What about some rugby league, then? First of all, I’m delighted that we had another Challenge Cup that’s gone to an upset; even if Warrington taking it wasn’t quite as cool as the Catalans, it’s still a hell of a long time since they won anything. It’s getting on for a while since their agonising…
Read More What will happen to Harlequins RL?Manly-Warringah RLFC’s successful trip to the UK in the last few weeks, which saw them beat Leeds for the World Club Challenge, was assisted by an interesting piece of technology. All the players have been wearing networked GPS data loggers during the games, so Statto gets a live feed of data on precisely where they…
Read More Blogging Rugby League: while you’re playing itYou thought Keighley were having a good year? We’re having a fucking good year. Yes. 1 Keighley 7 6 0 1 215 118 192 Doncaster 6 6 0 0 216 74 183 Gateshead 6 5 0 1 204 129 164 Barrow 5 5 0 0 199 50 155 Oldham 6 5 0 1 196 136…
Read More Kly! Kly! Boing! Boing!Call the anthropologists. I believe I encountered the earliest instance of the Wigan Walk in the history of rugby league on Sunday. OK, so Wigan played St Helens, their great tribal race enemy, in Cardiff; less obviously, Saints hit a savage burst of perfection and ran up 35 points to nothing in the first half.…
Read More The Earliest Wigan Walk Known to ScienceTime for some rugby league blogging, right? I saw London knock Castleford out of the cup on Saturday, and I can report that I’m beginning to think London (sorry, sorry, Harlequins RL) are getting to be dangerous. Cas dominated the first half and went in 12-0 up, but ended up with a 42-14 thrashing. They…
Read More You’re fit, but don’t you just know it…More of a note than anything else, but yesterday was kick-off day for Rugby League; Keighley were off to Whitehaven today in the Northern Rail Cup, which sounds like it’s going to be colder than cold and proverbially long. I’ve noticed some reasonable blogs around: Treiziste Diary, Times Online RL, TGG. Though how anyone could…
Read More Blogging Rugby League; Big KickoffKiri Te Kanawa, Alan Deere, Keith Park, Gary Freeman, Kurt Sorensen, Bernard Freyberg, Vik Olliver, Kotare, Phil Blake, Graham Lowe, your boys took a hell of a beating! Since when did Leon Pryce become a world-class stand-off? What happened to Gareth Raynor? I remember when he was intensely average; suddenly he’s become a cracker. And…
Read More Blogging Rugby League; GB 44 NZ 0Great Britain 20 New Zealand 14! Well, at least they didn’t schedule it to clash with whatever it was the union people were doing. What a match, though – like inhaling espresso compared to the ‘tothersiders. It had it all – tension! speed! spectacle! Sam Burgess, the 18-year old bolter, had a damn good game…
Read More Now for some real rugbyIt’s been bloody difficult to see anything of this year’s championship play-offs; apparently there’s some sort of rugby union event going on. But I did manage to see Hull and Wigan last night. Which posed a problem – which of them do I hate more? I still get abusive comments on this post from time…
Read More Blogging Rugby League: Hull 18 Wigan 21Did I say it would be difficult? Damn right it was. Did I mention gnarly old schemers like Stacey Jones and Jason Croker? Damn right I did, and they certainly schemed gnarly. But nobody expected the Catalans’ tactics; not many teams set out to whack Wigan in the chops early doors and get away with…
Read More Blogging Rugby League: Wigan-Catalans