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Joined September 2012
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I'm a supporter of the greatest game, Hull Kingston Rovers, Ice Hockey and Hull Stingrays.
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The last eight of the Challenge Cup served up a few surprises, with Widnes, Castleford, Leeds and Warrington booking their places in the semi-finals.…
Super League is awash with some extremely promising homegrown talent, from the breakaway try-scoring skills of Wigan's Joe Burgess to the deceptively silky ball…
This week's spotlight is on Magic in Manchester. If you wanted top class rugby league action, good weather and a few beers, the Magic…
The spotlight is on Manchester Magic this weekend, with a full round of fixtures to be played in the Etihad stadium over two days.…
The spotlight is on Challenge Cup attendances rugby league journalists have been asking if the magic of the Challenge Cup is dwindling after a…
The Easter period, which involves playing two games in the space of a few days, is one the most gruelling for Super League clubs.…
This week's spotlight is on Bradford, with the Rugby Football League has granted the club right to appeal against the deduction of six competition…
On Thursday night at the KC Stadium, Salford beat Hull FC thanks to a golden point drop-goal to proceed to the fifth round of…
St Helens maintained their 100 per cent record with a last-ditch victory at home against Leeds on Friday night. This game was special for…
This week in Super League the spotlight is on the Rugby Football League' match review panel. Hull Kingston Rovers Chairman Neil Hudgell launched a scathing…
This week the spotlight is on the first five games. The competition has started taking shape without too many shocks. Here we take a…
This week's spotlight is on the classy Castleford Tigers, who have a share of the Super League lead after four straight victories gave Daryl…
This week, the spotlight is on the Man of Steel. The Rugby Football League have renamed the Man of Steel award after Steve Prescott…
This week the Spotlight is on the Bradford Bulls as the Rugby Football League deducted six competition points, leaving Bradford four points adrift of…
This week, the Spotlight is on progress and improvements. Rugby league in Europe is to undergo some fundamental changes in 2015. The RFL announced…
Not a problem.
I’m trying to mix it up a little bit.
Super League teams play 2 games in 4 days this weekend so hopefully there will be plenty more to talk about.
Spotlight on Super League: week eight
Phil Bentham has stood firm on his decision. If there is any doubt and the video ref is available, then use it. It is was a suspect try, I have no doubt that it would have been referred up.
I know a lot of Super League fans down under love the Challenge Cup and a lot of players who come over always say they used to watch it on TV as kids.
Shame about my team, Hull KR – that was a very good game.
Spotlight on the Challenge Cup: Round 4
The league needs it. Games like that come along every now and again and we really do savour them.
I have seen some utter classics over the years and this game was up there with the best. I think one of Super League’s major issues is that the regular season is seen as a ‘race to the playoffs’ in a lot of respects so these types of games are a rarity until we reach that stage of the season.
Nevertheless, we were treated to a great weekend of Rugby League and as a Hull KR supporter especially, I am very pleased.
I’m afraid next week’s instalment won’t be as upbeat but the article will explain why that is.
Cheers!
Spotlight on Super League: Week seven
Not really.
We were told that there were 6 bids, one of which was put together by Salford owner Marwan Koulash’s wife, Mandy.
I’ll have to come back to the new ownership when/if new information is revealed but to be honest, it seems the NRL is a lot more of an open book compared to Super League.
Our league can sometimes be pretty difficult to write about, which doesn’t help me because I set myself a 1,000-word minimum target every week ha!
Spotlight on Super League: week six
Hi GMTW,
Thank you for the kind words. It is always a good laugh putting this article together and I want to improve it all the time.
Please keep tuning in.
Wellens has been a fantastic player and such an influential character at St Helens. Rob Burrow from Leeds played his 350th game against London tonight as well.
See you next week.
Adam
Spotlight on Super League: week five
Evening all,
The Bradford situation has been rumbling on for a couple of years. When the most recent licences where handed out, Bradford were given a Grade ‘B’ licence, so surely someone must have caught on to the fact that the club were hemorrhaging money.
The whole thing has been a disappointing joke from start to (almost) finish. The beat London at the weekend, so are fighting, and all praise to the players and coaching staff, but to sustain the level of performance needed throughout the season to stay up, on a small squad with a sprinkling of loanees, is going to be extremely difficult.
Watch this space…
Spotlight on Super League (week two)
Hi gents,
Thanks for the kind comments. I will ensure I provide you with a weekly round up right up until the grand final in October.
I have intended to write for this site for some time so I am pleased to finally make a contribution.
In response to ‘Keeping it real’, I have a sarcastic streak so expect the odd comment. I don’t mind Union at international level but in terms of pure on-the-field entertainment, our game wins hands down for me.
A lot of British RL fans have this perception that Australians don’t like our game. I’d like to test out that theory because I don’t think it is as true as we like to believe.
All the best.
Adam
Spotlight on Super League (week one)
20-years worth of finals have been played there and this is the first time, to my recollection, that the issue has arisen.
I concur that the situation is worthy of debate, and that something needs to be done – by why after all this time are we only starting to talk about it?
The Morris try happened right in front of me. We noted before the kick off that the in-goals were short, but they always have been.
Officials lucky that in-goal farce didn't turn into 'own-goal' tragedy
I attempted to discuss this with him on Twitter. He didn’t have the decency to respond but claims to have a ‘no dickhead’ policy…
Phil Rothfield, I have a question for you
“As you can see it’s no too difficult to put together a classy looking side, and provided they didn’t let David Mead kick for goal I believe they could give any footy team a run for their money.”
HAHA – I went to this game. It was an absolute shocker.
Good post, mate. Enjoyable read…!!
RLWC 2013: The best of the rest side
“We’re aware of an incident at a venue that (Walker) was at,” the spokesman said. “He’s told us he wasn’t involved.
With all due respect, the fact that Dylan Walker was at the scene of an incident he had nothing to do with isn’t really newsworthy.
Of course, there have been a few instances in the recent past where players have been involved in unsavoury incidents – we in Britain see a few and often welcome over problematic NRL players.
However, the fact remains, the percentage of RL players in trouble is very small and efforts to encourage players to follow a strict code of conduct is showing to be effective.
Now where’s Blake Ferguson?
Wayward sports stars - will they ever learn?
This is my regular article on SuperLeagueFans: http://www.superleaguefans.com/rugby-league/2013/11/11/spotlight-on-a-genuine-hero.html
Thanks.
Rugby league mourns 'hero' Prescott
Fabrizio Ciaurro is the only domestic player in Italy’s squad. He has scored 4 tries in 7 games for The Azzurri but didn’t feature in any of their World Cup games.
This World Cup should act as the springboard for all emerging nations and their domestic competitions to develop the next batch of homegrown players in time for the next tournament. This is something that should be supported so our global competition gains further recognition.
A genuine world rugby league is finally here
“Not so, for Slammin’ Sam. He got outed for just one game; the RLWC authorities clobbered him with the proverbial feather.”
1 game was fair enough considering this is a World Cup and we as a sport need our best out there all the time.
Bighead Burgess needs to cut out the crap
This World Cup must act as a springboard to stronger individual domestic competition so that in 5 years the countries that compete in wherever we choose to hold it come from said nations and are legitimate representatives.
This World Cup has been awesome. I’ve been to 3 games: 2 in Cardiff and PNG v France last week. I will be at PNG v Samoa tonight and NZ v PNG on Friday in Leeds. I also have a ticket for the final in Manchester.
Crowds are up, interest is booming and the entertainment has been first rate.
Focus on the positives!
Sorry but the Rugby League World Cup is a farce
In recent times New Zealand have matched and often beaten Australia in tournaments but have struggled in mid-season tests.
Being the optimist that I am, we the English will defy all odds and beat Tonga in the final 😉
Can the Kangaroos be contained?
“The National Rugby League (NRL) is considered the best rugby league competition in the world by quite a distance. Its only challenger is the English Super League.
Both of these leagues are guilty of not spreading the game.
Why is rugby league not played in global powerhouse countries such as China, the United States Of America, or even Canada and Japan?”
It is the ‘European’ Super League and the game is played in both American and Canada.
NRL the culprit for not expanding rugby league
“Positive Rugby said | June 7th 2013 @ 8:49am | Report comment
It was as stupid as we all know Gallen is. Plus it was a low act of unforgivable violence that should not be tolerated or condoned on the football field. My 8 year old and 6 year old play rugby union and that is where they will stay now I know leage is a game that condones violence and unprovoked physical abuse. Its a disgrace and as a lawyer I wish someone would give me a call about making Gallen responsible for his actions, not to mention his defamatory spite filled, ego boosting comments after the game. What an absolute disgrace.”
Have a word…
Is Gallen brave or just plain stupid?
There are many reasons why Super League is struggling in certain areas. As the main article states, the economy is all over the place and finding any major sponsorship is proving difficult. What the article doesn’t state however is that the Super League have plenty of partners plowing money into the game; however, just how much that is seems to be a closely guarded secret.
The lure of the NRL is huge. We’ve seen some of our best players go over and do extremely well, and we’ve seen some do OK. The question we should be asking is: Why does the governing body make a profit year-on-year yet the majority of individual clubs remain insolvent? Instead, we bury our heads in the sand and diverting peoples’ attention away from the real issues by discussing a league re-structure that, without major investment from Sky (our TV broadcaster) and other outlets, will not help much to solve the problem anyway.
NRL fans: the English are coming
The Challenge Cup gives smaller clubs the opportunity to play against their heros and players they look up to. For what it is worth, as a British NRL fan I like the heritage round and would love to see our game’s history celebrated for one round a year.
I’d also like to see how a Magic Weekend-style event would be supported in Australia too.
Give it a go.
How about an NRL Challenge Cup down under?
Great article. Cheers for posting it. Really enjoyed it. I can just imagine running full pelt towards a bunch of people and having to change direction at the last minute to avoid contact! 😀
NRL pre-season training: An insight from the Knights
Ha bloody ha.
Seriously, Polish RL is building at a steady pace. I met the president of the Polish RL at Wembley in August along with Danny Andruzyk, who I am sure many have come across.
They are both very confident that the sport can continue to grow well in Poland. Thankfully, the game is growing all over Europe now and international matches involving Malta, Denmark, Germany, Greece etc are becoming more frequent.
I support all RL development and wish it every success.
Poland: Rugby league's newest powerhouse
Mate, we love the commentary over here in the UK. It is part of the experience of watching live NRL. Rabs and Gus’ bantering is brilliant. More of the same next season!!
A summer of love with Rabs and Gus
On the contrary, Johnno, I think it is great that we have a group of Englishmen over there. But what is good for the goose isn’t necessarily good for the gander and the NRL can do as they see fit. If they don’t want a quota then fair play, but I think that for us to improve as a nation we need one. Their player talent pool is much larger than ours as well, so maybe they can afford to be a bit more lax, particularly because the NRL does have a lot of SL-standard players; why invite ours over if they have a lot of them to begin with?
Hull a good move for Miller, says Ellis
Hi guys,
In response to Ronnie’s first post, I submit an article every week on Super League in the same format as the Challenge Cup article above. If you click on my name I think you’ll find them all that way.
A lot of people keep saying Super League is ‘dying’ but is it really dying? I have to disagree entirely. It is far from perfect, but it isn’t on its death bed. We want the attract the best but can’t pay for the best; we want to keep the best of what we have but don’t have the salary cap to do it. The governing body is richer than it ever has been but many clubs are poor, which is something we have to address.
I think a lot of people are losing interest because it doesn’t really go anywhere. The NRL has the capability to produce results without relegation, and although I am a staunchly anti-relegation, the re-introduction of this may spark a bit of excitement at the bottom of the league again.
Here’s hoping…
Spotlight on the Challenge Cup - Round 5