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.

Been a Rhinos supporter since I was a kid. We've had quite a dissapointing start to the season, but no doubt it'll be us vs. St. Helens in the final again. With us winning for the fourth time in a row of course!

And Bradford being "up there"? LOLOLOLOLOLOL! They're past it.

Well it was posted 2 years ago

Whooooo...... an RL thread!

I'M A LEYTHER TILL I DIE, I'M A LEYTHER TILL I DIE, BUT BY CHRIST I OFTEN WONDER WHY, I'M A LEYTHER TILL I DIE!

One day we'll be back in superduper land, though previous form suggests this isn't a good dream!

OK. Rhinos are REALLY starting to piss me off now. ****ing sort it out lads.

Not going well is it?
Who do you think you are? Only Wigan and HKR are allowed to be infallible, surely you know that (That line copyright to a poster on RLFans.com, but it holds true...)

We probably won't get the final this year.

Wigan are a team with a lot of history, and KR always do well. I just think we've been shocking so far.

The thing about history though... well, it's all in the past? Got to say Rhinos are my favourite of the teams from Yorkshire (Placing them behind Leigh, Crusaders and Catalan) and hate seeing them struggle.
Wigan will blow out before the end of the season, but they'll still do well. Oh, and I hate the Pies with a passion....

You a Centurions supporter then? It's weird how nearly every town in Greater Manchester except for the City Of Manchester itself has one or two RL teams. I'm sure with the unlimited funds the owners of Man City have, a new club in Manc isn't impossible...

Also nice to see someone who likes the Rhinos, who isn't a Rhinos supporter! I swear everyone hates us. People have called us the Man United of RL before, which is the most offensive insult you can give to a team from Leeds! And I'd say we're more like Chelsea anyway, always been a consistently good team but the past few years we've become unstoppable.:p: Until this season, that is...

I'd agree about the Chelsea comparison, you've been a sleeping giant too long.
You'll never get a succesful RL club with the Manchester name, the teams in red and blue that play wendyball are way too successful.
If you look around the towns that make up the RL ring around Manchester - Oldham, Rochdale, Swinton - their isn't the fanbase to support them. You need to get slightly further out to Leigh (yes, sadly I'm a fan. No excuse, I was born there!), Wigan, Widnes and St Helens and then over the Pennines to Hudd before you get anything approaching reasonable support.
Even Salford get pish poor crowds week in week out, although I've got to say that if I lived in Salford, I'd not want to rush down to see them get hammered week in, week out.

Salford City Reds.:laughing:

I know a couple of guys from Manchester, and they support various RL clubs from the North West. Salford, Leigh, Swinton, Wigan, even Scum Helen's. The only proper Mancunian Rugby team is Sale Sharks, and they're Union which is a ****e sport.:p:

No argument here...

And yet again Rhinos are being a bunch of useless twats. Derby day at home, we should be all over Bradford.

If it makes you feel better, we beat Toulouse :D

Thursday night was an epic match. Only a draw but a great comeback.

Huge news out of the NRL, Melbourne Storm found guilty of salary cap breaches over the last 5 years, 1.7 million dollar fine, All points stripped from this years results and cannot win any points for the rest of the year, and the big news, 3 minor premierships stripped (06-08) and their 2 premierships stripped (07-09). Official result, N/A for premiers in those years.

Similar to the Cantebury case in 02, but spread over 5 years.

Inglis, Slater et all looking for new homes, potentially Union (New team in Melbourne being set up), potentially overseas.

The Storm, owned (?) by News Ltd (Which is also the primary news corporation for all things League) has been running at -6 million for the majority of the past few years, always disadvantaged by trying to break into a heavy AFL market, are probably going to bust from here. No one will go to games if they can't get any premiership points, and these results will drive away members in droves (Who you have to feel bad given all the money they've spent on the club). I would be livid if I was a paying fan, at the club admin more than anyone.

^ I saw this on the news today and I felt bad because I am from Melbourne but I don't give a shit... they were interviewing fans and some of them were literally in tears! I did not get it. I've never been hugely into Rugby League or the NRL, I've always followed Australian Rules Football, but over here rugby is a VERY big deal so I guess I should start showing some interest...

Anyway, they were cheating the system for several years so I don't think their penalty is harsh. It's pretty drastic that their premierships were taken away from them and that they can't earn any points this year... but like you said they've been abusing their budget and it's not cool.

Didn't really think of rugby much till i watched the olympics... totaly love it now.

Would you give a **** if it was your AFL team? (Literally just asking, not trying to sound douchey :p:) Who do you follow anyway?

I would care more if it was my AFL team, but I wouldn't be distressed and in tears like some rugby fans I've come across! If my AFL team did something like that I'd recognise that they did the wrong thing and need to be penalised. The most I'd feel would be disappointment in the team's decisions to cheat the system. I follow Essendon :o:

Wasnt Daniel Anderson an Aussie,pretty sure he was NZ coach for a while??
Anyway,what a daft suggestion,A NATIONAL SIDE BRINGING IN AN AUSSIE TO COACH THE TEAM!..I am still proud of what we have achieved, and admit it does look like the NRL is preparing to kill the game off in MElbourne, to consolidate it's hold in NSW & QLD. If any of the allegations are proved true, as I understand, it is Waldron at fault, not necessarily the club as a whole.

Hmm, this thread needs revival. Anyone happen to see Origin last Wednesday?