Another dire, error strewn playoff game in front of 1 man and his dog.

when SKY are spending more time promoting tomorrows game than actually commenting you know the game is absolutely dire.

I've thought all season that the standard of Super League hasn't 'improved' or 'leveled' but it has rounded down and that everyone bar the bottom few teams are just average and dull, with the bottom few (I include Hull in that..just simply poor) I felt my opinions were solely due to the dross that Hull have served up the last two seasons, but now I think I've seen that even the supposed 'top' clubs aren't playing rugby like we saw just a few years ago.

I don't know how the rugby's got so poor, or really know what can be done to fix it. The defenses have got better, as has the fitness, but that is completely negated by the fact that there are few game winning, big-game players left in the league. The standard of attacking play is woeful from most teams.

At one time I though SL would really kick on, and get some more national recognition....but seeing two different clubs only attract 4,000 people to what is meant to be their biggest game of the season, to see a game filled with penalties and all the urgency of pensioners on a sunday drive, to even see SKY run out of hype and just give up during the commentary...it really does make me wonder if we are stuck in this Regional sport status forever.

Was there even a man there...?

Proof if it were needed that there aren't enough players to make 14 decent sides and that scrapping relegation just encourages averagenness

I blame the salary cap.

Generally, I'd agree. I think this year has been very average and it started one or two seasons ago with this new pedantic reffing style. The fact is that so far, the play off games have been poor. If it doesn't improve, they must have a rethink and IMO go back to the top 5 play offs.

A few years back, all the sky hyperbole rang true. It did seem to get better every season but just seems to be stagnating now. I'm not even sure it's down to relegation or not, it seems to be down to officiating IMO.

They allow a lot more slowing down in the tackle to what they did a few years ago and i think this stemmed from the tri nations we had a couple of years back when the Aussies got away with slowing the PTB down all game.

The Powers that be then changed referees keeness on penalising players slowing down the PTB.

To be fair i would rather lose every international and get to see top quality SL football week in week out.

Exactly. I remember GB being penalised for quick PTB's. Cue calls of 'slow it down to compete with the Aussies'. Except they went and speeded it up. But it doesn't have to be either/or...just get ONE set of refs interpretations for all and stick to them.

I honestly think the officiating has a lot to answer for, I dont think I have seen the rules applied the same way twice all season, hell in a single weekend neither TV game or the live game seen has been reffed in the same way.


Other than that, I think UllFC has a massive chip on his shoulder about something, dont know what though. Still, dire as the game was, it was too good for Hull to get even close this season.

maybe thats whats bothering him?

Having watched Parra v Canterbury followed by Hudds and Cats i am feeling short changed by the standard of RL in this country. The difference in everything to do with the game is cosmic...

As someone who probably spends £1000 per season + on the game, i think i would like more for my dough..

I am becoming disillusioned with the negative tactics that have crept into the sport, teams (Leeds aside probably) now just play percentages and wait for a mistake instead of trying to take a game by the throat. No adventure or originality at all.

Well done Cats by the way, Greg Bird is wasted in SL...

Anyone think that the lack of quality football in SL may actually have something to do with the lack of quality players in SL?

I think you will find that any Hull FC fan is an expert on boring rugby and needs to be listened to when they speak about it

SL has never had top quality players but you could at least guarantee a fast free flowing game but the slow PTB has killed that now. Phil Clarke says in the long run it will make players better as they'll need more skill to be able to break down the set defences.

A contributing factor to the slow play the ball is strangely a higher level of fitness. Cats got 3 players in the tackle last night which gains seconds. Hudds have done it all season where 2 tackle the player and hold him up then a third joins who lies on the other 2 tacklers as they go to ground. Thats coaches coaching to the rules-both, interestingly Aussies.
Having watched Quins all year you get used to boring % rugby. The second half of the season particularly we resorted to it and it didn't work- You need decent players to make it work. The better team ie Saints/Leeds play a balanced game.

I think the game is going through a transition at the moment from lots of Aussies to fewer, whilst being replaced with young British players. Hopefully once the transition finishes and the British player get better(older) the game will pick up.

I think he's not the only one with a massive chip on his shoulder.

Like it or hate it, the Super League competition is divided into two halves - the league part then the knockout part

The problem with the first season of the top 8 system is that the first two rounds have (so far) not had the intensity or quality we should expect of the end of season finale

A couple of reasons for this - firstly, with teams finishing below half way on the league ladder in the playoffs, we have to expect they won't immediately jump two or three levels in quality overnight.... otherwise, why did they finish in the bottom half? Having said that, Catalans are showing that if you time your run right, either through luck or judgement, you can make a decent run

Then you have the 'second chance' influence - Hudds and HKR knew that they weren't out if they lost to Saints/Leeds so I don't think that breeds intensity

I hope the game tonight will be high quality and then there is next week when it is proper semi-final football where the intensity should be top notch

Maybe the playoffs are simply one week too long