England - Samoa

I never understand why a club doesn't have identity. only within the union fraternity.
Eg Wasps and Harlequins, i haven't a clue where they represent.

 

Loving the Rugby Women's an Men's, not missed a match yit, thanks to catchup, an the football starts in Nov, been waiting for the Women's World cup, and it's been Fantastic, well done to all involved, an the Men's Rugby league, i cant believe how good we looked against Somoa, and with soo many injuries. LOVE IT. Come on ENGLAND.

 

Definitely imo.

 

Yeah, R.Union is the dogs dinner (bad!), whereas R.League is the dogs bollx (good!).

 

Wasps and Harlequins were formed in 1866...before BFC...it wasn't unusual for football or rugby clubs to have a non geographic name at that time, eg first winners of the FA Cup ...Wanderers.( nothing to do with Bolton.)

 

We'll probably disagree AT...but I have a foot in both camps, being a Trinity supporter since 1964 I have loved Rugby League... but played Union...I would have played League but at that time there were no League clubs nearby..

The problem League has it that it has gone backwards in the last 25 years, this Sky/not very Super League has been very damaging to the sport. Once the Wigan bookie Lindsay took control it's been all downhill...sadly few did not seem able to see that attempting to junk so many of the traditional heartland clubs in favour of an NFL Franchise mentality would lead to failure, and let's be brutally honest... failure to win a World Cup for 50 years in a two team competition is pretty dire. Apart from a 1-1 series draw with Australia in 1995 it's been a catalogue of defeat. No matter how many times Stevo (in the past) or Brian Carney (now) tell us we have a ''great product''...an ''elite competition''...the results clearly show that we don't have that. Not only have we ( arguably) fallen behind New Zealand last time we played them we even lost to Papua New Guinea.
People getting excited about beating Samoa ( which does not have a serious league) are deluded.

 

Actually your right about what Lindsay tried to do to the game, which was ignorant and selfish, and just pathetic.
Remember he tried to force loads of club mergers, to try and create so called elite super clubs who could challenge his glorious wonderful Wigan and St Helens.
Wakey & Cas & Feath.. Hull & Hull K.R.. Widnes & Warrington.. and I think Bradford & Halifax were all told to merge.
Thankfully fans hated the idea and it was scrapped.

 

Successful with one merger. Sheffield (original and cup winners) and Huddersfield.
Combined the names. Field out off Sheffield and Hudders out of Huddersfield. And came out with the combined name, Huddersfield.
Two hats.

 

It wasn’t about just beating Samoa, it was the manner and score.
Haven’t Samoa several players from the NRL which must be reflective of their standard and to get 60 points has got to be good for us ?

 

Tbh Samoa is a team made up of renta Samoans, yes they have several NRL players, but they are mainly Aussies and New Zealanders not good enough to get into their own national squads...it doesn't make them bad players of course, just not at the top of the tree. The game was talked up as being one that could go either way, even the England coach said ''we are underdogs'', but it's just publicity bull...the day after the game the Sydney Herald summed it up in their headline ''Samoan hype ends in near record loss''.

 

Nahh kid, I din't understand a word of that lol.
Bring back the Barracudas, they are missed in Fart town.

 

For those not in the know.
Shameful act at the time. Sheffield had to reform at a lower level to retain an identity for their own fans.

1999

1999–2000: Huddersfield-Sheffield Giants
In late 1999, the club merged with Sheffield Eagles almost purely for financial reasons. Sheffield coach John Kear took over as head coach of the merged side. They were officially known as the Huddersfield-Sheffield Giants, but more popularly as 'Shuddersfield'.

Acido
Forgot the Barracudas lol. Wondered what you were on about.

 

One to look out for - Elsie Albert, Captain of the PNG Orchids.
We will be heading back to the Promised Land to support her in their game against Canada
Elsie was one of our students when we were working at the University in Papua New Guinea.
She plies her trade in Australia and is built like the proverbial 'West Stand Bogs'.
If you watch the game, you will not miss our Elsie

 

Samoa. The answer when asked what’s that in your shed

 

Yeah but was it Patrick Mower who said it ?.

 

Well correct me I'm wrong but 8+players in that Samoan squad played in the NRL grand final between Penrith Panthers and Parramatta Eels only a few weeks ago so to suggest they aren't good enough for Australia/New Zealand isn't necessarily correct.
There is such a pool of talent down under that unfortunately some of the stronger clubs players will miss out as they try to balance the squad.
The problems with the Samoan team last weekend was that they'd reportedly had 3 training sessions prior to the England game, not ideal preparation at all. I was very disappointed with the Samoans and thought they would have provided England with a much tougher test than they did.
Really can't see anyone other than Australia winning this comp, I don't think New Zealand will be that close either.

PS I don't think Super League is as bad as the Aussies make out. They've go very little respect for our comp. There are some decent players, some of whom have played down under and returned.
I'd also like to see a British coach given an opportunity with an NRL club but not sure that will happen anytime soon. Tim Sheens (Former Australia coach) now at the Wests Tigers but prior to that spent a decade coaching in the UK has gone on record as saying there are some decent coaches over here.
One name to look out for is Ian Watson at Huddersfield Giants.

 

It could be an interesting last group match where Samoa need to beat France, to go through.
It doesn't help tournaments like this when there are so many poor teams who keep getting hammered. But how are they going to improve if they don't take part, Im not sure what the answer is there.

 

Hardly polite. But yes.