World Club Championship 1997 against Cronulla Sharks.

Who would have thought Andrew Ettingshausen would drop the kick off. Shows how even the all time greats could let the pressure get to them at Wilderspool.

An intimidating arena, packed to the rafters (not), home of the club that produced one of the most consistent set of results in the whole WCC. That was a depressing period for RL over here. I think ET spent time with Leeds in his early days didn't he.

You know what, I'm not going to get into a who's the best fan sorta thing, cut the world club championship was probably the time I decided I was sticking by this club, through thick and thin.


I turned up to that sharks game, so excited about seeing the Aussie stars, like the first time I saw an oz tour, and it disappointed me so much that Wilderspool was practically empty for that and the other games.

I know we were on our knees that season but, this was a chance to pick the spirits up and see something different.

According to Nobby on Saturday, an edict was sent out to clubs by Red Hall regarding wetting the football before kick off. He didn't however make clear whether it was to be allowed or not.

It's not in the spirit of the game, but really, can you really see 'elite' athletes dropping the ball because it is wet?

Skill levels and the quality of the ball should make it a none issue really, but the problem lies with the quality of the ball. In how many years of steeden, did we read about the ball, and the quality of the ball? Rhino just isn't good enough to be used in a professional environment.

I was told that clubs have been told by the RFL about ball wetting, not to do it as it was regarded as “bad sportsmanship” but what would happen if anyone does it I don’t know what would now happen.

Pardon the pun but do the RFL "have the balls" to kick the Rhino one out and go back to Steeden. It seems to be a real problem for players, which in turn means the standard of the games is falling.

Wasn't all this said about Steeden when we first switched to them? To be fair to Rhino, they have agreed to meet players and discuss how they can be improved etc. If commercially they offered a better deal than Steeden it would be daft not to take it.

It's a ball for fks sake.

My view when I saw hardaker do it was that by the time on a hot day he had soaked the ball, placed it on the kicking tee, given it a big hoof and it had reached its target there would be surely next to no water left on the ball and it should make no difference other than making him look like he trying to cheat when he really wasn’t going to achieve anything at all.

Having used both Rhino and Steeden I can can categorically say the Steeden has better grip and better flight through the air from a pass.

The one issue we have had always had with Steeden is that they deflate too easily.

The Rhino ball has poor grip even from new and any grip it has then quickly wears off. They are also charging the clubs a not inconsiderable £27 a ball (as confirmed during a talk I was having with the kitman at Wakefield last week).