The Rugby League Thread
 

To be honest i'm much more excited about the new Super League season starting tomorrow than I am about the six nations.

I expect it'll be the usual teams up there , St Helens , Bradford , Leeds and maybe Hull if they get their sh*t together.

There's also the World Club Challenge at the end of this month with Leeds taking on Melbourne Storm.

And of course there's the World Cup to look forward to in October/November.

I fucking love watching league. Not as much to the game as Union but the tries are nearly always 5 times more exciting and the hits are the best.

I'm excited about this World Club Challenge, does this involve all teams from the Aussie NRL?

Im really not into rugby that much because it isnt very popular here. I love to watch it and I've gone to a few games. But I have a few friends who go to a private school, who's Rugby team is really good and tears it up every year around here. And Graham Henry went there just a week back or so and did a few cliniques. They were all stoked to say the least.

NRL winners vs Super League grand final winners.

The only problem with it is that because it's always held in the UK and because it happens about a month after Super League starts and before the NRL starts it's very one sided towards the English teams.
I think most NRL teams just treat it as a pre-season game.

I haven't watched much rugby league since I left Australia. NZ doesn't show anything on TV unless the Warriors are playing. In NRL, I used to support Manly and Brisbane.

It's not on that much here either.

2 games a week, one on Friday night , one on Saturday or Sunday.
A half hour round up show 2pm in the afternoon on Thursday (why?)
And thats all on a pay channel.
If you want free stuff the BBC only show one match from each round of the Challenge cup so thats about 4 or 5 games a year.

I play League. My favourite sport ever. Favourite team is the Penrith Panthers, pretty stoked for this World Club Challenge, should be interesting.

Might as well try to revive this thread!

Listening to my boys Hull KR v Salford in the season opener as I type this, looking good thus far. Quite a big ask for us to repeat last season's 4th place finish though, Warrington, Hull and Bradford all look stronger than last year.

Sounds like rugby union, not sure there's much of a league structure in Canada. Generally union has spread a fair bit better worldwide than league, largely because the English colonial toffs took it with them around the world, while league was being played by poorer Northern types just in their own heartlands. Shame really as it's a far superior game. But then I would say that, being from Hull in England, an RL stronghold.

Played union my whole life, as a flanker. League has no appeal to me, backs game.