England has named a weakened, second string 20 man squad ahead of their exhibition match against the “Exiles” side in the International Origin match set for the 12th of June at Warrington. The side will not include England best players including Sam Burges, Luke Burgess, George Burgess, James Graham, Gareth Widdop, Jack Reed and Chris…
The Melbourne Storm are the best Rugby League club in the world. That is not in doubt. Yet here we are in 2013 and the best Rugby League club on the planet is having to deal with the amateurs that run Rugby League in Great Britain, all in an effort to put money in their…
In life, the ability to say the word “No” is very important. In fact, I’d go as far as to say our ability to say the word “No” is what our entire society is based around. You see, for things to run smoothly you need some level of control. You need to be able to…
It is always hilarious when you read the Rugby League World awards. Basically this small English Rugby League magazine talks up these awards they hand out. That are supposedly voted on by a group of “international” Rugby League journalists. We all know that to English League types, “international” means a bunch of Poms, a few…
Sonny Bill Williams has revealed that he already regrets his decision to return to Rugby League and if he had his time over again, he would never have agreed to join the Sydney Roosters three years ago and would stay in Rugby Union. As it stands right now Williams has a stint in Japanese Rugby…
The Sydney Morning Herald is today reporting that news A League soccer clubs the West Sydney Wanderers and the FFA have plans to make changes to Parramatta Stadium during game days. Among the changes they want to make are to temorarily re-name the stands at the ground and to cover the statue of Eels legend Ray Price….
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…
The New Zealand team contains an Aussie. The Australian team contains a Kiwi and a Fijian. One side was picked with an eye on State of Origin. The game won’t even be shown live into Australia. So why should I care? As a die hard Rugby League fan that grew up watching some great test…
Last night Australia selected New Zealand born and raised James Tamou to play for the Kangaroo’s. He will go on to play for New South Wales in the State Of Origin series. It is a move that has caused uproar among fans and the media. Nobody feels like this is the right thing to be…
When it comes to Rugby League, the rot always starts from the top. How on earth are the Parramatta Eels supposed to succeed on the field when every other level of the club is a complete mess? What makes anyone think that for some reason an entire club can be rotten to the core, and…
Last night in England the Rugby Football League was supposed to announce all of the venues that would be used for the 2013 World Cup. For what ever reason, that did not happen and in all the confusion about why the announcement wasn’t being made, it felt like the RFL just decided to announce what…
The RFL put out and extrardonary press release last night in which they confirmed their planned 2012 tour of New Zealand had been cancelled, blamed Australian administrators for the cancellation, and then decided to change the laws of the game. You know, just because they felt like it! The stupid, pathetic, egotistical failures within the…
I’m looking at Rugby League on a world wide basis, and I can not for the life of me understand why the RFL has any influence on the decision making process at international level. The RFL and its shambolic track record. An organization that can not even properly administer its own tiny little club competition….
Rugby League in Great Britain is complex. It is small minded and yet at the same time it has this inflated opinion of itself. It is closed off and proud of its ability to not need any outside influences, and yet pounds its chest in triumph at the capture of a foreign player or coach….
So what is a Rugby League World Cup supposed to be about? It’s an interesting question and one that could have a thousands different answers. For me a Rugby League World Cup has always been about the countries I don’t normally get to see. In fact, in any international competitions we have in our game,…
So in the recent 2013 Rugby League World Cup launch, in Salford, the qualification process was announced and it had the two or three people that turned up to the launch scratching their heads. There is one spot in the World Cup open to what they are calling an “Atlantic Qualifier”. In real terms, this…
Ben Giles is an English Rugby League journo who writes for Code 13 Rugby League. Now, I’ve got no truck with Ben, however, he has written about how Code 13 went about doing their nominations for the “Golden Boot” awards, and I can’t let it slide, I have to say something. For years, even before the Andrew…
So now we have the list of players who got “Golden Boot” awards. I had made my predictions on who would win these awards a few days ago and while I was a little way off, I was also not too far off on the complete and utter stupidity of the names that eventually got listed! Now…
The draw for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup was announced with little warning at an event held in Salford over night. It was announced that 14 teams will take part in the next World Cup, which will be held in Great Britain, and the format for the group stages would be completely overhauled. I…
Of all the people I talk to about Rugby League through my web site, forums, Twitter and just general people I know and meet, not a single one of them views the RL Worlds Golden Boot award as anything other than a joke and a complete farce. From the mythical list of “International Journalists”, none…
I try to fight the good fight. If I see something I think is wrong with this game of Rugby League, I’ll call it out. I’ll write all about what is wrong, I’ll write about how I would do things differently, and I hope by the time you have read through an article, you come…
As Akuila Uate, a Fijian born and raised player who only recently moved to Australia, was selected by the ARL to represent that Australian Prime Ministers XIII against Papua New Guinea, people who took any interest in seeing international Rugby League retain any credibility were up in arms. Having played for Fiji within the last…
A football club is a little bit like a sailing ship. The boat itself is the team. The captain of the ship is like the coach. The rudder is like the CEO and the keel, well, that is like the football board. Everything has its own job, and as soon as something fails, the whole…
It comes as a shock, I know, but it is obvious that Australia is scrapping the bottom of the barrel as far as playing talent goes. That is the only conclusion I can come to with regards to the news that Newcastle Knights winger Akuila Uate is looking to turn his back of playing for…
Everyone knows I love the concept of an Aboriginal All Stars team taking on an NRL All Stars team. It will make for a great game, it will be a great way to kick off the season and it will celebrate the fact that Rugby League has a higher percentage of Aboriginal players than any…
Well the Rugby League International Federation awards were held last night. I know, I know….I didn’t know they were on either! Look, I’ll be honest with you, I look at this awards list and I don’t really know what to make of it. Does it just take in the international season, I would suggest it…
The supposed Rugby league International Federation (Or what ever they are called today) is currently meeting in Singapore (I’m not joking) and thrashing out the future of the international game which spending huge money on high priced hotels in a country where Rugby League has never been played. During this time a big decision was…
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the international waters, the idiots running this game destroy any hope or enthusiasm you might have had. Today the RFL announced the details for the Four Nations competition to be held at the end of the year between World Champions New Zealand, Australia, France…
I remember when I was in Primary School and we had our Library lessons, ever so often you’d pick up one of those choose your own adventure books, skip through all the directing pages, and just get to the end and see what happens. Yeah, Primary School was the best 17 years of my life….
Its mind blowing to me that a nation that claims to be the second best in the Rugby League World, but who has not beaten the best in the world for 30 years, can honestly think its doing things right and is just down on its luck. As an outsider, its hard to know how…