International RL Blog

The Four Nations series was an obvious success and proved that holding big international RL at big stadiums is the best way to showcase our game. Some success was desperately needed after a series of calamities e.g. the Crusaders fiasco Unfortunately England lost and once again it emphasised our losing mentality and a continuation of the timid selection policy of picking out of form players out of position. At least we didn't  try to get away with selecting any injured players as we have in the past. Burgess, O'Loughlin, Bridge, Atkins etc would've enhanced our chances but why were so many of our players injured? Some of them were involved in the play offs Collectively and individually we still have the wrong priorities.We play too many games and have too many foreigners involved in an unsuccessful and stagnating club competition whose media profile declines by the hour. This is down to poor management and we are kidding ourselves ...

I've just seen the schedule for the British Lions RU tour to Australia in June 2013. Not only have they stolen the British Lions name (used by RL long before RU) but they are visiting similar places in a similar way at the same time of year as we used to do. They are even playing mid-week country matches. They are stealing our clothes on and off the pitch and getting away with it

Ah well, the dust has settled and as Robert Louis Stephenson said "To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive" RL fans in the UK have certainly been travelling for a long time and have stayed hopeful throughout. During the preliminary matches, England demonstrated a gradual progression and I'm sure the intention was to peak for the final against Australia. Unfortunately, it didn't happen and it must go down as another missed opportunity. When will the next chance be? Will they continue to occur at the same frequency? We defended quite well, although for once we were very lucky with some of the refereeing decisions. I thought our attacking options let us down and with the exception of the penalty try, which I thought was a fair decision, we didn't really threaten their line. I was disappointed that our pack didn't make much of an impression against theirs but the England team dropped the ball far too many times and players who could've ma...

England/GB have not won a major international RL tournament for forty one years but after their performance against NZ on Saturday who knows For once the English players lived up to their potential and reproduced club form. They have improved week by week and showed confidence, aggression, control and discipline. The bounce of the ball admittedly went their way and for once they got a fair shout off the referee. If they can continue this against Australia maybe just maybe Everybody was magnificent but I would single out Ben Westwood for his 100% commitment and effort. NZ played with spirit as you would expect but the partisan Hull crowd made a big contribution and acted as an eighteenth man. Another neutral referee did a good job, NZ can have few if any complain and coach Stephen Kearney accepted the defeat with dignity. It bothers me that somebody like Gareth Carvel who had a great season for Warrington but has not played for five weeks must've found it very di...

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...

In general. RU people are very self confident if not arrogant and continually talk themselves and their game up despite seemingly obvious reality. It could be argued that this arrogance was the main cause of the 1895 split and the resulting chip on the shoulder of RL people who continually accentuate the negative and talk our game down. We need to be more confident, to think bigger and sell ourselves to the world This was demonstrated last weekend when Fiji defeated PNG 26-12 in yet another low key, unpublicised international. France showed us how it should be done when another good crowd of 10000+ saw France beat Scotland 46-10 in Perpignan. The potential is massive if only France could be competitive again against the top nations. It's a great pity that both Lebanon and Jamaica couldn't be included in the RL World Cup 2013 because we need some variety and exposure to new markets. The qualifying rounds were an undoubted success though and should be encouraged and e...

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...