Sunday 29 October 2017

RL WC 2017 : 1st Weekend Summary

Ireland scoring against Italy

The first matches have been played and for those involved an idea of where they are at this stage.

Game 1: The tournament got underway in Melbourne with the hosts Australia welcoming England, who were playing their 70th WC match. The visitors were ahead after 5 minutes 4-0 but failed to trouble the scorer thereafter. They did do well to contain the Kangaroos but you won't win many matches if four points is all you can muster. Two tries to Australia had the half time score 10-4. In the second period it was tight with a just penalty to the local side until a late intercept and long range try won it for the Aussies.

Final score: Australia 18-4 England. Attendance: 22,724.

                                                   ***************

Game 2: Up in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, the 200th game of World Cup RL was played. Wales took on the local side in hot conditions with some top players not there and a generous number of Welsh born players now involved. PNG have a team playing in Australia so were well drilled. All this looked ominous and so it proved. PNG poured it on to lead 26-0 at the break and didn't relent in the second half. Wales got a consolation score right at the end.

Final score: PNG 50-6 Wales. Attendance 14,800 (capacity).

                                                   ***************

Game 3: In the city of sails, Auckland, the Kiwis hosted Samoa. The visitors would call the city home anyway and had plenty of support in the crowd. Samoa came out aggressive and NZ absorbed it all. The  10-4 half time scoreline was narrowly in favour of the Kiwis. In the second stanza, Samoa started to wilt and were at times tactically inept. The NZ team were guilty of many mistakes as well but had too much polish, running away with the game quite comfortably.

Final score: NZ 38-8 Samoa. Attendance 17,857.

                                                   ***************

Game 4: The last game on Saturday was held in Townsville, Queensland between Fiji and the USA. The American side opted for a generous number of local players rather than taking the heritage route. The right idea for the future but it soon became apparent that the Island nation was far too strong. They hit the ground running and led 36-6 at the break. After oranges things evened out slightly but not too much. The biggest disappointment was the apathy of the locals who stayed away in their droves.

Final score: Fiji 58-12 USA. Attendance 5,103.

                                                   ***************

Game 5: On Sunday the first game at Cairns was between Italy and Ireland, Italy being slight favourites. No one told the Wolfhounds that as they raced to a 20-0 lead after 30 minutes. The Azzurri got a late first half try to trail 6-20 at the break. The second half was much the same again as the Irish continued to outplay and out-enthuse their opponents.

Final score: Ireland 36-12 Italy. Attendance: 9,216.

                                                  ***************

Game 6: France and Lebanon turned up at Canberra, France with the much stronger domestic competition but Lebanon able to have mainly heritage Australians. It was always going to be close and so it proved. The first half ended with Lebanon scoring and leading 12-6. The second period was just as close with the scores tied at 18-18 with just six minutes left. However, a late scoring spree had the Cedars taking the game. This result almost certainly decides who progresses and who doesn't from this group.

Final score: Lebanon 29-18 France. Attendance 5,492.

                                                   ***************

Game 7: Tonga have an awesome side for this tournament and Scotland - which relies on heritage players - looking less of a team compared to 2013. Playing in the heat in Cairns was tough for the Scots and although gallant, the Bravehearts were outplayed to the tune of 38-0 after 40 minutes. The turn around could have got ugly but the Scottish side were much better, yet still outplayed.

Final score: Tonga 50-4 Scotland. Attendance 9,216.

                                                  ***************


Summary: Of the matches, two were what I'd call upsets. That is Ireland easily accounting for Italy and Lebanon overcoming France. Three teams registering 50 or more points was a bigger surprise. Another was the attendance figures. While apathy toward international RL is strong in Australia, even so the numbers were worse than I thought they would be.

Overall a great weekend of RL. Next week will see which teams will lift now all teams have their first match under their belts. Teams that are disappointed with their first round effort have a chance to put that right.

Pic source: RLEF.

For the 2nd Weekend Summary, just click here.
To see my tournament predictions, simply click here.

Friday 27 October 2017

International Results : 2017 October (excluding the WC)

Serbia vs Greece 

I won't normally be doing monthly reports on international RL matches, but it's got rather congested with World Cup warm up matches added to a few other games. Here is a list of games without World Cup matches and brief comments.

Played in Belgrade, Serbia the Balkan Championship:

Greece 68-8 Bulgaria.
Serbia 50-8 Greece.

Summary: I wrote a report on the two match tournament (read by clicking here). It went according to expectations.

Played in Sydney, Australia (2); Perpignan, France; Innisfail, Australia:

Italy 24-24 Malta
France 34-12 Jamaica
Lebanon 32-16 Niue
Tonga 16-6 Italy

Summary: Too much cannot be read into warm up games. Italy had a run in its first warm up against a team that didn't qualify, Malta. Then France hosted a Jamaican side made up of heritage players from the UK. They hard a sharp win. Lebanon defeated the small island nation of Niue in its warm up but not as easy as it may sound. Finally Tonga got past Italy in a final international WC precursor.

Played In Sydney, Australia and Krupka, Czech Republic:

Malta 48-16 Hungary
Czech Rep 26-30 Norway

Summary: Malta (ranked 19th in the world) showed it is a good RL nation by defeating an improving Hungary side (33rd). The 26-0 half time score didn't bode well for the second stanza but Hungary rallied for a close second half. In the other match, Norway continued its upward progress in going to the Czech Rep and taking the game. At 24-8 at half time, it looked like Norway would run away with it but in the end nearly got overtaken.

Played In Honiara, Solomon Is

Vanuatu 40-20 Solomon Is

Summary: In just the third test between these two young RL nations, Vauatu took a 20-8 advantage into the half time break. The home crowd really got behind their team and did better in the second half but in the end were solidly defeated.

Wednesday 25 October 2017

Women's WC : 2017 Predictions

I have to be up front and say that I am not that familiar about women's rugby league, but I'm happy to see it grow and prosper. Publicity and appreciating their contribution to RL is merited and I will do my small bit in that regard.

The matches kick off on the 19th of November in Sydney and the grand final is on the 2nd of December, played before the men's final. That's at Suncorp Staduim, capacity 52,500. Now that's giving the women's game some respect. I hope a lot of fans turn up earlier to watch that game, as I'm sure they will.

There are two pools with three teams in each. I see Pool A as straight forward and as how I picked them below. Pool B is harder as Canada is an unknown quantity to me. I've gone for PNG but not with any confidence with the decision.

Once into the knock out semi finals and I can only see two teams progressing. Then the Australians who have been improving more than the Kiwis in recent years will be too good.




Pool A





Australia 6
Semi Finals



England 4




Cook Is 0
Australia W






PNG



Pool B




New Zealand 6
New Zealand W



PNG 2
England



Canada 0













Grand Final







Australia W



New Zealand

For the Round One Summary, just click here.
To see my tournament preview, just click here.

Monday 23 October 2017

W C History Success Rate : 1954-2013

The RL WC is here again and the history runs back to 1954. As I'm known for doing, I have put together a chart to quantify the 198 matches that have gone by in the past. First I will explain the chart below.

Rk: How they are ranked for winds, draws and losses.

Nation: Self explanatory but the NZ Maori are not a nation but got an invite once.

W, D, L: Wins, draws, losses.

Pt: Three points a win, two a draw and one for a loss, the total being shown in this column.

G: Games played.

W, D, L: Percentage of wins, draws and losses.

17: An asterisk denotes will be there for 2017,
a dash means no.

Australia has won an amazing 82% of its matches, GB/England has drawn 9% of its games, while the USA will be trying to improve on its 50/50 win loss record.


Rk Nation W D L Pt
G W D L 17

1 Australia 59 2 11 192 72 82 3 15 *

2 GB / England 41 6 22 157 69 59 9 32 *

3 New Zealand 31 3 31 130 65 48 5 48 *

4 France 15 3 39 90 57 26 5 68 *

5 Papua NG 4 1 22 36 27 15 4 81 *

6 Wales 8 0 11 35 19 42 0 58 *

7 Fiji 6 0 9 27 15 40 0 60 *

7 Samoa 7 0 6 27 13 54 0 46 *

9 Tonga 5 1 5 22 11 45 9 45 *

10 Ireland 4 0 6 18 10 40 0 60 *

11 Scotland 3 1 6 17 10 30 10 60 *

12 Cook Is 1 1 4 9 6 17 17 67 -

13 USA 2 0 2 8 4 50 0 50 *

14 South Africa 0 0 6 6 6 0 0 100 -

14 Italy 1 1 1 6 3 33 33 33 *

16 NZ Maori 1 0 2 5 3 33 0 67 -

17 Lebanon 0 1 2 4 3 0 33 67 *

18 Russia 0 0 3 3 3 0 0 100 -


Total 188 20 188 792 Percentages

In the 1985-88 World Cup, three games were forfeited by France and the points awarded to the winning side are not included here. This list covers actual matches.

This is the final in a series going back through each WC. To go to the beginning in 1954, simply click here and there are links through the whole series. 

Thursday 19 October 2017

Cross Border Co-Operation

A club game in Germany. Do they need more varied competition?

One of the problems facing emerging RL nations in the northern Hemisphere is getting enough teams to have a broad variety of opponents to play. Germany is about establish its fifth team, but that is still a small league to play in. Other countries cannot even muster up that many. One suggestion is a combine countries into conferences. The idea is their RL education will be enhanced with a greater variety of opponent.

Say for example, Belgium and the Netherlands formed a conference and Germany formed another. They play in their conferences and then have some cross conference matches that would lead to a Northern European club champoin. Extra travelling would be involved and that may be too much for some clubs. If a sponsor could assist, that would work.

Now looking at Scandinavia. The top teams from each nation could play off after their seasons to find a Scandinavian club champion. It would be good to see a top club found in Southern Europe and even Central Europe too.

North America is establishing teams to play in the UK while French clubs have done so with more wishing to join. Air travel has never been cheaper for longer distances, with time off work for amateur players the biggest hurdle. Still, cross border competition is an excellent way to maximise quality and variety of opponent. In the Southern Hemisphere PNG has a team in Queensland and Fiji are determined to get into NSW.

Whatever we think, it seems like it is a trend in RL that could be expanded. It needs to be cost effective and sustainable. It must benefit all nations involved, so planning and co-operation between federations is a must. If done well, the players and the fans have much to gain.

Picture source: RLEF.

Wednesday 18 October 2017

Queensland State Championship : 2000-03

The Queensland competition had now been in existence - as a fully fledged competition - for four years and some of the teething problems were past. One was the fluctuating participants, which was twelve for the four years bar one season (2001) when it was eleven. The ins and outs were down as well, with just two departing and two replacements. One of those that left was actually a merger with another team.

2000:  Toowoomba as a sole feeder club to the Brisbane Broncos had a strong advantage over the rest. However, that didn't stop the Redciliffe Dolphins (38 points) and Easts Tigers (34) from being 1-2 in the league. In the finals series it was Redcliffe against Toowomba in the grand final, the Brisbane side too strong for the country town team, winning 14-6.

2001: The Cairns Cyclones ran out of puff and dropped out, so one less team as a result. Toowoomba took out the league (41 points) from Gold Coast team Burleigh Bears (35). In the finals, Toowomba and Redcliffe got to the big game, this time it was the Clydesdales that took the prize 28-26.

2002: The numbers were back to twelve with a North Queensland side included. The Dolphins were top of the league again - with 36 points - from Brisbane Easts (33). Redcliffe got through to the grand final and took that 34-10 at the expense of the Ipswich Jets (see video below for highlights).


2003: Logan merged with Souths Magpies and was replaced by a Tweed Heads side just across the border in NSW. Burleigh and Redcliffe both ended the league with 33 points but Buleigh took the title with a superior differential. The same teams made the grand final but the Dolphins took the trophy with a 31-18 scoreline.

Summary: This period was dominated by the Dolphins, with two league titles and made all four grand finals, winning three of them. Burleigh Bears came next with one league title. Toowoomba did the double in 2001 for a third best.

Year '03 '02 '01 '00
Rk Team TOT Rd Fls Tot Rd Fls Tot Rd Fls Tot Rd Fls Tot





1 Redcliffe Dolphins 150 18 20 38 20 20 40 16 16 32 20 20 40
2 Burleigh Bears 106 20 16 36 14 4 18 18 12 30 14 8 22
3 Toowoomba Clyd 93 11
11 10
10 20 20 40 16 16 32
4 Easts Tigers 84 8
8 18 8 26 12 8 20 18 12 30
5 Ipswich Jets 76 16 8 24 16 16 32 9
9 11
11
6 Norths Devils 67 9
9 12 12 24 14 4 18 12 4 16
7 Wynnum Manly 52 14 12 26 9
9 11
11 6
6
8 Central Q'sland 34 7
7 8
8 10
10 9
9
9 Wests Panthers 26 5
5 7
7 7
7 7
7
9 Souths Logan 26 6
6 6
6 6
6 8
8
11 Logan Scorpions 23


5
5 8
8 10
10
12 North Queensland 21 10
10 11
11





13 Tweed Heads 16 12 4 16








14 Cairns Cyclones 5





5
5






Total 779 136 60 196 136 60 196 131 60 191 136 60 196

For the 2004-07 years, simply click here.
For the 1996-99 years, simply click here.