***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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
Last edited:
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!
 
Fortunately for Catalans, the local government are holding up their end of the deal regarding sponsorship income and the like. So at least les Dracs aren't facing a shortfall there. They're actually pretty bullish about getting rugby going again at Stade Brutus, they're allowed to play in front of a crowd not exceeding 5,000 (a little under half capacity, but better than nothing).
 
In retrospect Super League clearly wasn't ready for the logistics of a team in North America, and even before coronavirus Toronto had troubles in the background.

Should'a promoted Toulouse :)
 
physichull said:
snip
Click to expand...

In the main, absolutely agreed.

Regarding fan opinion, I have to say as a Dragons fan that I'm not in the slightest bit shocked that fans of the M62 corridor clubs didn't take to the idea of Toronto joining. They kicked off about a London club, they really kicked off about a French club once Dragons stopped being a reliable punching bag after the first year, and it was absolutely to be expected because a lot of them don't want expansion at all. They want the sport to stay happily ensconced in that M62 bubble so they can just travel East <-> West in the north of England for those game weeks.

physichull said:
For me, this is a strong case for bringing back licencing for 2021.
Click to expand...

So much this, but this time actually apply the rules properly (consistently). Dragons had a condition for their three year locked-in franchise when they first joined Super League - spend money on Stade Brutus. Which they did. Meanwhile, other clubs let their stadiums (stadia?) pretty much sink into the abyss in favour of spending cash on transfers and wages.

***edit***

Almost forgot. Gigot's joining Trinity. Hope he fares well there :) But I do kinda hope he ends back up wearing sang et or colours one day!
 
Last edited:
*excitement intensifies*

:D

***edit***

Not the performance or result that I was hoping for. Too many handling errors, too many soft tries given away. Still, screw it - Super League is back :)
 
Last edited:
14 - 16 at half time, you think to yourself "well, it's tight but we've got a good chance". And then we nil Tigers in the second half and fair run away with it 14 -40. A nice remedy for the St Helens loss the other day :cool:

***edit***

The tries:


Tigers couldn't deal with the pace of Folau or Davies.

Full highlights:

 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom