International RL Blog

It's not been confirmed, but it seems certain that the GB Lions Tour to Australia in 2015 will not take place. They haven't been invited!!! It appears that the Australian players don't want to play because they are guaranteed a winter off every four years. I find this very hard to believe!!! Which Australian players don't want to represent the Kangaroos in an Ashes series against the Lions? The RL Ashes is a competition with a long history which has not been contested since 2003. That series was very close, despite the 3-0 scoreline and the overall scoreline is very close too despite recent Australian dominance. On either side of the world, crowds would flock to see the Burgess brothers, Widdop, Graham, Tomkins etc represent thec Lions There are many thousands of very good RL players in Australia. Why don't they ask for volunteers? The queue would start in Preston Let's hope International Federation Chairman, Nigel Wood has some power and influence an...

The run up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will feature RL as an exhibition sport with an U19s 9s Championship involving five of the six Commonwealth Regions.  The RL Commonwealth Championship 2014 will be contested by SA, Canada, Jamaica, England, Scotland, Wales, Australia and PNG with the teams split into two groups.  The matches will take place over the 27-28 th  June as the 9s format looks to continue to spread the sport on the international stage. CLICK HERE for more information

Belgium  10    Spain  12     Brussels     24/5/14 Spain fought back from 10-2 down early in the second half to defeat Belgium 12-10 in the their first-ever RL international.  The Spaniards have recently introduced a six-team domestic competition this season and they found themselves under pressure in the first half but their defence held out as Belgium failed to register any points.  The visitors then enjoyed a dominant spell, moving the ball through the three-quarters, but the Belgium defence proved similarly strong.  CLICK HERE for more info

After watching the Wigan v Castleford  Challenge Cup game on Saturday most people would have been talking about the farce the obstruction rule has become rather than a very exciting match. Castleford were great and thankfully the poor decisions didn't affect the result. Surely spectators and viewers want to watch players play rather than referees adjudicate and action needs to be taken soon because the current interpretation of the obstruction rule is yet another over complicated system which cannot possibly work. As our hero Stan said to his mate Oli, "The fish will catch themselves, the people who buy the fish won't have to pay and all the profits will go to the fish" Perfectly put and I personally would abolish the video referee altogether but this won't happen. We should at least say that the referee decides on obstruction as with a foward pass. Just as Castleford were great, Leigh (playing Leeds on Thursday) were absolutely magnificent. Unfortunately,...

In real life, I have sat through numerous work based meetings and wearily listened to inexperienced colleagues describe over complicated systems that could not possibly work. I often found my mind wandering to the scene in the Laurel and Hardy film where Stan describes how they will improve their latest money making scheme by buying a boat I had similar thoughts when I first heard the outcome of the RFLs restructuring scheme involving the 12 x 2 and 3 x 8 option.....etc. It seemed massively over complicated but we're stuck with it now so we'll have to make do and hope for the best.  (Let's not even think about the current interpretation of obstruction) Before it's even had the chance to be implemented we're faced with a ludicrous situation as a direct result. Little old Keighley Cougers (... yes, Keighley Cougers) feel the need to play a weakened team in a televised Challenge Cup quarter final against (little old) Widnes. This was probably the biggest and mo...

I notice that the All Blacks are due to play an RU game at Soldiers Field, Chicago against the USA in November. I have no doubt that a big crowd will attend and that the All Blacks will clock up a big score. I also have no doubt that the event will be a huge success. Soldiers Field is famous as, amongst other things, being the venue for the long count fight between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney in 1927. It's hallowed turf Dempsey v Tunney 1927 In the 1970s and 1980s, it could be argued that the British Lions (RL version who existed long before RU and were much more successful) and the Kangaroos had a similar international profile to the All Blacks. Since then, the NZ RU have continually worked hard to promote the All Blacks and turned them into the internationally recognisable brand they are. Meanwhile, the ARL have neglected the Kangaroos and concentrated on SoO. The Kangaroos, who used to be acknowledged as the best...