Probs only cos Sam Tomkins was doing the predictions though, still tbf Ive noticed they have been talking about it more than I would have thought

Have there been any trailers for the series on the BBC? I certainly haven;t seen anything.

I know some fans won't like this, but this series is just a waste of everyone's time. I'm keen to see how England fair, but in the grand scheme of things it's utterly pointless.

For starters, advertising and marketing from the RFL has been scarce (as usual).

The BBC also show a lack of interest in promoting the game, and televise the first match on the "graveyard" period of the weekend.

NZ aren't even taking this series properly, the amount of players dropping out due to "injury".

I saw one just before 6oclock news yesterday. The cartoonie block men one

Wow. So wrong!

Well now you've said your piece, I hope you'll still your tongue now and let the rest of us (who aren't blind to the RFL's failings) enjoy the footy.

Why play series of only two teams? What are the benefits for the winner?

If England were playing in the tri nations against Wales and France you would have a point.

England vs NZ is not a waste of time and instead is what our game needs.

I hope you do enjoy it, like I hope England will win.

Turn the ref mic down or off.

Like the Ashes?

You win the series!

BBC going down the route Sky take with fixating on the coaches while play is actually going on, showing replay after replay of something we've just seen while play is actually going on and zooming into play too much so we can't see the bigger picture and gain a full understanding of the game.

Oh and turn the referee down he's too loud!

Oh and let's have some advertising of the series throughout the week.

at least it was on the news at 10pm...after notts forest report & ladies soccer but did get more air time than the cricket

Jiffy Davies needs the boot. Knows nothing about RL and even less about the Kiwis. Dave Woods is fantastic though - great balance between entertaining the informed armchair fan but also educating the first time viewer to the joys of rugby league. Sky should pluck him at Eddie's replacement.

Watched the red button show. It amazes that they still cut to shots of the dressing room after the match and are then surprised to catch a shot of someone with his wedding tackle on show.

What I'm about to say you will probably disagree with etc

The BBC are such a refreshing change from Sky's coverage. Chappers hosting it is class as he's a genuine fan who knows the sport. The commentators talk about the game rather than any ego based tripe agendas they have. Yes, Jobathon Davies can irritate but IMHO I don't think he's bad at all

The Beebs coverage of our sport should be applauded and cherished

I think they show replays at the wrong time. Maybe due to more experience with Union where you show a replay and they have just re-set the scrum for the 10th time.
The ref's mike is far too loud as well, they need to turn the volume of the stadium microphones up to get the atmosphere in the ground.
Jonathan Davies needs to stick to Union - he has no idea about the modern game - the fact he didn't know the obstruction ruling, for the correctly ruled out NZ try is testament to that

Agree. He offers no insight to the viewer, an considering it was on the BBC and probably a fair few newbies to RL watching, a pundit offering that insight and opinion is valuable.

I get the impression he doesn't watch much RL. Union fans don't really like him either.

I don't think this international series has been marketed and over hyped enough to the correct level. The build up to the game should have been promoted more between the BBC and RFL. When you compare our game stature to Rugby Union our game looks very amateur and that first half felt more like a friendly than a full blown international, I don't think the game was too much of an attraction for sponsors to come on board. Could ITV have gone about it in a better presentation format, I don't know.

ITV don't care about live sport other than football. They might bury some cycling away on ITV4 somewhere, but that's about it in terms of the sports coverage.

Neither Channel 4 nor Channel 5 give a fig about live sport, other than 4's Saturday horse racing.

If RL wants to be on free to air TV, then it's the BBC or nothing and they know it. Hence the BBC can coast along in its happy little bubble with Kear and Davies chirping out cliches like a pair of demented furbies. Much as I might take Davies to task for not knowing/understanding the current obstruction interpretation, when an international coach sat next to him gets the same incident wrong what does that say about his ability as a pundit?

Crabtree doing interviews is cringeworthy. He's so stilted and wooden in his delivery it's like he's struggling to remember what he's going to say. While I appreciate you're probably not going to get Tanya Arnold inside the dressing rooms at the end of the game, put someone like Wilkin in who can at least string a sentence together in there.

The annoying thing for me was just a few hours before the game started 5 live had a Rugby special on.
Naively thinking it would be about the England NZ game I tuned in, but it no it was all about what went wrong
with England in the Union World cup. Not a mention of the League test match being shown on BBC 2 a few hours later.

Regarding the mentions of the series from the BBC (& elsewhere in the media), I don't really blame them to be honest.

I think International RL has dug the hole it finds itself in over the past 20 years by treating the International game as an after thought. If the sport treats it as such, why would the media be that interested?

Before this series England hadn't played at home for two years. Our International calendar has been a joke and only takes place for a few weeks in an Autumn. We've previously played most of it at small, northern stadia.


Hopefully this is starting to change. All three games have sold really well, and we've woken up and realised that we must have an International presence in the capital. The International calendar is better than it was, but still lacks forward thinking.

We need to give the media the games (events) to speak and get excited about.

I really don't get the vitriol directed at Jiffy. I mean are you saying he's worse than Stevo and Wiggy? Seriously????
As an aside, Jiffy's comments re. Sam Burgess last night were spot on.

Well we actually made the BBC Breaksfast sport news this morning and Nicky Campbell interviewed Steve Macnamara Five Live this morning and mentioned himself that the game at the Olympic Stadium will be a good spectacle.