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The Rugby League World Cup starts next week and as a RL Fan I am really looking forward to it. Starts with a double header and opening ceremony at Millennium Stadium Saturday 26th (England vs Australia and Wales vs Italy) which should be a cracker. Ticket prices are really reasonable throughout the tournament and you can actually get a ticket to the opener for £10 if you have a code.

I think there will be some really interesting games, not just involving the main 3 nations but also the pacific islands, who have really strong squads. I think England have got a reasonable chance but are probably third favourites given that Australia are as strong as ever and the Kiwis look really good.

Anyone going to any of the fixtures? I will be at 2 games at Headingley (probably both NZ games), plus the final at Old Trafford and hopefully will make it to Cardiff next week. These games are usually pretty intense and don't happen very often so will go to as many as I can. Fixtures are at http://www.rlwc2013.com/fixtures

Saw a nice video today of the NZ squad visiting a school in Doncaster and ending up doing an impromptu Haka
 YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0rF-qi2s6s   

Don't have time to go to any games but I would like to watch them on TV. Not sure I have seen any adverts for this yet, any idea on what channel the games are on?

yeah BBC have coverage of England Games/Semi/Final with highlights of others. All games are shown live on Premier Sports (ch. 428) - i already subscribe by I think they have a discount code somewhere ("NHL" was a live code recently) in case you want a short term subscription that you cancel after it has finished.

I got tickets for the 2 games at Headingley for a total of £22.50 on successive Fridays 8/15 Nov, which isn't bad.

Going to the final with a couple of mates.

A bit farcical it last 4 weeks to decide which of nz or England play Australia in the final.

and then Australia win


how many teams in this?

how many have a chance?

Well they didn't last time.

Besides, yeah OK, Australia will be 1/2, NZ 2/1 and England 8/1, and it'll be 100/1 bar those, and yes, the eligibility criteria for the Italian team are "must have visited at least one pizza shop in the last year", but some of the games between the lesser nations are entertaining even if they won't make it to Old Trafford and I think the whole thing will be good fun. And there is always the dream that this year could be the one England win.

From a betting perspective I have found this tournament to be a goldmine in the past.  Not really had a look this year but it almost always rewards study.

Realistically only 3 teams can expect to win it, although some of the lesser nations (Tonga, Samoa, Fiji) are much better than in previous seasons. If England beat Australia in the opener then it is likely to be a NZ/Australia semi final with the easier route for England. RL is the main sport in Australia in front of RU, Cricket etc so of course they have a great squad and they will be difficult to beat, but they are not unbeatable and England/NZ have done it plenty of times before, just not over a sustained series.

Don't really agree with the assertion that the tournament is a farce because so few teams have a realistic chance of actually winning the thing, same can be said for so many tournaments/leagues in modern sport. Even a normal "tri-nations" tournament takes 4 weeks if you were only interested in the big 3.

The problem the RLWC has is that rugby is a game which doesn't lend itself to shock upsets. Good teams beat worse teams. Significantly worse teams get absolutely crushed. In a cricket WC you get Ireland beating England or Pakistan, or in football you get bigger teams getting turned over (and Greece & Denmark winning the Euros). Whereas in the RLWC, Australia could play their group game against Ireland every day for the next 4 years and not lose once.

In Union there is the same disparity between the best and the worst but there are 8 or 9 teams that could realistically fancy themselves to get to a final.

part of the reason its not on normal tv, no one will watch most the games.

Apparently SKY bid to show all games but wouldn't share the headline games with BBC, so the RFL went for a package where the main attractions were on free-to-air TV.
What is "normal TV" these days, does it include SKY?

I don't think it does

I don't think it helps that the BBC cover RL so appallingly compared to Sky

I am of course a RU fan but find RL on the BBC very tricky to watch

- Clare Balding is a great broadcaster but its just wrong to see her do RL. Maybe if they had a three day event in the car park or something

- Ray French's commentary style is very outdated


I think Sky do a far better job, but I expect thats resources and commitment to the sport.



On a seperate issue, when I was a lad I remember watching the Aus team of Mal Meninga come over here. What a team that was. Is this Australian team a good one? Who would I be looking out for for their skills etc?

Agreed, but for balance, of all the Sports that Sky Sports cover so wonderfully, I think that whilst they are a ton better than the BBC RL coverage, it is by far their worst commentary team, & presentation.

I could actually tell you what those two commentators say before they say it, & that awful music & graphics are mind-numbing.

And its T R Y time for me.

Did he ever

You are right and I agree but shocks do happen occasionally. The problem in the past has been that Australia have just been too elite for the rest, especially in games that matter.
However I am still looking forward to some of the "lesser" games as well as the bigger games.

RL is run by some of the worst people imaginable, clueless on every level. No surprise at the eventual TV coverage.

Mel Meninga has a kid in seacroft Leeds, no doubt from a trip here whilst playing RL.

This Aussie team is a good one and so is the NZ team.
I agree fully that the BBC presentation is poor and I think they are more likely to use other commentators instead of Ray French. I also hope they use Jonathan Davies sparingly as his commentary/insight is woeful (this not me being biased because of his union connection, nor because of his accent). However I am prepared to give the BBC a chance here to see how they do. I think Balding was lost to the BBC when she went to do racing on CH4, but I actually think she did ok.

The commentary team on SKY is old and tired, they should have been replaced 5 years ago - both Eddie and Stevo are well past their sell-by-date. At certain points I am amazed Stevo actually played the game, the bloke has lost it. Must admit I lost interest in watching a lot of SKY games last year.

Off the top of my head, the main 3 people I would look for in the main teams are as follows:
Australia - Greg Inglis (centre/fullback), Billy Slater (Fullback), Johnathan Thurston (stand-off)
NZ - Sonny Bill Williams (Second Row), Shaun Johnson (scrum half), Jared Warea-Hargreaves
Eng - Sam Burgess (Prop/Loose Forward), Sam Tomkins (full back), George Burgess (Prop)

There are quite a few "champion" players in the NZ/Aus teams but these are the ones most likely to catch eye imo. When thinking of Meninga, think of Inglis as the modern equivalent. About 6'4" and 17st and was schoolboy 400m champion, with all the skills to match.

I agree with that entirely.

Shame really, it just needs freshening up, & it could be marvellous for RL if they did.  Given the choice, I swerve watching it, as they are so cheesy & predictable. And that bloody music that accompanies a T R Y.......

I think they are slowly bringing in new blood, 4-5 co commentators now in place ready to take over.  Shame there all Wigan biased.

You know how big RL is in NZ and Aussie as some of their players have £1m+ twitter followers, unheard of here.

rarely watch rl on sky (or anywere for that matter) but watched a game fairly recently.

Agree entirely with comments on commentary same old sayings from when i last watched 5/6 years ago very tiresome and all seemed a bit comfy

It is only the new blood that enables me to watch it on Sky, I agree, some of them are just the job.

I doubt Ray French will be doing much of it-I think he's retired. Dave Woods is the main BBC RL man now, and I like him.

Eddie and Stevo are strange- lots of people are supposed to like them, but I've never met any of them. They are meant to appeal to the like of Tikay and horseplayer- occasional RL viewers who are outside of the hardcore audience. If they don't even do that, then they are sunk.

Claire Balding was excellent.

I subscribed to premier sports last season just to watch the NRL (let's face it you wouldn't subscribe for anything else on there), I wasn't disappointed by the standard of games, nor the standard of commentary you get from people who do it properly plus recently retired great players.

The standard and intensity of the NRL play-off games was different gravy to any other sport I have watched recently. One game ended 4-0 but I was engrossed throughout as it was constant pressure on either line.

The recent $1bn TV deal they have down under is the main reason that the likes of Sam Tomkins etc are going over there, rather than going to union in the UK, and that there are no decent Aussies coming over here anymore unless they are damaged in some way.

Unfortunately RL over here is behind in terms of standard of play and presentation and we are relying on a few of our top players to really shine when it matters for us to have a chance. However, some of my best live sporting experiences have been when England/GB have been playing internationals against Aus/NZ so getting to as many games as I can.

Don't really see the Wigan bias at all on the SKY commentary team, they cream themselves just as much over Leeds/Warrington etc at other times.

You have to remember that, despite RL's continued efforts, it's still a regional game only really played in two parts of two countries.

I find the coverage parochial but then it's not aimed at me and really shouldn't be either - RL had its go at becoming a major world sport and nothing happened. Union expanded its reach into more countries (Argentina now a major power, Italy getting there and growing quickly in USA & Japan) leaving League really nowhere to go.

Nailed it. I am that man, & I WANT to get interested in the game, but I'd rather like the commentary team to treat me as a grown up.

I'll never have a deep interest in it, but I can barely watch when those two are doing their thing. Their ad-libs & one-liners remain identical to 5 or 6 years ago. It's like listening to a RL version of Dale Winton. An original line must not be spoken, OK?

Problem is the people in charge are obsessed with expanding the game when there is no need. Develop the game where its popular and stop spreading out too thin. London should close down and let another Northern club flourish before the promotion/relation comes back into force.

I think you have it spot on and am glad someone outside the RL fanbase has said this. Exactly what I think.
Eddie thinks he is on a mission to tell everyone how good the product is and why they should be watching but he frequently highlights the wrong stuff. Just let people watch the game and make their own minds up FFS.

Yup. I don't need "what a great game RL is", I need a bit more honesty, almost as Neville has done so well (imo) with their Football coverage, which has moved on enormously since Gray & Keys.

You won't get "honesty" from Sky Sports. Their number one aim every month with all sports is to tell you how brilliant it all is and you must not, you hear me, must not, even countenance the thought of cancelling your subscription. They never describe any event they are covering as "a poor game", "a waste of time", "forgone conclusion", etc.

Rugby League is a good piece of business for Sky Sports though- I think it draws money for them in excess of the money it costs to televise it, which apart from football is pretty rare for them.

Must admit my interest in Rugby league has waned in the last few years, due to the standard of play and coverage in this country. My interest has been reignited somewhat by spending sometime in Australia earlier in the year, the NRL really produces some great rugby and the passion for the game in NSW and Queensland is bigger than any other sport over there.

Very much this.  Eddie is a blatant Warrington fan, and there is a bias towards Leeds as much as anyone else, especially over the past few seasons.  This year there's been a particular bias towards Sam Tomkins, probably partly due to his deal with Sky and that he was the poster boy and also partly because he was the stand-out talent in the league.  No denying that Phil Clarke is a Wigan fan though, and that the Leeds fans really dislike him :D

Eddie and Stevo have become ridiculous caricatures of themselves and needed to retire at least five years ago.  They did well in the earlier days, but definitely need shifting ASAP.  BBC's coverage is actually worse though, with the French/Davies combo absolutely laughable.

Looking forward to seeing how well England do against Australia and New Zealand in the WC.  Unfortunately, if McNamara continues to baffle with his line-up, I can't see us doing that well.  Got some good talent in the side though, and will be good to see how they match up with the best from the NRL.  Also looking forward to seeing the Burgess brothers and Widdop lining up alongside the players from the SL.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/24565586

Oh my. The pizza shop visitors score a major upset.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/AvIi6rSCAAE7gPC.jpg)

(http://p.twimg.com/A3aFIz8CcAASmpt.png)

NZL vs Samoa, jesus what a game. Big big hits :) good crowd too.

36-4 now 36-24 lol NZL aqueeky bum time..

66mins...

omg...

Sony williams... take a bow.

NZvSamoa was the best one-sided game I've seen lol

It was crazy and the crowd really swept the game on.

Been really impressed with the attendances so far, the atmosphere.


Dads of to Headingly for NZL all reports its closing in on sellout too.

yeah i'm going to both Headingley games (on successive Fridays) and the final.

Went to Cardiff and enjoyed it but thought the atmosphere was more subdued than normal, having said that I was really high up in the stands and prefer being close to the pitch. In previous internationals there has been a band with drums and trumpets in the crowd, didn't seem to be there on Saturday.

A few people at work have been going on about the last NZ game, shame more people won't have seen it and I don't think a highlights programme would do it justice.

Oh just going back to the commentary debate that was had earlier in this thread. Premier Sports brought over a commentator from Oz (Andrew Voss )and he made the NZ game even more enjoyable with his commentary - in stark comparison to Eddie Hemmings.

its free prem sports on virgin 551 atm.. :) all games.

heard they had it free on Virgin until the end of the year and then the monthly fee will be £7.99

My dad switched to SKY from Virgin about 4 months ago because Virgin didn't have Premier Sports - lol

Highlights were on BBC - didn't do it justice.

not seen any of the BBC coverage yet so can't comment on the standard of presentation/commentary. Saturday's games were on BBC and Premier simultaneously - heard from other people that the crowd noise was totally different on the 2 channels, BBC had really low crowd noise from Cardiff and Premier the opposite whilst the commentary was better on PS.

Well done Scotland, 20-4 up then 24-20 down only to then win 26-24. Continues to exceed expectations this RLWC, someone did say they were not upsets :)

enjoyed the game last night. Clearly Tonga were bigger, faster, stronger etc but Scotland really held on, got some luck and with the leadership of some of their key players managed to grind out a win against the odds.

Wonder what price Scotland were to win that game?

I would have no idea, a guess 3 or 4 / 1.


Some championship players in the Scottish team.

was thinking wider odds than that

USAAAAAA. Huge upset...:) massive price i bet.

England v New Zealand - what a match, and a brilliant performance by the England side.  Gutted with the last few minutes of the match and result. 

Could copy and paste that for a union thread replacing England with Ireland.

have to say I am still gutted from Saturday

Completely agree Andrew.  I watched both games and in the second could not believe that we had a chance to beat NZ for the very first time.  Then I had a flashback to the England game and thought "please don't do a last minute get out of jail job on us" and then boom.  I was praying for a forward pass when the NZ try went to the TMO.

Morals of the weekend: play to the final whistle, take your scores when they are there and don't give away needless penalties. Do you think Sinfield should have taken the penalty kick at goal from the halfway line in the second half? Am not sure how sick Ryan Hall, Jonathan Sexton, James Graham and Jack McGrath are but I'd say that regrets were pretty high in both English and Irish camps.

Yeah, didn't think we'd perform anything close to that level before the game - but once we'd performed so well it was a cruel ending.  If only McNamara had selected the right players from the start, we might have beaten the Australians in the first game and wouldn't have had to face New Zealand in the semis.  But no, he had to go with Chase. 

Well one thing that was confirmed this RLWC is McNamara is useless and hyper defensive with the press when there is really no need.

They'll probably look at that last game and give him a 5 - year contract.

not his biggest fan but struggling to name people who would be the next England coach. Keeping him on wouldn't be the worst thing in the world

No, you're right - AIDS, earthquakes and super typhoons are much worse.


There are plenty who could do the job.  Also, why is it a full-time role when it's not a full-time job?  Why not get some younger assistant coaches to do the role on a part-time basis?