Offical Rugby League Thread

[D/L]

Just watched what may turn out to be the best game of international Rugby this weekend. Tonga defeated the British Lions 14-6 and confirmed that they are now a serious force in world Rugby League.

We fielded just about our first choice side and we played well but, it has to be said, Tonga were even better. Both teams had many familiar faces from both the NRL and Superleague and both sets of players gave it their all. At times, it was quite brutal and I'd recommend watching the highlights to anyone who didn't see the match live.

The only slightly sour note was the emergence of Chris Kendall as possibly the world's worst Rugby referee, of either code, since the much anticipated retirement of Steve Ganson a few years ago. He made some very strange decisions, I lost count of the number of unpenalised forward passes and I was amazed to see that he had got this gig. His handling of the match may have made some difference but, nevertheless,well done to Tonga on a deserved victory. .

So, onto New Zealand in the wee small hours of next Saturday, to see if we can get things back on track. It'll be a tough task.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Get in

 

[_Ed_]

Amazing from Tonga. Thrilled for their fans.

 

[D/L]

'struth, that must have been some match. It puts our defeat last weekend against Tonga in a different light. Must try to find a way to watch the highlights.

Very disappointed we didn't turn it round against the Kiwis this morning. I gather we had a bit of a disappointment in another Rugby match somewhere today as well.

 

[Burgey]

Awesome stuff from Tonga

The 09 prelim between Parra and the Mange is on Fox League now. Was there that night, what a game it was. Fmd Hayne was ridiculous that season. Never seen a run of form by a single player like it before or since.

 

[D/L]

This is turning into the tour from hell for our newly rebranded GB team. Another defeat to the Kiwis and this time quite heavily and fully deserved. We had a couple of players out of position due to injuries but we still couldn't take advantage of chances near the Kiwi line.

For the Kiwis, Tuivasa-Sheck and Johnson were terrific. There was no lack of effort from our lot but we never looked like winning. Hopefully, we may salvage something against PNG at Port Moresby next weekend.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Nope.

 

[D/L]

Indeed; the tour went from bad to worse with that deserved, comprehensive victory for the Kumuls. There was no lack of effort from GB, just a lack of inspiration. I kept waiting for our supposed superior fitness to eventually make some difference but at no point did this ever seem to be a factor.

I can't believe we flew out a winger, interrupting his holiday, to join the squad and then who didn't even get on the bench for the last match of the tour. Instead, we persisted with Austin, who's a very good five-eighths but hopeless on the wing, making quite a few costly mistakes over his two matches in that position.

Well done to the Kumuls, though, particularly Boas, the lad who plies his trade with Doncaster in League One (3rd division) of our domestic game. He was terrific.

 

[D/L]

Very sad news that Rob Burrow, mercurial ex Leeds and international half-back, has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Fans of all clubs will wish him well in his fight against this.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Yeah, saw that on the BBC.

Terrible news.

It does seem rugby players of both codes are far more prone to MND than the general public as a whole.

We've lost Joost van der Westhuizen and Tinus Linee recently and Doddie Wier is currently battling it bravely.

 

[D/L]

I saw Sonny Bill Williams make his debut for the Toronto Wolfpack against Castleford in the weekend's big rugby match at the Headingley Stadium yesterday.

Nothing changed my opinion that he would be a great, if rather expensive, asset to the club nor my opinion that, mostly due to the current spending restrictions placed upon his club, they may struggle to avoid relegation. Castleford really showed up some flaws in a side not greatly strengthened since securing promotion last year.

This does not concern me too greatly as the more fellow relegation candidates that Wakefield Trinity has, the better.

 

[D/L]

Well, thanks to a postponement due to the weather, in the big rugby match of the weekend we (Wakefield Trinity) managed to avoid a home defeat to Les Dragons Catalans at the iconic Belle Vue stadium yesterday.

A very good game of rugby on Friday night though, probably the best of the weekend when Kingston-Upon-Hull FC took on Kingston-Upon-Hull Kingston Rovers. One of the Rovers' tries is an early contender for try of the season, I reckon.

Highlights...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_LN5EhKjHg

 

[D/L]

A valiant effort by the Toronto Wolfpack, without Williams who had flown back to New Zealand for the birth of his child, at Wigan last night. They lost their captain and loose forward, the vastly experienced Wilkin, before kick-off and then the squad member brought in to replace him soon afterwards. Losing Springer to injury too put them at a tremendous disadvantage. However, they played with tremendous determination and often looked very dangerous in attack against a Wigan defence transformed since the defeat at Castleford last weekend.

On last night's performance, I reckon they will beat many teams in Superleague. Much will depend, however, upon how their thin playing squad fares with injuries over the course of the season.

Tomorrow, in the south of France, Falau may make his debut for the Catalans against Castleford. It'll be interesting to see how he performs after quite a long spell out of the game (both codes).

 

[D/L]

Impressive debut for Folau and Tomkins back to his mercurial best, scoring three great tries, in a rather easy victory for Catalan Dragons at the weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztCZSkf_SuA

Surprise victory for my team, Wakefield Trinity, over mighty Warrington at the iconic Belle Vue stadium too. Winger, Johnstone, not long back from long term injury seems to have lost nothing of his speed, which was good to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrL1bZ-FVSo

Looking forward to the trip to Weldon Road on Friday for the local derby with Castleford but a bit worried about a backlash from their defeat to the Catalan Dragons.

 

[D/L]

So, Wakefield Trinity, with a weakened side due to injuries, outscore Hull by 5 tries to 4 to earn a respectable draw at full time in the match at the iconic Belle Vue stadium last night.

The new rules say, however, that no side should be able to achieve such a thing and the only valid outcome for either side is victory or defeat, therefore additional time must be played until a point is scored.

Not only is this unfair on the players, all of whom have probably expended 10 times as much effort for 1/10 of the money paid to the average second division soccer player, it makes the outcome of the match a farcical lottery.

Just for the record, it was Hull who snatched "victory" with a Mark Sneyd drop goal from about 35 yards.

Highlights, worth watching if only for Tom Johnstone's spectacularly acrobatic try scoring...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG9hViciaa8

 

[Burgey]

Not the most spectacular start to the season last night, but that sort of arm wrestle is the type of game Parra would have lost last year. Looked fairly disjointed, which is understandable with a few new forwards. Always thought we would miss Ma’u’s off loads, he had an error in him but he started a lot of good stuff last year
Looked like BA went for a pretty conservative game plan for round one, which is also evident from Taka not getting a run at all off the bench. But as is often the case early season, the handling was poor

 

[ripper868]

Schoolgirl errors really

Late cheap shot, but surprised it got no mention from anyone.

 

[D/L]

Tuned in to Penrith v Sydney the other morning. It was quite a tough game and there was a lot of skill on show. It struck me, not for the first time, that the Aussies could probably send a few teams over here to beat our Superleague champions in the annual "World Club Challenge".

Meanwhile, Castleford v St. Helens may be the last game of professional Rugby:League over here for quite some time, so highlights below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vElDIfQ35Mg

It was a fitting game, full of skill and effort, to be perhaps the most recent in our memories for however long that turns out to be.

 

[Gnske]

So I guess the season keeps going until the last team unaffected by coronavirus wins?

 

[D/L]

Tuned into Cronulla v Melbourne yesterday morning, another good game but played in an empty stadium. Seems the game may be going the same way down under as it is in Blighty.