So, today is the day that the RFL shows off it's International dinner plate.

First off - a bunch of NRL players against a bunch of English Championship players. Bravo for licensing - it's working!!!!

Poor Danny Jones up against the likes of Jeremey Smith and Benji Marshall. What a joke - and they've decided to put it on telly and at Wembley.


Next up at half-three - a bunch of NRL players agianst a bunch of "Super - it just gets better and better - League" players.

Bring on the indigestion.

Jones is at Fullback!



He doesnt have the pace or the thinking to play there. NZ have forced him twice into drop outs. Kiwis playing in second gear and yet way too good for Wales sadly. Not much of a contest

Fair play to The Championship lads - they've put up a good showing against The World Champions

Approx 20 years ago as Great Britain we packed the old Wembley stadium for a test v Australia. For a game supposedly improving we can't even half fill the National Stadium, what a shambles and disgrace. RFL = FAIL

Good half from England - fair play to them. It is a shame that Wembley's half empty. Dump this 4 Nationas crap and bring back the Tours.

It is a shame and I'd argue it's 2/3 empty!! Couple of really dodgy ref decisions too! How can a ref who only ref'd his first NRL game in July be ready for Test RL less than 4 months later?? In what is arguably nearly always a game that requires an experienced whistle blower??

The last Super League game I watched involved Halifax, so perhaps I am not best to comment.
But,
I enjoyed it. I thought the skill level was brilliant, dodgy refereeing, the reported head tackle, the disallowed try amongst the most obvious.
I think the head tackle was at least a yellow and possibly a red. As for the "double movement" why not go to the video man.
Poor attendance yes, probably best played at Headingley. Although the Leeds morons would have constantly booed Tomkins as they did when he played for England v Exiles.
One thing for sure it's the hardest game in the world at any level.
Watch KCPark 2nds before the England game. Division 6 and yet plenty of skills and e'h by gum it were ard.
Well done any one who plays this game.
Wish I still did.
I were ard!

Bit different though isn't it? Didn't have professional Union to compete with, our club game was ahead of theirs. Nowadays Union is on the rise and our profile is on the wane, if you took a poll of most Halifax fans as to how to solve this problem their solution would doubtless be to kick London out of SL and replace them with Halifax.

Yeah screw this concept of lesser nations being given the opportunity to compete against the top nations idea, let's go back to England and Australia playing each other a couple of times a year, that ought to interest the media, and those bloody sheep shaggers shouldn't be given the chance to keep New Zealand to under 40 at Wembley, they should be forced to play Serbia and the Cook Islands for the next five centuries.

Totally agree Chris. They cant fill Wembley anymore for the Challenge Cup (which really did used to be a community cup) nevermind big games such as today. Why not keep it in the north rather than the RFL embarrass itself in a less than half full match in London?

As for the game, I thought it was good entertainment and was a good RL showing. Referee gave absolutely nothing in our favour and you always knew that for all the early English pressure, the Aussies would score at their first opportunity.

A brave performance but thats all we ever seem to give. Brave, but riddled with mistakes, and sadly lacking the cutting edge to become the best team in the world.

Would it? Would it really?

I could guarantee most of them would say bring back that word competition and stop selecting which clubs development you stifle.

Most fax fans could give two hoots about a London club.

Most fax fans would be more worried about views like this from people like you who are so far out of touch with clubs like ours but still feel you can dictate how we feel and what is best for ours.

Super League? You're having a laugh! For the sake of the sport remove your head from Lewis' and Wood's booty

Jog on

Actually Dan - just read some of your posts and you talk some sense - the same things most fax fans would say.

It appears you're just a bulls fan having a pop! Standard.

I'm getting the word......................DORK

Actually I would kick out Wakefield, Bradford, Salford before London, as least London actually benefit the game and are involved with getting thousands of people playing the game. They also help promote the game to a wider audience and have been responsible in part for bringing through a number of decent players like Mcarthy-Scarrisbrook, Chubb, Worrincy. The solution goes much deeper than which clubs to have in the Dream world of SL and most fans at any club know this. Sadly the people running the game dont and would rather play silly buggers trying to create a Sub Standard version of the NRL than actually sort the real problems to the game out at a number of levels

Like most on this forum I am browned off with the RFL and super league but the game needs occassions like yesterday. It was broadcast live on the bbc , it made the main news bulletins , and also had radio coverage. One of the reasons why rl is in a mess is due to a lack of free to air coverage so any transmissions must be viewed as positive I would be interested to see the viewing figures for both bbc and sky - I bet the bbcs figures were higher

Yesterday's game was won in last weekend's press conferences, Tim Sheens bought that referee into refereeing how he wanted his team to play, & for the first half England battered them around the ruck. I feel the Aussies bench won them the game up against a bench of half fit players for England, Peacock toiled despite carrying a knock to his credit. Ginger Graham was yet again pi$$ poor at this level, get Carvell in for next week & the final. Which brings me round to the coach & his team selections. McNamara was a rubbish player & he's a rubbish coach as far as I'm concerned, the Rangi Chase love affair was exposed yesterday, it's a total joke. What is the point in folks coaching youngsters, nurturing them, getting them picked by SL clubs in this country for the greedy SL clubs to pick Johnny foreigner in front of them at both club & national level ? Hang your head in shame McNamara, you are a flop, you're gonna have to win this tournament for me to change my opinion.
The RFL are a bigger joke than ever, first they can't sell out the national stadium for the prestige challenge cup final & now they claim 42,000 attended yesterday, that'd be over half of the capacity, first i don't believe that figure & second they should be able to sell it out for an England fixture nevermind a double-header !
Well done to Gaz Widdop for smacking Watmough, some of our forwards should have had that desire in the first ten minutes and after the Tony Williams attack on Westwood which went unpunished, that should have been the licence for any player to take liberties without getting punished, we're too soft.
Don't expect NZ to play nicely next week either, unfortunately i see them knocking us around, get Bailey & Carvell in there and give it to 'em and rotate Sinfield with Roby at dummy half with Widdop at half back, we should approach next week as as if we're going to war cos it's international rugby league & once again we're proving we're miles off what it takes to be successful.

I was with you Colin but then you went and ruined it with "get Bailey"

No i wouldn't do that. SL is just getting better and better and is producing players to match the Aussies. London in particular is taking the game by storm. Leave things as they are.

Not enough foreigners in't team. Rubbish. McNamara!

How is the most in form ENGLISH half back in SL not picked???



Rob Burrow has to play, we lack that incisive edge in attack Rob will give us that not some NZ reject!

RFL = massive digraceful fail.

What must the Kiwi's be thinking seeing Rangi chase run out with an England shirt on, embarassing.

I thought I was watching Leeds, as every play had to go through Sinfield. He'll never be international class. Missed a certain try in first half when he hesitated with the pass then threw it forward, made at least 3 other errors. And what's was the point of having Widdop on the field, when Sinfield continued to try and take control all the time. For all the territory we had, other than Sam Tomkins we had no creativity, whereas the Aussies get in our 20 and score almost every time. The gap in class is still there!!

Oh and there must be a better centre than Kirk Yeoman, although Reed isn't one of them!!

It has been widely reported in the media that Burrow is injured

I went to London this weekend and had a great time. The double header idea is great. The first half of the first game was pretty poor but the competitiveness of the second half made up for that. There was lots of music and entertainment we had a great time. I read these boards about people complaining the RFL couldn't fill the stadium. Did any of these moaners go to the game? Probably not. 42k looked right we thought a little more when at the ground. As it holds 89k itt is always going to look a little sp. I think the RFL needs to keep faith with the double header like they have with the magic weekend as it was a great occasion for us that went

42k is a good crowd, where else could they have played up North and got that other than Old Trafford and I guess they would n't want two games being played in the same day. And they were at home.

Fair enough but was having a good time more to do with the 'crack' and having lots of beer rather than the matches? Yer England did well and were unlucky but you always had the feeling that the Aussies had enough in reserve to knock us over when they had to and they did.
As for Wales well now there is no SL club in Wales (not sad about that) how they going to produce a competitive team?
The thing is 42K is NOT good for a double header and it was England playing the Aussies at Wembley for the first time in 14 years so we should get a good crowd for that, yet despite trying to 'buy' a crowd like you could go for £30 which included an England shirt, the stadium was 18K down on what we should be getting, come on there should have been 60K there.
I did not go as the RFL have made it clear they do not want our support for their game so sod them I say. Until they give 'heartland' clubs some respect they can stick it.