***Rugby Super League XXV***

JRS

JRS

JRS

Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2004
Posts
19,725
Location
Burton-on-Trent
We're a match into the new season and no thread up yet, so I'm jumping into the breach :)

1) Your team?
2) Your highlight of last season?
3) Your expectations this season?
4) Your most anticipated new signings?
5) Who you think will win the league leaders shield?
6) Who will be the dark horses of the competition?
7) Likely starting line-up?
8) Final league position of your club?
9) What (or who) will be your clubs weakness next year?
10) Who promoted from Championship?

1) Catalans Dragons
2) The fixture at Camp Nou :)
3) Same old same old. We'll do well on the whole, occasionally we simply won't turn up, and the Sky commentary will remain comically biased against us!
4) James Maloney for sure, the returning Josh Drinkwater as well. As for Israel Falou...still not sure how I feel about that one yet.
5) Probably St Helens.
6) I think Toronto are going to surprise people with just how good they are.
7)


That's the squad for the opening game against Huddersfield. We'll see what the regular starting 13 turns into fairly early on.
8) 6th I reckon.
9) The usual - as the season and all the travel wears on, results start going against them and things spiral down.
10) Toulouse I hope!
 
1) Your team? - Wigan
2) Your highlight of last season? - Nothing really. Had a horror start but pulled it back together towards the back end of the season. Never looked like winning anything tbh
3) Your expectations this season? - Hopefully a top 5 finish and a better showing in the play offs than last year
4) Your most anticipated new signings? - Jackson Hastings. Really woried about George Burgess. A bloke from the pub could have done a better shift than him in the 1st game. Of the youngsters, Ethan Havard looks to be a really promising forwrad
5) Who you think will win the league leaders shield? - Sts
6) Who will be the dark horses of the competition? - Leeds - they can't be any worse than last year
7) Likely starting line-up? - French, Marshall, Gildart, Hardaker, Manfredi, Smith, Hastings, Clubb, Powell/Leulaui, Byrne, Farrell, Isa, O'Loughlin
8) Final league position of your club? - 4th
9) What (or who) will be your clubs weakness next year? - Creativity. Everything will go through Hastings. If he fires, Wigan will do well
10) Who promoted from Championship? - Fev
 
14 years to the day since Catalans played their first Super League match - they beat Wigan 38 - 30 at the Stade Aimé Giral, USAP's (Perpignan rugby union team) home ground.

They finished bottom of the league that year, only saved from relegation by a three year lock-in, but made the Challenge Cup final the next year (when they were screwed by some appalling refereeing decisions that pretty much killed the contest) and finished third in the table a year later.
 
Everybodies favourite 2nd team. Went to see Wigan a few years ago but the game was switched to Montpelier. Literally saw a bar owner rub out some prices on his chalboard and then double them! Really need to get out to a genuine Catalan home game soon. Interesting to see what tye of crowd they get this weekend.

Wigan sent another young pack to Cas and got battered. They need some experienced, big bodies in the middle (and not Ten Minute Tony Clubb and the Burgess weakest link)
 
Wigan looked solid against Hull - although they were a few players down. A few more perfomrmances like that from Hastings and French and they'll be back to the NRL for 2021. French on some dry, hard pitches will cause anybody problems - reminds me of a young Sam Tomkins

Joe Greenwood gone on loan to Leeds. Real mystery one this. Had some head knocks last season, the club said he was fit to play but he said he wasn't. Came back later and went off in 2 games with what looked like 2 really serious injuries. Turned out they were minor knocks. Turned out for the reserves this year and looked completely uninterested - one was a real old school mudbath and he came off looking spotless. Hope it works out for him at Leeds as there's a cracking player in there somewhere
 
This could be the year they fulfil their potential. They have some real leaders in there now (McIlorum, Maloney, Tomkins). The key will be maintaining some half decent away form and making Perpignam a place where teams hate going to. Looking forward to them coming to the DW in a couple of weeks.

The wheels are starting to come off for Toronto. Some poor decisions on their squad depth + some bad luck with injroes is killing them. Fancy them getting a few wins once they start playing in Toronto. They looked Chamionship standard at best against Leeds.

Glad that Leeds are starting to get their act back together.

Also glad that Sts are starting to look human (and beatable) again :)
 
Toronto have done showed up to their Challenge Cup tie tonight :) Wolfpack 12 - 0 Huddersfield as I type this with 23 minutes played.

***edit***

The Giants have been bloody awful tonight. The ref's done his best for them, but they've buggered up every chance that they've had.

18 - 0 FT. It flatters them TBH.
 
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Adam Pearson continuing his mission to be the biggest **** in Super League by sacking coach Lee Radford live on Sky bare minutes after their loss to Warrington tonight, before even telling the players.

All good though, my opinion of Pearson couldn't possibly be lower anyway!
 
Salford turned Wigan over. Bit of a reality check for Wigan. I though they came out for the 2nd half playing as if they were closing the game down in the last 5 minutes. Thought it would be difficult to turn it round if Salford scored and it panned out.

Sarginson had a great game

Bit concerned that Ethan Havard (19) has done 60 minutes in the front row in 2 games whilst Burgess has done that overall in 2 games.

This will probably be the last 'normal' RL (or any other sport) weekend for a while, so we'd better make the most of it
 
Anyone else worried about Super League clubs surviving? I go a few Wolves games with the kids but we're not season ticket holders but obviously they're losing match day revenue. Same goes for SS money. Widnes last year collapsed, granted not an SL team, but it's not like football for income.
 
It's a massive worry, but , in the whole scheme of things, let's just get through this and deal with it later. Its going to be the same for all of the lower league clubs in football as well. Warrington are in a pretty strong position to ride it out, but the likes of Batley etc might not be.

The NRL are still playing behind empty doors as they are worried about money and they have massive TV deals. It will take one player to contract it though and I'd imagine they'd have to stop as well

Scary times
 
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