International RL Blog

Although we can't get too over excited about the result and I thought the crowd was slightly disappointing we can be very pleased about the higher profile and increased media coverage. I can't remember the last time a Rugby League match was featured on the BBC News on Saturday evening and this alone justified the decision to take the match to London. We must build upon these foundations and make these International RL "events" more frequent. Onwards and upwards. The game itself was very exciting and just like proper old fashioned test matches used to be. At this level it is all about taking your chances plus minimising mistakes and Australia demonstrated their efficiency. Plenty has been said about the Billy Slater injury and how well Australia adapted but England played for most of the match without three forwards and can enter the rest of the tournament with confidence Plenty has been said about the referee but I though he was no better or worse then the usual...

Friday night saw the first game in the much anticipated Four Nations series and Australia beat NZ at Warrington in a game played with very slow play the balls. A neutral referee was in charge so nobody can have any complaints but, as we've seen many times before, SL officials are often intimidated by the Australians.  Tim Sheen's comments after the game illustrate why this happens and he should be disciplined for what he said.  Any NRL/SL coach or Premiership manager (even Alex Ferguson) would be fined for criticizing a referee. Nothing will happen and we will never have any credibility or make any progress when one team is so obviously above the law.  England beat Wales at Leigh in a game with slow play the ball but again a neutral referee was in charge who did quite a good job  under the circumstances. Let's hope we see more of Mr Perenara We now move on to Wembley for two big matches on a big stage and a good opportunity to sell ourselves.     Inte...

The next Four Nations competition is scheduled to take place this Autumn in the UK and should involve England, Wales Australia and NZ. There is a major problem. No dates/venues have been confirmed and thus it is impossible to to buy, or even plan to buy, tickets. It is less than four months until the scheduled start and potential spectators throughout the world are still in the dark. This is our annual opportunity to put our sport and our fantastic athletes in the shop window and show the world what they are missing. There have been rumours of a double header at Wembley but nothing has been confirmed. The RLIF met recently and I have been waiting for some news to no avail. There is nothing on the RLIF website which just directs visitors to other sites and the Four Nations link wasn't working the last time I tried Other sports plan their showcase events years in advance and then concentrate on high quality promotion/marketing in to order gain the maximum possible exposure a...