Actually think we could see a new winner thus year and because of the unpredictablilty of things this year still time for most teams to get in the 8 and stand a chance, points are being spread out more. Going to be a hell of a fight for 6-8 if the Giants and Rhinos can put a run together.

A not unfamiliar story; and the sad thing is, the 'big lad' is often just an early developer who soon becomes the average lad when his peers catch up - and he's learnt nothing from several years in the junior game of just running over smaller kids.

I'm not sure what the answer is - there's a whole load of excellent voluntary involvement in jr rugby without which, there would be no community game; but coaching is just too important to be left to poorly qualified volunteers.

Didn't Andrew Johns a few years ago touch on this and say that introducing a weight category rather than age category might help matters?

They are probably there in place with the academy and u/19's teams but struggle with the development transition to Superleague. We have probably have plenty of examples where young players start off at half back but professional clubs won't take a short term risks to play them in that position and end up on the wing, full back or hooker.

Take my club for example off the top of my head we have had Eastmond, Wheeler, Roby, Moore, Lomax, Gaskell, Charnock, Swift, Bailey etc and not one of them have nailed down a half back position.

i think the top 4 will be the same as it is now

saints to finish just outside i reckon, too many injuries and too many inconsistant peformances to get into the 4

widnes sinking quicker than the titanic maybe saved by salford picking up a points deduction

bottom 4 hudds, kr, salford (points deduction pending), and either one of the others with widnes being my tip

So nothing to do with salary cap?

Still generally a poor quality league. Still far too easy to score tries, not enough players with a good kicking game etc. But what do you expect when so many of our top players go to the NRL and they retain so many top players already?

Good to see some different names up at the top, in Hull and Catalans and Wire after a two year dip, like it was when Cas were up there two years ago. And good to see Wakey playing well and picking up wins.

Wire are top and it has to be said we've only played really well a couple, maybe three, times tops. Catalans had a poor start but look very good now.

My prediction come end of regular season, No particular order from 1-4 or 9-11, I think that's where Saints Cas Leeds Huddersfield and Salford will finish.
Wire
Catalans
Wigan
Hull FC
Saints
Cas
Leeds
Huddersfield
Widnes
Wakefield
Hull KR
Salford (presuming Salford lose their points)

Bateman is running away with the Man of steel. The guy's a machine.

Wigan and Hull (who else?) will be there or thereabouts when the prizes are handed out.

Agree entirely with Thelonius and Bren2k.

And sadly it's an ongoing issue.

Saw part of an u11's game at the weekend. Parents and coaches screeching and screaming on the sidelines.
Coaches abusing the 12 year old ref (who handled the situation fantastically well).
The kids hyped up and more aggressive because of the attitude of their coaches.
Plus of course the usual issues of passing it to the big kid, who mysteriously, never gets subbed.

The terrible state of the amateur game in the heartlands is, in my opinion, one of the biggest factors as to why we have only average crowds and very low interest levels in RL. It's also the reason why we don't have better players and a big reason as to why we don't have better referees.

Sort the amateur game out and the game will reap the benefits many times over.

Until Sandow was injured he was supposed to be.

Sandow when he returns, will pick back up where he left off, and let's not forget Ben Currie.

Too much mediocrity, too many teams in Super League. Catalan have a good chance of winning silverware if they keep it up and don't lose any more key players...