couldn't agree more - this format of our game has everything needed for an event to attract crowds and more importantly people who normally wont watch a full game. the powers that be need to look at transforming this into a twenty 20 style event, with innovations, colour, glamour and of course the fast exciting rugby - it would be perfect for a days entertainment

it is something that eddie hearn could well be interested in

how would folk feel about a yearly player draft for a tournament with new teams, or would a simple regular international tournament suffice? must admit i would be tempted by the former as the international stuff might get a bit samey. we could have yorks, lancs, london, nsw, queensland, auckland, cardiff, toronto, tolouse etc etc

i'll be interested to see how the cricket 100 goes

A domestic 9's could replace the magic weekend fixtures and add another trophy for teams to aim for, could include both SL and championship teams

The international nines had some great individual performances. Catalans Dragons star Samuel Tomkins was sublime, and is so far even with the ever brilliant Shaun Johnson in the running for player of the tournament.

Samuel Tomkins performance on Friday night showed the error of omitting him from the Great Britain Lions squad. Samuel was a class above Blake "are you awake?" Austin, and showed why he should have been selected ahead of the bogus Briton.

The giant Toulouse outside back Gavin Marguerite, playing for France, showed glimpses of why he is potentially a superstar of northern hemisphere rugby league. However the absence of Toulouse's star half back Stanislas Robin from the French team diminished that great nation's chances of being a force in this competition.

I thought we went in with the wrong tactics and team selection. We went in with too many forwards and tried to play the game like a normal game of 13 and was a bit conservative.

I’d say Wales did too, Reagan Grace taking scoots up the middle when they should have been kicking long for him to chase, never did it once for him.

Whereas the Aussies has 1 forward and threw the ball around like a hot potato, that’s what we need to do.

I was impressed with the ladies today against PNG.
A good professional performance and some good skills.
As you say the NZ and the Aussie ladies are a few years ahead of us so we will struggle against the likes of those but it wont be for want of effort

why would a bogus frenchman be bothered about Blake playing for England

The women's game in Australia has come on in leaps and bounds in the last 2 or 3 years.
For the last 3 years there has been a strong under 18s comp. This year there were 10 teams who all represented NSW based NRL teams.
The girls coming out of these under 18s sides are so much better than the ones who came before, who mostly started playing as adults.
The Aus v NZ womens game today was the most skilful game of women's league I've seen.
I watched some of the under 18s 3 years ago and the girls had no kicking game at all and just turned the ball over after 6 because no one knew how to kick, and I think Australia scored 3 tries today off kicks that Thurston would have been proud of. One of them was probably the try of the tournament so far (men or women).
It helps that Aboriginal girls have always loved league and have always been very sporty. A large percentage of the Australian side have Aboriginal heritage.

And thank goodness the TV commentary team isn't Baz, Tez, Bill and Phil gathered together in a Sky sports caravan somewhere in the UK.

Good post. We need more than 4 senior teams though as we are well behind the women's AFL and Football league in this area. Hopefully we will see an increase soon.

Beaten by Lebanon.... some of the players playing just don’t seem to be able to adapt to the 9s way of playing, all the space and widdop just constantly looking to kick - poor kicks at that.

Absolute rubbish! Neither team selection or tactics suited to 9’s. Plus, 20 secs on the clock, what the hell is Handley doing spending 15 of them trying to play for a penalty?! You’re not playing for Leeds now, the ref won’t give you a penalty because of the colour of your shirt!

Well said Daryl!

SJ is a freak at 9's.......australia are dominant, but SJ is the best player on show....

England are getting utterly humiliated.