He doesn't play in the NRL. NRL = good, SL = bad. You should know that by now.

Connor had a reletively quiet game with not too many opportunites to show his talent, but he certainly never looked like he was being found out. In fact he looks completely at home at this level to me. I think maybe Zelezniak got on the outside of him once early on but there were plenty of number to cover it. He had more impact on the game than his much vaunted opposite number anyway.

Whitehead, Bateman and Makinson the England nominations put forward for the Golden Boot Award.

Whitehead absolutely. Wouldn't argue against Bateman either. But Makinson is a left field pick. I mean, he's had a good year, but really?

I think its just based on international games and not domestic ones. Whitehead has been consistently good so far.

Yeah it’s getting a bit thin now old love, I didn’t mind your little one man fan club for Makinson but now it’s truly boring - he’s ok and deserves his spot but that’s as far as it goes.

If you read my posts correctly you will find me a big fan of Whitehead, I purely quoted Bennet and the RLIF appraisal of Makinson, as they are probably more astute on this kind of entity I take your opinion as very insignificant. Do you own a KIA by any chance!

eh

Watched the game on iplayer last night. Thought it was a very good match with a great winning try. Can't understand some of the negativity on here.It's the sort of game non-RL supporters will have enjoyed.

Anyone know if Zelezniak picked up a ban for the knees?

It wasn't a bad game at all considering it was the first test. Both teams should improve plenty and i'm really looking forward to the last two.

Flanders out of the second test. Saving himself for next season with Leeds.

Does anyone know if you can buy the blue and red England training tops anywhere? They’re not on the England website shop

Strange statement to make as it has already been announced he has signed a 1 year extension at Wigan.

Should retire (or not be picked) frrom internationals. Talent wise no question he’s good enough but he’s not going to make it to the next World Cup and others could be getting that experience and game time (obviously they will this week due to injury but shouldn’t take an injury for it to happen).

Not a knock on the guy talent wise, if we were playing a World Cup Final this weekend and he was fit he’d be the first name on the team sheet, but if he’s retired by 2021 which seems likely then why play him now? Yes we want to win before then but the WC is the big one and decisions should be made with that in mind.

Wigan fans will agree now is the time to go. I’d like to think he would be fit to go out with a game at Elland Road but it’s unlikeky. He’s been fantastic for England and GB for over a decade. It took him a while to win the majority around even though his form was always very good.

His body just sadly isn’t up to it anymore. He was way off in the semi against Cas and the Grand Final this year and looked injured in those so he should’ve sat this series out to start with. That’s the thing with Lockers though, he’s a leader and whilst other players were pulling out, he will try and push himself through these games but enough is enough. It’s now effecting the team because he’s not completing games and you can’t afford that at international level.

Agreed, been a great player but needs to make the call now and give others a chance to stake a claim for the WC.

It's all tactics. Leeds will now have to pay even more when they announce the signing.

Fancy NZ by 12 and on to the decider the week after.

I was watching the London centric BBC News tonight and they were going on about the rugby internationals this weekend. Of course what they meant was the RU internationals. The same occurred just before a Question of Sport, when they summarised sport on the BBC this weekend..again no mention of RL. Thankfully the local news got the balance right, with mentions of both RL and RU.

Do we have to do this over and over again?
Ireland v Italy and USA v Maori All Blacks double header in the USA will get more in attendance than the #2 & #3 RL sides...... England v SA at Twickenham will get 3 times the crowd....... It is not the BBC who are to blame FFS...... 58,000 fans each week attend SL games...... The fact that 33,000 won't bother this weekend isn't aunties fault...... Look inward to discover the problem......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Rugb ... _World_Cup It is interesting to see how long the international formats have been tampered with and we wonder why there are low turn outs. For a world cup final, is 1975 the lowest ever attendance?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Rugb ... _World_Cup It is interesting to see how long the international formats have been tampered with and we wonder why there are low turn outs. For a world cup final, is 1975 the lowest ever attendance?

Absolutely. We’re only now cottoning on to the fact it needs to be a regular cycle and a standard format. The messing around and inconsistency with the World Cup has had a massive negative impact on the sport in my opinion.

Are we cottoning onto this? Yes the World Cup has gone into 4 year cycles, but the Four Nations Tournament, which was growing year on year, has been scrapped. In its place a half full KCOM and Anfield for a Kiwis test series and a return of Great Britain.

Without thinking about it too much:

Have a world cup every 4 years
Have a 4 nations every 4 years, so it falls 2 years after the world cup. Similar to how the World cup and the Euros are scheduled in football.
Have a GB tour at the end of the season every 4 years to either NZ or Aus to play a 3 match series.
Have NZ or Aus tour England every 4 years.

In the year Aus and NZ don't travel to England, have them play end of season tests against teams like Tonga, Fiji and Samoa.

Something like that doesn't strike me as too unreasonable, and wouldn't really increase the physical workload on the players.

Its a good starting point i like it and as long as you stay with the World cup and 4 nations on that rota as set in stone then you can tweak other internationals round it. RU has had this sussed for years with the autumn internationals over here, 6 nations in the new year and WC every 4 years with the lions tours slotting in. Unbelievable how it's taken us this long to fix a schedule but even now it's a way off.