read this www.dragons.com.au/default.aspx? ... n-fixtures

read this www.dragons.com.au/default.aspx? ... n-fixtures

I disagree.

I honestly don't think it does prove who is the 'best in the world'

All it proves is which team is the best on that particular night. And 90% of the time the night in question is a cold wet windy or a cold freezing one in some nondescript town in the North of England.

It really just gives the northern hemisphere clubs the chance to say they are 'best clooob in't foookin wurrrrld' (excuse my poor attempt at typing in a 'northern' accent) by beating an NRL club...who with the best will in the world dont take it nearly as seriously as people would like them to. Hell I KNOW that players from the NRL clubs have drawn straws in previous events to see who doesnt come over. And who could blame them? Who wants to fly 12,000 miles to play a pointless game in the north of England in the middle of winter?


St G**rge Ill**arra DO play south of the shire.... thanks to the Illawarra Steelers bailing their financially cash strapped árses out and letting them play down the Gong

To be honest I think its the Pommie clubs that should be embarrassed when they lose.

If a side thats already started their season cant beat a second string NRL side thats flown 23 hrs to get to a cold stadium somewhere in the north of england they should be too

The option is always there to play it at your place. None of you have ever actually wanted to do that when push comes to shove though.

So come on then.

What makes it a 'great event'?


Its the SL Champions v the NRL champions (well...in name anyway)


What else do you consider makes it a 'great event'?

The fact to prove that the best team of your country is greater than the best that the rival competition can offer? Look back at games throughout the years - Wigan v Manly, Brisbane v Wigan, Leeds v Melbourne last year and tell me that the passion, pride and joy shown by the winners suggests anything other than the fact that they value the victory very highly.

It would be if that was the case.

But in reality it's an understrength, underprepared, largely uninterested NRL side (some might even say their 'B' team) who have travelled 12,000 miles (a trip that takes at LEAST a week to get over, even in business class) to play what amounts to little more than a trial game in temperatures probably a good 30 degrees colder than they have left behind against a SL side whose season has already started. The game barely gets a mention in Australia and it never sells out over here in the UK.


It's not exactly Ali v Frazier in Manila is it?

Ill bet a fiver that it will



No but it does not need to be, a good game of Rugby and a money spinner thats all

No one is trying to compare it to the NRL or SL Grand finals

Ok, I concede that this one MIGHT sell out (or be very close to it) seeing as Wigan are a well supported club AND it's being played at your home ground.

I didn't say that, I said [ifor clubs to call themselves best in the world[/i. Not the same thing at all.

I'd forgotten St George played games in the Gong, but as the Leagues club and Jubilee Oval are at Kogarah... they've got you surrounded! Mwahahahahaha!

It's a pity they don't relocate to the Gong forever! Illawarra Steelers were good enough to bail them out... they should have insisted on it!

Didn't Leeds pack 39k into Elland Rd a few years back? Wigan will fill the JJB, no question. There's plenty of interest in the game over here, as long as it is strategically planned.

Assuming you are a widnes supporter would you have any interest in watching Wigan v Illawarra?