posted Nov 16, 2008

TBH I thought AK was doing his damnedest for Australia as that's what he has to do to get any chance of reffing the final. How he didn't give that knock-on, saying it went backwards, was breathtakingly biased! And not like AK who i think is normaly a spot-on ref.

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posted Nov 16, 2008

That's a bit rich - an RL fan accusing union of being dull!

Maybe they were looking at the try fests of yesterdays game between Eng/Aus or Sco/SA. The scoring of 4 tries in two games with the outcome as usual decided by pens that is why some people find the games boring. Hang on there about to reset a scrum yawn!

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posted Nov 16, 2008

Why is it that people on RL comment boards always seem to want to denigrate the sport rather than comment on the game itself and its followers. It would be equally easy to caricature and pick out the less-than-great aspects of almost every sport - but there's better things to do than waste time being negative.

Glyndai i think you'll find that a lot of recent comments on here have come from anti RLers or casual fans so most are not representative of genuine fans who usually have constructive comments to make.

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posted Nov 16, 2008

Will England get a chance to humiliate themselves further in a 3/4 playoff against Fiji?

Its not an indictment of the sport to say this torunamennt its ridiculous and unertenertaining. Theres no fun in watching one sided games in a tournament. Most league fans and casual watchers would get far more entertainment from a competitive club match than watching this farce. All the pre hype about Englands chances of winning has been shown to be emaressing for the sport.
Its not unconstructive to say that until teams can be vaguely competitive the World Cup is doing mlore to hurt the image of RL than help develope the game. The profile would be better raised by a world club tournament. Its unconstructive to blindly pretend there was ever a point to the World Cup.

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posted Nov 16, 2008

well ricky Stewart summed it all up. there are too many super league clubs wasting their money on second rate overseas players. the only club thats bring the youth through the ranks are saints.

i'll be honest im glad new zealand won because they'll give the aussies a better game.

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posted Nov 17, 2008

I agree that there are too many ausies in the super league but not that the saints are the only ones with a good youth policy. Hull FC bring plenty of players through the ranks. More than half the players in the 2005 and 2006 finals where locals

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posted Nov 17, 2008

What a strange outburst again from this chap Yottskry. Now I can appreciate how upset he is at league fans making derogatory references to his favoured code. I deplore this from either side and become irritated myself when I read the equivalent on union message boards and blogs. Of course, I have the choice of staying off them but,like the poster I mention, cannot resist the temptation to chip in.

However,Yottskry,I really think that you should try to be calm and more rational. Unlike me, most leaguies seem to be ignoring your xenephobic insults of 'dull northeners'. I have several friends who are southerners and would never dream of referring to them in this immature, generalised way.

But your emotional rant leads to you saying idiotic things and makes you seem really silly. Rational union fans point out that they prefer properly contested scrums and so on, an argument I respect, whereas we will contest that our preference is for a greater proportion of open running and passing, etc. But when you refer to rugby league as 'virtually a non-contact game' you're just being plain daft, and must be an embarrassment to your fellow union fans.

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posted Nov 17, 2008

This tournament has been great. Aside from the continued Aussie dominance, the strides made by countries like Fiji has been worth staging the tournament alone.

We shouldn't listen to people who don't care about RL, they can take a hike. This WC will help drive more international competition (or at least, it should) and will ultimately benefit RL.

As someone else said, the Dream Team in Basketball aren't vilified for being the greatest in their field, their skills are admired yet as usual different rules apply for RL.

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posted Nov 17, 2008

Johnoco - spot on. There have been some cracking games in this tournament, with many of them going right to the wire with the outcome still undecided. Samoa v Tonga was fireworks from the Haka-fest to the final whistle. Ireland and Scotland had some great games, with pride in the shirt obvious from the outset.

A few games have been predictable blowouts (any game involving England or Australia), but apart from those, the games have been highly entertaining.

Time to stop blaming Brian Noble for our recent poor history though methinks. With a change of coach it was supposed to be a new direction and a new era, but instead we get the same old same old, players who can't do the basics and showing little or no pride in their shirt.

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posted Nov 17, 2008

combackdevils - agree totally. How Yottskry can call the game 'virtually a non-contact' sport is beyond me. Perhaps Yottskry should just be content that the majority of the Australian population does not play his beloved union. He might have to watch more than his unloved 'dull northerner' compatriots lose to Australia if they did. Oh, of course, he already did have to watch that on Saturday at Twickenham!

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