Ricky Stuart may be feeling the heat but Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy are adamant they don’t want his job, and even feel some empathy with the embattled Kangaroos coach.

Loving life in Paris, Mark Gasnier has categorically ruled out ever returning to the NRL but also laughed off the suggestion he may one day choose France over Australia to become a dual international.

In less than five full games of rugby, Stade Francais coach Ewen McKenzie says Mark Gasnier has already exceeded expectations and proven himself to be a dual international in the making. If he so desires.

St George Illawarra will return to their traditional heartlands next year, ending their one-year association with ANZ Stadium.

With sexual assault allegations still hanging over their heads, Karmichael Hunt and Darius Boyd today earned controversial Kangaroos call-ups after a cruel injury blow to Manly flyer Brett Stewart.

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy has taken aim at the NRL salary cap as he prepares to lose his 11th player from the Storm’s era of three straight grand finals.

Manly, Parramatta and South Sydney appear to be the winners and Newcastle the biggest losers after the NRL released the draw for the 2009 season today.

Australian rugby captain Stirling Mortlock is adamant the door to Wallabies selection should remain shut to overseas based players like the code’s latest prize recruit Mark Gasnier.
Tuqiri has spring in his step

Manly moved just one step away from a shot at premiership redemption last night with a 38-6 qualifying final victory that killed off St George Illawarra’s NRL season.
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When Nathan Brown looks back on his six years with St George Illawarra he’ll see plenty of regrets, but it’s a decision made in his final hours which could haunt him longest.

Like so many other campaigns during their ten years in the NRL, it wasn’t meant to end this way for St George Illawarra.

An era could come to an end tomorrow night but at least Nathan Brown can walk away from St George Illawarra with his head held high.

Brisbane began their finals campaign in style and ensured coach Wayne Bennett would return to Suncorp Stadium for one last hurrah with a gutsy 24-16 NRL qualifying final win over the Sydney Roosters tonight.

Preview of this weekend’s National Rugby League qualifying finals (all times AEST, prefix denotes regular season finish).

A super-confident Wayne Bennett has likened his side to the 2006 premiership-winning Broncos.

The NRL may still be a month away from crowning a 2008 champion, but Newcastle coach Brian Smith has wasted little time in setting his sight’s on next year’s top four.

As painful as the near misses of 2005 and 2006 may have been, departing St George Illawarra prop Jason Ryles believes the double NRL finals failure came with a valuable lesson - don’t go changing.

Dally M winner Matt Orford is hoping he can crack the curse which has kept an NRL player of the year without a premiership for 22 years, but he’s given up on silencing his critics.

Greg Inglis’ decision to extend his stay with Melbourne was helped by the NRL looking into the possibility of third party sponsorship from government indigenous programs.

With the league finals just about to kick off under the McIntyre System, it’s worth asking whether this is the best system to decide the Grand Finalists. Indeed, every year there seems to be a rumbling about moving to the AFL’s system.