I understand your comments WO, but we did only lose by a point and I didn't think there was that much in it.

I think part of the reason the atmosphere at England games is so ordinary is we don't play enough games. There's no supporters club or whatever, there's not really any songs, because it just doesn't happen regularly enough.

I think there was much in it. We hit nz with everything for 20 mins solid but couldn't break them down. Nz played half the game with one back who ran the show.
If there wasn't much in it...you'd expect the team with one back to get beat.

Not much in it at all and you have to remember they scored from an interception. The NZ defence was superb and way above Super League standard. Even Daryl Clark couldn't find a gap (despite being built up by the commentary team).

Intercept or not. It's often confidence in your defence and dominance that allows a player a player to push out to gain from the attacking teams inability to crack the line and forcing them to pass flat, sloppy and without vision.

Nothing on it....what? No way is that good enough to trouble Oz. Even with a narrow win, I'd say disappointing when they operated with just one hb.

What doesn't help grow the international scene, is when the crowd at HKR are more interested booing as loud as they can whenever Walker touched the ball, rather than getting behind a British team against the convicts... Absolutely pathetic.

What a bunch of brainless idiots that club is. I'm made up they went down. What a horrible, grotty little club.

There was only one thing separating the quality of the teams IMO and that was Mr Shaun Johnson. He is a very special player and he ended sets so well (he ended pretty much every single one of their sets, nobody else got a look-in for them as they aren't good enough to do what he can), his short kicking game is the best i have ever seen.

Other than that i thought our front row of Graham Hodgson and Hill were better than their's, i thought our wingers looked equally as good as their's, we just ended sets poorly at times.

Exactly right.

I had a look recently and in cricket, football and rugby union they'd played 114, 114 and 112 tests/games in the last 10 years and we've played 71.

In the decade before that was a lot less because we missed out on a World Cup in 2004/05 so there was nothing to get behind at all then.

If a World Cup is abroad we've gone 2 years without playing a home international fixture at times, or maybe at a stretch one in two years.

Albeit cricket and RU have centrally funded contracts, and play internationals at the same time as the league schedule is still running - will SL clubs or their supporters go for that idea?

Meanwhile you can't really compare football's international structure with that of RL in terms of the opportunity of fixtures - there's 209 teams in the FIFA rankings, whilst just a paltry 36 in the RLIF list.

In respect of international games RU is light years ahead of League ,helped firstly by the four nations ,five nations & more recently six nations annual competitions which are all virtually home internationals. Add to that the superior publicity enjoyed by the RFU & the fact that all these countries have thriving domestic competitions & it is easy to see why international rugby union thrives. You can also add to that with international based club competitions that breed rivalry for when the countries come together on the international scene.
Can Scotland RL even get a game in Scotland ? I don't think even William Wallace thought it worth going to East Hull on a dark October night when he was marching south.

The whole farce of international RL started when they split Great Britain up into the home nations. The Great Britain test series against Australia were superb. An England vs Wales, Scotland or Ireland game is meaningless to us RL fans. never mind the wider public.

Spot on.

Yet the RU lot manage to have independent home nations and a popular combined Lions side

IIRC the RL split was (partially) down to the way sport was funded/subsidised.

I think there is little thriving about domestic RU in Scotland 9A. It's not even up to RL championship level in club support.
Scotland RU int is heavily backed by the RFU.

Quote: shinymcshine "Yet the RU lot manage to have independent home nations and a popular combined Lions side '" One of the key differences is that with RU the sport is actually played in the 4 separate countries!. England - www.premiershiprugby.com Ireland - www.irishrugby.ie/club/club_map.php Wales - www.wru.wales/eng/club/principal ... _clubs.php Scotland - BT Premiership www.scottishrugby.org/fixtures-r ... ion=116447 Whereas elite level RL is played in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and we can add Cumbria for the next level down. This is why it is a farce.

Quote: shinymcshine "Yet the RU lot manage to have independent home nations and a popular combined Lions side '" One of the key differences is that with RU the sport is actually played in the 4 separate countries!. England - www.premiershiprugby.com Ireland - www.irishrugby.ie/club/club_map.php Wales - www.wru.wales/eng/club/principal ... _clubs.php Scotland - BT Premiership www.scottishrugby.org/fixtures-r ... ion=116447 Whereas elite level RL is played in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and we can add Cumbria for the next level down. This is why it is a farce.