You are right about Wales, and it's the very reason League used to get so many quality players from down there, Going back a few years a big number of Union players in England were professional men and were not short of money, Not so in the Valleys.

But there is enough money in the game to fund all the players down there, How many do we see coming to League now ?.

Got no Stats but I would guess the Union premier league will be on a par with super league for crowds, and I don't reckon their top clubs go bust with the same regularity as the Bradford's and Wakeys.

The unpleasant truth is that we are virtually owned by Sky, Union can play TV companies off against each other, The 6 nations is really popular and the world cups are just something different to what league can offer. We cant Haggle with anyone about price because nobody but Sky want us. It's not nice to think about but if Sky for any reason decided to pull the plug, we would be down that well known creek in no time flat.

The problem in Wales is knowing who the good players are as below the 4 regions the top club division is meant to feed them but for example Llanelli who are basically the reserve team of the Scarlets region lost a home game 96-0 last season to a side which is probably paying less than Rochdale or Oldham pay their players. Neath are supposed to be part of the Ospreys but are going bust, Swansea the other main feeder to them were relegated so the talent pool outside maybe 50 or 60 Welsh qualified players at the region's and maybe another 20 playing in England or France just is not there or at least would not be evident to RL clubs unless they watched a lot of dire matches at places which in a lot of cases are at old grounds falling to bits with a crowd under 3 figures in attendance.

The national team will always make millions and in the main will compete but below that the system is rotten and far worse than 30 or 40 years when an open cheque book took players north.

We won 4 drew 1 out of the 7 equivalent games this season.
We have failed to beat any of the top 3.

That would be enough to see us keep 4th.
Need a strong start against Wigan

spot on jools,
the good thing is that it's in our hands now as to whether we make the semi finals

if we turn up and do the business we are 80 minutes away from a grand final

I would think all you have said will be pretty accurate, I don't keep up with Union much anymore, but still no players are coming to our code, From that you have to guess that they are being kept happy money wise. I take your point about the talent pool down there, Halfbacks for eg don't materialise out of nowhere like they used to, but even the ones that do , show no tendency to come up here.

It's been an odd season so far. I've rarely seen so much pessimism and criticism surrounding a team that 90% of us agreed would have a good season if we reached the Super 8's (done) and a very good season if we reached the play offs, which we are in prime position to do so.

I must admit I looked at our results to date and thought our barrier to the play offs will be our struggles against the top 3. However, look at how close those results were and since when do the best teams care about results earlier in the season? We've, according to many, been rubbish and still look where we are. The play offs are there for us to be part of and surprise everyone - even us!

out of 24 games so far, only the hull and leeds cup game have been batterings in reality.

almost every game we've had has been competitive and most of our losses were down to individual errors rather than poor team performances, and yet the criticism has been unreal at times.

Or look at it the other way we don't win close games (we are getting slightly better as now we sometimes draw them) but Catalans away apart we struggle to get over the line when the chips are down.

Then again no better time to start than now and if we are more focused than the opposition in the next few weeks close games on paper might be anything but as in most of the tight games we start badly but Catalans (MW) apart we don't tend to blow decent leads that often which is a big plus.

True espanyol, but like I said a lot of those are down to individual errors , basic errors that have cost us.
But you're right we have lost a lot of close games mainly due to poor game management errors and possibly the opposition being smarter than us?

Wonder if those who wanted Baloo sacking think a replacement would have still got us to 4th in the league and holding a semi-final place ??

Obviously we won't know as they probably won't wanna admit they were wrong !!

The good thing about these play-offs is we're in control now, we know who we're playing, where and when so can prepare properly and i guess we have the luxury of knowing that if we keep winning those below us can't catch us !!

Basic errors and poor game management kill us constantly

We lose close games because we blow so many scoring chances - if we make a break chances are we lose possetion - the Likes of Leeds or Saints chances are score (hell even Rovers or Catalans are more likely to score than us from a break)

they will be back if we fail to make the semi final...

that has to be our minimum aim now with it being in our own hands

I think the best thing about these playoffs is it suits our mindset- not knock out rugby for 7 more games! The monkey isn't on our backs until the semi finals!

I agree, we currently hold one of the semi-final places, to lose that now would be a sin, We've enough experience now to realise that you can get away with playing average for 20-odd weeks but when the games matter you have to step up, hopefully our average performances so far are a sign we are saving our best efforts, we've failed to do that in the last few years so surely now we aren't going to play as bad as we have done in the previous 'games that matter'.

Anything less than 4th and i will be hugely disappointed now !!

Well who are these posters who wanted Baloo sacking ? I have been as critical of PA as anyone I would think, And I still think we could do better, But that's my opinion. Nowhere have I called for him to be sacked and to be honest I can't remember reading a post from anyone who has said he should be sacked, Maybe I'm missing something.