NRL is back on our screens.

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.

NRL on the small screen - TV or PC?

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.

NRL on ESPN.

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.

A brief lookback on 2009.

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.

Many happy returns to Australian Rugby League.

The best domestic competition in world Rugby League kicked off last week when South Sydney faced rival team Sydney Roosters. It was no coincidence that two of the Australian founder clubs (Roosters then being Eastern Suburbs) were to begin the centenary season down under. It was all smiles and jubilations as the two teams got stuck into each other like flour and butter. However, the injury to Craig Wing saw fans up in arms about the legality of tackling from behind. Wing was left with a dislocated shoulder after Riley Brown’s shoulder charge knocked it out of its socket. Now while this caused a stir, I stood back and looked at the tackle on a well known video sharing website. Having seen the footage that was broadcast on Channel Nine, the two Roosters’ players are about to complete the tackle when Brown hits Wing. Wing is crouched down attempting to get down and play the ball, but the only parts of his body touching the grass are his feet, added to the fact he is still moving trying to get to the ground. Therefore Brown’s tackle is legal, even if it is completely unnecessary.

The reason the NRL is the best in the world is due to brilliantly executed tries and humungous tackles. There is no finer example of huge hits than Josh Perry’s tackle on Ben Ross in the Manly V Cronulla match at Brookvale Oval. The tackle knocked Ross out cold and the Cronulla player missed the rest of the game with the possibility of missing at least one more. Perry however, did not come out of the tackle lightly. As Perry attempted to tackle Ross, both players clashed heads which is actually why Ross was knocked out. Perry came out of it with a nasty cut above his eye that was running with blood. In that match, Manly lost despite taking the lead. There was no real reason for them to lose it except Cronulla wanted to take the two points back to their beach. They basically played the better rugby after Ben Ross was taken from the field.

It was business as usual at Suncorp Stadium. Not for Brisbane, but for Penrith. They took the wooden spoon last year and look favourites to take it again after their abysmal performance against Wayne Bennett’s side, where Cory Parker broke the club record for the most number of goals scored in a single match. The second rower scored ten from ten beating Darren Lockyer’s and other former players’ record of nine from nine. Petero Civoniceva played against his old club for his new club and was the only Penrith player who had a half decent game.

Billy Slater’s hat-trick within twenty five minutes formed the foundations of a Melbourne win in their first home game since their Grand Final victory against Manly back in October. Played at the Telstra Dome in front of just over twenty thousand (making the overall attendance for an opening NRL round another record) who saw New Zealand Warriors fight until the death. The score line may actually look flattering to the New Zealand side, who had Steve price ruled out for eight weeks, as they struggled to compete with last year’s Premiers. Controversy was avoided just before the second half kicked off as Melbourne failed to return onto the pitch when the Warriors did, making the away side wait for the restart. New Zealand eventually made Melbourne wait for the kick off as they retreated to the sideline for a drink just as the home team walked out of the tunnel. The delay meant there was a half time period of just over eighteen minutes.

As it is Easter this week, Setanta Sports have delivered us English fans of the game a treat. There will be a double header on Saturday 22^nd March with Penrith taking on Canberra at 06:30 GMT, and Newcastle hosting Manly straight after until 10:30. As for the Sunday game, well no one seems to know. Setanta say they are showing Canberra V St George Illawarra (tough week for Canberra) while another site says SKY NZ will show New Zealand V Parramatta at a completely different KO time. Seeing as only one of those fixtures is right, I’d put my money on it being NZ V Eels. 02:45 GMT start, KO fifteen minutes later. But don’t hold me on that.