Not wanting to be a party pooper - but hoping the Leeds Rhinos are not doing a disservice to the game. It would have been a great fillip to England for the upcoming series if Leeds could have beaten NZ albeit in their warm-up game leading in to the test series. But sentiment will be the order of the night as Morley and Lauititi come back for one last game as well as saying goodbye to Sinfield etc.

But it's been seen so many times before - sentiment doesn't win rugby league matches. In '95 Wigan put 100 points past Bath RU in the RL game. What a fillip it would have been for the wider game if they had gone to Twickers and beaten Bath at RU. But Wigan brought Lydon and Graeme West was it out of retirement (!) to play and omitted Haughton who was on fire at the time. I think Sean Edwards was genuinely injured so allowing Craig Murdock to play. Upshot was that Wigan lost fairly narrowly giving the Union media the chance to formulate the spin they wanted on the event.

Anyway, fingers crossed Leeds beat NZ, sentiment and all, and then England go on to a 3-0 series win.

I can't see anything other than a handy NZ win. No Peacock, Sinfield, Hall, Watkins, Hardaker, Burrow, Delaney, JJB, Sutcliffe or Achurch

I have to agree, new Zealand will comfortably win, I'm gonna predict 36-10.

Especially when the scratch Leeds team will be lining up against this -

New Zealand: R Tuivasa-Sheck (Sydney Roosters); J Nightingale (St George Illawarra), J Kahu (Brisbane), D Whare (Penrith), S Kenny-Dowall (Sydney Roosters); P Hiku (Manly), T Lolohea (NZ Warriors); J Bromwich (Melbourne), I Luke (South Sydney), B Matulino (NZ Warriors), K Proctor (Melbourne), T Harris (Melbourne), M Taupau (Wests Tigers).

Replacements (from): K Nikorima (Brisbane), A Blair (Brisbane), S Moa (Sydney Roosters), S Siua Taukeiaho (Sydney Roosters), A Glenn (Brisbane), G Beale (Cronulla), L Brown (Penrith).

This is the Leeds team

Golding
Briscoe
Keinhorst
Moon
Handley
McGuire
Lilley
Leuluai
Robbie Ward
Morley
Lautiiti
Walters
Cuthbertson

Garbutt
Singleton
Achurch
Mullally
Baldwinson
Mulhern

Hall, Hardaker and Watkins on England duty. Ablett, Delaney and Sinfield injured. Peacock has opted not to play and has been on holiday this week. Burrow on holiday too, not sure if he opted out or the injury that ruled him out for a few weeks post Wembley needs resting again.

Even with a full strength side, you would have got very long odds on Leeds beating New Zealand.

How many times has a club side beaten a touring international team in the last fifty years? Probably in single figures, and most of those will have been their "midweek" sides made up of reserve players against a club side still in the middle of its season.

You can't blame Leeds for choosing not to risk players with injuries and to treat the whole thing as a bit of a money-making exhibition.

It’ll be a nice trip out for the Loiners to cheer on half of the all concurring Rhino’s side, with a much needed hit-up for the Kiwi’s prior to the test series.

I’m sure there’ll be quite a few watching the game on P.S. to quell their insatiable appetite for all things R.L.

Personally I’ll give it a miss, it’s a bit like them other two World Club Challenge games, but by then even I might be ready to watch an exhibition match.

Should be a great occasion, almost sold out ground fairly strong looking Leeds side, I expect a NZ win but should be a good test for young/fringe players. It clearly shows there is an appetite for full all be it short tours. Full kangaroo tour against GB with 3-4 club games would be great.

Agreed, I'm really pumped for this series. You're quite right, tours are short these days, gone are the days of 7-8 game tours I think but if this one does well you never know. Personally I think NZ should have played France as well, in avignon or something, they always sell out that ground, just to give the tour a bit more variety and wider interest.

In terms of Australia we will have to wait until 2019 to see about them touring I guess, that's the nest year that is free with four nations in 2016 and 18 and world cup in 2017.

I'll be there, I'll enjoy it, but can't see anything other than a big NZ win. 54-12.

How many SL club sides could attract a 20,000 crowd to nothing more than an end of season friendly and probably rake in close to £500,000 into the coffers before deductions to the Kiwis etc. are taken out?


The Rhinos will get absolutely murdered against the Kiwi's,Even if it had been played mid season then i still reckon that we would have done well to keep the loss below 20 points

Our lads have been on the lash big time since the GF win and who can blame them?

I'm still going to pay my respects to our departing players and also to say goodbye to our returning heroes Mozza and Ali

It was a wise decision to include the hardened Schnapps drinking German Joachim "James" Keinhorst in the centres.

Nevertheless I am expecting a 58-10 win for the Kiwis.


Their mascot "Poppa C" (aka "Gutterfax"icon_wink.gif will be excited.

Unfortunately Leeds have a lot of injuries. McDermott himself said that if the season had gone on 1 game longer he'd have been struggling to find 17 fit players.

Peacock said a long time ago he wouldn't be playing in it. Understandably Yorkshire don't want Sinfield playing (hand injury my backside).

Obviously Hardaker, Watkins and Hall are unavailable. That's 5 players out. Then add in the injuries to Burrow, Ablett, Delaney (all played with injuries in the Grand Final), Jones-Buchanan, Ward, Aiton & Sutcliffe and you've got a total of 12 players out.

Considering there's 12 top players out then the team Leeds have named isn't that bad.

If Leeds keep NZ to 2-3 scores difference they'll have done very well.

Considering also that the likes of Cuthbertson, McGuire and Briscoe can't have been far off England selection then it could've been even more depleted.

I don't think I've seen one Leeds fan predict a victory. We all know it's going to be a Kiwi win. A respectable score line would be nice but it'll still be an enjoyable occasion whatever. Who knows when the next time Leeds or any other SL club will get this chance? We have been very fortunate though that it's landed at the end of such an amazing year for us and the fans are over the moon right now with the club and the 3 guys are retiring and Morley and Ali can join in too. 12 months ago after the disappointing early playoff exit and no retirees then the gate would've been much smaller I reckon.

But they won't. 10 tries to 2 is the more likely outcome.