I was only thinking the same, myself. He was good.
Clive Tyldesley wasn't too bad, either. Although, if I had a tenner each time he namedropped a famous RL person he'd spoken to that week, I'd be a rich man.

Seems a good idea more games on TV,hope this does not encourage people to stay at home to watch matches rather than go through the turnstyles ,just a thought.

I don't think so. In fact, I think the opposite is true.

More eyes on the game on TV = more fans = more people wanting to go to matches.

Heard Hemmings and Steve coming out of retirement . No only joking but it’s great to have a new tv partner just got to hope they get it right and as someone said let’s not turn into a flat cap viewing mess.

Was interesting to hear Powell talk about how no scrums (which is obviously going) and 6 again (which is staying) negatively affected the game in his view as it meant teams were much more likely to play centrally trying to generate a quick ruck and the 6 again, rather than playing with a bit of width to make breaks on the edges.

We are too quick sometimes to introduce rule changes / adaptations rather than use a set of rules that have made the game what it is.

Very true. In my view the game was better with

1. Substitutes instead of "interchanges"
2. Semblance of a scrum to leave room for scrum plays and space for the backs.
3. A bit more aggression / physical confrontation.

Hull v saints in on channel 4 the following Saturday that's should be a good game too. Hull usually start well that's a big potential upset on the cards, although I expect saints to win really. Another good fixture for Channel 4 to have.

We have Cas at home on the thurdsday for our second match and that's on sky.

A big guffaw from the rugby gods pitching us against Cas for the first home game. Could be a cracker.

Sponsors will be queuing up for deals if CH4 go beyond 2022. A great move, even if we were paying CH4 to do it!
I’ve been very dissatisfied at varying degrees with sky sports RL production over the last decade.I cancelled my subscription this year.

The live streaming is important to get money into the game from folk who logistically (and for other reasons) cannot make it to alive game. I hope that viewers that live well outside the M62 corridor, will watch Chanel 4's coverage, like what they see and will then watch it streamed live. Lets hope that new terrestrial viewers are aware that this service will be available, and it will be of a decent quality.

Great news to get more money in to the sport, more viewers and potential fans, and best of all even more games for us to watch through the year

Does clash with the early Premier League saturday matches though

So was looking to see who is fronting this and not found anything as yet. But what I have found is C4 have actually put it out to tender to private production companies, no idea who that may be.

I wrote to C4 to congratulate them on this deal.
Got a good reply which wss along the lines of 'we're looking forward to it and hope the viewing figures match the interest we've had so far'.

The ball is in RL fans court.