Ben Jones-Bishop

[JasonE]

With the imminent loss of Kyle Eastmond to Rugby Union i think the game needed a lift and the young Leeds Rhinos fullback Ben Jones-Bishop provided that this morning (oz time).

Not only his attacking game but what about his cover tackle on Tom Briscoe, that was brilliant to watch two young guns going for it.

Brent Webb was playing well in the short time he was on but his injury gave viewers the opportunity to see BJB in his best position and what a player he could be.
Very impressive.

The Rhinos look much sharper under McDermott, Hull were disappointing and it's laughable that their best forward prospect is on loan in London.

Salford - bye bye Sean.

 

[S.S.T.I.D]

He does sound like a great prospect. I'm keen to see him play because I haven't as yet. And in regards to Salford and Bomber, let's be honest, if it wasn't for Wakefield going into administration and being docked 4 points then the subsequent fire sale of players Salford would of been battling to avoid coming last. They probably still will anyway so I don't think sacking the coach is going to achieve much. Despite their recruitment I still thought they had arguably the worst squad in the league.

 

[Evil Homer]

He does sound like a great prospect. I'm keen to see him play because I haven't as yet.

Scored a great try tonight that should definitely make the highlights reel on superleague.co.uk

 

[East Coast Tiger]

So which union club will he end up at? He's already got the double-barrelled named.

 

[Johnny_L_O]

So which union club will he end up at? He's already got the double-barrelled named.

Signed a 4 year extension on Wednesday for us along with Watkins, Hall and Clarkson

 

[East Coast Tiger]

And?

 

[Evil Homer]

Why are Australians so defeatist and paranoid about other (inferior) sports like AFL and Union? Get a grip.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

We're not defeatist because we haven't been defeated by other sports the way English RL has been.

 

[Evil Homer]

We're not defeatist because we haven't been defeated by other sports the way English RL has been.

I'm not even going to try and argue with that. What a bizarre post.

 

[deluded pom?]

We're not defeatist because we haven't been defeated by other sports the way English RL has been.

You have in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Waits for response along the lines of "we don't want them anyway, they're scummy Victorians etc.etc."

 

[Johnny_L_O]

2 players have "made" it in Union over the last 10 years. One was the best Winger in Britain... The other was a young kid struggling to get a place in an ageing Wigan team. There's no mass exodus though. It's not like they're picking off all our stars every year. Eastmond is the 1st "big" name they have snatched in a while. The rest have been average SL players like Smith or Walker. Even Farrell when he left, although a big loss for Wigan, was on his last legs as a player.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

You have in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Waits for response along the lines of "we don't want them anyway, they're scummy Victorians etc.etc."

RL is the number one sport in two of the three biggest states in Australia. In England it's the number one sport in... Featherstone. Maybe. The game had 100 years to grow there and hasn't. That's why it has no appeal outside a few northern towns, almost no national media coverage and the only RL players who do gain any kind of profile are the ones who switch codes. Yet the attitude seems to be "meh, nothing we can do". Little wonder things are the way they are.

 

[dibviking]

east coast iv seen ur posts over on totalrl and iv gotta say ur a pure wanker who talks out of his arse! what do u suggest us poor northern folk of small towns do about the rugby union challenge? ur giving stick but not telling us what we can do, we need your help over here.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

I do tell you numpties what you need to do. But when it comes from an Aussie you xenophobic twats get the sh*ts and whinge to the mods. But when a pom says exactly the same thing there is no such outrage. And that's an insight into the problem, xenophobia. Northerners don't want the game over there to grow because then it won't be a northern game. And that's why it hasn't grown in 100 years. And the few professional clubs outside the heartlands are constantly under fire from northerners who don't want them to succeed. As a Widnes fan you should know this only too well.

 

[Evil Homer]

I do tell you numpties what you need to do. But when it comes from an Aussie you xenophobic twats get the sh*ts and whinge to the mods. But when a pom says exactly the same thing there is no such outrage. And that's an insight into the problem, xenophobia. Northerners don't want the game over there to grow because then it won't be a northern game. And that's why it hasn't grown in 100 years. And the few professional clubs outside the heartlands are constantly under fire from northerners who don't want them to succeed. As a Widnes fan you should know this only too well.

You're right in the need to expand, and that the lack of action in the past has made things much harder today, but some of your assessments are way off. I think fundamentally you have the right ideas but it's clear you have no first hand knowledge and are posting from the other side of the world, that's probably why people get annoyed with you.

 

[S.S.T.I.D]

RL is the number one sport in two of the three biggest states in Australia. In England it's the number one sport in... Featherstone. Maybe. The game had 100 years to grow there and hasn't. That's why it has no appeal outside a few northern towns, almost no national media coverage and the only RL players who do gain any kind of profile are the ones who switch codes. Yet the attitude seems to be "meh, nothing we can do". Little wonder things are the way they are.

The game hasn't expanded much at all in the last 100 years in Australia either. We are lucky, more than anything, that the home of the game just happens to be the biggest city in the country. I dare say things would be different if the home of the game in the UK was London and not Huddersfield. We've barely managed to penetrate outside of the east coast over here, so I don't really see how the situations are hugely different, if at all.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

The game hasn't expanded much at all in the last 100 years in Australia either. We are lucky, more than anything, that the home of the game just happens to be the biggest city in the country. I dare say things would be different if the home of the game in the UK was London and not Huddersfield. We've barely managed to penetrate outside of the east coast over here, so I don't really see how the situations are hugely different, if at all.

You don't? RL is the number one game in virtually every town and city in NSW and Qld. RL is not number one in any town or city in England, not even in the heartland towns. Even in places like Wigan you'd probably find a higher % of the population follow soccer than RL. And RL has grown outside Sydney you know. It spread right across the rugby playing part of the country within 20 years and became the most popular code. In England it still hasn't successfully spread much beyond the towns represented by the 22 clubs at the original meeting in 1895. The only thing stopping it spreading to London etc like it did to Brisbane and beyond here was the attitudes of the people. But even if you put that in the past and look at what needs to be done now the general attitude is to forget about Quins and Crusaders, or at least stick them back in the lower leagues where they don't keep northern teams out of SL. Plus the game there NEEDS expansion more than we do. They should be going all out to expand now, not in spite of the failures of the past, but because of them. Not only would it grow the game and its revenues so that there was more money to keep top players but there would be more players produced to begin with.

 

[deluded pom?]

RL is big in the two biggest states in Australia. Is that two states with a couple of cities in them? You have no idea about sport in the UK. You sit and pontificate from your keyboard twelve thousand miles away about something that SHOULD have happened over a hundred years ago but DIDN'T and there is little that can or will be changed any time soon. So get over it and face the facts that we are where we are NOT where you want us to be. ECT calling us xenophobic takes the biscuit. Now please feckoff and don't waste your time responding to me as I won't be reading your drivel ever again. Now how do I put this wanker on ignore?

 

[East Coast Tiger]

You don't want to be considered ignorant, so you put people on ignore whose opinions you don't want to hear. Genius. You're not on TRL now. You can't run off to the mods and whinge like a little girl so suck it up.

 

[deluded pom?]

I told you not to bother but you still have to play to the crowd.