Rugby League

[Arkan]

Any rugby league fans on here? Saints fan myself and looking forward very much to the new season. With the injured players recovered, the younger players with a year's more experience and the new signings I think we look a lot stronger than we did last season.

I think the World Club Series, as it is known this year, an expansion of the World Club Challenge will be fantastic. I'm really excited for the three NRL teams to come over and I hope they don't embarrass us too much. I remember going to Bolton to watch us beat Brisbane twice so I have fond memories of playing against NRL opposition but at the same time we have been on the end of a few hidings from Melbourne and Sydney.

As for Super League itself, the play-off system has been completely revamped and there are big changes to what happens at the end of the season. I think with the top two leagues splitting into three groups of eight, it creates a bit more excitement for all teams. It's taken me a while to get my head round what is actually going on but I understand it now and think it'll be better for the sport. We could potentially end up with four Super League teams being relegated at the end of the season. Anything has got to be better than eight teams in a league of fourteen competing in the play-offs while the other six did nothing. I'm glad promotion and relegation is back and it'll be interesting to see if the new concept works.

 

[This Charming Mike]

Part-time Wire fan here.

The new competition format is interesting and marks probably the biggest shake-up to Super League since the introduction of the Grand Final in 1998. Competition has really been ramped up, and it should be an intense battle for the likes of Wigan, St Helens, Leeds and Warrington - especially if Catalans, Huddersfield, last year’s surprise package Castleford and big-spending Salford fulfill their promise. With only two play-offs matches before the Old Trafford decider, it should also avoid the embarrassing sight of half-empty stadiums for the deciding semi-finals. And for the ‘lesser’ clubs, the Widnes’, Wakefields and Hull KRs of this world, the risk of falling down a tier - and the subsequent risk of missing out on the following year’s Super League - should add intrigue to even the least glamorous of fixtures.

 

[Arkan]

Yeah, that is one thing I am happy about, two play-off matches and then the final itself. Saves a lot of messing around.

 

[Murphy]

Supports Saints also despite not being from there Saw them play at Broncos last year though which was a great day, especially with around 2k Saints fans as well. Brilliant atmosphere.

 

[Arkan]

Good stuff. I'm from Liverpool but Saints are the closest team so have always supported them.

 

[TomPNE94]

I have always supported Wigan despite hating the football team. Odd.

 

[Arkan]

I am similar in the sense that I despise Wigan's rugby team but never minded the football team and actually enjoyed seeing them promoted.

 

[Bottega Don]

Saints fan due to family connections, go to a few games whenever I am there.

 

[Arkan]

I used to have a season ticket but don't get to matches as much as I used to. Having a season ticket for Everton and going to away matches takes up most of my money. Still been to all the finals we have been in since 1996 but will probably only to get to four or five league games this season. Especially now I am in university and living away from Liverpool, money is tight.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

Season starts tonight with Widnes vs Wigan.
With the new structure and a lot of teams looking strong, I'm very excited about this season despite thinking my team Leeds are going to struggle. I think this might be finally Warrington's year.

 

[You Orns]

Support Warrington from afar due to the very fickle reason of them being the team who won the first time I watched Rugby League on TV, have been mildly hooked ever since, at club level it's far more enjoyable than Union.

 

[This Charming Mike]

Great effort from Widnes tonight.

 

[TomPNE94]

Yep. Looked like it was gonna be a blowout at 16-0 and Widnes a man down. Incredible stuff. Bloody rubbish from Wigan though.

 

[Cardsfan]

Must admit that I know fuckall about Rugby League being from far south, but am I right in thinking that the fan culture is similar to football (away fans,atmosphere etc) rather than union? Just something I noticed

 

[Arkan]

Gutted I decided not to watch Wigan. That's an awful result from their point of view.

I expect a comfortable win for Saints tomorrow, unfortunately Walsh is injured but that shouldn't matter too much.

Must admit that I know fuckall about Rugby League being from far south, but am I right in thinking that the fan culture is similar to football (away fans,atmosphere etc) rather than union? Just something I noticed

I suppose you could say that, sometimes there is a good atmosphere at grounds and the bigger clubs tend to take respectable numbers away from home.

 

[This Charming Mike]

Must admit that I know fuckall about Rugby League being from far south, but am I right in thinking that the fan culture is similar to football (away fans,atmosphere etc) rather than union? Just something I noticed

In general, I'd say that's right. Traditionally, Union was more of an upper class, gentleman's game while League was (and largely still is) restricted to the northern working class folk. There was a time when League was the most popular of the two codes.

I'm a rare breed in being from the South and preferring League

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

Fair play to Widnes coming back with a man sent off and a referee who made some horrible decisions against them. Just proves how competitive it is going to be this season in super league.

 

[Arkan]

That was a strange game in many ways, started off with a nasty injury for Catalan and then the half ended with us giving about about seven penalties in a row and they scored a drop goal to lead 7-6. I'm happy with a lot of aspects of our play, we look scintillating at times but sometimes we took too many risks and that showed by only have six points on the board in the first half. It got physical towards the end but we were the better team and deserved our win. Hopefully the first of many for our new coach, Keiron Cunningham. It's one thing being one of the best ever players to play in Super League and it'll be interesting to see how he develops as a coach especially with another legend in Sean Long working beside him.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

The officials have had an absolute nightmare start to season. Also why have we brought in the Aussie referral system when it was shown up as poor in the four nations?

 

[Dan_Macclad]

Same old shit from Salford today, another season of under performing could see relegation and Koukash walking out.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

Same old shit from Salford today, another season of under performing could see relegation and Koukash walking out.

You improved towards the end of last season and were playing against an extremely strong team, a bit early to write the season off.

 

[Dan_Macclad]

Just the Salford mindset, it's shit every year.. Last few games was an improvement last year.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

Some surprising results today with Wakefield and Hull picking up away wins. Leeds lucky to beat Hull KR.
I really don't see any whipping boys in this years league.

 

[Arkan]

The most impressive victory in round one has got to be Hull. Very surprised they've managed to stop Huddersfield from scoring any points. I think the Wakefield one is less surprising with Castleford losing a few players from last season and it being a local derby. It's not like Leeds to concede so many points but it doesn't matter as they ran in seven tries. With those results in mind though, I'm struggling to predict who will win their games next week especially with Castleford having to travel to Perpignan.

 

[Arkan]

Impressive win for us last night away to Salford. I was very disappointed by Salford though, I thought they'd be a lot more impressive. They remind me of QPR in a way, they've got plenty of talented players who for one reason or another just haven't clicked. Really impressed with Percival and Greenwood, they are improving week on week. That was the perfect preparation for possibly the biggest game in our history next week. Had to laugh at Salford's owner as well putting that on Twitter.

 

[Dan_Macclad]

Same every season, Koukash will walk before to long.

 

[Arkan]

A strangely low scoring result for Warrington at Hull. A good win all the same though, sometimes low scoring games can be more entertaining than a 40-30.

 

[Dan_Macclad]

So after the 'I've had enough' tweet Koukash has said he is committed to the Reds.
Bringing in a fella from Australia to have a look at the club set up for a few weeks.

 

[Arkan]

Should be three great games coming up over the next three days. I think it'll go something like this.

Warrington 12-20 St George
Wigan 14-22 Brisbane
Saints 10-24 South Sydney

Hope I'm wrong though and even though Wigan and Warrington are our rivals I wouldn't mind seeing an upset or two here.

 

[RavenBish]

2 close games so far. Hopefully this one is a cracker