I was laughing at your purely conceptual as opposed as statistical based analysis of success. Yes, arguably indeed. Good luck 'arguing' it.

Sorry, you are the one dissenting and therefore wishing, I assume, to highlight the fact you do disagree to my statement, which I quite clearly stated was 'arguable'? Surely therefore it is implicit in my statement that I agree that under various angles of scrutiny it is not likely to stand-up as a definitive statement!

The thing is I am not sure I agree with the statement that we are, because of statistical reasoning and other reasoned arguments. However, you are the one being smug and clearly think we are not, otherwise you would not have responded as you did. So, it is not up to me to argue as, as any good debater will know, the it is up to the opposition to disprove the propositions statement and not the other way round!

# of times SL champions
St Helens - 3
Bradford Bulls - 3
Wigan - 1

Leeds - 4

I excluded the years where Saints and Bradford cheated.

I think that is the most reasoned argument I agree. Both Wigan and Saints did 'trebles' in the years they won and we only did a double and arguably Wigan should have won it more than once during their dominating years!

Do you repeat that to the honours board at the RFL... Has the text changed yet. Good luck.

The most succesful team of the SL era is St Helens. Fact.

The most succesful team in rugby league history is Wigan. Fact

Both Lancastrian teams.

Lancashire sets the bar.

Right, to bring this back on thread.

As far as I can see, Leeds have a good chance of winning if the quality of the opposition is concerned.

I don't think they will however. The BBC would rather have a clapathon around the sub-standard English cricket team then risk chosing a tea more worthy and consistent in its application of winning practices.

This is not knocking cricket as I play and follow the sport. The fact remains however that England are a [iterrible[/i one day outfit and were bloody lucky to defeat Australia. Ask yourselves what their record was before that summer as well...

I smell a 'Paul Collingwood MBE' moment when the winner is announced.

Quite rightly, as you took this topic off-thread in the first place!

The one thing I will say is that in respect of any cricket team winning the title this year, if it is the men's team then that is without any argument WRONG and UNJUST. Arguing between sports is always going to be difficult but when the English Women's Cricket team have achieved and won everything, including 'the Ashes' then they have to be the only cricket team that can win.

They've just lost a T20 series in the West Indies, does that rule them out of contention?



There's only one plausible winner and that's Brawn GP. To go from having no team at all to winning both the drivers and constructors titles is an enormous achievement.

Is that strictly accurate? Surely the team rose from the ashes of the Honda team that pulled out at the end of last year?
Notwithstanding that, to do what Brawn did is still outstanding, proving that talent, engineering & design excellence can still beat the money bags at Ferrari, BMW, Toyota, Renault and Mercedes.
More power to them, Red Bull & Toro Rosso.

It did to an extent, but there was still a sizeable gap between Honda withdrawing and Brawn having the funding, staff etc in place for the start of the season.

It wasn't a case of Brawn just simply buying out Honda, staff and all.

Wasn't the Brawn team & set up basically a slimmed down version of the Honda one?

Same team principal, engineering team, drivers etc only without the budget and in need of some serious sponsorship and didn't Honda help the transition by not removing themselves until the transition was completed having invested heavily in the design of the 2009 car?

I am not belittling Brawns achievement, which is brilliant, but like I said since the 1960's they have awarded this trinket to a collective team of sports-people with only an odd exception and do think it should stay this way to be honest. The largest part of the 'team' are not sports-people or athletes and also Jenson is an individual racing alongside but still against his 'team' mate. It is the same reason that I don't think a trade cycling team should ever win this award (if we had a good enough one... which we might soon!).

It has to be the English Women's Cricket Team for me TBH, but still think that the Rhinos should be mentioned as worth of consideration. In actual fact I am hoping that we win the WCC and take the hub-cap and SL title again and then along with 4-in-a-row we would also match Wigan and Saints treble and therefore be clear favourites to win in 2010!

Leeds Rhinos? Not a chance. How many times did Wigan have to win the Challenge cup before they got any recognition in this catagory.

As it's meant to be an annual award it should take more than winning the title to be in the running. Leeds had a better shout in 2008.

I agree with your 'not a chance' summation.

But Wigan won the quadruple of WCC, CC, Championship and Premiership titles and where runners up in the regal trophy in 1993/1994 season. That means they were in every available final and only lost one that year!

Saints did the treble of CC, Hub-cap and SL in 2006.

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/sports_personality_of_the_year/8386785.stmZoo magazine the only written media to nominate Sinfield for SPOTY.[/url

I have no idea what Zoo Magazine is. Bit disappointed in the Yorkshire Post....

stopped watching it a few year back. No interest in any moter sport, Inverdale and his rugger cronies, dont like Sue Barker either

You still would though, wouldn't you?

Absolutely!!!

Wanted to post a pic on here of Clare Balding but I could only find an article about her otter hunting in Winchester.
Beaver hunting surely?

giggity giggity giggity ! ohhh yeaaaah

How hot is Jessica Ennis as well...

Brawn GP by a country mile for the Team Award, with Jenson in with a shout as well.