Super League and all things European Rugby League 2017.

Tom Mann Centuria

Not sure there'll be much interest in League from this hemisphere but still might be odd game that grabs attention.

Looking forward to seeing how a Canadian team gets on against English and French teams this year, and how the experiment goes. Hope it works, and gives the idea of expanding the game further afield a boost.

Tom Mann Centuria

Bradford Bulls have been liquidated, great shame one of the former giants of the English game has gone but they've been a basket case for years.

Could be a blessing, maybe a phoenix club with no debt, small ground etc. Not a big pyramid to climb in League and dare say the RFL will fast track a Bradford team into the league anyway.

Edit: in fact RFL have said they have place for any club in Bradford but must start with points deduction.

Rightwing

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Bradford Bulls have been liquidated, great shame one of the former giants of the English game has gone but they've been a basket case for years.

Could be a blessing, maybe a phoenix club with no debt, small ground etc. Not a big pyramid to climb in League and dare say the RFL will fast track a Bradford team into the league anyway.

Edit: in fact RFL have said they have place for any club in Bradford but must start with points deduction.

Shame alright, Bulls were a traditional team. Fickle nature of sport, I expect to see a lot of football clubs to go bust across channel in the not too distant future. TV money dilutes everything, but mainly the working class support base.

Tom Mann Centuria

Rightwing wrote: »

Shame alright, Bulls were a traditional team. Fickle nature of sport, I expect to see a lot of football clubs to go bust across channel in the not too distant future. TV money dilutes everything, but mainly the working class support base.

Absolutely agree, right through the divisions in football. think rufby league in UK and France is still working class though, even in the super league era but lot of clubs on dodgy ground financially. Kept going by good faith of few reasonably well off people.

I know the Broncos in Championship would be a goner otherwise, incidentally they tried with the Harlequins experiment to go for middle class market but that never went well.

They should be aiming for soccer fans who've been priced out of that game, as well as retaining their expat fans from down under or up t'north.

Tom Mann Centuria

Championship and National League kicks off today, proper Rugby is back.

Beasty

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

proper Rugby is back.

Better delete that before the forum mod sees it:pac:

Rightwing

Beasty wrote: »

Better delete that before the forum mod sees it:pac:

Safe enough for another 4 or 5 months I'd say.

Beasty

Rightwing wrote: »

Safe enough for another 4 or 5 months I'd say.

Once he sees you're posting he'll be over here like a flash:pac:

Rightwing

Beasty wrote: »

Once he sees you're posting he'll be over here like a flash:pac:

:)

Beasty is right.....get rid of the evidence!!

Tom Mann Centuria

I like Johnny Vegas and I like Rugby League, so presumably I'll like this video launching Super League this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAqZxQIqu1g

Erm. No. It's a pretty naff video tbh. Ah well never mind.

Tom Mann Centuria

St. Helens v Leeds kicks off the season tonight on Sky Sports, Sky have been in full hype mode for a couple of days, which is nice, they don't normally bother, but I think now with BT etc they have to work harder to suggest how good value their sports packages are (without the yawnion coverage they used to have).

Tom Mann Centuria

High scoring affair for first half of first game of the new season.

Leeds lead St Helens 4 massive points to nil.

Beasty

Already increased that by 150% and there's ages left.....

Mr.Nice Guy

Not a great opener. Defences dominant.

Tom Mann Centuria

Sky have Castleford v Leigh tonight, it should be a bigger scoring game with less impressive defences on show. Now look forward to a 2 all draw. Work means I'll miss the first half anyway.

Timberrrrrrrr

Going to my first game tonight widnes v Huddersfield. Have always enjoyed watching the game so now that I live 5 mins away from stafium and get free tickets it seemed like a good time to start taking more interest

Tom Mann Centuria

Timberrrrrrrr wrote: »

Going to my first game tonight widnes v Huddersfield. Have always enjoyed watching the game so now that I live 5 mins away from stafium and get free tickets it seemed like a good time to start taking more interest

Let us know what you think of it, hope you had a good evening. Not a great score if you're a Vikings fan though.

Timberrrrrrrr

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Let us know what you think of it, hope you had a good evening. Not a great score if you're a Vikings fan though.

Terrible display by the vikings no team cohesion at all but really enjoying the game one the less

Mr.Nice Guy

I caught highlights of Castleford's 44-16 win over Leigh. A few days back I read a lot of people tipping Castleford to have a good season and they played some very good stuff. They let in a few tries late on but the match was already won, plus it is the first game of the season. I'm keen to see how they get on against tougher opposition.

Tom Mann Centuria

Great win for Catalans today over a lot of people's tip to win the whole thing Warrington. Hopefully they'll be consistent enough this season to get amongst the familiar names when the silverware is up for grabs at the business end of year.

Tom Mann Centuria

Broncos gave Hull KR a run for their money in first game of Championship season. 22-28 to KR at The Trail finders Stadium. Bit of Super League class to see out the game.

Tom Mann Centuria

World Club Challenge this weekend.

On Saturday Warrington play Brisbane then on Sunday Wigan play Cronulla.

Would be great if Super League could register at least one win, I'd actually almost want Wigan to win on Sunday. Can't see anything but NRL whitewash as usual though, and that'll probably be the competition put out of its misery.

Tom Mann Centuria

Leigh v Leeds on telly now, first full game I'm getting to see, though the smoke from the fireworks means can't see the middle of the pitch particularly well!

Timberrrrrrrr

Have scored free tickets to Warrington v Brisbane tomorrow, have to explain to herself now that our dinner date is off

Tom Mann Centuria

Timberrrrrrrr wrote: »

Have scored free tickets to Warrington v Brisbane tomorrow, have to explain to herself now that our dinner date is off

Bringing her to Warrington instead? What could be more romantic.

Beasty

Warrington - the new town where they saw all the mistakes they made with Milton Keynes and didn't learn from any of them.....

Tom Mann Centuria

Beasty wrote: »

Warrington - the new town where they saw all the mistakes they made with Milton Keynes and didn't learn from any of them.....

Never been fortune enough to go to Warrington! Milton Keynes I sadly know too well.

Beasty

At least Warrington is not built on a grid basis. It had the UK's first IKEA which probably kick-started the obsession with out of town shopping within the UK

My views are a little tainted as my last visit there was at the pleasure of Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs...

Beasty

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Never been fortune enough to go to Warrington! Milton Keynes I sadly know too well.

Cobblers!!!

Oops - sorry - that's the other side of the M1

My first visit to MK was back in 1983 to see Bowie at the Bowl. Hitched down to the M1 junction then walked into the town, and ended up sleeping in a field ahead of the concert the next day

After that was down quite regularly after the company I worked for bought Argos in the late 90s

Tom Mann Centuria

Leigh a bit unlucky tonight.

Timberrrrrrrr

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Leigh a bit unlucky tonight.

Started well but Leeds professionalism showed through, some.scary moments in last 15 minutes for them but defensively they played very well

Mr.Nice Guy

I'm looking forward to the World Club Series tonight. Think Warrington can give the Broncos a run for their money?

Mr.Nice Guy

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

I'm looking forward to the World Club Series tonight. Think Warrington can give the Broncos a run for their money?

Early signs suggest they will. 14-0. :eek:

Update: 20-0 now!

Half-Time and it's 24-6 to Warrington. Didn't see that coming.

Tom Mann Centuria

Comebacks on?

Beasty

Just come in after 40 mins on the bike trainer - certainly end to end action. Looks like a bit of aggro there - has there been much?

Tom Mann Centuria

Still think Broncos might win this, hope I'm wrong. Good game either way. Kicking off in a few places too.

Tom Mann Centuria

Beasty wrote: »

Just come in after 40 mins on the bike trainer - certainly end to end action. Looks like a bit of aggro there - has there been much?

Only last few minutes. In my day a bike trainer was stabilisers.

Mr.Nice Guy

Nice to see things getting a bit spiky. Broncos looked quite disinterested in the first half. Hoping for a frantic finish.

Tom Mann Centuria

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Nice to see things getting a bit spiky. Broncos looked quite disinterested in the first half. Hoping for a frantic finish.

They look very pre season. They had decent prep time for this though.

Odd the commentary saying 2nd half is dour, much more interesting than first imo.

Mr.Nice Guy

9 points in it with 8 minutes remaining and Warrington have kicked it out on the full. This is exciting.

Just as I write that Broncos lose it!

Tom Mann Centuria

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

9 points in it with 8 minutes remaining and Warrington have kicked it out on the full. This is exciting.

Just as I write that Broncos lose it!

Yeah, great end to it.

Tom Mann Centuria

Good game, Broncos left themselves too much to do 2nd half. Great to finally see a Super League win after so long.

Mr.Nice Guy

Good result for the World Club Series and it whets the appetite for Wigan vs Cronulla.

Tom Mann Centuria

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Good result for the World Club Series and it whets the appetite for Wigan vs Cronulla.

Absolutely, but I don't think this will do the pie eaters any favours, Sharks will be well up for it now! Fancy Cronulla by 10 plus. (but I had Brisbane by 6, so I know nothing Jon Snow)

Tom Mann Centuria

10 nil to Wigan at half time

Tom Mann Centuria

Wigan have had pretty much every 50 50 call this game. Finding it quite difficult to cheer on the cherry and white!

Tom Mann Centuria

Well, congratulations to Wigan, the better team, but the ref was pretty hopeless. Good for Super League anyway, makes a nice change, 2 wins from 2. Yesterday was the better game.

Lower down the quality scale, London managed some how to snatch a win against Oldham, very, very fortunate reading reports.

Mr.Nice Guy

Credit to the Super League teams. I thought Cronulla would do the business after what happened last night to the Broncos.

Tom Mann Centuria

Hull take on Catalans tonight on sky, quite like the build up with Brian Carney now.


Oh, and for anyone interested in the Wolfpack experiment, their 3rd round Challenge Cup game against Siddal is being streamed on the BBC website, with no region restrictions. Starts 1pm.

Tom Mann Centuria

Scrappy, stop start game so far, loads of penalties, ref poor. In short, crap.

Tom Mann Centuria

This ref has been dreadful. Game not much better.

Edit: Good win for Catalans though.