International RL Blog

As we contemplate yet another SL Grand Final involving the same teams, Brent Webb, Danny McGuire, Danny Buderus and the whole Warrington and Wigan teams now understand that truly great players save their best performances for big matches. The biggest matches of all take place on the international stage and the looming Four Nations is something that UK RL fans can look forward to with relish after months of gloom. I think I'd prefer an Ashes Series, if only for novelty value, but entertaining our antipodean "Friends in Low Places" in big matches in large stadia is surely an opportunity that even the UK's inept RL administrators cannot squander.

So, our national side was defeated yet again and it's time for English RL's annual self appraisal. We're depressed and down hearted and some of us might be thinking, is this really more trouble than it's worth? In 1817, while living in Venice Lord Byron wrote a famous poem called "So, We'll Go No More a-Roving" expressing doubts about his hedonistic lifestyle Maybe we should stay at home too and concentrate on club competitions. We could quit international RL and allow our friends down under to continue to develop their NRL code of football with two referees and no corner flags. We could continue to proclaim how good SL is every year and forget about beating the Aussies. Absolutely not. Like Lord Byron, we must go a-roving. He carried on and died seven years later We must continue to participate and develop International RL or the sport will wither and die. I was alarmed at the lack of coverage g...

SL 2010 is over and we have new champions in Wigan, one of the big four but still a welcome change from the recent Leeds v St Helens Grand Finals. Nobody can say that Wigan are not worthy champions as they were consistently the best team all year and I predict they will have some difficulty holding on to coach Michael McGuire who will be in big demand within the NRL. Spare a thought too for Mick Potter who did a great job at St Helens and reached two consecutive Grand Finals with team in transition including some very talented youngsters. I'm sure Bradford will be happy with a similar record. After a long hard season we now send our tired players to compete in the Four Nations against our friends from down under. I personally think it would make more sense to hold international competitions during June/July when the players are fresh but this would need detailed advanced planning by the RLIF which has never happened before. It would also mean players woul...