Super League and all things European Rugby League 2018.

Tom Mann Centuria

Last season's thread here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057688003&page=12

Will Castleford play as well as last season, and will they go the extra step this year.

Hoping for another good London Broncos Season, maybe going the extra step to promotion and seeing the London Skolars keep improving yearly. Toronto Wolfpack will probably make quite light work of the Championship and I'm looking forward to seeing if any further expansion happens across the Atlantic, with talk of a second Canadian team or New York team, or more exciting (personally speaking) will the Irish team ever appear in National League Division One?

Tom Mann Centuria

Widnes new signing from PNG Kato Ottio has died aged 23. Not sure how he died, but very sad.

http://www.widnesvikings.co.uk/article/53701/rest-in-peace-kato-ottio

Mr.Nice Guy

That's terrible. I'm seeing reports that it was a "sudden health issue" in training.

Tom Mann Centuria

Vikings have a crowdfunding page going for Kato's family, they've raised ten grand which is pretty remarkable considering he never even put their shirt on.

Tom Mann Centuria

Season Kicks off this evening, televised game on $ky is Warrington v Leeds.

Hopefully a good season beckons, and they decide the format of future seasons. I can't see why they couldn't expand the Super League by at least a couple of teams with a rejigged fixture list.

Tom Mann Centuria

Leeds have another couple of impressive youngsters, some academy they must have. Good defence from the Rhinos tonight but the Wolves could have won that if they'd put chances away better.

Results:
Warrington 12 16 Leeds
Hull FC 38 12 Huddersfield

Mr.Nice Guy

I watched the Warrington/Leeds match. I thought it was a good opener to the season. The finale got quite good.

Looking forward to seeing how Ben Barba gets on as the media seem to think he's the best bet for the Man of Steel award this year. I always enjoyed him in NRL.

Tom Mann Centuria

Friday night games results.

Salford battered by Wigan 12 - 40
St. Helens hammered Castleford 46 - 6
Hull KR on their return to the top flight lost at home to Wakefield 6 - 28

Early to read much into things but the traditional big names have all had convincing wins.

Tom Mann Centuria

Widnes look like they're on their way to decent win against Catalans.

In the Championship Toronto have opened up a decent lead against Leigh Centurions after trailing by 12, they now lead 26 to 12.

The London Broncos comfortable against Barrow Raiders this afternoon so far.

Tom Mann Centuria

Liking the look of the Championship Table, can we end the season now please?

Tom Mann Centuria

Leeds v Hull KR today's TV game, kick off 7.45

Other game this evening is Huddersfield v Warrington.

Defensive obstructions shouts are too harsh now.

Tom Mann Centuria

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Defensive obstructions shouts are too harsh now.

They are a long way off the sweet spot with a few infringement decisions. I dunno, officiating isn't improving imo.

Tom Mann Centuria

Wakefield v Salford this evenings games on sky.

Tomorrow morning it's Wigan v Hull FC in the game they've moved to Australia then the evening it's Catalans v St. Helens.

Castleford v Widnes wraps up the round on Sunday.

Tom Mann Centuria

Didn't really expect Catalan to get anything out of this evenings game, but they look very poor again this season.

Tom Mann Centuria

In the Championship Toronto could only draw with Barrow (playing on a ploughed field!), and the London Broncos made it 2 wins from 2.

Freesports are going to start showing conference games too, so that's good news.

Mr.Nice Guy

Didn't realise the Toronto game was televised. I was hoping to see Liam Kay as he impressed me at the World Cup.

Tom Mann Centuria

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Didn't realise the Toronto game was televised. I was hoping to see Liam Kay as he impressed me at the World Cup.

Yeah Premier/ Eir Sports 2 have all the Toronto games, Broncos are playing them in two weeks.

Tom Mann Centuria

Hull KR v Catalan tonight, both looking for their first win of the season.

Tom Mann Centuria

Dragons are woeful.

Mr.Nice Guy

Melbourne Storm vs Leeds Rhinos tomorrow morning at 9am our time in the World Club Challenge. Build up begins from 8.30am on Sky Sports Arena. Storm seem to be slight favourites from the odds I've seen.

Tom Mann Centuria

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Melbourne Storm vs Leeds Rhinos tomorrow morning at 9am our time in the World Club Challenge. Build up begins from 8.30am on Sky Sports Arena. Storm seem to be slight favourites from the odds I've seen.

Yeah, it's a funny one, I think a match sharp Rhinos should be slight favourites over a pre season Storm but bookies normally know what they're doing. (I'm still having a euro or two on Rhinos.) Looking forward to it anyway. McDermott isn't happy about the two referee scenario, it'll be interesting to see how they officiate tomorrow.

Tom Mann Centuria

:pac: That's why the bookies make millions every year! Not much of a contest in the end.

Mr.Nice Guy

Yeah I caught the highlights and after a promising start the gulf of class became evident. Storm look like they will be the team to beat this year once again.

Tom Mann Centuria

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Yeah I caught the highlights and after a promising start the gulf of class became evident. Storm look like they will be the team to beat this year once again.

Yeah, quality team unfortunately.

Tonight's Super League result Warrington won at Widnes 18 - 10.

Tom Mann Centuria

Hull gave it a good go against St. George, much better game.

Mr.Nice Guy

Yeah Hull gave a good account of themselves. I was disappointed by Wigan's performance, Tom Davies aside.

Tom Mann Centuria

Broncos top of the league in the Championship. Three wins from three, another good win today against Featherstone Rovers, huge game next week against Toronto Wolfpack, win that and that'll really set down a marker.

4000 plus at the York v Bradford game in Championship One, pretty impressive.

Tom Mann Centuria

Zak Hardaker has been sacked by Castleford, after his failed drug test last year. Obviously not a model professional off the pitch either, but someone will take a chance on him.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/21/castleford-dismiss-zak-hardaker-failed-drugs-test-cocaine

Mr.Nice Guy

If he goes to Wigan that will be controversial.

Tom Mann Centuria

First v Second in the championship today @ 3pm. London Broncos v Toronto Wolfpack live on Eirsports 2/Premier Sports.

Here's hoping London carry on their winning ways!

Tom Mann Centuria

Fantastic. That is all.

Actually no, not quite all. We are top of the league, say we are top of the league! Exciting times for London. Garry Schofield predicted Broncos would finish 11th.

Tom Mann Centuria

Saints won again last night, convincing away win at Warrington, the old guard look like the teams to beat again this year.

Tom Mann Centuria

Castleford beat Salford in a supposedly scrappy affair. In the Championship, Broncos hammered Batley. Would be great if they were still unbeaten going into the Toulouse game in 3 weeks.

ArmaniJeanss

Leeds Castleford was lots of fun, Castleford 24-0 up early and ended up hanging on a for a 25-24 away win.

Tom Mann Centuria

Tigers on a roll, that was a tough game, they beat Wakefield by 11 points to 6.

Tom Mann Centuria

Toulouse comprehensively ended the Broncos winning run in Championship. Still, a good start to the season, need to get back to winning ways next game.

Tom Mann Centuria

Looks like the Catalan Dragons are finally going to get a win on the board again.

Broncos lost again in the Championship.

Tom Mann Centuria

Saints looked good against Hull last night, who can't win outside of Hull! Their only away win was at KR.

Tom Mann Centuria

In the Championship the wheels have well and truly fallen off for the London Broncos. 3 defeats in a row, tough games though and not a big surprise being honest.

Tom Mann Centuria

Thursday night games aren't doing much for attendances. Pretty poor turn out in Widnes tonight (though the home fans probably don't have much reason to show up so far this season anyway, battered squad on the end of some heavy defeats in recent weeks).

Home team hammered by Hull this evening.

Tom Mann Centuria

Leeds threw away an 8 point lead with less than ten minutes to gone against Wigan and lost 9 - 8. In the Championship, the Broncos got back to winning ways against the Rochdale Hornets.

Tom Mann Centuria

Comfortable second half for Wigan after a really good close first half. Castleford poor in the second period.

Tom Mann Centuria

Jebus, Salford absolutely battered by St. Helens. Ben Barba looks the part this season.

Tom Mann Centuria

Rugby League free on the BBC today, Challenge cup 6th Round game between Castleford and St. Helens. 7 minutes in.

Tom Mann Centuria

Toronto v Warrington in the cup on BBC now. Wolfpack of the Championship ahead four nil after 15 minutes.

Make that eight with kick to come.

Tom Mann Centuria

Toronto had one red and three in the bin at one point today, never seen anything like it! Hammered as a result.

Tom Mann Centuria

Plenty of Super League games on today, the Magic weekend. Also the Championship Weekend has a huge game, Toronto v Toulouse.

Slim Charles

Who we expecting to get through to the smis of the CC then?

Catalan, Leeds, Warrington and Saints for me. Actually difficult enough to choose though, can't say any of those 4 with great confidence...

Tom Mann Centuria

Slim Charles wrote: »

Who we expecting to get through to the smis of the CC then?

Catalan, Leeds, Warrington and Saints for me. Actually difficult enough to choose though, can't say any of those 4 with great confidence...

I reckon Huddersfield, Leeds, Wigan and Saints.

St. Helens would be the only one I'm confident with. Leeds have loads of injuries, Wigan looked terrible against KR and the Giants - Dragons is a coin toss imo.

Slim Charles

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

I reckon Huddersfield, Leeds, Wigan and Saints.

St. Helens would be the only one I'm confident with. Leeds have loads of injuries, Wigan looked terrible against KR and the Giants - Dragons is a coin toss imo.

If it was in France I'd be hugely behind the Dragons. I put 40 quid on them against Leeds, early on in the week when it looked like Leeds would be missing more than they eventually were. Was looking dodgy when the Rhinos got it back to 17-14, and I would have happily lost the 40 quid (as a rhinos fan) at that stage but they reverted to the same tripe we've been turning up the past few weeks again soon after.