posted May 8, 2008

I'm a Leeds Rhinos fan who has been living in New Zealand for several years now. My guess would be that Leeds and Saints would challenge for the top 8 but would struggle to make top 4. The intensity of the NRL week in week out would really test a lot of the players though and would be interesting to see how they responded. The Melbourne game has to be kept in context: a pre-season run-out for them, zero interest in it in Oz and they were missing probably the most effective player in the world (Cameron Smith).

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posted May 9, 2008

"the only reason leeds won the world club challange was because they were playing in england and ... the storm were knackered with the travelling" - that is not even remotely true.

Leeds had just returned from a training camp in Florida the weekend before so had also had long distance travelling and the Storm were over here more than two weeks before the game so that they had time for some warm up games and weren't jet-lagged.

The weather may have affected them more than us, it was freezing, really windy and pouring with rain - not easy conditions for any teams and not what they're used to in Melbourne.

I have been led to believe that Leeds have offered to play the WCC in Australia in the past and were turned down. Probably because the Aussies wouldn't then have the excuse, if we beat them on their own turf, that they lost because of the travelling .

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posted May 9, 2008

Back to the main point of the article, I think both Leeds and Saints would be able to hold their own in enough matches to get into the play-offs (it's top 8 over there isn't it?) but would be unlikely to be in the top 3, which they usually are over here.

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posted May 9, 2008

GuiseleyRhino the climate in Melbourne is pretty much the same as that of Leeds so they'll've been used to rain too, don't worry.

Yeah I think Leeds and Saints could easily hack it in the NRL.

The play the ball is so much slower in the NRL. SL refs'd be blowing up constantly for laying on if they took as long over here. With that, I disagree with anyone who says that NRL fitness levels exceed ours, because our game's a lot faster. They're just better skilled down under, but then again it is the national sport!

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posted May 9, 2008

Im pretty sure Cricket is the national sport in Aussie.

League is only played in Sydney and Brisbane and the surrounding area mainly.

Rugby League is the national sport of Papua New Guinea

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posted May 9, 2008

pauldleeds - I know what the climate in Melbourne is like, I have friends who live there. However the weather on the night of the WCC wasn't exactly normal for over here and it was more than a bit of rain.

The point I was trying to make was that Melbourne were more likely to have been affected by the weather (coming from their summer to a virtual hurricane) than by jet-lag which was a previous poster's excuse for them losing.

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posted May 9, 2008

I live near Leeds and enjoy watching the ever improving Super Lge.
Super Lge has been flooded with overseas players. The NRL doesn't require any players from the UK, only one to date so far?????

The Super Lge seems to have a higher average age while the NRL has a lot younger.

Anyone know the error percentage or set of 6 completion rate?

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posted May 9, 2008

Melbourne not known for it's weather, it's fairly rubbish compared to the rest of Aus.

I believe the final of the World Club Comp needs to be played after the season. It comes at an inopportune time for both clubs.

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posted May 10, 2008

Skipperoo,

I understand where you are coming from, but that is impossible.
This year we have the World Cup and every other year we have test tours.

Unfortunately there is no perfect answer for the NRL or S/L to come up with I feel.
Cheers

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posted May 12, 2008

If Leeds and Wigan and Bradford and Saint Helens played each other 5 times a season in a round robin that would be a similar competitiveness to the NRL
The bottom half of SL are 90% walk overs.
I think the teams above would be ground down in the NRL, they lift themselves in SL for 8 or 10 matches per season when they play each other.
Its a 4-6 team comp in reality.
2-3 team comp this year.

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