International RL Blog

Prior to the arrival of   The All Golds  in 1907, Northern Union officials were concerned that the new code would not be able to survive financially without international competition and the gate receipts produced. Of course, The All Golds  tour was a big success and it facilitated the introduction of the new code in New Zealand and Australia who provided the required international competition. As a result, the new code went from strength to strength and was eventually renamed Rugby League. Despite peaks and troughs, Rugby League has generally prospered and, last year it celebrated its 120th anniversary. Times have changed and progress has been made. The game is now played in the summer by full time professionals and is beginning to spread around the UK and further afield. In 2016, grass root games between Oxford, Coventry, North Wales, South Wales, Hemel Hempsted and London took place. In the next few months Serbia, Spain, Russia, Italy, Malta, Thailand, Scotland and ...

Lance Todd was a star player for the All Golds and he signed for Wigan at the end of the tour. He later became a successful manager of Salford

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,...

From the Pacific peso to parity with the greenback and now beyond: the Australian dollar goes not so much from strength to strength but from historic new high to historic new high. CLICK HERE to read more RL teams in the UK can no longer afford to sign top Australian stars and transfer traffic now predominantly heads towards the NRL where GB stars, if they're good enough, can earn good money. James Graham, the Burgess brothers and others now play in Australia and demonstrate this. Ryan  Hoffman, Brett Finch etc have returned from Wigan to Australia, Leeds have signed two unknowns and Warrington haven't signed anybody at all.  Nobody can doubt that top international Australian and NZ stars enhance our competition but on too many occasions our SL clubs have employed far too many ordinary players (and coaches) from down under. For too long our young players have been denied opportunities as a result and too many talented players have become disillusioned   The curre...

Terry said later that his wife punches harder  -  one of the best