Eednud Posted July 3, 2021 Share Posted July 3, 2021 Manly Sea Eagles thrash the Bulldogs at Bankwest winning 66-0. This is Manly’s biggest ever winning margin and only 4 points off their highest ever score (70-7 v Penrith in 1973). The Bulldogs were minus quite a few players due to injuries and Covid breaches. No fans in though due to Sydney lockdown. Bit one sided compared with both close games last night. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanton Posted July 5, 2021 Share Posted July 5, 2021 https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/07/05/dragons-hit-with-$305000-in-fines-vaughan-banned-eight-weeks/ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanton Posted July 6, 2021 Share Posted July 6, 2021 The fallout rumbles on https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/nrl-2021-paul-vaughan-sacked-st-george-illawarra-dragons-contract-ray-hadley-nrl-360-police-investigation/news-story/61f41175c345c2dd829387ac147ed1ad?fbclid=IwAR3vin6eoNZ84BDnWSS8-plvc3gwgoRNkKmNAWTslEh1CN0a2DasLNirwaE 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muirkirk nil Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/07/huddersfield-kenny-edwards-10-match-ban-for-inserting-finger-into-opponent-rugby-league 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christophe Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 (edited) Talk of the NRL not releasing players if the RLWC goes ahead this year. Massively diluted competition if so, but should still go ahead IMO, can't have one nation being bigger than the sport. Even if it is the massively dominant one. Hopefully clearer heads sort something out as it gets nearer the time Edited July 13, 2021 by Christophe 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherrif John Bunnell Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 Australia and NZ have pulled out of the World Cup https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/57925720 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 3 hours ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said: Australia and NZ have pulled out of the World Cup https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/57925720 That's a shocker: 2 of big 3 nations. Happily gone to WC 2022 qualifiers, Olympics, cricket etc. - plus rugby union teams tour UK this autumn. I've tickets to openers in Newcastle. Will it run? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peasy23 Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 That's a shocker: 2 of big 3 nations. Happily gone to WC 2022 qualifiers, Olympics, cricket etc. - plus rugby union teams tour UK this autumn. I've tickets to openers in Newcastle. Will it run?Tough one for the organisers, on the one hand they won't want to look as if the two teams are dictating things, but on the other the tournament is devalued without two of the best teams in it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honestly united Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 13 minutes ago, peasy23 said: 29 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said: That's a shocker: 2 of big 3 nations. Happily gone to WC 2022 qualifiers, Olympics, cricket etc. - plus rugby union teams tour UK this autumn. I've tickets to openers in Newcastle. Will it run? Tough one for the organisers, on the one hand they won't want to look as if the two teams are dictating things, but on the other the tournament is devalued without two of the best teams in it. If its the NRL / Australian govt dictating players not going that could mean no Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Lebanon, Papua New Guinea or Cook Islands teams (or seriously understrength), and also affect the strength of the majority of other teams competing - i am assuming at least every other country will have at least 1 player in their squad that plays for an NRL team. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 17 minutes ago, peasy23 said: Tough one for the organisers, on the one hand they won't want to look as if the two teams are dictating things, but on the other the tournament is devalued without two of the best teams in it. Agreed. Having them use UK/European-based players isn't an option? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
come on shire Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 Australia and New Zealand pull out of the World Cup. Might as well hand England the title. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 3 minutes ago, come on shire said: Might as well hand England the title. True - albeit only squeaked past Tonga in 2017. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortescueFotheringhamSmyth Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 An e-mailed link from a mate landed in my inbox at the exact moment I opened BBC Sport and saw the World Cup story. The link in the e-mail was for the dates of a Kevin Bloody Wilson tour in October/November. He arrives the day the World Cup is due to start. It's only a 20-odd date tour in Southern England. I'm sure his last full UK tour was billed as his Farewell Tour. He's 75. He's a Rugby League fan. Wonder what he makes of it? In all seriousness, this cannot be a surprise. There were 50,000 positive Covid-19 tests in the UK on one day last week. Yet we allow 100,000 into Silverstone; 60,000 into that craphole in NW London; full houses at Wimbledon and there are 2,000 pissheads indoors at the darts in Blackpool. Sydney had 72 cases in one day and the NSW government forces all 11 NSW teams & the exiled NZ Warriors to fly to Queensland and play the remaining seven weeks of the NRL season in backyard stadiums with banjos playing behind the stands and portraits of Joh Bjelke-Petersen still hanging in the clubhouses. It would've been interesting to see how this went. The RL had probably been a mite over-ambitious with the choice of stadiums, even with Aus and NZ in the field. They are going to struggle to big it up enough to attract more than 3 men and a dog if the NRL boys can't play. I spotted an official RLWC Team Jamaica Land Rover in London last week! They've persuaded a few players of "heritage" to switch. (Why does Tony Cascarino come into my head?) Italy and Greece might have been trying to entice Aussie pros as well. They have to come to a sensible accord and switch this to 2022. I'd assume the owners of the grounds where games are scheduled to be played will be reasonable when it comes to not seeking compensation. Of course, there are no guarantees things will be better next year 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eednud Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 If any of you are up and about the Sea Eagles v Wests Tigers second half has just started and if it’s as good as the first it will be a cracker. Turbo Tom is back and on form. 20-12 Sea Eagles at HT. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eednud Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 (edited) 11 hours ago, FortescueFotheringhamSmyth said: NSW government forces all 11 NSW teams & the exiled NZ Warriors to fly to Queensland and play the remaining seven weeks of the NRL season in backyard stadiums with banjos playing behind the stands and portraits of Joh Bjelke-Petersen still hanging in the clubhouses. I know you’re probably being tongue in cheek but the only backyard stadium being used is the one Melbourne Storm used last season and where the Rabbitohs just hammered the Warriors 60-22. The Sunshine Coast Stadium. Joh, Flo and pumpkin scone recipes are almost forgotten now that Comrade Anastasia is in charge. Edited July 24, 2021 by Eednud 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortescueFotheringhamSmyth Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 I am just taking the mickey... but I used to live in Sydney and even Brisbane was seen as being inbred back then! I'm sure the new stadiums in Mackay & Rockhampton are lovely. I'm sure JBP wouldn't even get his deposit back if he stood in Mount Isa these days. I'm sure all citizens vote for Comrade Annastacia ...and correctly pronounce her surname as though it originated in some bourgeois "aristo" faux French dialect, rather than being one from a common coal-mining community in an impoverished area of Poland. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 14 hours ago, FortescueFotheringhamSmyth said: They have to come to a sensible accord and switch this to 2022. I'd assume the owners of the grounds where games are scheduled to be played will be reasonable when it comes to not seeking compensation. Of course, there are no guarantees things will be better next year Given the trajectory Australia and NZ are on there can surely be no guarantee it'd be resolved next year... Plus playing October-November 2022 overlaps with start of football's World Cup. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortescueFotheringhamSmyth Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 4 hours ago, HibeeJibee said: Plus playing October-November 2022 overlaps with start of football's World Cup. Surely the massive concern for Social Justice - women's rights, gay rights, workers' rights, immigrants' rights, goats' rights - means it's only a matter of weeks before on-field demos by pious, selfless & conscience-stricken players see the soccer version removed from Qatar ... with Ing-Ger-Lund gallantly volunteering to step in to host a June-July event next summer... No? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortescueFotheringhamSmyth Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 (edited) Being serious... it's going to come down to the legal position on finances. I'd assume England won the right to hold the World Cup because the RFL and its backers - including a moderately impressive list of English politicians - guaranteed more money for participants than other bidders. The UK government reportedly stumped-up £25m at various levels to back the bid. There was no Southern Hemisphere bid. The alternatives were a USA bid, with Aussie involvement... and a plan to hold it in a state on the Arabian peninsula, which has an impressive record on human rights & a virtual monopoly on harbouring international "A-List" gangsters. (I'm amazed anyone could see a flaw with the last proposal) I'd be moderately confident that a watertight "No Show, No Dough" clause applies to the Aussie & NZ national governing bodies if their teams don't play.... Only moderately: we are talking about the RFL here. However, TV deals would presumably be the subject of extensive legal argument in the event of Australia & NZ withdrawing... if there were any TV deals! Aussie TV big guns have held off signing a contract and the only NZ deal is with the online provider Spark. I doubt any Aussie TV service will be paying more for an England v. Tonga World Cup final than they did for the pre-season exhibition between Gold Coast Titans & NZ Warriors in Gosford in the last week of February. The Rugby Football League is not officially responsible for organising the World Cup. An independent subsidiary is doing that. (RLWC2021 Ltd) I would assume - and hope! - that funding is being ringfenced in RLWC2021 Ltd. I'm not going to look at who's paid what. Or who the directors of RLWC2021 Ltd. are. I doubt stadium hire will come to massive sums. One game each at EPL(ish) clubs Man.U, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Arsenal, Middlesbrough & Sheff.U. and a few smaller Football League grounds with a game or two... but grounds/halls have also been hired for the Women's World Cup and the Wheelchair World Cup (Final in the Liverpool Arena), presumably in the hope of 75,000 bums on seats at an Old Trafford England v. Australia final raising a few spare bawbees. Tonga v Cook Islands at Middlesbrough looked "ambitious" in at least the Kelty sense of the word... and possibly the Gretna one... but I assume the blazers are budgeting for lowish attendances at group matches between lesser countries. Laudable though the concept might be, a 16-team Rugby League World Cup is hard to justify. Especially in the UK, Rugby League cannot seem to face the reality of its existence. An impassioned "We must grow the sport or we die!" always gets thunderous applause. Meanwhile, Hurling in Ireland gets huge attendances and finances with no more than the traditional 10 counties even attempting to play the game seriously. Gaelic Football doesn't have any more than a token presence in London or New York. The Gaelic Athletic Association doesn't fret. The Aussie Rules AFL does now have two teams each in the two "Rugby States" - NSW and Queensland - but it still resists a Tasmania franchise and one in New Zealand is decades away, in spite of noises from Auckland. The NFL doesn't have a London franchise at the top of its list. The Toronto Wolfpack shenanigans was never likely to work. Allowing a North American side into SuperLeague was not a percentage call. The scheduled England v. NZ exhibition in Denver, in the middle of the season, was thankfully called off. As was the plan to have South Sydney play Round #1 of a recent NRL season against a half-decent opponent in Los Angeles. It just seems that Rugby League constantly has the attitude of the desperate simpleton from a sink estate buying a tenner's worth of scratch cards. Edited July 24, 2021 by FortescueFotheringhamSmyth Typo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Carrot Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 On 22/07/2021 at 12:30, HibeeJibee said: That's a shocker: 2 of big 3 nations. Happily gone to WC 2022 qualifiers, Olympics, cricket etc. - plus rugby union teams tour UK this autumn. I've tickets to openers in Newcastle. Will it run? I've heard that ticket holders from Scotland will be banned from all games. So in the interest of brotherly soldiarity, I'll gove you a tenner for wach of your tickets (being a Newcastle local its your best hope, honest) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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