The Battle for Rugby League Supremacy
World Club Challenge: what World Club Challenge? That is the answer the average person in England would provide when asked if they had heard of the contest to decide world rugby league supremacy.
London’s newspapers generally dedicate at least the back six to eight sports pages to football, but of the round ball variety. All the other sports are forced to fight it out for the remaining one or two pages and rugby league finds itself at the wrong end of the pecking order.
Irrespective of England’s disappointing lack of media coverage, there is indeed a match to be played Friday night, at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton. The current NRL premiers, the Brisbane Broncos will battle St Helens, the current Super League champions for the right to be called the worlds best rugby league team.
The Brisbane Broncos have reversed the trend of past touring NRL premiers by arriving early, playing a warm-up match and most importantly showcasing their strongest side. The contest, played during the English season and Australian off-season has often been given little respect by Australian NRL premiers.
The majority of World Club Challenges have not been given a great deal of respect by Australian traveling teams. Many have rolled into England days before kick-off fielding a bit-and-pieces squad. This year is different. The date for the match was pushed back a month to allow the Broncos’ Test contingent a break to be fully fit following last year’s grueling season and Tri-Nations tournament.
Wayne Bennett, in his twentieth year as Broncos coach, has thrown his full support behind the World Club Challenge and will be hoping for a win on Friday to begin another lengthy season. Captain Darren Lockyer, who experienced some off-field success after proposing to girlfriend Loren Pollock prior to leaving Australia’s shores, will be striving to replicate the form that saw him guide the Broncos, Queensland Maroons and Australia to victory in 2006.
St Helens will enter the match low on confidence, having suffered successive surprise defeats to Harlequins and Wakefield. They also have a worrying list of walking wounded, with gun hooker Keiron Cunningham and captain Paul Sculthorpe struggling to be fit in time.
The Saints should still field at least five current internationals and in a one-off match, playing in front of a cheering home-crowd, in familiar conditions means a sudden return to form is always possible. The Broncos will be confident in the ability and will be keen to inflict some revenge for a heartbreaking 20-18 loss against the Saints in 2001.
In that match the Broncos surrendered an 18-6 lead in the second half and could not overcome the harsh conditions, including a second half snow-storm. Six years on and the battle will resume. If the match reaches extraordinary heights it may steal a page or two from the soccer pages, but perhaps that is wishful thinking.
London’s newspapers generally dedicate at least the back six to eight sports pages to football, but of the round ball variety. All the other sports are forced to fight it out for the remaining one or two pages and rugby league finds itself at the wrong end of the pecking order.
Irrespective of England’s disappointing lack of media coverage, there is indeed a match to be played Friday night, at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton. The current NRL premiers, the Brisbane Broncos will battle St Helens, the current Super League champions for the right to be called the worlds best rugby league team.
The Brisbane Broncos have reversed the trend of past touring NRL premiers by arriving early, playing a warm-up match and most importantly showcasing their strongest side. The contest, played during the English season and Australian off-season has often been given little respect by Australian NRL premiers.
The majority of World Club Challenges have not been given a great deal of respect by Australian traveling teams. Many have rolled into England days before kick-off fielding a bit-and-pieces squad. This year is different. The date for the match was pushed back a month to allow the Broncos’ Test contingent a break to be fully fit following last year’s grueling season and Tri-Nations tournament.
Wayne Bennett, in his twentieth year as Broncos coach, has thrown his full support behind the World Club Challenge and will be hoping for a win on Friday to begin another lengthy season. Captain Darren Lockyer, who experienced some off-field success after proposing to girlfriend Loren Pollock prior to leaving Australia’s shores, will be striving to replicate the form that saw him guide the Broncos, Queensland Maroons and Australia to victory in 2006.
St Helens will enter the match low on confidence, having suffered successive surprise defeats to Harlequins and Wakefield. They also have a worrying list of walking wounded, with gun hooker Keiron Cunningham and captain Paul Sculthorpe struggling to be fit in time.
The Saints should still field at least five current internationals and in a one-off match, playing in front of a cheering home-crowd, in familiar conditions means a sudden return to form is always possible. The Broncos will be confident in the ability and will be keen to inflict some revenge for a heartbreaking 20-18 loss against the Saints in 2001.
In that match the Broncos surrendered an 18-6 lead in the second half and could not overcome the harsh conditions, including a second half snow-storm. Six years on and the battle will resume. If the match reaches extraordinary heights it may steal a page or two from the soccer pages, but perhaps that is wishful thinking.
posted by Chris Walker at 4:23 AM
1 Comments:
Rugby League or Rugby Union? Which is better?
Personally I think Rugby League out classes union by far, though being a Wakefield Wildcats fan makes me a little biased! However I do admit that internationally Rugby League needs some work so Rugby Union has that on its side but what about the game itself?
It seems that Rugby Union is just a collection of dog piles most of the time followed by short lived runs which either involve running straight into the other teams players or scoring the odd try, WHY!?
In Rugby League I can see the point in running straight into your opponent as you have to make some ground only having six tackles to do it but in Union, it’s just a way of losing the ball! Fools!
I mean I like doing a little Rugby League Betting every other week but when it comes to Rugby Union, its just boring! KICK! THERE INFRONT! KICK! THERE BEHIND!! KICK THERE INFRONT AGAIN!!! OH NO WAIT!! THERE BEHIND AGAIN! RUN THE DAMN BALL!!!!
Anyway I’ll stop my rant here and give someone else say what they think!
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