We always seem to play Saints when they're on a bad run or have injuries, and they always seem to pull a performance from nowhere against us recently. I hope Saturday bucks that trend.

Should be a cracking game Saturday.Hopefully the conditions are good so both teams can express themselves to the full.

appears Saints rested a few today and although it back fired a bit, it shows they are focusing on a good cup run.

I was at Headingley today because I'm a member of the "Outdoor Tory Party Conference" this season and Yorkshire were playing Northants. I forgot to carry a copy of the Daily Wail, Daily Torygraph or Yorkshire Post in order to not look out of place among all the ABC1 demographics. It was very amusing observing all the G4S remedials enforcing a sporting apartheid situation between the Rhinos fans (C2DE's) and the YCCC enthusiasts. It appears I'm entitled to two free complimentary tickets to watch the Rhinos and two free complimentary tickets to watch Carnegie as a perk of being a YCCC member. I may now attend the next SL home game (Wigan?) if I can be @rsed.

Great anecdote.

Can you do the one about how you went to Australia again next?

Or the analogy when he tried comparing SL to buying salad cream?

Although they are still wanting to pay through the nose for RL stars

I played for them when they were called West Park Old Boys.

Many years later I coached Mini's and Juniors at Harrogate, for 9 years, where there are 18 sides in total: 6 senior sides, Junior Colts, Ladies, 4 Junior sides (13-16 yrs), 6 Mini-rugby sides (7-12). The excellent Junior/Mini section has over 300 youngsters training/playing every Sunday morning and the club run one of the best Junior Mini Rugby Festivals each year and the Under 15's side have just won the Yorkshire Championship. The Harrogate club was established in 1871 almost a quarter of a century before Rugby League was born.

Similar set ups are to be found all over Yorkshire (and the rest of the country too) and are run with tremendous enthusiasm and dedication. These are not rah rah establishments but cover the whole spectrum of society with poorer kids not expected to pay any subs. Many Mini rugby coaches are recruited from parents who have no previous rugby background who are then trained to become qualified coaches. This level of investment in time and money not only produces players for the club, county and country but equally importantly produces in each generation a deep, lifelong love of the game which in turn brings money back into the game through ticket sales, sponsorship and millionaire benefactors.

League could learn much from this.

How many times did Leeds hold Salford up over the line? At least 3, maybe 4.

The commitment currently in defence is monumental, even McGuire tracked back to stop what looked a dead certain try and took a knock in the process. Everyone's digging in and having a go.

WTF are you talking about?

Exactly what I said.

You pointed out the crowds that watched and the interest. I agreed, and just stated the obvious, that despite a predictable league, where the same three teams have being in the top four for the last three years, and a product on the field that produces no excitement, crowds have not gone down and the interest is still high.

Therefore why should league have to worry about the top teams in it's league, when only one club has appeared three years on the trot in the top four.

Jesus. You've been posting this rubbish so long now you just can't tell how bad it is.

Currently sat in my hotel room scoffing a whole lemon drizzle cake to myself (is supposed to last three days but I doubt it somehow) and sipping an ice cold lager.

Lager and lemon cake, its how it should be.

Unintentionally you raise good point because amateur RU clubs have always done well from Junior players moving from amateur RL clubs (or at least since the days when they started to allow it to happen), the club that I am loosely associated with has a constant trickle of absconding RL players from the very junior ranks that my brother coaches at to the second XV where there has been a big influx this season - certainly in the junior ranks the usual cause stated is offensive attitudes in the amatuer RL game from coaches to supporters, that and a lack of game time or interest in just getting juniors to play the game whatever their level of skill.

That's exactly what I did as a player and it's what I regularly see happening now as a coach. Either that or players leaving amateur RL and going to other sports or dropping out of sport altogether.
As a player I just wanted to enjoy myself, I didn't want a fight and I didn't want to be in an aggressive environment.
So I didn't enjoy amateur RL but thoroughly enjoyed amateur RU. If my parents hadn't been so steeped in RL I would probably now be watching, coaching and putting my money into Union rather than League.

So you didn't say that union is getting big crowds? Pointing out specifically a capacity crowd at twickenham, in response to my post?

Make up your mind. It's only on the other page. Not hard.