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Bully's Special Prize: Rugby League 2017

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    Originally posted by Kevin S View Post
    So this will be the fifth meeting of Cas and Leeds in Super League this season (home and away, magic, super 8, grand final). Castleford have won all four so far.
    Yep. That was always going to happen, wasn't it?

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      Just watched it cos I was out last night, and managed to avoid the score, though did have two conversations today in which the other person said "you don't know the score? Oh", in a way that suggested things hadn't gone to plan. Too many errors from Cas in crucial places at each end. Hope they bounce back and remain a competitive force next year.

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        Originally posted by Kevin S View Post
        The big day looms... so what has Hardaker done then?
        And here's the answer - failed drug test and he's out of the World Cup.

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          Englands World Cup squad - John Bateman (Wigan), Kevin Brown (Warrington), Sam Burgess (South Sydney), Thomas Burgess (South Sydney), Ben Currie (Warrington), Luke Gale (Castleford), James Graham (St George Illawarra), Ryan Hall (Leeds), Chris Heighington (Cronulla), Chris Hill (Warrington), Josh Hodgson (Canberra), Jonny Lomax (St Helens), Jermaine McGillvary (Huddersfield), Mike McMeeken (Castleford), Sean O’Loughlin (Wigan, capt), Mark Percival (St Helens), Stefan Ratchford (Warrington), James Roby (St Helens), Scott Taylor (Hull), Alex Walmsley (St Helens), Kallum Watkins (Leeds), Elliott Whitehead (Canberra), Gareth Widdop (St George Illawarra), George Williams (Wigan).

          No Sam Tomkins, but recent form would suggest that this isn't too big a surprise. Ben Currie and Alex Walmsley are the two yet to play for England, but unless my eyes are deceiving me, are there only two wingers in the squad (Hall and McGillvary)?

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            Yeah, so it seems. 14 forwards and 10 backs.
            Last edited by Kevin S; 09-10-2017, 13:42.

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              On the England Facebook page there are a lot of disbelieving comments about this but others point out that these are the two most experienced and best all-round wings we have in terms of try scoring, catching, movement and defending. Eden, for example, excels at (1) but less so at the other three.

              There's a page here on the Tonga emergence on the RLWC website:
              http://www.rlwc2017.com/news/hurrell...nd-tongas-rise

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                Who else wants to be a part of it? New York, New York.

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                  Originally posted by Kevin S View Post
                  Who else wants to be a part of it? New York, New York.
                  Or Harrison, New Jersey perhaps...! Interesting enough in itself, but the key thing here is that this isn't the second Eric Perez team that has been mooted, so potentially we could have three teams in North America by the end of the decade. I'm not getting carried away on this wave, solid foundations and slow progress are the order of the day here. It's important that these teams start to bring their own playing resources through, whether it's from amateur RL, RU or tryouts from other sports, because the global talent pool is too shallow.

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                    Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View Post
                    It's important that these teams start to bring their own playing resources through, whether it's from amateur RL, RU or tryouts from other sports, because the global talent pool is too shallow.
                    Indeed. The Italy WC squad isn't really very Italian, for example.

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                      Originally posted by Kevin S View Post
                      Indeed. The Italy WC squad isn't really very Italian, for example.
                      True, and that could have been the <insert name here> WC squad, though I'm not too bothered about that angle - more that there are only so many decent full time players around and every time a new team starts up they naturally start by rounding up experienced Australian / NZ / English players and thin out the quality elsewhere.

                      At least with the French teams they have some degree of local talent to draw on, even if in Catalans' case they still have to rely on bigger Australian / English names to remain competitive in Super League. Even some form of reserve grade / development squad playing locally would be a start (not sure whether Toronto actually have something like this, I've not checked).

                      This will equally be a proper if and when the NRL adds new teams, and in that case it would tend to mean most of the rest of the England team playing in the NRL which would be good for their competitiveness but a disaster for Super League.

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                        Loving the France kit (second from left, back row).

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                          And now some team news.

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                            Premier Sports handy broadcast schedule, which gives the UK times for the matches.

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                              Just to mention, this World Cup has the same four group format as the 2013 tournament.

                              • The first two groups are made up of four teams whilst the other two groups feature three teams each.
                              • The top three teams in the first two groups* and the winners of the two smaller groups will qualify for the quarter-finals.
                              • Group play will involve a round robin in the larger groups, and a round robin in the smaller groups with an additional inter-group game for each team so all teams will play three group games.

                              * Yes, 12 of the 28 matches will have the net effect of eliminating two teams (and, to be fair, fixing who has which road to the Final).

                              The groups are also deliberately not of equal quality, e.g. England and Australia are in the same group, so that we don't end up with one team just destroying all of the others in their group I suppose.

                              The quarter finals are set up as: A1 v B3, B2 v D1, B1 v A3, A2 v C1.
                              Last edited by Kevin S; 24-10-2017, 13:18.

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                                Scotland's rugby league team proving that their football team don't have sole rights to complete and utter inadequacy...

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                                  Good start to the tournament, particularly if England can find another score.

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                                    So, the Pacific island teams have given Wales, Scotland and the US some spankings so far. I suppose we're likely to see one of them as 'the fourth semi finalist' assuming that England don't come unstuck against another of them before then.

                                    It's only a year since Scotland managed a draw with the Kiwis, after all. This looks seriously powerful stuff from Tonga.
                                    Last edited by Kevin S; 02-11-2017, 14:39.

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                                      Fantastic try from Kheirallah for France. Australia lead 20-6 at the break

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                                        Interesting article from the BBC regarding Lebanon's RL side
                                        http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/41805294

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                                          And they're doing ok against England this morning.

                                          Tonga too good for Samoa earlier. They look to be the ones capable of hurting the big three.

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                                            Ft 29-10 to England. Work to be done.

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                                              There's probably a very interesting article to be written/researched about how Lebanon and Wales have tried to capitalise on second/third generation players whilst also trying to grow the sport in their home countries.

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                                                Thanks guys, I came to this thread to ask if the Lebanese team was made up of 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants to Australia and that bbc article covered it.

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                                                  Having bemoaned the lack of tv coverage for Fiji v Wales I'm now counting my blessings!

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                                                    Scotland players in stereotyping row.

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