Gonna need a bigger boat.

Another quote from a film, quite apt considering your rant.

No British fan will waste their money on the prospect of a 40 odd year old coming out of retirement.

Glad you are getting upset, maybe now you will bugger off somewhere else so the adults can have reasoned debate without a no mark like you spouting crap all the time.

This board is not provided so you can constantly spout e. Any chance you could bugger off to whatever part of Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey land you come from and not come back?

Au Revior Tantouze

Fittler will sell tickets because of his high media profile.
He won't suck that much at this form of the game. He'll only have to find a good 10 minutes or so a game, and he is pretty fit for a guy his age.

Still better than Sinfield even during retirement

Cue unhappy Leeds fans

Bit of a shame, 9's can go either way:
A) Be taken seriously, used as a growth opportunity for pacific island teams to get involved in, used as a vehicle to start up league in new countries such as Singapore, Thailand etc, work towards international 9's around the world, get included in C'Wealth and Olympic games
or
B) Be a fun weekend, bit of a circus, have a laugh and a drink and just use it as a bit of a pre season run out with some novelty factors thrown in

Sadly it seems like it is more likely to have a short lived life as B) rather than a strategically important long term development goal of the game in the Sthern hemi.

This is the first year. Maybe next year if it is successful they can experiment with more teams. For example the top 6 Super League teams, plus PNG and France Elite selection. That would make 24 teams. (Thailand and Singapore cannot compete at this level so introducing them to a serious 9s contest would be a disaster).

I paid for my tickets, flights and hotel in the full knowledge that the NRL clubs had signed up to send at least 2 headline/top tier stars each. I fully expected the remainder of the squads to be made up of U20's and fringe players and have no doubt it will be a fun weekend.
The Proof of the pudding is in the eating and the promoters have managed to secure council backing for at least another year, SKY are televising it and sales are heading towards 2 days of 45k+.

IMHO, The longevity of the event will depend on fan behaviour....in wellington, the ground is on the edge of the CBD on top of the main railway station and drunks etc can be funnelled straight onto trains and they have areas sectioned off for people to have a "lie down" during the day...Eden Park is a horrible ground to get to by comparison and the walk to and from it will need to be heavily policed.

Will Gus be lining up for the Panthers along with Stevo?

...and good to know the RFL can fill the Eithad Stadium on both MW days.....lol

The rule changes for this tournament have been given to clubs. A couple are:

There will be only FIVE tackles.
Knock ons are instant turnovers. Double knock ons will have scrums.
Score a try under the posts will be five points. Drop kicks for conversions.


Made for telly stuff.

Not all clubs are taking this seriously I'm afraid. You'll see some stars of the future with clubs being allowed to take 16 players to the tournament.



Only issue I have is why would you put a tournament with different rules in between the weeks of NRL Club trial games?

Stacked with off season Oz and Kiwi stars? I can think of a couple but not many more. Who did you have in mind?

Brett Kenny
Steve Ella
Chicka Ferguson
Are the ones I am thinking of.

Beyond that into the nineties.
Frano Botica
Dean Bell
Kevin Iro
Henry Paul