Should have had singers. It's OK in football when there's thousands there to sing it, but at a neutral venue (and the fact that we've pretty much always had someone sing) it looked poor.

And it's not really a case of money, is it? The cost of singers is peanuts in the grand scheme of things so let's not pretend it was a cost-cutting exercise.

Justarugbyfan, if you didn't know about the two language anthem then you've never seen the NZ anthem performed. It's always done. But I agree with the poster that said if there aren't any words sung, it doesn't matter about playing it twice!

Let's not be pedantic, the sport won't end because we didn't have a singer.

I've seen the NZ anthem performed but I've generally got better things to do than take note of the languages involved. The haka is much more interesting

I agree! Outrageous! Head should roll!







[sizeDidn't notice a thing.[/size

Richard Lewis out! It's all the RFL's fault.

I don't think it was a disgrace, but i think it was silly not singing the anthems. Didn't look good for a neutral IMO.
What i didn't understand is they had a singer pre-match, but didn't sing the anthems.

To be honest I think the anthems sound better without a singer.

If RL fans packed in rugby and started an Extreme Moaning team, we'd finally have a sport we could be world champions at.

Sheens has only started because he read the VT and felt left out.

I never said it would, and neither did anyone else. I don't think it's as big a deal as the OP is suggesting, but that doesn't mean it's not an issue. It just looked amateur.

Take note of the languages involved? You don't have to take note! It's not exactly hard to notice. They start singing it in Maori, then repeat in English. When you saw it, was your TV on mute?!

I maybe should have used disappointment. Apologies.

It's a rugby league fan trait to go over the top when being negative about something.

Commonly used terms include:
Disgrace (as used by yourself)
Embarrassment
Farce
Joke
Shambles

Are people really as bothered as they say they are when they use these adjectives?

We're not angry, we're just disappointed

Disgrace.

Those muppets at the RFL should be sacked for comments like this. Disgusting.

One of my favourite elements of the international game is the passion generated by a decent rendition of the two anthems, and without a singer that was lost tonight. Without being totally au fait with the words, I enjoy singing along with both anthems whenever the internationals come round, but felt self-conscious doing it tonight amongst a group of neutrals who clearly didn't know the lyrics either.

An excellent gate tonight in Warrington but not quite the atmosphere I thought that size of crowd could have generated - I think it was largely because there just simply weren't any partizan fans there to lead any concerted chanting and no-one was really passionately supporting either side until the partial Kiwi comeback. Maybe having the opera singer leading the anthems as something more rousing might just have kick started things a little better.