*** Official Rugby League SLXXI Thread ***

I see KR are kindly fielding a very diminished team for their game against Catalan. That means we need to beat London (home) and Catalan (away) to avoid MPG with a stupid number of our first team players out injured. Joy!
 
As a Cas fan i'm just waiting for the dream to end, i don't want it to stop but surely it will, couldn't make the Wigan game today, but it sounds like we have a brilliant replacement for Gale in Jake Trueman, still a long time to go though.
 
Cas were oustanding in the first half yesterday. Just too good for Wigan. Wigan weren't brilliant, but only because Cas played them off the park. It got a bit more even in the 2nd half, but the game was over by then. I just hope that Cas can hold it all together in the play offs as they are the best team in the competition by a country mile. Doesn't always mean that you will be champions though. Wigan were the best team for the last 5 weeks of last season and dire before that.
 
Now, that was a proper game!

I'll still back Cas to (deservedly) be champions. I think they got a bit of a wake up about what a play-off game is like compared to a regular season game, but they'll be good to go next week. The coach is too good to let it happen again.

I'm going anyway next week. Should be a cracker whoever gets there
 
TonyM19 said:
Physichull

Does this mean that we get a more active SL thread next year
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OK. I've been sulking for wayyyyy too long and I'll be honest I've not even looked in the Sports pages here recently.

Totally satisfied with the way the season went. Managed to get to a fair few games over the course, Rochdale, Halifax, Swinton, Leigh x 2, Salford and Warrington. Our whole season has been fairly straightforward albeit we weren't going into the Middle 8s with great form having lost to Toulouse and were shakey against Featherstone. With Carney and Masoe signed we scraped through our first M7s game against Fax (with a Scruton last minute try). It could have been a bit different had he not crossed then. The rest of the games were relatively straightforward, the Leigh game at LSV was massive and it was an awesome atmosphere and another vital win.

The Widnes game was a bit edgy but I think with Sheens he has got us playing ugly rugby but a brand that wins matches, and that's exactly what we did to Widnes. Was absolutely over the moon when we saw Wire had also beaten Leigh, the rest of that night is a bit of a blur!!!!

Chuffed to be back in SL and even with our reserve team we ran Catalan close and Wire was just an end of season dead rubber (with the particular highlight of Rovers and Wire fans stood outside the Rodney pub whilst a bus plastered in Saints guff pulled up next to us! Cue unrepeatable chanting from both fans! :D

There will likely be rumours about who we will sign over the next few weeks as we still have a lot of cap to work with but I wouldn't be surprised if they were all wrong. The latest signings have all come completely out of the blue and Sheens has a tight lipped staff at the club.

Feel sorry for Leigh but frankly I can't see any other way than returning to franchising with at least a 14-16 team competition. Leigh need chance to develop an academy and support base which they can't achieve during a one season wonder. It's so damned difficult for the relegated clubs. You only have to look at Bradford to see how devastating that was. Fatal in fact. I wonder if Salford had gone down instead of us last year whether they would have still existed as a club? I don't think so, not with 1000 ish fans and no academy. Its fortunate for us that we have an excellent set of owners and fans who have really galvanised since that dreadful day last year. I think if we hadn't have made it this year we would still have been strong next year. Wrongs have been righted and we are now back in SL, the derbys are back, but we can't be complacent. We have merely repaired the damage. We need to kick on from now and I believe the club is actually in a much, much better state than had we not been relegated. We had chance to clear out and literally start again, and what better coach to do it? We have some quality, quality players now, particularly Andrew Heffernan (centre). He's been immense this year.

Watched the MPG last night. What a dreadful occasion. It really has to go. Its just jeopardy for the sake of it and leaves little time for clubs and players to plan their futures. Sure it would work if the sport was awash with money, but it just isn't and its jobs and livelihoods on the line. I see plenty of comments from fans of bigger clubs like Leeds and Saints praising it but ultimately they will never been the ones threatened with the abyss, they sit on high towers. Sam Moa was spot on with his comments.

The only way has to be a bigger comp, 16 teams ideally with Toronto (8000 interested fans is better than 1000 barely bothered Salford fans, frankly), Bradford (if they can ever sort themselves out), Toulouse and Leigh (and potentially London if they can prove they meet licence criteria, which they won't given terrible crowds and an unstable home).

On the other hand, those Super 8 semi finals were absolutely outstanding, particularly the Cas Saints game. Wow! Not seen a game as exciting as that in a LONG time! I can't imagine how it must have felt when Saints took the lead Landy! (actually I can, when Salford took the lead last year!!! Its going to take me years to get over that trauma). Stunning, stunning game. Good luck for the Grand Final, hope Cas win! (still can't really believe how many ex-Rovers players in that team, Cook, Eden, Webster - the latter I can't believe is still going, he had glass shoulders when he played for us)
 
physichull said:
On the other hand, those Super 8 semi finals were absolutely outstanding, particularly the Cas Saints game. Wow! Not seen a game as exciting as that in a LONG time! I can't imagine how it must have felt when Saints took the lead Landy! (actually I can, when Salford took the lead last year!!! Its going to take me years to get over that trauma). Stunning, stunning game. Good luck for the Grand Final, hope Cas win! (still can't really believe how many ex-Rovers players in that team, Cook, Eden, Webster - the latter I can't believe is still going, he had glass shoulders when he played for us)
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I was just gunna say mate, imagine how you felt last year is how i felt then, it was actually quite draining, going from desolation to elation is like what, 6 minutes, i shouldn't really complain with the season we have had! but yeah the tickets for Old trafford arrived this morning so it's starting to feel more real.
 
Landy said:
I was just gunna say mate, imagine how you felt last year is how i felt then, it was actually quite draining, going from desolation to elation is like what, 6 minutes, i shouldn't really complain with the season we have had! but yeah the tickets for Old trafford arrived this morning so it's starting to feel more real.
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Where are you sitting at Old Trafford?
 
One man who now won't be there is Zak Hardaker. Oh dear Zak, what have you done. Not a catastrophe for Cas but it is a big blow. I don't know what he has done (and we shouldn't speculate here as I don't want anyone to get into trouble) but as far as bad timing goes, this is appalling. Players would give limbs to play in the Grand Final.
 
Gutted for Cas. Leeds totally dominated that final though and Cas just never got a sniff. McGuire was class though, truly outstanding. I wonder who he's going to play for next season cos he's still got it! :)
 
First time I've watched league in years...are the games usually closer matched because the quality of Rugby is just poor? What I watched yesterday was some of the worst Rugby I've seen in years.
 
Finals are always edgy affairs. The weather didn't help much as a Cas are a side that loves to throw the ball around, conditions yesterday were just not conducive to that.

Leeds played very well but Cas had a massive off-day. Really disappointed for Cas on what was probably one of their biggest chances for years.
 
omnomnom said:
First time I've watched league in years...are the games usually closer matched because the quality of Rugby is just poor? What I watched yesterday was some of the worst Rugby I've seen in years.
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Can't really argue with that - it was a shocker. GFs do tend to be close, risk free games but that was definitely not one for the neutrals. The weather certainly didn't help but Leeds showed that they know exactly how to win a big match. John Monie said that great teams don't need to be great all the time, just great when they need to be. Leeds showed it this season and Wigan showed it last season. Cas have played some outstanding rugby this season and were clearly the best team in the competition, as were Warrington last year. However, you have to win at OT in October to be champions and neither of them could manage that (Cas certainly rode their luck against Sts in the semi).

The game reminded me of when Hull FC didn't turn up at Wembley against Wigan a few years ago (another shocking game) but they kicked on from there. I hope Cas can do the same

Looks like HKR have made a pretty shrewd signing with McGuire. He'll steer thenm through some tricky moments next year
 
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