People moan about Eddie and Stevo telling us how good our game is and when its the opposite on the beeb people stoll moan. RL fans in this country are a major reason why it wil never grow out of the heartlands.

I was using potential examples, if you wanted to be technical you could have jumped on the RU comment too.

So is the idea that we pick these Australians and New Zealanders but then never let them in front of a microphone, or mention them? We undermined international competition when we selected them.

Oh, and neither was Hape the first RL international to score for England. You could probably choose any number who got there before him (back in the days when England RU used to score tries)

Like I said above, I wasn't picking people who I knew (or even thought) were the first, just contemporary examples.

Commentators shouldn't mention, or sarcastically make reference to, them being Australian, no. It makes the game a joke and casual fans, who wouldn't know why he was allowed to be picked, think the International game a joke. I

Mentioning it sarcastically (and that's open to interpretation) is not what makes the international game a joke. You're right to think that casual fans might think its at best, a bit odd, and at worst a sorry state of affairs - and that's because it is.

Still, you gotta hold out some hope McNamara knows what he's doing and we won't have any idea about that until this time next week. They're yet to come up against quality opposition but there's enough lads in that side who should be straining for a crack at the big two.

If you listened on the "red button" after the game Ray French et al tried to talk up RL's development on Wales. When they went over to JD he basically laughed and said they needed to be realistic.

I agree.

JD is union born a bred i dont care what anybody says if you had seen him during the union world cup on osn sports you would understand why, half way through the game the development was mentioned and he didnt praised it he just said well yeah when you grow older you decide which code! are you for real mr davies so if i played league all my life i would decide to play professional union? hes an idiot which should be nowhere near RL on bbc hes ties with union or massive and for that comment alone he annoyed me. 54 schools in the south wales playing league to me is a decent development not sure what they was before but thats ok by me aslong as it keeps growing.

I watched him on the OSN coverage of the Yawnion WC and he was terrible. Just pure negativity even for his first love

Not someone that should be in the media from what I've seen

Great player but a very poor pundit. Maybe we should get Garry Schofield!!!!!

Probably someone who realised that the Aussie clubs train their players to be natural, relaxed, positive interviewees, whereas our guys come across as robotic and boring.

The casual fans who perceive international RL as a joke are entitled to that opinion, largely because it's true. The sarcy comments of a commentator are not the cause of that perception, they're a symptom.

It wasn't just hes negativity what winds me up its the fact he shown all that passion for welsh rugby union but couldn't care less about rugby league in wales he should be bigging it up if he really cared about it.
I am glad it wasn't just me who thought that. The commentary from osn studios was good i think i would love for sky to be able to pull some x profesionals who have the rugby knowledge and also have a laugh about it.

Garry schofield commentating haha even the leeds fans would turn it off. You could just imagine it couldn't you nothing but negativity for tomkins and calling for richie boy mathers for the number 1 jersey haha.