International Rugby League

[Jeffles]

Wales's problem lies below Superleague. Their conference competition is brief and limited.

I'm not saying they should get qa second profressional side but they'd be well served entering a team in Rugby League Conference National so that their better amateur players can play a full season and attract the attention of semi professional clubs in the lower leagues.

Scotland v Italy was no surprise. When the RLEF allowed Italy to take Russia's spot, they probably eexpected Italy to get more Australian an UK based players under the grandparent rule, which they didn't. Bit the bigger problem is having a six team European Cup. They'd have been better off seeding them in two divisions of three.

[keithroosters]

interesting points jeffles. Theres been calls for england to have that second team to improve their national side. i often hear calls for a residents v imports games. that would be two qualty sides aswell. England are tired of waiting for France to develope into a quality opponent and i belive they will if Toulouse Olympyque are granted entry to the superlewague in 2012. i will say quickly that Wakefield will probably go along with castleford or Salford.

One of the things Wales have going in their favour is that Celtic Crusaders look to have a few quality players comign through who are genuinely Welsh. the last 5 years have been a very low point for welsh rugby league. failing to make the RLWC was the lowest of them. The junior crusaders academy will hopefully bear more fruit in the future.

[keithroosters]

huge weekend in international league this weekend:

Saturday 24/10/09, Tripoli Olympic Stadium, Tripoli
Lebanon V Italy KO 20.000

Sunday 25/10/09, FK Smedervo Stadium, Smederevo
Serbia V Wales KO 14.00

Tonga v PNG- Port Moresby
Cook Islands v Fiji- Port Moresby

England v France Friday GMT Doncaster
Australia v NZ Saturday GMT

was looking at the betting odds in the tele today and France were given a 38.5 point start!

[keithroosters]

England recovered from halftime deficit to beat France 34-12

October 24, 2009 England recovered from a 12-4 halftime deficit to defeat France 34-12 in the opening match of the Four Nations tournament.

Teenage scrum-half Richie Myler scored two tries as Tony Smith's side ran in 30 unanswered second-half points with Kevin Sinfield, Ryan Hall, Tom Briscoe and Lee Smith also crossing.

Sinfield added five goals, but England have plenty of work to do if they are to deny either Australia or world champions New Zealand claiming the title in the four-team event.

Tries from Vincent Duport and Kane Bentley put France 12-4 up by half-time as they sensed a first win over England for more than 27 years.

But England rallied just in time in front of an 11,529 crowd at Doncaster's Keepmoat Stadium - the highest for an Anglo-French international since 1952.

Smith said he was not concerned about France's lightning start.

"We were just a bit excited, even before the game," Smith said.

"We were a bit anxious and put a bit of pressure on one another.

"We just had to settle down and build some pressure on the French. We knew if we did that they would struggle."

Smith admitted that next week's clash with Australia would representa different proposition altogether.

"This is a new team, and it takes a little bit of time to get the combinations - and that showed tonight. We go up about three rungs in class next week."

[Jeffles]

Australia = woeful. Nothing more can be said (except NZ need better goal kickers). On paper, we should win every game by 24+ points. We have attacking spark all over the filed yet we only score three tries - one from a strip, one from Cam Smith's dubious pass to Inglis and th final one was the only decent effort.

The Kiwis tackled amazingly. You have to hand it to them. Their goal line defence in years gone by would have let in at least half a dozen tries with the amount of field position the Kangaroos had. I thought Australia was solid in defence too.

With the ball it was a different story. Australia in many respects played too conservatively with one-out balls and inside passes. Thurston didn't do much with the ball, neither running it nor orchaestrating a big backline movement. They were predictable. One-out, pass again, inside ball, move to the left. Hayne had no impact - not becasue he was playing out of position but because Australia never went to the right. NZ wth the ball played like Australia should have. They were physical with forwards, ran a lot out of dummy half and were not afraid to throw the ball around.Handling errors brought them undone in many instances - typical NZ.

It was very physical and it was no surprise to see so many penalties. The Engliash ref Ganson is a fan of warnings. I was surprised nobody got sent to the sin bin.

Hohaia as man of the match was a poor call. Good as he was he did hand the ball to JT for Australia's second try. I thought Luke, Blair and Marshall were incredible for the Kiwis while Inglis was the pick of the Roos.

Off to Wigan next week for Australia. England were atrocious in the first half yesterday and they will cop a belting if they're not careful. That said, they scored 30 unanswered points in the second half.

[keithroosters]

the results are in:

friday - england defeated france 34-12 at doncaster. crowd: 11,500

saturday- Australia 20 NZ 20 at the stoop (london) crowd 12,000
saturday- Cook islands defeated Fiji 24-22 in port moresby crowd approx 3500
saturday- lebanon defeated italy 86-0 in beruit.

sunday- wales defeated serbia 88-8 in serbia crowd 437 (disapointing considering the domestic final in serbia drew more than 500)
sunday- PNG defeated Tonga 44-14 in port moreby crowd approx 9000

so some posative steps there. its become obvious which nations have more work to do than others but regular games can only be good for them.
the big question is can cook islands continue their string of upsets and actually make it into the four nations tournament next year joining england, australia and new zealand. they will go into the final against PNG as rank outsiders but thats never stopped them before. it will be one of the islands chain of 20,000 peoples greatest sporting achievments

[hot_dogma]

Just found out then via Facebook after seeing pics that a mate of mine from Brisbane played for Serbia in the match v Wales.

[keithroosters]

are u able to get him to answer a few questions put forward to him to post on this forum?

[hot_dogma]

When I said to him about NRL or Queensland Cup scouts calling the first thing he said is he'll have to stop drinking first.

[keithroosters]

hahaha showing his true serbian colours.

estimates for the lebanon v italy game put the crowd at 3,000

[Jeffles]

On paper the England pack is one of the strongest I've seen for a while but our backline is too good. Looking forward to a day Test match.

[keithroosters]

this weekend saw the concusion of the pacific cup in port moresby with PNG the team to repesent the region in next years four nations staged in australia and nz.

Pacific cup-
sat: Fiji dft Tonga 26-16. crowd 3,000
PNG dft Cook Islands 42-14 in port moresy. crowd 10,000 (sellout)

European Nations Cup:
Wales make the final by defeating Ireland 42-12 in absolutely abysmal conditions in Pontrypidd wales. crowd 2,143

Scotland became the other team to make the final by defeating Lebanon 22-10 in even worse conditions with the match being described as an absolute mud bath. crowd 752.

Four Nations:

Australia dft England 26-16 in Wigan. crowd 23,000
Nz dft a second string France in Toulouse 62-12. crowd 12,417


in other news the hotelsofjacksonville.com USA V Jamaica Atlantic cup recieved more sponsors with both teams securing a primary sponsor. Jamaica will be sponsored by Virgin Atlantic whilst USA will be sponsored by wellknown sports brand ERREA Sports.
It is hoped this tournament will eventually add more team into it making the "atlantic cup" a tournament. the key target will be south africa rhinos

[Jeffles]

Anyone else remmeber russ13?

That first half in Wigan was a shocker. England's right side defence was terrible. Lee Smith, Tom Briscoe and Kevin Sinfield were made to look like part timers. Australia were outstanding but some of their tries exploited basic mistakes like coming in off the defensive line.

They got their sh*t together in the second half, took a few chances and things started to go better for them. Tomkins looks a good half back when he gets the ball - the most comfortable since Deacon (I don't think much of Long). Burgess gave Souths fans a lot to be happy about.

I think the Kangaroos' pack has been a problem in the opening games. A few guys will be rested for the game against France where we should put 70 on them. Unfortunately for France they have a lot of part timers in their team. That's because Catalans are keen on signing Aussies and fewer Frenchmen play in English clubs (certainly compared to Kiwis playing in Oz).

AU v NZ final.

[keithroosters]

russ13?
i thought england were gone by about 60 after the break but to their credit they shocked me and came back. eastmond, burgess and crabtree played really well. i agree their forwars are the best england pack ive ever seen. sets up a cracker of a showdown with nz this weekend.

[keithroosters]

these figures are curtasy of http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammes? via the rugbyleagueitnernationalscores website.

Week ending 25 October in 000's
1 CSKA MOSCOW V MAN UTD-LIVE (Wed 17:00) 828
2 LIVERPOOL V LYON-LIVE (Tue 19:00) 801
3 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GOALS (Tue 22:02) 307
4 REAL MADRID V AC MILAN-LIVE (Wed 19:31) 263
5 LIVE FOUR NATIONS RUGBY LEAGUE AUS V NZ (Sat 19:30) 206
6 LIVE PREMIERSHIP RUGBY UNION (Sat 15:00) 197
7 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GOALS (Wed 22:00) 157
8 LIVE FOUR NATIONS RUGBY LEAGUE ENG V FRA (Fri 19:30) 155
9 LIVE NFL IN LONDON (Sun 16:30) 135
10 LIVE EUROPEAN TOUR GOLF (Sun 12:00) 55



not too bad. interesting that nz v australia outrated teh england v france game