International Test match weekend

[Aucklander]

Undoubtedly one of the years highlights is this weekends feast of International Rugby league. Juniors, womens, countries from around the Pacific, plus England are in Sydney to play Samoa too. Throw in City v Country and it all adds up to a great weekend of Rugby league.

We kick off the weekend in Canberra with the New Zealand and Australian Juniors kicking it all of. That's followed up by the NZ and Australian ladies teams going head to head as a prelude to the nights big game, the Kangaroos v Kiwis.

Australia should start favourites in all 3 games, but the Kiwi sides will give it their all.

On Saturday we don't have 1 test match at Campbelltown, but 3. The day kicks off with the Cook Islands v Papua New Guinea, then it's Tonga v Fiji and to top off what should be a great night it's England v Samoa. The Pacific Island nations play an uncompromising style of play, but they love to throw the ball around and play an open and entertaining brand of footy. It really should be a fantastic day.

Finally on Sunday it's the annual City v Country game being played in, Mudgee.

Teams for the weekend posted later.

 

[Ronnie Baby]

Samoa should give England a fair crack

Tonga and Fiji the match of the round

 

[Aucklander]

Australia v New Zealand Preview

Australia v New Zealand
GIO Stadium
Friday 8pm

Can you feel it?

The nights are getting longer, the heaters are being dusted off and the standard of footy is getting better each day.

It can only mean one thing: the rep season is about to get underway.

Australia and New Zealand will renew their rivalry on Friday with a much-anticipated clash in the nation's capital that pits the Kangaroos' tried and tested veterans against the Kiwis' rejigged, potent spine.

It was one-way traffic in 2016 with Australia overpowering the Kiwis 90-22 across four games, including a 34-8 demolition in the Four Nations final at Anfield.

 

[Aucklander]

England v Samoa Preview

England v Samoa
Campbelltown Sports Stadium
Saturday, 7.40pm AEDT, 9.40pm NZT

The Representative Round has a different flavour this year with the addition of England, who will face off with Samoa as part of an historic triple-header on Saturday.

While they have met only once in a Test match previously, there is plenty of reason to think these two nations will be evenly matched this weekend with Samoa enjoying the luxury of having several players who are currently among the best in their positons in the NRL Telstra Premiership.

England coach Wayne Bennett has suffered a couple of big injury blows before a ball has even been kicked, with St George Illawarra Dragons star Gareth Widdop and fellow playmaker George Williams both ruled out with knee injuries.

Back-rowers Mike McMeeken and Chris McQueen are both set to play for England for the first time, along with St Helens prop Alex Walmsley.

Every member of the Samoa squad has played NRL football this year, making this one of their strongest squads ever assembled.

 

[moto748]

Looking forward to it. In a typically idiotic move, the RFL have made the England game pay-for-view on their website (apparently cos the BBC only offered peanuts to screen it). But they are cutting off their nose to spite their face, cos now it will only be seen by a few thousand people (indeed, people outside the North of England probably won't even be aware the game is on), instead of a mass nationwide audience that our sport badly needs. And although the cost isn't much, many who do know about it will boycott the game in disgust on principle. I assume I'll be able to watch all the the other games via my Premier Sports subscription.

 

[moto748]

And if the RFL think the BBC are treating them with contempt, frankly, they only have themselves to blame.

 

[moto748]

Scrolling through the schedule, looks like I'll be able to see the Anzac Day Test (live if I want to), and City/Country, but that's it.

 

[MSB ROYS]

Junior's game live here:

 

[Aucklander]

2 games to nil in Australia's favour so far. Kiwis a big chance. Aussies have got their own ref just in case.

 

[Aucklander]

Think I'm gunna miss Fox commentary.

 

[Aucklander]

1st set each and Aus gain a lot more ground.

 

[Aucklander]

Pretty good start by the Kiwis.

 

[Aucklander]

Paid the price for not getting back to back sets.

 

[Aucklander]

Thanks Andrew.

 

[Aucklander]

Australia up quicker than Usain Bolt.

 

[Aucklander]

Lifting tackles now allowed in Rugby league.

 

[scoman]

10-0 good start Kangaroos

 

[Aucklander]

May as well pack it in now. Thankfully this is the last 1 off test.

 

[Aucklander]

If only the had the same pride in their game that the All Blacks have.

 

[Aucklander]

******* typical. Tin arse campaigners.

 

[royboy2]

Well this one's over

 

[balmainforever]

Can't believe how one sided this is now.

 

[redstarforever_]

;"""( @ commentary..

one asked the other (not sure who tho) but i think it was phil that answered..

Q: "how many people are there in world"

A: "aahh.. about 6 billion.. or somethin like.. 20 billion?"

classic!!

 

[moto748]

Yes, awful! But, as I've said before, still way better than the British Sky crew. Just imagine that!

Anyway, this was all over after about half an hour. The usual dull efficiency from the Aussies, and a complete lack of brio from the Kiwis, in the first half (when it mattered) anyway.

Jeez, Darius Boyd is one good player.

Sterlo (was it?) mirrored, I suppose, the complete contempt with which SL is held by the Aussies public by, when discussing the England squad, only mentioning those players who are in, to have played in, the NRL. "The rest", he went on "all come from the English Superleague", in the tone you might use to describe some bush league.

 

[moto748]

The Daily Mirror (largely) agrees with me, and many other English fans:

Sometimes it feels like rugby league is going out of its way to alienate those fans who love the game so much.

First the RFL decide to charge fans for watching England’s only warm-up game before the World Cup.

Then coach Wayne Bennett makes the most perverse team selection imaginable - short of picking Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May as his starting props.

And at least those two would bore the Samoans to death.

Bennett has decided to play Zak Hardaker, Super League’s in-form full-back, at centre. Super League’s in-form centre Mark Percival meanwhile will be sat in the stands.

Hardaker in action (Photo: PA Wire)

Mark Percival in action
Squeezing his gigantic frame glumly into the plastic seat alongside him will be Alex Walmsley, who has made the most metres for a prop in our competition this season, over 300 more than any other front-rower.

Joining them will be Hull’s Scott Taylor, another player who has done everything asked of him this season to demand a chance to wear the national shirt.

Their places are taken by a couple of players whose selection is head-scratching at best, hopelessly out-of-touch at worst.

Tom Burgess seems to have spent more time on the gossip pages of the Sydney tabloids this season than he has causing mayhem for South Sydney Rabbitohs.

And even Chris Heighington’s mum would probably agree at 34 he’a a lucky boy to be near this squad, NRL Grand Final winner with Cronulla or not.

Burgess will start for England (Photo: Getty Images AsiaPac)

Chris Heighington of the Sharks celebrates (Photo: Getty)
You’ll find no truck with eligible Australians here, this is not about that. If they qualify, play them - but they have to be better than what we have domestically.

So I’d rather have Chris McQueen in there than Liam Farrell, a wonderful Super League player who has never quite transferred that talent to the international stage. Let's see what McQueen brings.

But what is the point of putting those other three players in the air for 48 hours without them getting a game?

Sure it’s nice to run around in a vest in the sunshine for a few days, bonding with your teammates, but subsequent jet-lag will quickly knock the stuffing out of all that.

Percival has to be tested against BJ Leilua and Tim Lafai, two outstanding Samoan centres, to see if he’s up to it for the World Cup.

Likewise Walmsley and Taylor. Let’s find out if they are good enough to step up after they’ve had a succession of pumped-up Polynesian projectiles launched at them.

Then there’s the issue of paying to watch the game, something many fans are refusing to do.

Bennett's selection has raised a few eyebrows (Photo: Getty)
For years now the RFL has rightly tried to elevate England players into national sports stars.

The game desperately wants another Ellery Hanley or Martin Offiah, the last two rugby league players recognised by the man in the street and not just the bloke clutching his pint in the Bootroom pub in Wheldon Road.

Images of the pair are scorched on the retina, Hanley dominating the Aussies for Great Britain at Wembley in 1990; Offiah burning Leeds full-back Alan Tait for Wigan on the same turf in 1994.

Both those games were watched by millions - both were on the BBC.

And yet the national broadcaster has been snubbed in favour of a quick buck.

The RFL have argued the BBC’s offer of less than £10,000 was below the market rate.

I’m sure it is. But the publicity and exposure gained by having England v Samoa watched by over a million viewers, hundreds of thousands from outside the game’s heartland, is priceless.

Ellery Hanley

Players like Offiah are sorely missed (Photo: Getty)
These games are gold dust for people who don’t have satellite TV, don’t have a smart TV or can’t be bothered with the faff - and subsequent potential quality issues - of booting up a computer (if they have one) to pay to stream a game.

What if Ryan Hall or Jermaine McGillvary, two phenomenal athletes and charismatic blokes, score a zinger of a try?

What if Sam Burgess hammers Herman Ese’ese into the back of beyond?

It won’t be seen live by anyone other than rugby league fans who are already committed and in love with the sport. And it won't be seen on the Saturday TV news later that day.

Ryan Hall is tackled by Huddersfield Giants' Sam Wood (Photo: PhotoEye.co.uk)

McGillvary scores a try for England (Photo: PA Wire)
Rugby league is a game which constantly needs to be evangelical. If you follow it you know it’s the best but have to keep reminding everyone else that. Sad but true.

When column inches in national newspapers are eaten up with a charismatic, winning England rugby union coach and a hyped-up British Lions union tour (not on terrestrial telly), rugby league must take the widest possible exposure - at whatever the cost.

Only then are sports editors and editors aware of it. Only then are Geoff and Julie in Peckham aware of it.

If England belt Samoa with Bennett’s questionable team selection and the RFL rack up huge numbers and cash from their blinkered venture then so be it, they can claim success.

Sadly I fear the worst in both cases.