Super League News
Yesterday the RFL announced that it would be ending its naming rights deal with Stobart that saw them give away one of their biggest assets for stickers on trucks. It is interesting to look at the reaction to the news and the way some people have tried to defend the deal or revise their previous…
The Administrator in charge of the Bradford Bulls has made members of the clubs front office and coaching staff redundant today, including head coach Michael Potter. Assistant coach Francis Cummins is the only member of the coaching staff left to prepare the squad for their next Super League game. What a mess. It is a…
If you needed any evidence as to why British Rugby League is written off, ignored or laughed about by outsiders, the England vs Exiles “International Origin” match would be pretty much all you needed to see. Played in front of a tiny, barely interested crowd, England managed to beat an Exiles team made up of…
Australia has State Of Origin. Oh, that was just a stand alone statement. That has nothing to do with these bloody ridiculous “International Origin” games the RFL have come up with because, if their eyes, this shithouse English side is too goo to play against the likes of say France or Wales. As Ian Golden…
The Rugby Football League should be on the phone right now to David Gallop and offering him the role as RFL Chairman along with a sizable contract. During David Gallops time in charge of the NRL he always pushed three major idea’s and never wavered on their importance. Gallop resisted calls to raise the salary…
Recently Warrington Wolves coach Tony Smith told the media that the game administrators needed to look at ways to create more buzz around the sport and compared it, strangely, to Darts. Yes, Darts. He also talked about the need to make decisions that would probably upset some of the big power brokers in the game,…
The Rugby Football League have finally announced a broadcasting deal in Australia which will allow Rugby League fans in the biggest Rugby league market in the world to watch Super League games live. Eurosport will broadcast a number of games live each week while replaying other matches. You can go to their web site by clicking…
It is one of the questions I have been asked the most over the last few days. With the financial crisis in Super League seeing three of the competitions 14 clubs fall over in the last 12 months, people realize that something has to give, and it is probably the ability of Super League to…
Bradford Bulls fans have woken up to the news this morning that their club could be dead and buried within a fortnight. The Bulls released a statement today pleading with fans to donate £100 each to save the club. They claimed they need to raise around £1,000,000 to survive and £500,000 just to survive through…
St Helens officially sacked Royce Simmons today and have appointed Head of high performance Mike Rush as coach. This is a move that came way too soon and one that smacks of a club that has lost all perspective on its true standing within the game. St Helens is facing the stark reality that has…
The Rugby Football League has signed a three year deal with trucking company Stobart. The deal involved Stobart putting large Rugby League themed stickers on 100 of their trucks and involves no money. In exchange for this the Super League competition will carry the Stobart. This is insane! Nothing against Stobart, they’ve done a great…
Imagine that you own a Newspaper based in London. London is the biggest media market in the country, and the vast majority of your newspapers sales are in the greater London region. The good people of London are like any other people anywhere else in the world. They want to be informed about what is…
First of all I want to tell British Rugby League fans to stop being so reactionary. What has happened has happened. You can blame this and that, but at the end of the day the real problem is that the foundations that the game in Great Britain is built upon are completely rotten. Until the…
Its time for me to confront this issue. Sam Tomkins is not the most well liked player in the British game. For all of the accolades people throw in his direction, he still is not well liked at all by British Rugby League fans. Just recently the BBC’s George Riley wrote a piece titled Why boo…
I’ve been saying for some time that Rugby League in Great Britain, and Super League in particular needs fixing. In 1996 Rugby League in Great Britain was given a whole lot of money to help try and form an elite club competition that would provide broadcasters with a nice amount of content they could show…
Canberra, Newcastle, Brisbane, Townsville, New Zealand, Melbourne and the Gold Coast. These are the names of teams that have come into what we these days call the NRL over the course of my lifetime. The presence of these teams have been nothing short of vital to the survival of the club I support in Sydney,…
In a stunning turn of events, the Wrexham Crusaders have withdrawn their license application to the Rugby Football League, meaning they will drop down a division to the Co-Op Championship next season. This decision means that the team that was heavily favored to be axed from the competition next season, the Wakefield Wildcats, have earned…
I always find it funny when Super League Imports talk up the quality of Super League and its players. The vast majority of the time I think its just about knowing who butters your bread. Other times I think it just comes down to a player or a coach trying to convince themselves that they are no…
The Wigan Warriors forged their way to last seasons Super League title by pushing for every single edge they could possibly get over their opponents. Under the coaching of Michael Maguire they lifted their training standards, worked hard on their defense technique, and it payed off in his first season at the club with a…
Better late then never huh? So I didn’t want to comment on the “International Origin” game until I’d actually seen it. If you were scanning Twitter during the match, you will have seen how much fun I had with the match. In fact I tweeted so much, I got blocked as they were a limit…
There is something about playing for your state or your nation that you so special. The pride, the passion, the drama, the excitement….you just can’t manufacture that. Oh wait, you can it seems! Welcome to International Origin ladies and gentlemen, the Rugby Football Leagues latest bastard creation to try and save its slow decay to…
As I write this, Willie Mason is getting ready to play the first Rugby Union game of his life. The previous conversion record for a Rugby League players to switch codes, play a game and walk into a Rugby Union representative team had been held by Iestyn Harris at 11 days. Mason has walked straight into the…
I’ve written so many article about the changed that need to be made within the game of Rugby League in Great Britain. If you want to read them, go looking through the site archives. What if you started to think outside the box though? What if you stopped thinking about the basics, and went after…
The Sun newspaper in the UK today has exposed a betting scandal that for me just smacks of being the consequence of the RFL’s soft stance against betting in the past. The Sun article, written by Geoff Sweet, is an absolute beauty and is a must read. It exposes the lackadaisical attitude players within the game have…
English second rower Gareth Hock has been serving a two year drug suspension for cocaine use. Yesterday, Wigan announced that coming out of that two year suspension, they had signed Hock to a five year contract. What a disgraceful, embarrassing day, not only for Wigan Rugby League club, but for Rugby League in Great Britain…
Rugby League in Australia is about to secure a broadcasting deal that will see it earn more than $1 billion dollars over the five years of the contract. The NRL salary cap will rise by an incredible $2.7 million dollars. Two new teams will enter the competition and first grade squads will rise to 30…
After being told by the Sydney Roosters (Of all clubs!) to just go away and not come back, Willie Mason made the decision to head over to England and play for a Super League club. It took many months and a lot of hassles over his visa, but eventually, a month into the 2011 Super…
The Widnes Vikings will participate in Super League again from 2012 and as you can imagine, their fans are ecstatic about the prospect of being in the top flights again. Recently we have seen players, commentators and fans pushing for Super League to raise revenues and the salary cap. Just about everyone within British Rugby…
Sorry for being late chaps, just picked up a new Audi, sweet set of wheels! Ok, so as you all know, we have the Great Britain Rugby League team. It is not only one of the most famous brands in the game, but one of the most famous in English sport. So much history… Lets…
English Rugby League players get no respect. They are under paid and they have very little profile in the media. Because of this, players find it hard to get any sort of decent personal sponsorships, and you know who is to blame for all of this don’t you? Well, take your pick…. The BBC, Soccer,…