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By DeadLinesman
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Danny

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Watched the first half of France vs Lebanon last night on highlights, it was decent and a close game. But then Lebanon went on to win pretty convincingly.

Wales got destroyed by PNG, thrown around like rag dolls. Things will liven up more once the group stages are done.

Looking set to see England vs PNG in Melbourne, can't wait.

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Danny

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Went to the England v Lebanon game last night, managed to get a picture with Sam Burgess too haha.

Was a decent win, could have been more clinical but it was still a comfortable win. Sets up my QF tickets for England v PNG.

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Smiley Culture

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England are garbage under Wayne Bennett. 

Luke Gale has been Space Jam'd and has seemingly had all of his talent sucked out of him by a tiny blue monster. 

It's such a poor tournament this time around, as well. USA, Scotland and I'd say England have regressed from the 2013 tournament, crowds have been poor and scorelines have resembled cricket scores. 

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Danny

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2 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

England are garbage under Wayne Bennett. 

Luke Gale has been Space Jam'd and has seemingly had all of his talent sucked out of him by a tiny blue monster. 

It's such a poor tournament this time around, as well. USA, Scotland and I'd say England have regressed from the 2013 tournament, crowds have been poor and scorelines have resembled cricket scores. 

Ireland v PNG was a good game even if it was error filled

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Danny

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On 28/10/2017 at 0:01 AM, Burning Gold said:

I love a good bit of Rugby League, but I honestly think their world cup could be the worst of any sport. Every single time, you know with 99% certainty who the finalists will be, and you just have to watch the three or four decent sides embarrass everyone else or half-arse it for three weeks until they meet each other in the late rounds. There's the occasional high quality fixture early on like today's, but even then there was nothing riding on it because we all know both teams will qualify for the knock-out rounds.

This, by the way, is what the Champions League would be like if the 'league champions only' crowd got their way.

Whilst the tournament has lacked in quality (though there have been some good contests, Ireland vs PNG and Tonga vs New Zealand standing out) the impact over here for the Pacific island nations as well as Lebanon has been massive.

World Cups grow sport and the interests in League will have been peaked with the emergence of Lebanon (even if they are mostly Aussies), Tonga topping a group that contains New Zealand and beating them, Fiji having a path into the NSW Cup now along with their general quality and the boost the game will have had for PNG. The sooner the Hunters are put into the NRL the better for Southern Hemisphere rugby league.

Its a shame Ireland were in a group where only one could qualify as there was quality and competitiveness there unlike with the Wales team.

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Smiley Culture

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I was thinking about Super League and the International game to see if I could think of a league system in the northern hemisphere that means players aren't playing too many games in a year and allows potential growth to the game at an International level and I've stolen an idea that Rugby Union has brought in in that Celtic League they have but I think it would work for Super League and International Rugby League. Here it is;

Super League becomes a fourteen team competition split into two seven-team conferences. The conferences are equal and one isn't higher or lower than the other. There is no promotion or relegation between the two conferences. Each team plays the other teams in their conference twice (home and away) and each team from the opposing conference once, meaning sides play twenty-one league games before a play-off series between the top two sides from each conference, which ends in the traditional Grand Final at Old Trafford.

Twenty-one league games means there are more "free" weekends in the calender which can feature the Challenge Cup fixtures but also the free weekends should see International weekends brought in to grow the game at the International stage further. 

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Danny

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On 19/11/2017 at 1:06 AM, Smiley Culture said:

I was thinking about Super League and the International game to see if I could think of a league system in the northern hemisphere that means players aren't playing too many games in a year and allows potential growth to the game at an International level and I've stolen an idea that Rugby Union has brought in in that Celtic League they have but I think it would work for Super League and International Rugby League. Here it is;

Super League becomes a fourteen team competition split into two seven-team conferences. The conferences are equal and one isn't higher or lower than the other. There is no promotion or relegation between the two conferences. Each team plays the other teams in their conference twice (home and away) and each team from the opposing conference once, meaning sides play twenty-one league games before a play-off series between the top two sides from each conference, which ends in the traditional Grand Final at Old Trafford.

Twenty-one league games means there are more "free" weekends in the calender which can feature the Challenge Cup fixtures but also the free weekends should see International weekends brought in to grow the game at the International stage further. 

League's biggest problem is the lack of an international game. It's good for the Southern Hemisphere that Fiji, Tonga and PNG have had fairly good tournaments. If they can get teams into the NRL it'd be even better.

Ireland done well and they probably deserved to finish in a group that had two spaces for the QFs. I imagine a lot of their teams are English born but a run in the latter stages could have been good publicity. World Cups grow sports but this ones probably done more for the Pacific Islands and Lebanon than it has for the likes of France, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

 

 

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Smiley Culture

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It genuinely has the possibility of being one of the most interesting competitions for many a year. I don't think there's a clear favourite, despite what the bookmakers may think. I think St Helens are still favourites but personally, I don't agree and I'd put us amongst one of four or so teams who could win the Grand Final. We have probably the best player in the league in Ben Barba in the side, who should be absolutely frightening. Justin Holbrook may have had an entire off-season to work out who his best seven is and it seems that he's likely to go with the putrid Matty Smith at 7 next week, a man who offers little whatsoever and provided some frankly disgraceful stats from 2017, including never winning an away game in which he started. We also have quite shit forwards, too. James Roby is a freak and Luke Thompson had a beast in 2017 but people like Kyle Amor, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Jon Wilkin and Zeb Tai'a are another year older and likely to have regressed further.

Leeds have lost the last of their Golden Generation in Danny McGuire, Castleford still have nearly all of the side that have served them so well over the last couple of years, Hull FC look on an upward curve still and Warrington are somewhat of an unknown quantity this year for me. They've finally fucked off the second most loathsome and excuse ridden fart inhaler in the comp in Tony Smith, have appointed Steve Price who comes with a lot of good words said about him from the NRL, they've binned off a load of shite like Rhys Evans, Kevin Penny, Joe Westerman, Ashton Sims and Andre Savelio and recruited well in Tyrone Roberts and Ben Murdoch-Masila, especially.

One team who I think won't be in the running is Wigan. This isn't any bias but they've simply not recruited and I don't see how you can seek to improve on a poor finish last year (5th) and barrels of dour rugby by signing two players, an unknown kid from Australia and re-signing Dan Sarginson, a man so incapable of defending, it's laughable. Wigan's recruitment and retention over the past few years has wound up fans and they weren't happy with the re-signing of Sarginson and having lost Anthony Gelling and Micky McIlorum, I can't see them doing anything this year which will be a massive shame. 

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Pig on the Wing

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On 28/01/2018 at 22:08, Smiley Culture said:

It genuinely has the possibility of being one of the most interesting competitions for many a year. I don't think there's a clear favourite, despite what the bookmakers may think. I think St Helens are still favourites but personally, I don't agree and I'd put us amongst one of four or so teams who could win the Grand Final. We have probably the best player in the league in Ben Barba in the side, who should be absolutely frightening. Justin Holbrook may have had an entire off-season to work out who his best seven is and it seems that he's likely to go with the putrid Matty Smith at 7 next week, a man who offers little whatsoever and provided some frankly disgraceful stats from 2017, including never winning an away game in which he started. We also have quite shit forwards, too. James Roby is a freak and Luke Thompson had a beast in 2017 but people like Kyle Amor, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Jon Wilkin and Zeb Tai'a are another year older and likely to have regressed further.

Leeds have lost the last of their Golden Generation in Danny McGuire, Castleford still have nearly all of the side that have served them so well over the last couple of years, Hull FC look on an upward curve still and Warrington are somewhat of an unknown quantity this year for me. They've finally fucked off the second most loathsome and excuse ridden fart inhaler in the comp in Tony Smith, have appointed Steve Price who comes with a lot of good words said about him from the NRL, they've binned off a load of shite like Rhys Evans, Kevin Penny, Joe Westerman, Ashton Sims and Andre Savelio and recruited well in Tyrone Roberts and Ben Murdoch-Masila, especially.

One team who I think won't be in the running is Wigan. This isn't any bias but they've simply not recruited and I don't see how you can seek to improve on a poor finish last year (5th) and barrels of dour rugby by signing two players, an unknown kid from Australia and re-signing Dan Sarginson, a man so incapable of defending, it's laughable. Wigan's recruitment and retention over the past few years has wound up fans and they weren't happy with the re-signing of Sarginson and having lost Anthony Gelling and Micky McIlorum, I can't see them doing anything this year which will be a massive shame. 

Did not have you down as a League supporter, let alone a St. Helens fan... what's your story?

To draw a Venn diagram with all Leyton Orient fans and all Rugby League fans, I'm sure you're one of tiny minority... I'm genuinely interested.

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Smiley Culture

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11 minutes ago, StefBWFC said:

Did not have you down as a League supporter, let alone a St. Helens fan... what's your story?

To draw a Venn diagram with all Leyton Orient fans and all Rugby League fans, I'm sure you're one of tiny minority... I'm genuinely interested.

Dad’s born and bred St Helens, moved to London for Work and settled down here. 

Believe it or not, there’s about eight-ten I know of. Mostly London Broncos. 

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Danny

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Some good games this month that I unfortunately can't go to, Rabbitohs vs Wigan, Hull FC vs St. George and then Leeds vs Storm.

Looking forward to getting to Auckland, first game I'll see if the season will be Warriors vs Titans in Auckland.

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Lucas

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Great start for the Rhinos at a bogey ground. Really not sure what to expect with Leeds this year but find it amusing that some critics still choose to write them off despite the fact they are masters at finishing the season well and winning the playoffs.

If Leeds don't do it, I kind of hope Castleford win it. Felt sorry for them last year, they just didn't perform when required but that experience will be massive for them this year.

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