Rugby League World Cup

[AndyRM]

Bit of an embarrassing start to proceedings as the PA system at SJP failed.

Decent game so far between England and Samoa, England punishing Samoan mistakes, and I suspect there will be a lot more of those as they run out of steam.

 

[AndyRM]

60 - 6 to England in the end. Samoa's defending was shocking!

 

[DRM]

Hard to think that a lot of those playing for Samoa were in the NRL Grand Final between Penrith Panthers & Paramatta Eels, which was one heck of a game, England were brilliant, hope they can keep it up, I would dearly love to see them do the same to the Aussies!, Mrs DRM and myself went to see Leeds Rhinos v New Zealand last week, we got whooped, but the New Zealand squad did the Hakka at the end of the game again right in front of the South Stand at Headingley, was really good

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Their prep only started on Monday. They will get much, much better, but even so it was a heck of a thumping!

 

[DRM]

Up next Australia v Fiji, currently chucking it down at Headingley, I think they’ll be a lot of dropped ball/knock on’s in this one if it keeps raining.
Edit I do hope Jonathan Davies isn’t commentating on this one too, he’s bl**dy clueless

 

[Chromatic]

Up next Australia v Fiji, currently chucking it down at Headingley, I think they’ll be a lot of dropped ball/knock on’s in this one if it keeps raining.
Edit I do hope Jonathan Davies isn’t commentating on this one too, he’s bl**dy clueless

We're of the same opinion of him when he's doing Union too.

 

[AndyRM]

Great player, terrible pundit and horribly biased.

 

[Beebo]

It’s interesting to compare the approach to chest high tackling between League and Union.
There would be 10 red cards per match and
I do think Union has gone a bit too far with the red cards.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

It’s interesting to compare the approach to chest high tackling between League and Union.
There would be 10 red cards per match and
I do think Union has gone a bit too far with the red cards.

My perception is that Union has had many more issues wrt player safety and post-career disabilities, and hence the 'severity' of the response. Not sure if that's accurate tbh, interested in other views.

 

[DRM]

Without getting into the age old one code is better then t'other, in league it's usual to have players backing each other up, so if you don't do chest high tackles, the ball is instantly passed to someone else and doesn't count in the six tackles rule, so you aim to wrap the player up so he can't pass the ball, making the defending side one tackle nearer to getting the ball back

 

[DRM]

One for me that seems weird is the captains challenge, this is an NRL rule in Australia, we don't have such nonesense in the Northern Hemisphere, it seems the captain can query the referee's decision once, if the ref is correct, that's it, you have no more challenges, but if the ref's decision is overturned you keep the challenge to use again, I think it's just easier for the supporters to give the ref a chorus of " The referee's a w#n*er" sometimes it can even be heard on Sky Sports if it's a particularly bad wrong decision!

 

[AndyRM]

It does surprise me that there aren't more head and neck injuries with the chest high tackles, these fellas are hitting each other hard. The clash in the Australia Fiji game was the first serious knock I've seen.

 

[DRM]

The RFL have banned shoulder charges as now these players are so strong and big it’s like hitting a brick wall, they have also started with the head injury assessment in the game, previously they would hit the deck, be out of it for a bit, then get up and refuse to leave the field of play, but since Robbie Burrow had his MND diagnosis, the RFL have tightened up on head injuries, especially with a clash of heads, spear & high tackles.
But it’s not unheard of for someone to be taken off dazed & confused

 

[AndyRM]

Didn't expect Scotland to take such a hiding off the Azzuri, we looked absolutely inept for most of that!

 

[david k]

It’s interesting to compare the approach to chest high tackling between League and Union.
There would be 10 red cards per match and
I do think Union has gone a bit too far with the red cards.

If you tackle low they win the ruck as they can play the ball quicker and get a roll on they need to clamp.
First man is high, second man wraps and third man chops, ie takes the legs