Seen him a few times now and just see the hype with Bateman.

Impressed with Burgess though.

What is it these days, the commentators and ref hoping to put a lid on the aggression early doors. Eddie and Steveo calling for the ref to get on top of things early and pulling up on every little niggle in the game.

As soon as the game moved on a bit it became staid and boring, i wasn't too bothered who won and went and did something else. I thought I was a big fan of RL but find myself hardly watching games now.

SOO are the games which are at the top of the pile for quality, entertainment and guess what else? Aggression, the odd fight does nothing apart make the game far more interesting. Seems we are pushing our game as far away as possible from this benchmark.

Another poor televised game.
NRL medication in the morning thank fook!!!

Im guessing you meant to put 'Can't', if so then you need to look more closely.

Well you are about to be upset because the steady curve of not reffing it different to a normal game is getting worse and worse. The best thing about SOO was the aggression and the attitude of anything goes.

Yeah I feel as though I'm drifting off RL more and more, the NRL still has it for me, I'm not sure why. Maybe they celebrate a big hit rather than nit-picking at how it might be dangerous and how the ref has to get on top of it all.

Cycling Classics season starts soon though so not long to wait for some action.

If you watch 5 in the bin from the footy show the whole attitude of playing for the badge and pride is all of a sudden a bad thing for the game which is rather off putting. They also review every big hit as well to make sure there wasn't a tap to the head, its also becoming like football where a player will stay down if they get a tap to the face or head.

Sanitisation may bring new people to the game but i think it will also turn old school fans away, like your self apparently.

Speed?
Skill?
Physicality?
Individuality?

I don't mean to gripe at our SL product, but Jesus, it's pretty painful viewing more often than not.

Yep really didnt enjoy tonights game. Painfully poor imo. All about speed and physicality but very little skill

It was a poor showing. Played in terrible conditions however, similar to those at Wembley last year .

Did and have, seen nothing but seen nothing special so far, you tell me why he deserves the hype?

He came in and played 80 minutes tonight and the whole right hand defence has magically become strong. Don't think he missed a tackle, always made meters even against 3 or 4 not to mention he plays well above his age you would think he is 27/28. Put it this way i wouldn't swap him for Westerman who Hull fans right so highly.

Thats yur opinion, but he has been so massively hyped (As mush as Tompkins and Sam Burgess), I am not saying he is a bad player, looks a good young player but that is it, Westerman at his age, was a much better player, unfortunately he struggled at Hull until this season as he was used right. Different type of player and different ages, Westerman has miles more skill to game that Bateman though, Bateman is a probably stronger runner.

I thought Bateman was one of the best on the field last night

Same here.

My MOM actually despite a couple of errors.