English Super League Superleague play-offs semi-finals and Grand Final 2018

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moto748

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Apr 19, 2010
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Semi-finals:
Thursday 2nd October - St. Helens v Catalan Dragons
Friday 3rd October - Wigan Warriors v Warrington Wolves

Final at Old Trafford Saturday 11th October.

I'll be at Wigan on Friday, and at Old Trafford too. Should be a cracking contest; really looking forward to Joel Monaghan v Joe Burgess, and some other great match-ups too.

It so happens that the U-19s Grand Final is next Saturday at Warrington: Warrington v Wigan (no neutral ground there!). So I'm intending to catch that on the way home on Saturday and support the lads too.
 

moto748

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I was rash enough to put a tenner on the Dragons tonight at St. Helens, but at 7-2 in a two-horse race, against a depleted Saints side, and having already won at both Leeds and Huddersfield, I felt the Catalans were worth a punt. and, to be fair, they were on the wrong end of several big decisions in the first half which might have swung the game in another direction, but in the end they were well beaten, despite carrying a threat till the end, and, by their own admittedly fairly poor standards, keeping their discipline pretty well. Frayssinous deserves a lot of credit for what he has achieved there. It seems like a done deal that Todd Carney will be there next season, it'll be interesting to see how they go.

But I do think Saints look uninspired, and I will be very surprised if they can prevail over the winner of tomorrow night's game between Wigan and Warrington.
 

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moto748

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Can't remember in the heat of the moment! It was pretty thrilling stuff in those last few minutes to be there, as I'm sure you can imagine! They put longer highlights and eventually the full match up on the Wigan TV site, so I'll be able to tell in few day's time.

If Matty Smith hasn't done enough this season to claim the England No 7 jersey, there is no justice. And Blake Green going to the Storm will be a big loss for us. But getting to the GF straight after losing Sam Tomkins and Pat Richards is a terrific achievement, no doubt. Joe Burgess on the wing has been fantastic too, scoring the winning try, as he has so often this year. And he is still only 19!

Also, I ventured into Warrington on the way home, and saw the Wigan Academy side hold on to beat the Wolves on their own patch and win their Grand Final. They are nearly all local lads, and we have some great talent in the backs: all the back 5 (including Jason Robinson's son, who scored twice) look terrific prospects. Sam Tomkins, and the first team, were there to see them win too. Rounded off a great trip! Tomorrow morning I'll be trying to buy GF tickets.
 
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moto748

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AuckMel> That'll be the dreaded 'free play' rule. They are reffing now in Superleague (and they may well change this back to how it was; plenty don't like it) such that you cannot be considered to have taken your advantage. So if the team who have got the penalty or whatever play on, it is in effect a 'free play', and if they fail to score or achieve better field position, they will always go back and get their possession back at the original position. The idea was to encourage quick-thinking attacking plays, like putting in low-percentage improvised kicks, but plenty think it has done more harm than good.

I could make my familiar complaint at this point that there should be one set of laws to the game, played everywhere. Both the NRL and Superleague are guilty of tinkering, and it's wrong, wrong, wrong. It makes a mockery of our game, having three sets of rules.

Anyway, GF bought this morning, best in the house! It's easy enough to buy tickets from the RFL any old time, but I wanted to get them out of Wigan's allocation so as to be sat with the other Wigan fans.
 

moto748

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To be fair, we should have scored anyway from Gelling's break. He needed to either go for the line himself, or take the tackle, instead of throwing that half-assed forward pass. After all, as it had been played at by a Warrington player, it was six to go.

I suppose one argument in favour of the free play rule was that it took the refs out of the picture. Under the traditional ruling, there's always going to be an argument in marginal cases when the ref has to make the decision as to whether a team have taken their advantage (I often think this figures even more prominently, and can be quite arbitrary, in rugby union, but that's another story).
 
That second punch was not on eh? Lucky to not be facing charges.
The first one wasn't on either.

He copped a high shot initially which didn't overly affect him by the looks of it. There's no justification to then knock the bloke out with what was essentially a king hit. It's hardly like for like retaliation.

As for the second one, well, words fail me. Even allowing for the fact that this bloke is a league player. He's obviously just snapped.

Anyway, this idiot can just sit back and deal with his new found status as the player who probably cost his side a Grand Final win.
 

The Passenger

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Was a terrible punch.

The first one was a bit over the top retaliation, the second was mind blowing.

Can't remember seeing a bloke getting hit whilst (basically) unconscious.

He will have a very lengthy stint on the sidelines you'd reckon.
 

red+black

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Apparently 8 weeks is the maximum for a Grade F incident.

I'd give him a few for the first punch and a full 8 for the 2nd punch. I would treat them as separate incidents.

I'd be content with a 10-12 week suspension.
 

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Apparently 8 weeks is the maximum for a Grade F incident.

I'd give him a few for the first punch and a full 8 for the 2nd punch. I would treat them as separate incidents.

I'd be content with a 10-12 week suspension.
According to what I've read, it's 8 weeks minimum.

Personally, I reckon he deserves a season, or the best part of.
 

papabear

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Fair dinkum, that guy just cost his team their season.

Not to mention all the bad press he bought on the game, it should also cost him his career.
 

moto748

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Fair dinkum, that guy just cost his team their season.

Not to mention all the bad press he bought on the game, it should also cost him his career.


Oh, come on! Less pearl-clutching, please! As AuckMel says, he probably cost us the game. No-one can defend what he did. I didn't get a good look at what happened until I got home last night and watched it on TV; annoyingly the big screen at the game censored the replays. I'd have said a yellow for Hohaia, and really the first punch deserved a red. But maybe, just, maybe, he might have escaped with a yellow for the first, but any wiggle room the ref might have thought he had was blown out of the water by the second punch.

Great effort from Wigan to be winning at half-time, but I never expected it to be enough; the extra man was bound to tell in the second half, and so it proved.
 

moto748

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Hohaia has been charged with a Grade B offence (striking Flower with his forearm), but can make an Early Guilty Plea, so may get off with a slapped wrist.
 
Oct 9, 2001
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Hohaia misses 1 Match
Flower received a 6 month ban - misses 13 matches during that time - 2 trials matches, World Club Challenge against the Brisbane Broncos and 10 Super League Matches
 

10Dulkar

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Despite the result, I enjoyed the Grand Final as the atmosphere was superb and St Helens overcame yet another injury hurdle to win the championship. It's just a shame that there will be more games next season and the reintroduction of possible relegation when we need less domestic games, more internationals and a second team from France (Toulouse).
 

moto748

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Fewer domestic games would be good, but I think the new set-up is quite an improvement. It means in effect a play-off series of top 4, rather than top 8, which is a good thing, and should minimise, as far as possible, the number of 'dead rubbers'.

A second team in France, like a second NZ team in the NRL, is a long-term objective, I'd say.
 

moto748

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Well it's the 2017 Grand Final tomorrow! I don't imagine there's a lot of interest from you guys, but I think there's every chance of a great game this year. I'll be watching in the pub (and that in itself is still a novelty to me after years of living in the South-West) and am really looking forward to it.
 

Tigger Please!

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Well it's the 2017 Grand Final tomorrow! I don't imagine there's a lot of interest from you guys, but I think there's every chance of a great game this year. I'll be watching in the pub (and that in itself is still a novelty to me after years of living in the South-West) and am really looking forward to it.

I'll be barracking for Cas for no other reason than that they also have the Tigers noms de guerre.
 

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