knackered. Playing at the highest domestic level, I'd imagine that's ten times as hard. But there is a bigger issue here, and that's money and revenue. Especially in tough economic times.

The Easter weekend guarantees every club a home game during the holiday period. Easter is a time when a lot of people are off work and have the time to go down to the rugby. Therefore attendances often increase. Every club wants to cash in on this time of the year. We play in the summer, so cannot cash in over Christmas where Boxing Day and New Years Day are seven days apart. When we get to July and August attendances drop as people rush away on their summer holidays, so Easter has to be the time of year where clubs can guarantee a decent attendance at their ground and watch the cash roll in.

Clubs largely rely on gate receipts and TV revenue to keep them afloat, along with hospitality and sponsorship. Those are the biggest earners. Therefore it makes sense to give each club a home game and make the most of people's free time off work.

What more fun can be had chewing on a cream egg and watching the Lancashire derby?

I love Easter.

2009-04-14T21:00:00.001+01:00

Over the period of five days there has been a feast of Easter rugby league action that I for one have tucked into without a moments hesitation.

On Thursday there was the Wigan V St Helens match at the JJB Stadium. Usually saved for Good Friday, this match saw Kyle Eastmond score a massive drop goal to win the game for Saints 19-12.

On Friday I saw three matches played one after another. There was the 207th Hull derby which was won by Hull KR. Hull FC were down 18-4 early in the second half, and fought bravely to come back 18-14. I watched that game at The Willows ahead of the Salford V Warrington clash, in which Warrington played badly, but got to within six points before Ben Westwood scored in the final play of the game. Chris Hicks handed Salford the win after missing the conversion. Finally it was back into Manchester and onto Walkabout for the West Yorkshire derby between Bradford and Leeds. It wasn't a particularly high scoring affair, but a gripping one nonetheless as Bradford shocked the Champions 10-6. The controversy came on the hour when Rob Burrow put in Brent Webb for a try in the corner, only for it to be disallowed. The reason? Brent Webb was in an offside position. I didn't know you could be offside as an attacker, but you can apparently.

The following day I was at Wilderspool as 18th man for Warrington Wizards against Bramley. We lost 18-36 in what was anticipated to be an exciting match.

Sunday was a rugby free day so onto Easter Monday where Castleford defeated Warrington at the Halliwell Jones. Cas played reasonably well and didn't really let Warrington into the game winning 28-6. After 33 minutes of non scoring action, Cas put points on the board first and never looked back. Its business as usual for Warrington. I make no effort to mask my support for the primrose and blue, so it was with great delight that I later saw Catalan defeat Wigan in one of the many familiar pubs surrounding the stadium that evening. Leading 14-4, it was the perfect remedy as Wigan threw the game away and lost 40-24 in Perpignan.

That was a grand total of seven games in a five day period. I'm very happy the Romans killed Jesus!

World Cup 2008. Its over, now move on.

2009-04-10T09:48:00.017+01:00

There was no player rift in the England squad during the World Cup. The players have blamed themselves and we head into the next international with a clean sheet. So say the powers that be, but how do we move on from a disastrous campaign that saw England win only one game and perform so badly so three consecutive occasions?

Well for a start, I think if we had played at a reasonable standard we wouldn't be in this mess having a post-mortem. I can't see how, out of three super power nations, that England were expected to reach the final. New Zealand and Australia are two very good nations, and the squad the eventual world champions put out was very different to the one that lost a test series 3-0. So we can't be expected to make the final if we're just off the pace. Except we weren't just off the pace. We were miles away from reaching any sort of credibility. Papua New Guinea came out of the competition with more credibility than England. We were an embarrassment.

And what of the rift between Leeds and Saints players? Its obvious to see that there is tension between the two sets of players. Their match in March was a fine example of players out to, not just defeat the other, but physically hurt them. I haven't seen anything like it for some time. It was one of the most physical matches I have ever seen. Thankfully I was sat in my comfy armchair, away from the brutality and aggression. But anyone who suggests that there is no reift is stark raving mad.

But how do we go about easing tension in the national squad? Getting rid of the dead weight would be a good start. Leon Pryce, supposedly one of the best stand offs in Super League was a dead rubber. Mark Calderwood was nigh on useless. Rob Burrow, Ade Gardner, Paul Wellens and Keith Senior all had terrible World Cups. Its little surprise that five of the six names mentioned come from the two best teams in Super League.

But there's the problem. Week in week out they are the best in the competition. But put the best together and they can't play. Considering the last time they played in an international jersey they were nothing short of disgraceful, its time we shifted some of the senior players out of the national side. Bring in a new generation of talent for the mid season test against France and see how they fair.

We couldn't do much worse than what we did in Aus.

Gleeson to Wigan, Mathers plus £100,000 to Warrington.

2009-04-06T17:14:00.000+01:00

Mid season transfers don't happen too often. Thats why when they do its always a news story. The season is in full swing and the press are everywhere, swarming around Super Legaue grounds like there's no tomorrow. The news that Martin Gleeson is to move to his home town club, Wigan, is little surprise considering its been rumoured in the press and on the chat rooms for quite a while now.

It is bad news for Warrington, who must feel Gleeson is unsettled at the club and worth £99,999.99 as there's no way Richie Mathers is worth more than a penny after some of his performances this season.

What Warrington will do with Mathers remains to be seen, but when he steps through the front doors he will see a friendly face in Tony Smith, who coached the full back at Leeds before departing to the Gold Coast. This was at a time when Mathers was a decent full back, so maybe things can change yet for the former NRL player.

But in my opinion, Mathers won't fill the hole left by the England centre's departure in the Warrington line up.

RIP Leon Walker.

2009-03-23T16:56:00.012Z

The sad news about the death of Wakefield reserve grade player, Leon Walker, has shocked everyone in the world of rugby league.

Leon Walker was playing in a reserve game against Celtic at a venue a short distance from the Bridgend ground. He collapsed and was taken to a hospital in Swansea where he was pronounced dead. The televised match of the final game of round six in Super League was postponed thirty minutes before kick off.

My condolences go to Leon's family and friends at this difficult time.

French rugby league - part three.

2009-03-16T16:55:00.000Z

Part one was PSG. Part two is the successful Catalan. Now part three sees Toulouse being entered into the Championship, and exempt from relegation. Which you would have to say is a good thing considering they have been thrashed 70-0 in their opening game against Widnes the other night.

I never saw the game, nor have I yet to see highlights, but from various sources across the country that did see the match it appears Toulouse have a lot of work to do to really compete in this league.

What does baffle me though, the exemption of relegation from the Championship. I can understand why Catalan got exemption from relegation out of Super League. The difference between the two is massive, but surely the difference between the Championship and Championship 1 isn't that different. Attendances may drop but not that significantly in France I would have thought. The money would be similar from Sky and other TV deals in France (if any exist.)

Unless they are exempt so they can be given an all access pass to Super League in 2011. Theres one to ponder for a moment.

Challenge Cup 4th round ties.

2009-03-10T17:07:00.011Z

The ties for the fourth round of the Challenge Cup are as follows:

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats v Leigh Centurions
Halifax v Widnes Vikings
Oldham v Lezignan
Leeds Rhinos v St Helens
Keighley Cougars v Castleford Tigers
Catalans Dragons v Bradford Bulls
Featherstone v Wath Brow Hornets
Hull FC v Salford City Reds
Doncaster v Gateshead Thunder
Harlequins RL v Huddersfield
Barrow Raiders v Wigan
Sheffield Eagles v Dewsbury Rams
Warrington Wolves v York City Knights
Swinton Lions v Rochdale Hornets
Batley Bulldogs v Kells/Hunslet Hawks
Hull KR v Celtic Crusaders

Easily the stand out ties are Leeds V St Helens, Catalan V Bradford, Hull FC V Salford, Harlequins V Huddersfield and Hull KR V Celtic. Five all-Super League ties in total with the biggest and the best being Leeds V St Helens. I for one am looking forward to this fourth round tie more than any other.

A Challenge Cup disgrace!

2009-03-09T16:29:00.013Z

The Challenge Cup tie between Doncaster and amateur side Queens, had to be abandoned after 61 minutes due to crowed trouble at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Doncaster were winning 16-12 at the point of the abandonment. It was alleged that Queens supporters began the violence, although it is unclear why. Queens have in the past had a dodgy record when it comes to aggressive behaviour from both fans and players alike. The Cumbrian side, if the allegations are true, should be kicked out from future Challenge Cup competitions regardless of whether the RFL force the game to be replayed.

As a general rule, games abandoned after an hour usually let the result stand so Doncaster should take part in the fourth round. But their security and stewards should be looked at closely so that this incident never repeats itself elsewhere.

England coach to take the reigns at Warrington.

2009-03-05T16:14:00.020Z

Tony Smith has signed a two and a half year contract to be the Head of Coaching at Warrington, starting immediately and before they play the losing World Club Challenge side, Leeds.

Things had to change at Warrington. They have lost all of their opening matches including two massive defeats to Catalan and Wakefield. Their only consolation is the good seventy minute performance against St Helens, where they seemed to filter out and allow Saints back into the game at a stage when they were dominating the game and were on the road to a good start to the season.

But after two demoralising defeats and a losing run that stretches into August of last year, they currently lie last in the table along with Celtic who have yet to win a game.

James Lowes will remain as First Team Coach, essentially Smith's assistant, while Smith has to conduct further duties tied in with his previous contract at the RFL during the remainder of the season.

As for Warrington's future, they have to get their season off to a winning start. A win against Leeds, (ironically the team they last beat at home) who maybe tired and demoralised after Sunday's disappointing World Club Challenge defeat, would be a great way to kick start the new season.

Manly win World Club Challenge.

2009-03-02T16:02:00.026Z

It all ended in tears for Leeds as they lost the World Club Challenge 28-20 to a very good Manly side, who for most of the game seemed flawlessly in control.

Brett Stewart showed why he is currently one of the biggest contenders for Billy Slater's NSW and Australia shirt, while Anthony Watmough performed sensationally giving Leeds no room for any attacking movement, as shown when Rob Burrow got smashed sensationally by Watmough.

Leeds did score just before the break to give them some slender hope of a comeback on virtually home soil at Elland Road. But even at 12-0 they never looked like being able to seriously test the Manly defence.

But after half time, a five minute blitz left Leeds playing catch up. Tries from Stewart, Watmough and Steve Matai condemned Leeds to their defeat and it was an all but lost cause despite Keith Senior and Ryan Hall doing their best to repair some of the damage.

Why Brian Noble is even more of a pillock than usual.

2009-02-16T17:15:00.003Z

Brian Noble's comments of last Sunday's Super League Show just about shows the attitudes of almost every single coach in Super League towards bringing in young British players. The only reason they are doing so at the moment is because they have to to get a license and under RFL quotas. And even if a youngster does come through the ranks and plays Super League, he is hardly given a chance afterwards because he is judged as simply not up to the standard required at domestic level. I offer a solution.

Noble's way is all about abandoning the current scholarships and academys, and poaching players from the other code. These youngsters will either have to live away from home, or come from the books of Sale Sharks, who are the nearest Guinness Premiership side in the country to either Lancashire or Yorkshire. For Harlequins, Celtic and Catalan, Noble's comments will proably please them more than anyone else in RL. All three clubs are situated in RU dominated areas, and the majority of their young players probably played union before seeing the light.

The fact of the matter is, Noble's comment is unfeasable. For a club expected to pay £50,000 for a young union player with potential is simply not good business. If he wises to do that with Wigan, the so be it. But to publically come out and say on television what he did, those reading between the lines will know that he is unhappy with what the British RL game has to offer in terms of development.

Is it time to change the way young players are grown in this country?

A Tap on the Twenty: Poll results.

2009-02-09T14:55:00.004Z

It seems you all have mixed feelings towards the new 'top 8' play off format. Out of nine votes cast, 33% hated the new system of deciding the European Champions while a further 22% didn't like it but saw some advantages to it. Only one person really loved it but three others saw it's disadvantages, but gave it the thumbs up anyway.

Results
I love the format: 11% (1)
I like it, but I think it has its disadvantages: 33% (3)
I'm staying neutral of this topic: 0% (0)
I don't like it, but I can see the advantages to it: 22% (2)
I hate it the format: 33% (3)

Super League XIV preview

2009-02-04T12:33:00.008Z

OK, lets get serious for a change. With the season beginning in a few days time, its time for A Tap on the Twenty to assess the 14 teams competing in this years competition.

Bradford
For the past two years I have been adamant that Bradford will under perform and are slowly back tracking from the great side they once were. Ever since Brain Noble left, they have never reproduced the form they once had. Back then they had the biggest and most fearsome pack in the competition. Since then, they seem to have done a Fern Britton and lost more than a few pounds. having said that, this year they seem to have made it up with speed in the backs.
Prediction: 6th

Castleford
Surprised a few teams last year and I believe that it set the foundations for a promising year in 2009. Signings look promising, while a bit of deadwood has been shifted in the likes of Luke Dorn et al. They won't make the play offs, but with an extra two teams added to the competition, they should be looking for a few more wins.
Prediction: 13th

Catalan
Its easy to say Catalan overanchived last year, but I can see them repeating that feat this year as well. Its never easy to go to the south of France and take points away. In fact last year, Catalan did the basic thing in achieving success and thats win your home games. Only ten points were taken away from Perpignan last year in total, turning their renovated home ground into a mini fortress. They will miss Mick Potter, but if they make playing in the south of France difficult for visiting teams again, they will go far.
Prediction: 3rd

Celtic
The new Welsh side have it all to do this year. Many Championship sides feel done over by the licensing that allowed Celtic into Super League, but overall few will be complaining if the back room staff make a success of the club. In fairness, they have recruited pretty well. Mark Bryant, Stephen Tyrer and the promising Matty Smith is mixing youth with experience in a side that is by far and away looking to the future.
Prediction: 14th

Harlequins
I worry for Harlequins this year. They don't seem to have made any improvements to their side and seemed to be thankful for finishing 9th last year. Brian McDermott has been talking up Harlequins' prospects of a good season by claiming they can make the Grand Final. I personally can't them coming close to the play offs. They have lost a lot of pace and don't seem to have replaced it.
Prediction: 10th

Huddersfield
New coach, Nathan Brown, is not afraid of mincing his words when it comes down to the nitty gritty. Last year as coach of St George-Illawarra, he led an outburst that criticised Melbourne's style of play. It will be tight but they can make the play offs. I think Brown will make sure they do, with his key signing Brett Hodgson. Had Todd Carney been granted a visa, they would be looking for a top six finish giving them home advantage in the first play off game.
Prediction: 8th

Hull FC
You know, I could have sworn I rated this team highly 12 months ago. A total self destruction hampered their league season, but showed they have what it takes to make a major final by travelling to Wembley. I think Shaun Berrigan can step into the form he had at Brisbane this year. Chris Thorman adds a different dimension compared to Adam Dykes while Tongan star, Sam Moa adds size to the pack in the absence of Gareth Carvell.
Prediction: 7th

Hull KR
While writing a draft for this piece, it was really difficult trying to support an argument for Hull KR to make the play offs. But thats not supposed to be a criticism, believe it or not. They have one of the best coaches in the league, their fair share of international players and fans that deserve to see their side reaching the hights to Super League. But the writing doesn't seem to be on the wall for KR to make the eight. For me, theres something missing that can change KR from a play off contender, to a really dominant side. If I know what it was, I'd tell you.
Prediction: 9th

Leeds
Once again, and to the surprise of many, Leeds go into their new campaign as re-crowned champions. Two weeks after their first play off game at Saints, it looked like the home side would run away with the trophy at Old Trafford as well. To make things worse for the rest of Super League, they seem to have recruited very well. Greg Eastwood would be their best signing of the off season had they not snapped up Danny Buderus as well. Eastwood is a straight swap for the departed Gareth Ellis, while Buderus is likely to restrict Matt Diskin's playing time. If they can reproduce a Cunningham-Roby partnership, Leeds will have no trouble becoming the first side to win Super League three times in a row.
Prediction: 1st

Salford
Last years National League 1 winners, and in dramatic style against their Welsh Super League opponents this year. It seems as a result, Shaun McRae has recruited extremely well. He has picked up workhorse Rob Parker, Saints supreme scorer Willie Talau, Ray Cashmere and Jeremy Smith. Although I'm pretty sure McRae signed the wrong Jeremy Smith, this one came from South Sydney. Either way, with the experience of Robbie Paul and the youth of Richard Myler, Salford could be looking to challenge for a play off spot.
Prediction: 10th

St Helens
Nothing gave the rest of Lancashire more pleasure than seeing Sainst fall to Leeds for the second time in a row when they were odds on favourites to take Super League. This year Sainst will not dominate the year like they are used to. Paul Sculthorpe has left for good and cannot influence the dressing room, while the dangerous left hand partnership between Francis Meli and Willie Talau has been broken up. Fozzard loses them go forward, although that has been replaced by Tony Puletua. A new coach may also take time to used to, especially with a brand new squad.
Prediction: 2nd

Wakefield
I hate to bring this up, but how will the death of Adam Watene affect the rest of the squad? As professional sportsmen, it will make sence for them to dust themselves off and really give it a go in his memory. On paper, however, they don't look like a team capable of achieving a play off place despite falling a few rounds short mathematically.
Prediction: 11th

Warrington
They still have their disapponting big name players in Matt King and Michael Monaghan, but this year there has been very little noise coming from the players and coaching staff this year. Maybe all the energy is going into preperation instead of bigging themselves up like they have done for the past two seasons. The major loss is Rob Parker, but he has been replaced by Gareth Carvell. At the same time, Mark Gleeson's replacement is the critially accliamed Micky Higham. Wigan fans were really disappointed to see the hooker go, but what is Wigan's loss is surley Warrington's gain?
Prediction: 5th

Wigan
A number of Wigan's key players need to stand up and be counted this season. Stuart Fielden is one noticable example. His last two good performances were against Wests in the 2006 WCC and in his Wigan debut the same year. Since then, he has lost his international shirt and become the subject of a large amount of riddicule since being hit in the face by Willie Mason. Gareth Hock and Sean O'Loughlin have never really lived up to their big name status either. Brian Noble must get the best out of these players, or new signings Mark Riddell and Amos Roberts must be wondering what they have signed up for.
Prediction: 4th

Can anyting more bizzare happen in Rugby League during 2009?

2009-02-01T18:14:00.014Z

Mystic Meg could predict the future lottery winners. Can we predict who will win Super League? Let us peer into our crystal ball and tell you the future of Rugby League in 2009.

February

Celtic arrive at Headingley with only nine players eligible to play in the season opener live on SKY. As a last resort to screen the game and not put the sport into disrepute, Celtic recruit a wide range of eligible players who haven't been affected by the eagerness of the Home Office to prevent overseas players getting UK visas. A list of these include Jonathon Davis, John Bevan, Griff Rhys-Jones, Huw Edwards, Rob Brydon and Stevo. Attempts to resurrect Warrington club legend, Dai Davies, are unsuccessful.

In the build up to the World Club Challenge, Manly coach Des Hassler accidentally picks up the wrong set of notes in preparation for a press conference ahead of the big game the following month. Instead of saying he is "confident of winning the match" and "preparation couldn't have been better", he reads out a list of reasons why Manly have lost the match before it has even kicked off. A small selection of excuses include "its too cold", "we were unprepared", and my personal favourite "half the squad didn't have a visa to enter the UK".

March
Ashley Klein is appointed one of two referees in charge of Cronulla Sharks' opening game of the NRL season. Ricky Stuart praises both referees despite losing 22-23, and the drop goal not even passing in between the posts in the final second of extra time.

Toulouse open their Championship season with a comfortable win over other Super League licence rejectees, Widnes, at The Stobart Stadium. The away fans begin to taunt the home fans by singing popular terrace chants such as "Super Ligue, vous rencontrez un éclat de rire", "Petite ville de Runcorn" and "nous pouvons vous voir furtivement à." God bless the French sence humour.

April
The RFL announce the Challenge Cup fifth round draw will be in Leeds and broadcast live on the BBC. This is despite reports circulating afterwards in newspapers and on the web that reporters and other broadcasters were locked in a steel cage guarded by several hungry tigers, a moat of viscous sharks and a pissed up Ray French, in between the times the draw was actually made and when it was broadcast. Neil Barker of the Manchester Evening News uses the time to ponder his future in journalism, and completes a life long ambition to become a hair dresser.

The Easter Bunny makes a welcome early appearance for a certain class of people ahead of the Good Friday clash between Wigan and St Helens. Unfortunately, Dave Wheelan double books The JJB Stadium and at the expense of Rugby League, it becomes the first venue to host the 'World Fattest Hooker' competition. The RFL agree the winner out of Keiron Cunningham and Mark Riddell will take the two Super League points back home to their respective clubs.

May
Murrayfield Magic is hailed as a success by The RFL despite a total attendance of 8,373 over two days. As the weekend progresses, the pitch becomes more unplayable thanks to Scotland's traditional Bank Holiday weather. Before the final match, Warrington coach, James Lowes, agrees to let his players run out in camo gear and a paintball gun before fighting in the trenches dug up by the Catalan side as they tried to surrender in the preceding game against Leeds.

Wayne Bennett is unable to mastermind another win for New Zealand as the World Champions go down in the annual Anzac Test in Brisbane. Stephen Kearney refuses to blame referee, Steve Ganson, in the after match press conference but is eventually sacked by the NZRL after an aggressive outburst towards Mr Ganson in a hotel lobby, as witnessed by several RLIF and ARL officials.

June
Due to the success of Murrayfield Magic, The RFL announce there will be a new team from Scotland being brought into the Championship 1 league for 2010. Nigel Woods says, "The team will be based in the Isle of Lewis and will be made up of anyone we can find that might have the characteristics of a Neanderthal." Surprisingly, traditionalists fans are supportive of the idea as it the one ground in the country that stays in winter all year round. As a result, rumours begin to circulate that multi-billionaire, Kris Kringle, is attempting to form a club in in the Lapland region of Finland.

Exiled-Kiwi, Sonny Bill Williams finally attempts to break his contract with French rugby union side, RC Toulonnais. Despite being linked with Catalan, Toulouse and the rest of Super League, Williams signs for French Elite Two Championship side, Montpellier Red Devils. Several days later, Williams deserts his new club and moves back to New Zealand just in time for when the New Zealand government pass a law to bring back capital punishment for treason.

July
The Northern Rail Nines competition is a surprising success as the attendance is actually higher than in the Northern Rail Cup final itself. York City Knights take the inaugural crown but the trophy is sold to an Polish prostitute working in one of Blackpool's back streets. When asked about the whereabouts of the trophy, an unknown player is quoted saying, "It'll have been melted down and used as a silver g-string by now. If you'd have seen the woman, you wouldn't want it back."

The NRL abandon the two referees system in an emergency meeting after New South Wales win the State of Origin series after a penalty was incorrectly awarded to NSW. In a statement, Colin Love said, "It is unacceptable that a sporting match should be the subject of such controversy. Referees should not make mistakes and should therefore be the subject to a week in the stocks before being let free again. Its either that, or sending them to England like we did with Ashley Klein. Having said that, he didn't half screw us over in the World Cup."

August
The RFU announces that from the 2009/10 season it will be using a top six play off system to decide the winners of its top flight league. An RFU spokesman says, "We developed this highly exciting system to extend the competition by just a few weeks to give the fans a tense end to a long campaign. The play off system, as developed by the bosses at Twickenham (!), will see the top two teams given a rest for a week while the remaining four will go through a process of elimination to find out who will face the loser of the top two. The winner of that game will face the other top two side in the final. England coach, Martin Johnson says, "This is a totally original format that has never been used before. I can't believe how smart the people I work with are. They invented the Video Referee, they invented professionalism in rugby and now they have come up with this. Its remarkable."

The Challenge Cup final is put under threat by a freak blizzard, which is in contrast to the previous years final where the temperature was over 30 degrees. York City Knights eventually win the cup, but refuse to comment when asked by a reporter about its whereabouts the day after the final.

September
Paul Wellens, Ade Gardner, Leon Pryce, Rob Burrow, Kevin Sinfield and Danny McGuire all announce their retirement of international Rugby League effective immediately as the build up to the inaugural Four Nations begins. All six players site their reason as "focusing on club rugby" and refuse to attend a warm up camp set up by the RFL as a bonding exercise. Leon Pryce announces he is taking his off season holiday on Sydney's Bondi Beach.

Cronulla win the Minor Premiership in the NRL and things look promising for Ricky Stuart's side ahead of the finals. Unfortunately, being Cronulla, they lose to Souths in the Qualifying Final and then again to Penrith in the following game. Ricky Stuart is sacked after publically blaming the same referee for both losses.

October
Manly win the NRL for the second year in a row defeating opponents, Melbourne. St Helens also lose to Leeds for the third time in a row at Old Trafford. St Helens Chairman, Eamonn McManus (who was against the change in play off format), requests that the play off format be changed on an annual basis until Saints finally win Super League.

Mick Potter is deported from the UK less than 24 hours after his sides loss in the Grand Final due to an unsuccessful visa re-newal.

November
St Helens recruit legendary player, Tom van Vollenhoven as head coach for 2010. Brian Noble is finally sent off the Wigan Mental Instutute for thinking he can ever win anything with Wigan, while Keith Senior marries his year long girlfriend from Australia.

France finish above England in the Four Nations while New Zealand defeat Australia in the final. Rumours begin to circulate the Wayne Bennett cracked a smile.

Video game review: Rugby League Manager 2008

2008-12-28T01:15:00.005Z

Rugby League Manager 2008

RRP: £0.00Creator: Alex Thomas
Website: www.rugbyleaguemanager.com

Its not everyday we are treated to two RL games in the same year. In fact its not every year we get a Rugby League game to shout about, so count your lucky stars we have what we're given to us no matter how poor they might be.

Rugby League Manager 2008 comes in on the back of the latest of Sidhe's popular but flawed Rugby League franchise, Rugby League: World Cup Edition. The review can be seen below this one. However the two games are completely different, in that RLM08 allows you to be the coach of any Super League side competing in the 2008 season as opposed to being the players ala FIFA. RLM08 is the equivalent to Football Manager, in more ways than one I believe. But the uniqueness of RLM08 is that the game is completely free via download. That's right, the game will cost you nothing to download and play. Isn't that a bonus?

Well possibly, right? Those of you that were unfortunate enough to play Championship Rugby Manager way back in 2000 will remember how poor that game was. Only in that game could Wakefield rack up 70 points against Saints, but still manage to concede over 50. Its what really let that game down, so much so I failed to get past June of the first season without giving up on it at any given point in the past eight years. The commentary was very stop/start and the matches consisted of a bird's eye view of an over sized ball moving about a rugby pitch on its own. But away from the in-game experience, the rest of the game was average at best with decent menus, presentation and human interactivity. It was fairly easy to play until game day, but even then nothing in that weeks build up to a match made up for the poor experience. And don't forget, we had to pay for that torture. So imagine my concern and hesitation when RLM08 came out for free.

But imagine my relief and joy when it turned out to be pretty decent. In fact, I could not get away from the laptop because it was so good. The presentation and display looked good despite the initial complications in selecting your team from the left side menu. Once you get round the user-unfriendliness of that left menu that is standard throughout the game and understand that it works similar to the My Computer sidebar on Windows Vista, the game becomes easier to use. In fact I would recommend playing with the sidebar and familiarising yourself with it to find out what features are where before really getting stuck into the game itself, therefore maximising your initial enjoyment instead of giving up if your a a novice to PC gaming. Past the menu though, the game is easy to play and understand. Information such as players names, attributes and other details are clearly displayed and include a wide range of skills that goes into quite a bit of detail. Selecting your team is easy enough although repetitive. Despite being scrapped mid-2008, the 20 man and 18 man squads are still needed which means you are selecting your team three times before the actual match. Possibly a bonus if you realise you want to make a few adjustments to the starting team after picking your initial squad but often a little annoying if nothing happens during the week.

RLM08 goes into more detail tactically than what CRM did. It allows more advanced moves on the field when players have played with each other more often over the course of the season. This often results in convincing wins, but not all the time. Take heed in selecting your squad for the next game after using advanced tactics, as one of the game's major bugs is it will freeze as you try to select your next 20-man squad.
Unlike RL2: WCE, you have the choice of selecting National League and NRL players to transfer and sell. While selecting Billy Slater and Benji Marshall sounds like heaven, the salary cap puts that idea to bed unless you have a forward pack of kids on £300 a week.

Once you have selected your team, its game time. Possibly the best aspect of the game. Its very similar to Football Manager's old 2-D birds eye view. Presentation is slick, clear and if you select the right options it can go into quite a bit of detail into how well your team is performing. Score lines are realistic and often the three-quarters score the tries. Theres a million and one different options to assess how your team is playing, which really makes this game what it is. A quality programmed game made by one man in his study, possibly on a laptop.

If this game were to be made by a professional studio with a few improvements, it would be one of the best games in the UK market.

Graphics – 7/10

Gameplay – 8/10

Sound – 3/10

Presentation – 8/10

Overall – 7/10

The First Annual A Tap on the Twenty Awards 2008

2008-12-27T23:40:00.001Z

As promised, the second batch of A Tap on the Twenty awards are being presented. These awards cover the entire 2008 season, including both Super League and NRL, from State of Origin to the successful World Cup. Every big game was covered, and therefore from a wide selection of games, the following awards were presented.

The Unofficial 'Reg Reagan Bring Back The Biff' Award: Eric Grothe V Justin Hodges (State of Origin 3)
Try of the Year: Mark Gasnier V New Zealand (May 2008)
Hit of the Year: Josh Perry on Ben Ross (Manly V Cronulla, March 2008)
Match of the Year: Brisbane V Melbourne, NRL finals week 2. (September 2008)
Special Recognition Award: Papua New Guinea
Biggest Disappointment of the Year: England
Team of the Year: Queensland
A Tap on the Twenty's Player of the Year: Brett Webb (Leeds Rhinos)

Video game review: RL2 WC Edition.

2008-12-15T20:21:00.000Z

Rugby League 2: World Cup Edition.

RRP: £24.46

Developer: Sidhe Interactive

Publisher (UK): Alternative Software.

Rugby League 2 was released on the back of the original title back in 2005. Sidhe exposed many flaws in the original and went about to rectify the situation. Despite it still not matching up to EA’s Rugby franchise it was still an improvement non-the-less. Now Sidhe have come up with another version of the game, only this time don’t get your hopes up.

Rugby League 2: World Cup Edition is almost a carbon copy of the second instalment in the franchise. The biggest difference isn’t gameplay or graphics; it is merely an up-to-date version of the 2005 sequel including the 2008 World Cup competition format with official teams and player names up to the 2008 season. Franchise Mode, NRL and Super League seasons remain along with State of Origin, Four Nations (OK, the last one was Tri Nations but similar competition format applies), City V Country etc, its all still there and all fully licenced. Although there are extras to unlock, most are not worth buying a £25 game for and videos last for roughly a minute.

Franchise Mode is still pretty much the same as it was last time round. You still cannot buy Billy Slater, Greg Inglis and co if you play as Wigan, Saints or any other English side. Likewise, West Tigers fans won’t be able to see what Gareth Ellis looks like in their 2008 jersey. However, Craven Park and Stade Gilbert Brutus have been added along with Twickenham Stoop, Gold Coast’s Skilled Park and Browne Park in Rockhampton. However despite the game being the official game of the RLWC, amazingly the Telstra Dome doesn’t feature where Australia trounced England in Melbourne. Even under the unofficial name of Dockland Stadium it fails to get a mention. It seems little details like this make the game worse than what it really is.

Another example is Catalan still play at the Stade Aimé Giral under default settings and Harlequins still play at Griffin Park. For a 2008 version, they are rather not needed but it’s nice to have them in all the same. Surely it isn’t difficult to make sure attention to detail is accurate. Even Headingley’s Carnegie Stand is not included in the game, having completed construction two years ago in reality. Therefore the game feels rushed, unfinished and, dare I say it, unprofessional.

As ever, Channel Nine’s Andrew Voss takes to the commentary box alone, which sort of makes his commentary seem a bit stop-start. It doesn’t really flow and neither is it any accureate for that matter. Often a hooker passes to the second row and the commentary line is “the second row...passes to...the hooker”. But despite that, the sound isn’t really the worst aspect of this game, but neither is it worth shouting about.

There are some good features to this game, but you have to look hard to find them. For a start the graphics do look a lot cleaner and polished. There is more colour to them than in the last title making it brighter and somehow more of an arcade game than a full on simulator. That said, Sidhe have always wanted this franchise to be enjoyed by more than just a hard core fan base. However this makes the game more enjoyable in a small aspect. In addition to colourful graphics is the tiny but noticeable improvement of the handling. I’m not talking about individual player’s ball handling skill attributes here, I mean how the game feels to control an player. Sidhe have made it faster flowing, but over all the gameplay is only slightly better. Sidhe have limited the amount of times a player “skates” while turning around, so to speak. Therefore the player sliding backwards into touch like he is on Dancing on Ice after collecting the ball is not seen as often, and wingers and fullbacks have even started to leave the ball when it is going into touch. But this can be a bit annoying when the opposition has kicked a 40/20. Another neat addition is the ability to slide the defence around the field and even compress them to bunch around the play the ball area.

The developers have finally read the rule book and allowed advantage to the defending side after a knock on, even if the defending team automatically knocks on straight after. This was one of the standout issues with Rugby League 2 and thankfully it has been eliminated. But one more serious issue remains, and that is when a player receives the ball from acting half back and intends to kick, he turn to the side as the kicking button is pressed and force you into kicking the ball as far to one side as the curser allows to gain yards. This, more often than not, results in a kick out on the full. It’s a glitch in the game that still hasn’t be ironed out and is one of the more frustrating things about the game. Also the cut scenes need re-thinking. I’m all for a bit of animation and players congratulating each other. Its much better then in the original game where there are virtually none except the try scorer moving his arms in the air like a puppet. But is there any need to the title of the game to come up in between them? The game doesn’t flow with them in and again, it’s another question about professionalism. If you look at the likes of FIFA or Pro Evo, their goal celebrations flow smoothly after a goal is scored without the pop-up title. It’s not needed and its certainty not liked.

And on that note its time to summarise. Many tiny aspects of gameplay have been improved, but the game lets itself down in presentation and attention to detail. This could have been an improvement, but instead it lacks any real sense of existence.

Graphics – 6/10

Gameplay – 7/10

Sound – 6/10

Presentation – 6/10

Overall – 6/10

The Rugby League World Cup 2008 - Was it worth it?

2008-12-03T21:54:00.008Z

From an English point of view, the RL World Cup was without a doubt, a big disappointment. We sent our team off thinking we had a squad capable of beating Australia on their day. As it turns out, we struggled to perform in every game. But overall how was the tournament for the rest of the competing nations? Was New Zealand's shock victory in the final the best thing that could have happened to the international game post-Super League? Did Fiji's excellent run over France and Ireland show there is talent outside the three big competing nations? Was the much anticipated match between Samoa and Tonga in Penrith resurrect the idea of a Pacific Nations Cup for good? What are the implications of the tournament and how will be benifits be seen in the future?

Financially the World Cup was a huge success, making (IIRC) a profit of five million Australian dollars. Many critics at the time said this was largely down to TV money and not ticket sales or merchandising. Frankly, who cares? We now know there is a huge international audience out there and that TV companies are willing to splash the cash in order to show Rugby League. As a result, future international TV deals in the UK and Australia will no longer be sold by the domestic governing bodies. The RLIF, and rightly so, will begin the sell the international game so the money can go straight into the their pocket as soon as the current domestic deals are re-spawned. This is something that FIFA, IRB and ICC have been doing for years for their major international tournaments respectively.

On the playing side, the majority of games were very competitive with only six games where one team really ran away with the games. Thats less than in the 2000 tournament (14 one sided games) and 10 games less than in the pool stages of the 2007 Rugby Union World Cup. The highest winning margin of any game was 52-0 in the second semi final between Australia and Fiji. Australia also scored 52 points against England. There were also a few shock scorelines outside the "big three" nations. Papua New Guinea gave England a fright while few predicted Fiji to beat France in the manner in which they did. As a result, Fiji progressed on points difference despite a close and exciting game against Scotland while France lay at the bottom of Group B. Arguably they were the most disappointing team to come away from the World Cup especially as they are competing in the 2009 Four Nations. Ireland did the British Isles proud after topping their group, again on points difference, and competing well against a good Fijian side in the semi final qualifier. Scotland also earned their first ever World Cup win over Fiji. Papua New Guinea were also earnt the RL world's respect after challenging all the "big three" nations and never showing remorse despite the lack of hight profile experience. Overall, whatever the score line I believe the neutral fan was never let down with the product offered.

So overall the World Cup was a success. Commercially, people in Australia were made aware there was a World Cup on their door step despite their supposd poor attutude to any sort of sport beyond October (unless its Cricket) with the total attendance being short of 300K at precisly 293, 965. Thats a average attendance of 16, 331 which is pretty much equel to an average NRL attendance last season (16, 317). In which case no one can complain they're wern't any eager supporters to watch a thrilling and excitable World Cup.

NEW Super League Play Off format announced.

2008-12-02T20:52:00.006Z

The RFL have announced the format which will decide the two Grand Finalists for 2009 and beyond. To say it is innovative is an understatement.

To summarise this top eight system quickly, the first two weeks of the four week format is basically a carbon copy of the AFL Aussie Rules finals system currently in place. The top four face each other while the bottom four also play off against one another like so, using the Super League XIII final standings as examples of how this might work ;

St Helens V Wigan
Leeds V Catalan
Bradford V Wakefield
Warrington V Hull KR

The losers of the teams that finished in the bottom four of the play offs are eliminated. The winners progress to week two, where they will face the losers of the top four contested matches. The winners of these matches advance straight to week three where they will have a week off.

In the second week, the top two losers will play at home to the bottom two winners, a bit like this if results went the way they are expected to.

Wigan V Bradford
Catalan V Warrington

The losers will be eliminated while the winners would wait for the highest ranked team that won their top four play off match to decide who to play at their home ground. Thats right, the highest ranked team gets to decide which of the two Preliminary Semi Finalists winners they will play for a chance to appear at Old Trafford. The scenario may look a bit like this;

St Helens V Bradford
Leeds V Catalan

Or you may see this;

St Helens V Catalan
Leeds V Bradford

Either way, the losers of both games are eliminated and Saints will still lose to Leeds at Old Trafford.

So what are the thoughts on the new system? Like I said, its certainly innovative. No other sport will use it in a rush that's for certain. Going off the previous system, it seemed it disadvantaged the team who won the Qualifying Semi Final. St Helens won both in 2007 and 2008 but lost the Grand Final to the same opponents Leeds two weeks later on each occasion. The new method will see both Grand Finalists play a crucial game a week before the final, giving top four team one week rest maximum. And this format certainly plays advantage to the top four within the first week. The winners take the week off, while the losers get the second bite of the cherry. It also give the highest ranked winning team in week one a huge advantage in the Qualifying Semi Finals as they choose who their opponents are. While they can't select the other winner of the top four week one match, they can decide who to face from the two Preliminary Semi Finals, which adds spice to that particular match. Basically what the team who chooses is saying, we think you are an easy passage to the Grand Final. Any decent team will see that as motivation, and to go on someone else's patch and win such a game will be more than rewarding.

So finally we have a system that is defiantly more rewarding to the higher ranking sides. There is no doubt about that. Whether the system is feasible, supported and seen in the public domain as interesting is the big question. This is as opposed to unworkable, disliked and a case of lunatics running the asylum at Red Hall.

On a personal level, I am willing to sit on the fence until I see the format played out. I cannot wait to see it played out as I believe it will liven up the the matches in the penultimate weekend of the competition. I also want your views and opinions. Please tell me if you like or dislike the new system put into place before the new season starts in February.

The Premier League tried to copy Millennium Magic with its matches abroad idea, the RFU stole the professionalism idea from us after criticising us for it after 100 years, so you can probably bet your soul another sport will steal this idea from us as well eventually.

Can't you?

Refereeing bathes in the spotlight.

2008-11-30T17:57:00.006Z

It seems referees have taken the spotlight yet again over the past few weeks. While New Zealand, and in fact the rest of the world, were celebrating an Australian demise in Brisbane, Ricky Stuart was cursing and verbally abusing World Cup final referee Ashley Klien in a hotel lobby. Australian coach, Stuart, was unhappy with Klein's performance in the final while the rest of the 52,000 in Suncorp thought he had referees the game quite well and Australia had lost the World Cup fairly.

After such events, Stuart should resign as Australian coach as soon as possible and forever leave actions like this away from the international game. There is no place for verbal abuse at an official whether it be on the field, in the sheds or in a public place away from the stadium. A public apology is not good enough for a professional such as Stuart. He is a grown man and just because Klein is a Super League referee does not mean he should be put in the stocks. So to speak.

And on the subject of refereeing, the ARL's radical new attempt the introduce two referees on the field is gaining momentum. Yes thats right, two referees on the same field for NRL games. And while we're at it, change the play the ball to throwing it between the players legs in the middle of the field, bring the defence forward to only one yard from the "ruck", allow non ball handing attacking players to obstruct the defence and let attackers throw the ball forward.

Hang on, doesn't that sport already exist in America?

Anyway, two referees is not only pointless but also a pain in the anus. The reason we have one referee is so one man can call the decisions without consulting peers, therefore slowing the game down. Australian fans and critics have always complained about the game being slowed down, so why do they come up with ideas to make the problem worse? There is the argument that the referee has too much to look out for and gets offsides and forward passes wrong on a regular basis. But refereeing at a professional game is not difficult, as say, refereeing or umpiring any sport when assisted.

Here is the ideal scenario that the referee, touch judges, video referees and in-goal judges should follow. The man in the middle (wearing pink in Super League) focuses on the ruck and play the ball. He checks for infringement, if markers are square and correct play the balls. Touch judges check for offsides and forward passes. Both alternate tasks at half time, so one checks for offside and the other checks for forward passes. Simple. In-goal judges of course check for grounding of the ball and if a try has been scored while the video referee does the same job he has always done. While many want this technology scrapped, you must bear in mind the technology isn't getting the decisions wrong, its the person behind the red and green butons that is getting them wrong.

And on that note, there is no need for the NRL to bring in two referees. Whats Colin Love's number? Someone should let him know.

A Tap on the Twenty's RLWC08 Awards.

2008-11-29T20:55:00.005Z

In the first of two award announcements this year, we award and recognise players and teams that have earned special mention during the past five weeks in the view of the makers of A Tap on the Twenty.

Try of the Tournament: Darren Lockyer V New Zealand (Final)
Hit of the Tournament: Jarryd Hayne on Darren Lockyer (Semi Final)
Player of the Tournament: Billy Slater - Australia
Team of the Tournament: Fiji
Most Courageous Team of the Tournament: Papua New Guinea
Lifetime Achievement Award: Stanley Gene
Referee of the Tournament: Steve Ganson
A Tap on the Twenty's RLWC08 Special Award: Scotland & Ireland

And now we shame those who failed to live up to their reputations at the tournament...

Sorest Loser of the Tournament: Ricky Stuart
Most Underachieving Team of the Tournament: France
Biggest Disappointment of the Tournament: England's performances in every game.
Over Hyped Player of the Tournament: Paul Wellens - England

Rugby League World Cup 2008 final review.

2008-11-24T18:09:00.007Z

New Zealand 34-20 Australia
For the past nineteen years I never thought it would happen. For the past nineteen years I have seen a team in green and gold rule the roost on international RL. I have seen whitewash test series, heartbreaking test series and 64-10 test matches.

But there have been moments for joy for opposition to the so called 'elite'. 23-10 in Sydney 2006, I was present at 24-0 in Leeds 2005 and now in 2008 I saw on my magic box another historic victory.

Australia's 33 year domination came to an end on the 22nd November 2008, and with it the credibility of international Rugby League was released from its cage. But this was not a one off victory for New Zealand, this victory had been sneaking up on Australia for years to come. Ever since the introduction of Auckland Warriors in 1995, New Zealand Rugby League has been making important steps to defeat their Tasman rivals. Success was achieved and with it, a little piece of history. Until Saturday, New Zealand had never won the RL World Cup.

What surprised me early on in the game is both teams desire to play some footy. Both sides early on in their set of six offloaded in rather risky situations. From then on I knew we would have a cracking game on our hands. From then on we saw tries and plays that would keep the Harlem Globetrotters happy. Darren Lockyer's fantastic team try was a perfect example of this. Australia should have closed the game from that moment, they had the momentum going into half time and should have capitalised.

But as we all know, with an Australian loss comes excuses and talking points. We'll start with the penalty try. Should it have been given? The answer is no. Now bear with me here. I don't believe it should have been a penalty try, but it should have been a simple penalty and Joel Monaghan should have been sin binned. Chances are NZ would have scored from the set of six anyway so it may not have affected the result. But I felt that Billy Slater was in a position where there was a 50/50 chance of either Slater or Roparti contesting the ball. As we all know, a penalty try can only be given if there is 100% certainty of the attacking player scoring. In my opinion there wasn't and a penalty should have been awarded to New Zealand ten metres out.

The other talking point is the steal from Anthoney Laffranchi on Benji Marshall resulting in Jerome Roparti scoring from what looked like a knock on on first look. However, despite the cry from various fans of Marshall not having hold of the ball properly, I feel there was intent from Watmough to strip the ball and therefore a one-on-one strip is play on no matter where the ball lands. Lucky for New Zealand, it was they who picked the ball up and scored.

Australia never recovered from the penalty try despite Greg Inglis scoring in the corner with minutes of the game remaining. They panicked under 33 years of pressure and despite former Australian greats claiming that this green and gold side was the best ever, they surrendered the World Cup and New Zealand made a little piece of history.

Rugby League world Cup 2008 final preview.

2008-11-20T11:36:00.002Z

Australia V New Zealand
The Rugby League World Cup 2008 will conclude in Brisbane on Saturday. For the past month ten teams have been controversially whittled down to two, and its pretty unanamously agreed these two teams are the two best teams in the world.

New Zealand have comfortably brushed aside Papua New Guinea and England (twice) and now they face the side who beat them on day two. Australia have had an easier ride to Brisbane. They have destroyed every team that has faced them and I would not be complaining if they were eventually voted the best Australian side ever, as some critics seem to belive.

Benji Marshall will be the only player on New Zealand's side cpable of springing the biggest upset in Rugby League history, if it were possible. But the quality of Darren Lockyer and Johnathan Thurston will be too much for the NZ halfs pairing. On top of that, Price and Petro Civoniceva will be making the hard yards for Australia backed up by Laffranchi, Gallen and Glenn Stewart. Need I talk about their three quarters?

New Zealand won't lie down and get humped. They will fight until towards the end, at which point Australia should begin to pull away and reclaim the World Cup for their own once again.
Australia by 18

Rugby League world Cup 2008 - Semi Final review

2008-11-20T11:35:00.002Z

New Zealand 32-22 England
To summarise quickly, England were awful and New Zealand showed us how to play decent rugby.

Australia 52-0 Fiji
Australia dominated the game from start to finish, but I find it encouraging that Fiji didn't get star struck. They were simply outplayed but refused to give in.

Rugby League world Cup 2008 - Semi Final preview

2008-11-14T17:52:00.005Z

New Zealand V England
According to the Sky Sports website, it seems Tony Smith is keeping his team sheet a secret up until the last moment. This is apparently keeping the players on their toes and according to Mark Calderwood is also freshening up the training sessions knowing every position is still to play for.

However, New Zealand make several changes to the side that beat England last week. Sam Perrett replaces Jason Nightingale while Simon Mannering moves into the centres to replace the injured Steve Matai. Thomas Leuleui swaps places with Nathan Fien while Nathan Cayless is brought in at the expence of Tuimavave. Sika Manu makes a welcome return for NZ wheras Sam Rapira is brought in for David Kidwell on the bench.

The only expected change for England is the return of Leon Pryce, while Ade Gardner and Danny McGuire are definatly not playing in the must win game for England to replenish some pride and hopfully a World Cup final apperance.
Prediction: New Zealand by 14

Australia V Fiji
Ricky Stuart isn't taking any chances against Fiji as he names his strongest possible side against lowly Pacific Islanders, Fiji. With 2000 a distant memory for many, it must still ring in the Australian's ears when Wales came very close to one of the biggest upsets in world sport at this stage of the competition eight years ago.

Darius Boyd, David Williams, Terry Campese, Josh Perry, Scott Price and Anthony Watmough are all dropped while Karmicheal Hunt, Brent Kite and Craig Fitzgibbon are back on the bench. In comes Petro Civoniceva, Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Anthony Laffranchi while Steve Price, Paul Gallen and Isreal Folau all move up to the starting 13.

For Fiji it will be a mission Tom Cruis couldn't manage. The inspirational players such as Hayne, Naiquama, Sims and the recently discovered Uate will be called upon to lead Fiji to the slaughter. However, if they can replicate Wales from eight years ago, they will have rightfully earned their fourth place ranking in this World Cup.
Prediction: Australia by 60

Rugby League World Cup 2008 - Week Three reviewed

2008-11-14T17:15:00.004Z

Scotland 0-48 Tonga
Danny 'Mel Gibson' Brough may have led Scotland to their first historic win over Fiji last time out, but his absence left a hole in the defence and zero direction in attack. The Bravehearts were a shadow of their former selves on the Central Coast up in Rockhampton this time round and shipping in 48 points showed.

Tonga meanwhile, displayed the sort of rugby that shows they can play this time round capping off an indifferent campaign. Their attitude and commitment to the World Cup over the course of the past three weeks shows they want to play international Rugby League on a regular basis and in a competitive environment.

England 24-36 New Zealand
England outplayed New Zealand. They dominated around the ruck area with Micky Higham being an inspirational metre-maker. The halfbacks had the knowledge to throw the ball around in their own half at the right time and Rob Burrow destroyed The Kiwis on their own line in attack. Even the three-quarters continually backed their teammates up whenever a break was made. It was a wonderful display of Rugby League against what many critics deem to be our equals.

So why did it all go belly up in the second half? Why did England go back to the one dimensional tactics that saw us get over 50 points shipped past us in Melbourne? With a 24-8 lead, what was so difficult in continuing to put New Zealand on the back foot again and again like we did in the first half hour? It was such a wonderful collapse that a demolition crew would be impressed.

But despite the lack in concentration, England can take away from the game the posetives of the first half and to beat New Zealand next week, it is essential we apply those posetives for the full eighty minutes in the semi final.

France 10-42 Samoa
Using their third hooker in three games, France did a Scotland for just about seventy minutes of the game and failed to show up. Thomas Bosc led a French revolution late on but the damage was done and being assessed by the Samoans by the time France got their act together.

Nonetheless, it was nice to see another dominant Pacific display and further evidence a Pacific Nations Cup must be ressurected to ensure the growth of the international game in these countries.

Australia 46-6 Papua New Guinea
David Williams may have stole the show for Australia with a debut hat trick, but the limelight went to Stanley Gene after his final international game for The Kumuls.

Scott Price also put his name in the air for the semi finals after a two try display at scrum half partnering another debutant, Terry Campese. But the second story of the game was Papua New Guinea's attitude and determination not to let Australia run away with the game. But the reality is, it was their determination and attitude that often backfired on them, revealing their inexperience which Australia exposed.

But fair play to The Kumuls for turning up. They wern't happy about the draw, but of all the nations outside the 'top three' they can hold their heads up high the most on the return journey home.

Fiji 30-14 Ireland
Of the three home nations that participated in this World Cup, only Ireland can go home saying they have given their all in every game. They showed once again the courage, attitude, determination and spirit they possess despite being outplayed by a Fijian side that has made history by making the semi finals.

Both sides were against the odds according to me and many other critics, who said that Ireland would finish bottom of Pool C and Fiji would come second to France. Well, this World Cup has proven how unpredictable the sport is and how the right attitude will enable you to beat anybody.

Rugby League World Cup - Final B & C games reviewed AND week three preview

2008-11-07T21:30:00.001Z

Ireland 34 – 16 Samoa
Luck of the Irish game gave Pat Richards a hat trick, a record point tally in a World Cup game and took Ireland into the semi final qualifier on Monday. Samoa started the stronger side with several attacks on the Irish line within the first ten minutes. But Ireland scored first which seemed to demoralise the Samoans and it took them time to recompose themselves, by which time the damage was too much to repair.

Stunned Samoa had another string of chances on the Irish line midway through the second half. They dominated when in attack but couldn’t get past a determined defence. Not only that, but Ireland forced them into errors putting them under more pressure as they tried to drag back the deficit to less than six points, enough to send them through as group winners on points difference.

No doubt Ireland deserved their win. They were the better side and wanted to win more than Samoa. With needing to score and win, Ireland’s mind set was based on attacking the Samoans, whereas Nigel Vagana’s side only had to prevent their opponents from scoring a converted try. Therefore, the game was won mentally before either side stepped onto the pitch.

Scotland 18-16 Fiji
This game had everything. Biff, speed, skill, drama, passion and a re-write in history. Scotland won a World Cup game for the first time against Fiji in dramatic style. With eight minutes remaining and scores level, Fiji scored in the corner. However, three minutes later Scotland crossed the whitewash on a benefit of the doubt ruling. Danny Brough converted the try to edge the Scots ahead.

It was without doubt the game of the tournament so far and had me hooked for the whole eighty minutes. The fight involving Ian Henderson was truly one of the best all season. The neither player backed down with the Fijian loose forward getting a few good punches to the head of Henderson.

But the win does not secure Scotland’s place in the semi final qualifier. A 28 point winning margin was needed to set up an all British match, but Scotland can now take on Tonga with pride and walk away knowing they have done Scottish Rugby League proud.

And so with five games and all teams involved as we head into the third week of this tournament, a quick preview of this weekend’s games is in order.

Scotland V Tonga
Scotland will be on a high after their win over Fiji. Tonga go into this game on the back of a loss to rivals Samoa.
Prediction: Scotland by 6

England V New Zealand
Improvement is needed for England after last weeks mauling by Australia. New Zealand go into the game after a comfortable win over Papua New Guinea, but still possess a strong line up capable of challenging England.
Prediction: New Zealand by 18

France V Samoa
France will be disappointed not progressing any further in this competition and finishing bottom of their pool. Samoa will no doubt feel the same after their loss to Ireland, especially as they were heading the group before Wednesday.
Prediction: Samoa by 12

Australia V Papua New Guinea
With Darren Lockyer and a host of other regular starting players rested, Australia will not in any way shape or form be weakened. Players will be playing for places in the knockout stages so still expect the Aussies to stuff the brave Papuans. A shock win for PNG will see them progress to the semis if England lose by over fourteen points or PNG win by that amount.
Prediction: Australia by 48

Fiji V Ireland
Ireland will be on a high as well after their win against Samoa. Fiji shouldn’t be demoralised by their close loss to Scotland, but who knows what will happen in this tournament outside Pool A.
Prediction: Fiji by 2

Rugby League World Cup 2008 final Pool B & C games previewed.

2008-11-04T10:58:00.000Z

Ireland V Samoa
An 11 point or more win will see defiantly see Ireland into the next stage of the World Cup, and with their display against Tonga added to the team spirit in the camp there is a real possibility of this happening. Having had a coaching session by Andrew Johns leading up to the game tomorrow and the entire team getting tattoos as a sign of team spirit, the Irish couldn’t be more motivated to succeed and prove the critics wrong.

Samoa will go into this game as favourites though. They look the strongest on paper and came away with a promising win over Tonga on Friday. But the short five day turn around in preparation to this game may not be enough compared to a team that has had a week and a half rest period. In any other scenario, Samoa should carve Ireland apart. But Irish spirit, motivation and a lengthy rest period between matches could see a close competitive game.
Prediction: Samoa by 6

Scotland V Fiji
Scotland must have been worried watching Fiji tear France apart on Saturday. However, the same question applies with Fiji about Samoa. How will the short turnaround in preparing for this game affect their performance against a side that has had a longer wait than Ireland for this match? Also, how much has the France game on Saturday taken out of the faithful Fijians? That said, I thought Scotland buckled late on against France on day two of this tournament. To beat Fiji it will take a massive turnaround, but its one they have been preparing for over a week for.

Fiji can’t go into this game complacent of winning. That is despite a heavily scoring match against France. However, it seems likely that whatever the result tomorrow Fiji will go through to face the winners of Pool C on points difference. Scotland have to make up a 56 point deficit to get to the semi final qualifier, which for me is way too much.
Prediction: Fiji by 20

Rugby League World Cup 2008 week two review.

2008-11-03T21:40:00.000Z

Samoa 20-12 Tonga
Samoa dominated the much anticipated Battle of the Pacific with an eight point victory over their Tongan rivals. Samoa never really looked like losing this game despite being behind for a brief spell in the second half. Samoa won the game with solid defence in the second half. In fact, Tonga failed to score in the final forty minutes. It was a bruising affair that dragged the Penrith crowed into the stands. Even the crowed had as much passion as the players. Nigel Vagana called for sides like Samoa to play more international RL. If this game is anything to go by, I’m fully behind him.

Fiji 42-6 France
The French will not know what hit them going into what could be their final week of the tournament after having had forty points shipped past them in Wollongong on Saturday. Everyone expected France to put the faithful Fijians to the sword, but the reality was the complete opposite. Jarryd Hayne opened the scoring and scored another ten minutes from time. Parramatta fans will want to know where this form has been all season.

But the story of the match was seeing a strong and majority full time Catalan side lose heavily to a majority amateur team who went into this game knowing they had little to lose. On this performance, Fiji look confident of progressing to the semi final qualifier, most likely against Samoa, but don’t bet against Ireland just yet if this World Cup is anything to go by.

New Zealand 48-6 Papua New Guinea
With one match to play, could it be a game too far for Papua New Guinea? Adrian Lam publically said he was putting a lot, if not all his efforts into beating England. After proudly failing to do so, is it all downhill now for The Kumuls? This performance suggested that that would be the case.

Benji Marshall actually looked a different player to what he did in Sydney the week before. He got New Zealand to the safe position of qualifying for the semi finals before being brought off as a precaution. No doubt Stephen Kearney and Wayne Bennett are saving him for England on Saturday.

Australia 52-4 England
Where did it all go wrong for England? Although I suppose an easier question would be where did it go right? The answer, it didn’t. Tony Smith was succumbed to his first defeat as national coach, and it proved to be England’s worst in a World Cup. Every kick went to Slater. Every bounce went the Aussies way, who moved up as a defensive line ten times faster and did the same on kick chases from Price and Lockyer. Both had perfect games with the boot in general play.

Whereas England did the exact opposite. They came across as intimidated by the Australian line, and the one decent chance of scoring we had on their line contained poor passes and the tactical awareness of a drunken chimp. Basically, we were given a master class in Rugby League. Even I don’t know where to start in recollecting the pieces.

England must improve. A loss by New Zealand of 14 points of more, added to a PNG win on Sunday can see them on the next flight home.

Rugby League World Cup 2008 Week Two preview.

2008-10-30T19:29:00.001Z

Samoa V Tonga
In my opinion, this could be the game of the tournament. All the build up has been centred around these two Pacific Island’s history both on and off the RL pitch. The hatred for each other is off the scale. It goes beyond any Saints V Wigan, Hull FC V Hull KR or Australia V England rivalry. I don’t intend to watch this game for the skill factor or the little moment of magic that might win the game for either side. I’m hoping for an all out brawl. I expect huge hits whether they are legal or not. I want to see raw emotion that will separate the men from the boys.

And there is a good chance you will get to see all of that.
Prediction: Samoa by 4

Fiji V France
France go into this game after a comfortable win over the Scottish Bravehearts, who themselves lived up to their namesake. On that evidence, France should go in as favourites being in form and everyone’s choice to progress into the semi finals. However, the Fijian side doesn’t exactly make for easy reading. Jarryd Hayne is first on the team sheet while Semi Tadulala lies in the back line, Aston Sims beefs up an already rather bulky side all round. The key to Fiji is to use this to their advantage, while France will earn victory if they use the flanks.
Prediction: France by 16

New Zealand V Papua New Guinea
With the absence of Steve Matai and The Kiwis only try scorer, Sika Manu, a depleted New Zealand side must take on The Kumuls at Skilled Stadium in what could be the upset Adrian Lam has been hoping for. PNG were very good against England, and there were signs as New Zealand faced Australia that The Kiwis did not look at all comfortable. But NZ’s run of seven defeats in eight games (with only a win against France at the end of their 2007 tour) is surely coming to an end soon, or else the NZRL board must start to look within itself to find answers to its national side’s problems.
PNG meanwhile, go into the game full of confidence and no doubt with the same enthusiasm that rode them close against England. With all that in mind, I’m to tip PNG to upset New Zealand. Benji Marshall must save NZ from embarrassment or face his own career and reputation to go down the sink like so many domestic greats within our game.
Prediction: New Zealand by 14

Australia V England
Last met in Brisbane two years ago as Great Britain, GB were stuffed 33-10 on the back of their infamous 23-10 success in Sydney. Tony Smith must re-create that success if he is to keep his unbeaten run as national coach, and shut the Aussies up until the final at least. As its quite plausible both sides have progressed into the semi finals anyway, this game can only be seen as an excuse to test the water before the serious business begins on the 15th November. That said, because its Australia and England, its going to be fiercely contested like a World Cup final.

England are unchanged except for the introduction for Mark Calderwood as Lee Smith is injured. That means Adrian Morley will be used as an impact player off the bench while Peacock and Graham are the mixed blend of internationally experienced and inexperienced. Danny McGuire will no doubt replace either Burrow or Pryce. If Roby is taken off however, Burrow will move to hooker while McGuire takes over the No7 role.

Australia have also made one change to their line up that beat New Zealand 30-6. Karmichael Hunt replaces the controversial Anthony Tupou. Hunt was brought into Austrralia’s squad during the week as a result of subsequent injuries to various players.

The key for England to win this game, as I have said time and time before, the forwards must outplay the Aussie pack. With Peacock and Morley on the field at the same time, England can take on any pack in the world. Graham must prove he is capable of playing high intensity international Rugby League and be seen to carry the ball so Australia are back peddling every time. For Australia, they must hold the England front row, as the back line will fall automatically whenever Australia get within twenty metres of the try line.
Prediction: Australia by 18

Rugby League World Cup - Week One review.

2008-10-29T11:08:00.003Z

England 32-22 Papua New Guinea
After watching The Kumels dominate England for the majority of the first half, you have to wonder if we seriously have any chance of winning this tournament. PNG went into the tournament unhappy with the format, and unhappy with the draw that they said guaranteed them three losses in three matches. But no matter how they finish the tournament now, they can hold their heads high knowing they have given one of the biggest nations in Rugby League a huge scare.

The only defence for England is knowing that most of the seventeen that played in Townsville hadn’t played together since the thrashing of France. A PNG first team had lost to an Australian Prime Ministers XIII a week before the Grand Finals, but at least their team had played together within a month leading up the World Cup opener.

I have to credit Neville Costigan who was easily the best man on the pitch. For him to be on the losing side is a bit of injustice but Adrian Lam did mention before the tournament that this competition gave his players the opportunity to put themselves in the shop window for Super League and NRL clubs. Papua New Guinea has always been able to produce promising players and I feel one or two will be snapped up if they continue to perform against New Zealand and Australia.

For England I think the only decent player on the field was James Roby. His runs from dummy half gave England the go forward that PNG weren’t capable of stopping. Man for man, PNG managed to stand up against our props. Peacock didn’t have that good of a game as captain, as did any of the other forwards, but Morley did make an impact when he came off the bench on a few occasions.

Looking ahead, I feel Papua New Guinea can challenge New Zealand the way they did England. As for England, there is a slim hope they can beat Australia so long as the forwards outplay Price, Civoniceva, Laffranchi and the rest. From there, England can put the sword to the back line and hopefully Gardner, Gleeson, Senoir and Smith or Calderwood can finish off the attack. Its a big ask for the forwards, but it has been done before. Remember the last time Australia lost a match?

Scotland 18-36 France
The French were too good for Scotland really. The Scots played well and were able to compete for the majority of the game, but lacked the ability or fitness to play for the full eighty minutes. This was seen as France scored a very good team try on the full time hooter from inside their own thirty metres.

There were promising signs for France though. The fact they scored three tries, for a team that has never won a World Cup match, must be a massive boost for Steve McCormack going into the final group game against Fiji. France meanwhile, can take away an impressive performance from ex-Canberra and Warrington player Jerome Guissett. He showed what he is capable of on his day and came up with a solid prop forwards effort.

Australia 30-6 New Zealand
Theres no other word for it really. Australia blitzed New Zealand in what was promised as the game of week one. It went downhill for New Zealand from the start. Steve Matai will miss the PNG game on Saturday after a terrible forearm tackle on Gallen. The inexperience of Joel Monaghan, Laffranchi and Glenn Stewart didn’t prove anything as New Zealand weren’t able to use that to their advantage. Benji Marshall failed to live up to his reputation as the saviour of New Zealand’s tournament. In my opinion, the Kiwi players relied too much on his presence while Australia nailed onto him from the off.

Apart from Matai’s forearm tackle resulting in a ban for the Manly centre, he also has to contend with a suspected wrist injury. He was seen holding his wrist on various occasions throught the game, more noticeably after taking New Zealand’s only conversion. Injury worries also for Australia, Jonathan Thurston has an dodgy shoulder problem while Brent Tate went off with suspected concussion. Both potentially could miss the game in Melbourne against England.

Special credit must go to Israel Folau. The teenager never backed down and scored two decent tries in the corner. He could have had a hat-trick had his first half effort not been prevented by the New Zealand defence.

Tonga 22-20 Ireland
Heartbreak for Ireland as they lost to Tonga in what is so far the tournaments most exciting game. By all accounts, it wasn’t the most skilful game you’ll see in the next month or so, but it proved to be exciting due to the emotion and determination of both sides desperation to win. Damien Blanch’s hat-trick went unrewarded but Ireland can take heart from a solid display. Many pundits, myself included, tipped them to be the whipping boys of Pool 3. By losing so narrowly, they proved to me and many others they are not here to make up the numbers.

Who will win the Rugby League World Cup in 2008? Readers poll - The results are in!

2008-10-27T16:29:00.004Z

The first of many A Tap on the Twenty readers polls came to a close as England and Papua New Guinea kicked off the tournament on Saturday. Fifty-one of you voted as to who you thought would win the RL World Cup and it comes as no surprise as to who you think will win the tournament.

Australia were eventual winners in the poll despite England gaining an early lead at about March/April of this season. Australia played catch up for the majority of the season. The lead was given to Australia as the NRL and Super League domestic play offs got closer, but that lead was snatched away by only a handful of votes. Eventually within the two weeks leading up to kick off in Townsville, Australia re-took the lead again and managed to hang on until the deadline.

New Zealand were the third most voted team earning and never looked like losing that position all year. Only Ireland gained more than one vote for a team outside the "top three" while Fiji were the only side not to earn a vote.

The final results are:

Australia - 41% (21)
England - 37% (19)
Fiji - 0% (0)
France - 1% (1)
Ireland - 2% (3)
New Zealand - 7% (4)
Papua New Guinea - 1% (1)
Samoa - 1% (1)
Scotland - 1% (1)
Tonga - 1% (1)

Thanks to all that voted, and all those regular readers where ever you are.

Rugby League World Cup - Week One preview.

2008-10-24T11:44:00.005+01:00

England V Papua New Guniea
England go into this game red hot favourites, a bit like the conditions in Townsville. The weather forcast tommorows game will definatly suit the Papuans. A minimum temperature of 23°C (73°F) awaits England as the sun sets at 18:17 EST, only 22 minutes after sheduled kick off. But despite the hype surrounding the weather and if England will be able to withstand it, this game should be a walkover. Tony Smith has insisted time and time again the preparations are right for the tournament and every last detail has been discussed and organised. There are no excuses for losing.
Prediction: England by 30

Scotland V France
In Canberra, the conditions will be slightly cooler compared to Townsville. France will have the upper hand with a team full of Catalan players, compared to a side that has a large proporation not playing first grade. Look out for Thomas Bosc and Danny Brough, as both have had fantastic domestic seasons and both will be wanting to get one over the other. If France take out Brough, the Scots going to struggle big time. Size, power and overall experience will put the Fench ahead of their opponents.
Prediction: France by 18

Australia V New Zealand
From an English point of view, its a case of finding the lesser evil. Both sides have a strong squad, but usually Australia absorb the mind games and use it as motivation. If New Zealand hadn't learnt their lesson last year, they will do this time. Former Wigan and New Zealand coach, Graeam Lowe, came out recently and said Petero Civoniceva and Steve Price look old and out of gas. The Australians are like wasps, intimidate them and they will sting. Even Benji Marshall's magic cannot prevent this Kiwi loss.
Prediction: Australia by 20

Tonga V Ireland
Ireland go into this game, and indeed the group, as the whipping boys. Tonga have recruited a decent squad that can potentially get them out of the group. Ireland's key players seem to be Pat Richards, Stuart Littler, Eamon O'Carroll and Michael McIlorum. Compare that to Fraiser Anderson, Richard Fa'aoso and Michael Jennings, its not really a contest.
Prediction: Tonga by 44

A Tap on the Twenty’s Rugby League World Cup preview.

2008-10-23T11:32:00.002+01:00

We are now a matter of days before the World Cup kicks off in Townsville on 25th October. England along with Papua New Guinea will begin the long awaited tournament which was first announced by the RLIF in 2004. Moving on from the disaster tournament of 2000, in my opinion this years competition has the potential to resurrect the international game to new levels. With the development being spread across France, we have another creditable international side slowly rising from the ashes. In the Pacific isles, Rugby League has been a relatively low key affair internationally. I feel the utmost importance on this side of the world is funding the relevant governing bodies to ensure competitive international matches are played regularly between the likes on Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea. Throw in an Australian and New Zealand rep sides to ensure they are playing at a decent standard of rugby and have a mountain to climb in terms of establishing a decent standard that is a credit to the international game. The Pacific Islands were born to play Rugby League, so support from the ARL and RLIF would defiantly not go amiss.

Anyway, that’s for the future. Onto more pressing matters, and that is to see England (hopefully) lift the World Cup in Brisbane on the 22nd November. The format of this year’s competition has been heavily criticised. However, I feel it is of the utmost important to have a competitive tournament. If having a bizarre format establishes a tournament that is exciting to watch, it will draw the crowds in. If it draws the crowds in, it will be a success and therefore a saviour to the international game.

Every effort has been made to ensure fans in Australia know about the tournament. The ‘Heroes Here 08’ slogan has been branded about on every sponsorship billboard across every NRL ground. Even an advertisement on the runway of Melbourne airport has been spotted with the tagline ‘sent here for punishment’. Underneath is a picture of English scrum half, Rob Burrow. But despite the efforts by Colin Love and his merry band of organisers, Australian die hard fans are forever being the pessimists. “Who gives a f-ck?” was a quote used by Steve Mascord supplied by an NRL supporter in the latest issue of Rugby League World. So it seems the Australians don’t care. That is despite the final selling out months ago, is it? We all know Sydney-siders have this problem of attending games, but I guarantee you games in Townsville, Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra will all have high attendances. You couldn’t spread the game better in Victoria by hosting ‘Convicts V Pommies’ in Melbourne’s Telstra Dome. Clever thinking has gone into this organisation by state governments that want it. And I say that quote with care. It seems Western Australia didn’t care when it came to hosting games in Perth. Outbid by New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland to host even one single game, it left itself with nothing. And surprisingly, a stately broadsheet has the nerve to write an article moaning about how no games were to be staged on the other side of the country. How petty. If Western Australia had invested more money into a game, I’m pretty confident they would have got one.

And onto business, as it were. Below are all ten teams with a small prediction on how they will perform on the biggest stage, the Rugby League World Cup.

Australia
They are overwhelming favourites to retain their crown, first stolen from Great Britain in 1975. They have quality all over the squad, all the way down from fullback to loose forward. Their strength in depth is so immense; it would take one hell of a performance to knock these guys from their perch. Buts that’s not to say they are invincible. No team is and I’m sure the ghosts of 2005 are still ringing their ears, as is the nature of Australian sport and its ethics.
Prediction: Easily the best in the competition and will prove it by winning the final.

England
England have never won the World Cup as ‘England.’ Only as Great Britain, has the nation that invented this great sport ever won the World Cup, which is more times than our soccer counterparts. But for thirty three years we haven’t had a sniff. Neither has any other nation for that matter, but now I feel we have a good enough side to take on the Aussies. On our day (and that’s all it takes to win a World Cup) we are capable of being the best team in the world. For England to beat Australia, we have to play them down the middle and do so convincingly. That gives the weaker backline a chance to put the sword to the green and gold backline when they are on the back foot. Taking every single chance and scraping for every metre is also important.
Prediction: Have the potential to win, but may fall short again.

Fiji
Fiji have been quiet in their preparations for this World Cup. Little has been said or written about them and no doubt this has suited them enabling them to concentrate on their first game against France during the second week of the tournament. With experienced players like Jarryd Hayne, Ashton Sims and Semi Tadulala, they can pose a threat on form. But despite this, they lack any real experience to progress further in this competition.
Prediction: May win a game, will not win the group.

France
France take with them the majority of the Catalan first team. On that basis alone, with players coming into this World Cup on the back of a very good domestic season their confidence will be sky high. If Thomas Bosc performs like he did in Super League, he alone will carry the French into the semi finals.
Prediction: Will walk all over their group opponents, but will be challenged in the semi final qualifier.

Ireland
If Group A is the “Super Group”, then group c must be the group of death. Ireland qualified by beating Russia by more points than Lebanon did in qualifying. You honestly couldn’t split the nations further apart. But unfortunately Lebanon missed out having to perform in the repechage rounds. Had they beaten Samoa in Featherstone, we may have had another thrilling match between the two nations to look forward to. As it is, Ireland are up against it anyway. The majority of the side have only played in the National Leagues this season, while others haven’t played in NRL or Super League. There are of course a few Wiganers (Pat Richards, Eamon O’Carroll) and a few NRL types (Ryan Tandy).
Prediction: God help them. If the first game doesn’t knock them for six, the second one will.

New Zealand
Write off New Zealand at your peril. Last year they toured Great Britain with a starting thirteen on the treatment table on the other side of the world. This year, their stars (minus Sonny Bill Williams) are back to their best. Benji Marshall has only played four games for New Zealand since making his international debut in 2005 against Australia. He will prove to the world what he is capable of. Keeping him fit is essential to their success in this competition. Without him, New Zealand lose half of their quality immediately. Yes, they have Grand Finalists and senior, experienced players, but they don’t show the same threatening body language that a side with Benji Marshall will have. Take out Marshall, take out New Zealand.
Prediction: England are beatable, New Zealand are capable of making the final.

Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea go into this World Cup with nothing to lose. They are under no pressure to perform as they must face the prospect of being overwhelming underdogs in every single match against England, New Zealand and Australia. The rewards of upsetting just one of their three opponents are staggeringly high, with the repercussions of losing minimal. John Wilshire must captain a side that will be limited in first grade and international experience, while at the same time be motivated enough to put on a decent show.
Prediction: Potential banana skin for any side, but a single win would make their tournament a success.

Samoa
Samoa were the tenth and final team to qualify for this tournament but they may have side to become the fourth best by the end of it. They have named a squad with only five of their players playing outside the NRL or Super League. They may have a lack of strength in depth compared to their Tongan rivals, but they make up for that in quality for their starting seventeen. Powerhouses like Ali Lauititi, Kyle Luluai and Harrison Hansen can provide the go forward so that Francis Meli and Willie Talau can capitalise from.
Prediction: Biggest test against Tonga, but should have the aim of making the semi finals.

Scotland
Scotland represent a fine split between first and second grade players. Not taking anything away from the Scots, they have it all to do if they are to get out of their group with France and Fiji. Danny Brough, who was on fine form for Wakefield this year, must take that form into the World Cup if his team have any chance of progressing. Having never won a World Cup match before his tournament, the odds are well and truly in their favour. But with this being the strongest side Scotland have put together in a long time, will the factor of probability finally kick in?
Prediction: Will do well to win a game, but won’t progress further.

Tonga
With Ireland the potential whipping boys of group c, it looks likely the winner of the Halloween bloodbath between Tonga and Samoa will top the group. But winning that match will be no easy task despite the fact Tonga possesses the likes of Fraiser Anderson, Richard Fa’aoso, Michael Jennings and Fuifui Moimoi in their ranks. I have said from the beginning of the year, the Pacific Island clash could easily be the game of the year and I honestly cannot predict what will happen in the heat of the moment. Emotions will be high and drama will be intense. Make sure you don’t miss that game.
Prediction: If they were to top the group, they won’t get past their Qualifying Semi opponents.

So overall, how will the World Cup play out? Australia will retain their crown they have hung onto for over thirty years. I believe England will be the losing finalists, but don’t be surprised to see New Zealand lose out either. France should lose out to Australia in the first semi final, and if the Aussies’ 2000 semi final is anything to go by, that should be a good game to watch. Samoa will be the team to face France before losing out in the qualifying semi, while Tonga will finish second above Ireland in Group C. Group B will see France thrash Scotland and comfortably beat Fiji, who themselves will have a game on their hands against Scotland. Meanwhile poor old Papua New Guinea will lose out every time, but as long as they don’t beat England I will happily support them in their quest to upset New Zealand and Australia.

Now bear in mind I tipped Catalan to take the League Leader’s shield home with six super League games remaining, the above could turn out very differently. Here’s to a wonderfully competitive tournament, with the only controversy and focus seen on the field with drama and excitement that will grip all Rugby League fans alike.

The End of Term Report - Part Five

2008-10-20T21:58:00.002+01:00

Leeds were league leaders of this season's competition until round seventeen. Least you forget that when anyone says Saints were the better team by a country mile. They weren't the best team over twenty seven rounds as everyone suggested. Yes, they were the better side during the regular season, but their performances have been over-hyped.

And this was evident going into the Grand Final. Finally, I go through the two finalists of the 2008 Super League season.

Leeds
Some say that the play offs are not fair and do not award the best team in the competition with the rightful title of being champions. So what! In my opinion a championship winning side is one that is consistently good, and can perform in big games. Leeds did this during the 2008 campaign. Not once did they fall into third place from February to September and they were able to pull off wins when it counted, 4th October being a prime example. Their players haven't set the world alight like they once did many moons ago. But they have stayed near the top and did so for a long period of time. Without a doubt Leeds deserved to win the competition and did so in style, pulling off a magnificent victory againt the overwhelming favourites. The team are a credit to the city and the county on the other side of the Pennines.

St Helens
Any Saints fan would be forgiven for thinking they were still in 2007. It was a sort of deva vu when the final hooter went at Old Trafford. Saints, overwhelming favourites going into the final match of the domestic year, clinching the League Leaders Shield and Challenge Cup at Wembley. The only thing missing was a World Club Championship from last year. So where did it all go wrong for Daniel Anderson and his merry men full full of confidence going into the biggest game of the year? Simply put, Saints were outplayed over eighty minutes when it counted. When everything is gambled in one game. When an entire season rests on what you do at the theatre of dreams. Well for the past two years, its been the theatre of nightmares for St Helens, much to the amusement of Wigan, Warrington and the rest of Super League. But credit must be given where its due. They are not a championship winning side, but by God they did everything else right.

Shocking news as Wakefield player dies.

2008-10-14T22:16:00.003+01:00

Its not very often you hear of a Rugby League player passing away. Its an extremely rare case as today's athletes are in peak physical fitness and are monitored by doctors and medical staff on a daily basis. However, there are exceptions and the passing of Adam Watene is a deeply shocking scenario.

Adam Watene, a Cook Island international captain, played for Castleford helping them gain promotion in 2005. He was signed by Bradford for the 2006 season but only played four games. Midway through that particular season he joined Wakefield scoring two tries in eighteen games. He took to the field in every game during 2007 but was limited to only a dozen games this season due to injury.

The entire Rugby League community's thoughts are with Adam's family.

PNG announce the soldiers going over the top.

2008-10-13T17:53:00.007+01:00

The PNG twenty-four man squad looks like this;

John Wilshire, David Moore, George Keppa, Stanley Gene, Keith Peters, Charlie Wabo, Rodney Pora, George Moni , Nixon Kolo, Paul Aiton, Jessie Joe, Makali Aizue, Trevor Exton, Neville Costigan, James Nightingale, Rod Griffin, Larson Marabe, Kevin Prior, Ashton, Tu’u Maori, Menzie Yere, Chan, Nick Ubile and Sam Joe.

There are quite a few familiar names among that line up. Ex-Warrington, Leigh, Melbourne and St George Illawarra star/flop John Wilshire makes the squad along with "the oldest man in Rugby League" Stanley Gene. There is also James Nightingale who plays for Penrith and Tu'u Moari, the new Cronulla winger.

I have little doubt Papa New Guinea will have a very good attitude. But I can't help but feel they will be whipping boys for the majority of the tournament. For the sake of the tournament I hope they are very competitive. Least I remind readers (if there are any) the weight of credibility within the international game hangs on the shoulders of this tournament. If the tournament is a failure, the ARL and NZRL will be unlikely to contribute to further international competitions apart from sending a national team to Europe every year. We don't want that.

However, I wish PNG the best of luck. They will certainly need it.

England 74-0 Wales.

2008-10-11T19:21:00.004+01:00

It wasn't really the best game every played. Said that, none of the rugby or refereeing was really up to scratch. Steve Ganson was at his very worse last night, being too erratic with the whistle denying Wales a try and giving them a penalty instead which was backed up by the video referee.

With the majority of the world cup squad playing in last week's Grand Final, only eight players who will board the plane to Australia on Monday appeared in Doncaster making the team that will line up in Townsville very different to last nights. Martin Gleeson, for example, will definatly not play at stand off. That is despite the fact he had a decent game including crossing the whitewash twice.

Credit must go to Richie Myler who didn't back down at scrum half on his international debut. He is young but a good prospect with Salford now being admitted into Super League. He also scored twice but with a bit more experience he could also be a part of the next world cup in roughly five years time.

Despite the fact fifteen players were missing, I though the 74-0 scoreline was a fairly accurate reflection on how well England can perform if they had the option of a full strength 1-17. How the team played is totally irrelivant to the preparations but the tracks are leading in the right direction.

World Cup update.

2008-10-09T12:30:00.003+01:00

Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Scotland and Ireland all announced their final 24-man squads yesterday with France naming theirs late last month. All ten nations that will take part in this years world cup have now named their squads that will compete in Australia. All squads from BBC and Official World Cup website.

France have picked the majority of the Catalan first team squad with others coming from Lezignan, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Pia, Villeneuve as well as Eric Anselme from Leeds and Julian Rinaldi who has left Harlequins. Fiji have also snapped up a few famous faces. Jarryd Hayne has managed to secure a place in their squad, along with Ashton Sims, Semi Tadulala and an old London Broncos favourite, Nick Bradley-Qalilawa. Scotland have snapped up four NRL players and eight Super League stars including Danny Brough. Paddy Coupar is the only Scottish based player in the squad.

Brett White will wear the emerald green of Ireland as he leads Stuart Littler, Pat Richards and Micheal Platt. Ross Barbour from the Carlaw Crusaders will also be present in the squad. Samoa have George Carmont, Ali Lauititi and the wing/centre partnership of Willie Talau and Francis Meli. If you thought that was a good squad, then throw in Nigel Vagana and Matt Utai for good measure. The squad that will take on Samoa on the 31st October (believe me, it will be a bloody Halloween) is Tonga. They call upon the two Anderson brothers, Frasier and Louis with Richard Fa'aoso, Fuifui Moimoi and Michael Jennings. An early tip, miss that match at your peril. Two Pacific nations who will go toe to toe and not back down.

And in other news, Anthony Tupou has been called into the Austrlaian squad to replace Michael Crocker who suffered a broken rib in Sunday's NRL Grand Final. Tupou was due to line up for Tonga but as ever the "strict eligability rules" that are issued in Rugby League mean he can play for both nations.

As far as I'm aware Papa New Guinea are yet to announce a squad that will take on New Zealand and Australia, starting with England on the 25th October in Townsville.

Australia exclude Hunt and Hayne.

2008-10-08T16:16:00.002+01:00

Australia named their twenty four man squad yesterday at the same time as New Zealand announced theirs.

Australia

Terry Campese (Canberra Raiders), Justin Hodges (Brisbane Broncos), Darren Lockyer (Brisbane Broncos, capt), Joel Monaghan (Canberra Raiders), Paul Gallen (Cronulla Sharks), Anthony Laffranchi (Gold Coast Titans), Scott Prince (Gold Coast Titans), Brent Kite, Josh Perry, Brett Stewart, Glenn Stewart, Anthony Watmough, David Williams (all Manly Sea Eagles), MichaelCrocker, Israel Folau, Greg Inglis, Billy Slater, Cameron Smith (all Melbourne Storm), Kurt Gidley (Newcastle Knights), Johnathan Thurston (North QLD Cowboys), Steve Price (NZ Warriors), Brent Tate (NZ Warriors), Petero Civoniceva (Penrith Panthers), Craig Fitzgibbon (Sydney Roosters).

What sticks out there, is Karmicheal Hunt and Jarryd Hayne both miss out on the twenty four. This shows an alarming strength in depth that Australian possess, especially in the back line.

Looking at the two fullbacks, Billy Slater and Brett Stewart, are both good enough to play without the squad missing the other.

Isreal Folou, Kurt Gidley, Justin Hodges, Joel Monaghan, David Williams and Brent Tate are each capable to doing the same as the fullbacks.

Terry Campese, Darren Lockyer, Scott Prince, Greg Inglis and Johnathan Thurston definitely out class anything in the English side.

Front rowers, Brent Kite, Josh Perry, Michael Crocker, Steve Price and Petero Civoniceva are beatable by the English contingent, but only at full strength. If Morley, Peacock or Graham take a knock for England, these five will walk all over the team.

And again with the back rowers, Anthony Laffranchi, Glenn Stewart, Anthony Watmough, Paul Gallen and Craig Fitzgibbon can be pegged back. But this would have to be a very bad performance by the Australian side.

So overall the back line is untouchable, but England will have to take the game to the forwards and hope Burrow and Pryce can take advantage using the backs and the momentum gained from their hard work. Australia are beatable, but doing it on the 22nd November is a different story and one England will be hoping to do.

And as for the New Zealand team, they have a trickle of quality. Players like Greg Eastwood, Jeff Lima, Steve Matai and, for once, Benji Marshall. The full squad looks like this;

Nathan Cayless (Parramatta, captain), Adam Blair (Melbourne), Greg Eastwood (Brisbane), David Fa'alogo (South Sydney), Nathan Fien (New Zealand Warriors), Dene Halatau (Wests Tigers), Lance Hohaia (NZ Warriors), Krisnan Inu (Parramatta), David Kidwell (South Sydney), Thomas Leuluai (Wigan), Jeff Lima (Melbourne), Issac Luke (South Sydney), Simon Mannering (NZ Warriors), Sika Manu (Melbourne), Benji Marshall (Wests Tigers), Steve Matai (Manly), Sam Perrett (Sydney Roosters), Sam Rapira (NZ Warriors), Jerome Ropati (NZ Warriors), Setaimata Sa (Sydney Roosters), Jeremy Smith (Melbourne), Iosia Soliola (Sydney Roosters), Manu Vatuvei (NZ Warriors), Brent Webb (Leeds).

Keeping Benji Marshall fit is easier said than done these days. If they can, he will cause problems for Australia and England. On the back of go-forward from Lima, Kidwell, Hohaia and Fa'alogo they can be as dangerous as England with a good pack.

I think England should be looking to beat this side, but not in the same vein as they did twelve months ago. This year New Zealand will be no pushovers. They have almost a fully fit squad (excluding Sonny Bill Williams) that can even challenge the Aussies to a decent game like in the 2005 Tri Nations.

It will be a toss up between NZ and England for that place at Suncorp on the 22nd of next month. But it should be a fiery occasion if that situation does arise.

England name the squad that will travel to Australia.

2008-10-07T18:00:00.004+01:00

The England squad, announced by Tony Smith today is as follows, according to the BBC;

Keith Senior, Danny McGuire, Rob Burrow, Jamie Peacock (captain), Gareth Ellis, Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Lee Smith (all Leeds), Paul Wellens, Ade Gardner, Leon Pryce, James Graham, James Roby, Maurie Fa'asavalu, Jon Wilkin (all St Helens), Rob Purdham (Harlequins), Mark Calderwood, Mickey Higham, Gareth Hock (all Wigan), Martin Gleeson, Adrian Morley, Ben Westwood (all Warrington), Jamie Langley, Paul Sykes (both Bradford).

A total of fifteen players played in Saturday's Grand Final while the remaining nine are combined from Harlequins, Wigan, Bradford and Warrington. This, in my opinion, shows the class between the top two teams and how they are developing home-grown players.

From a Warrington point of view, its pleasing to see Ben Westwood being named on the flight down under. He has, without a shadow of a doubt been our stand out player. He has done the little things right, as well as consistently working hard every time he set foot on the field. Adrian Morley has often dragged the team forward on occasions when we were in real trouble.

Tony Smith said to the England RL website that he has gone for versatility, agility and pace.

“When you’ve only got 24 players, there needs to be a certain amount of versatility and I think we’ve got that,” he said.

“If you take five front-rowers, that’s over a fifth of your squad so that would be a gamble too.

“There are some players who play in the back row that I wouldn’t hesitate in pushing forward to the front row. There’s a gamble whichever way you go.”

And looking at it that way, I agree. An Australian summer would benifit back rowers as the grounds are much harder, therefore if we have the speed to counter a five man Australian front rower we're putting them on the back foot every time.

Looking at the squad, Rob Purdham, Jamie Langley and Paul Sykes would be looking at being in reserve and lucky to get a game. Lee Smith is the only recognised left winger, with Peter Fox and surprise exclusion. Stuart Fielden fails to make the international side for the second concsecutive year while Lee Gilmour also misses out. The exclusion of Gilmour is one that did surprise me, while Joe Westerman is reported to have a foot injury.

However I do have critisism for one player in particular. Mark Claderwood has not done enough to warrent a place. I personally would have given his position back to Peter Fox. I'm not going to repeat myself so read the earlier post here as to what I think of the Hull bound player.

So to finalise, here is what I belive to be the strongest starting seventeen that should line up against Papa New Guinea on 25th October in Townsville.

1. Paul Wellens

2. Ade Gardner

3. Martin Gleeson

4. Keith Senior

5. Lee Smith

6. Leon Pryce

7. Rob Burrow

8. Jamie Peacock

9. James Roby

10. Adrian Morley

11. Gareth Ellis

12. Jon Wilkin

13. Kevin Sinfield

14. Mickey Higham

15. James Graham

16. Jamie Jones-Buchanan

17. Gareth Hock

Manly put Melbourne to the sword - and stab them repeatedly .

2008-10-07T15:35:00.002+01:00

The centenary domestic season came to an end on Sunday as Manly thrashed Melbourne 40-0 to become premiers for the first time since 1996. Brent Kite received the Clive Churchill medal after a domineering performance that saw Melbourne being pegged back time and time again. In my opinion, hat-trick hero Micheal Robertson should have collected it for himself. How often do you score a hat trick on Grand Final night? But there is no point in lingering over it, especially as any of the Manly seventeen could have easily done the same.

Although the scoreline didn't really reflect the story of the game, Manly were without a doubt the better side. At half time, the scoreline of 8-0 in Manly's favour and richly deserved. They battled on as a team and produced a well worked try that sent in Robertson for his first of the game. But as Phil Gould said on the Channel Nine telecast, the intensity in that first forty was little short of Origin standard. And it was brutal, but fair.

Specail mention is Irael Folou who was the Storm's only player who stood out. He was able to burst past Steve Matai twice in the game which Melbourne, on any other day, would have capitalised and scored. Not on Sunday. Not when Manly were as good as they were.

Matt Orford was worthy of a test jersey. As was Brett Stewart, David Williams, Glenn Stewart and Matt Ballin.

I feel for the person or people who will have to hand either Billy Slater or Brett Stewart that number one shirt. I believe it should go to Stewart, although thats not to say Slater didn't try. Slater himself had a pretty consistent game, but Stewart really did step up a gear. Twice he threw obscure passes that went straight to hand to give Robertson his first from between the legs of stewart, and a back-door pass to send Williams in with roughly ten minutes remaining.

So another season over for the NRL. And as ever, it hasn't lacked drama, works of genius and a little bit of magic.