Archives for "General Rugby League"
Crusaders on the right lines with Union hunt
Nearly forgotten I'd written this! Talking about Crusaders rumoured move for Welsh Union legend Gareth Thomas on last tackle.
It looks different
It does indeed, with the season having kicked off I had intended to get the new site up and running but I got bogged down doing work that pays me (http://www.kamikazemusic.com).
So I've moved the site over to the brilliant WordPress platform and I've slightly modified a nice theme (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/07/glassical-a-free-wordpress-theme/) and I've got all the old content in.
So while I sort out formatting all the old content properly I'm hoping to continue to develop the site's new look whilst being able to carry on posting. I shall speak to you all soon and there shall hopefully be a new feature for next week and a continuation of an old one!
Rugby League Behaving Badly
Hello again ladies and gentlemen? You all ready for the new season? – As you can probably tell Fifth and Last isn’t as I’ve been rather busy. Still I have a few new features on the way and as soon as I complete the swap to a new website content management system it will be all go!
Why the time is right to promote the growth of RL
I really should keep on top of this site, I didn’t realise there was so much spam in the comments!
Well done Barrow
Barrow won the Championship playoff final yesterday in Warrington beating Halifax 26 – 18 and well done to them. Once upon a time it would have meant promotion but no longer.
Still watching Halifax lose reminded me of this ridiculous campaign from earlier in the season
http://www.fifthandlast.com/articles/april_2009/Mid_week_read_:_MPs_call_for_Halifax_rules_change.php
Whilst I wouldn’t want to gloat it’s good to see people spouting these ridiculous ideas getting proof of why they were ridiculous ideas in the first place. That said there’s always room for a daft suggestion or two in Rugby League, club call anyone?
Melbourne Storm to victory and Leeds club call as expected.
Look at that, headline writing like you’d get in the Daily Star. But literary genius aside there was some good rugby played this weekend and I’ll probably watch it all again on the Super League Show in a bit.
Down under Melbourne attoned for last years hammering by taking their third NRL title with a 23-16 win over Paramatta and I can’t really say much. Since the whole Setanta thing I don’t even know what channel the NRL is on over here and since I support the Warriors their poor performance this season has sucked a little of the interest out for me. Also the possible fact that last season I was in New Zealand and this season I’m not, that probably had an effect.
Still from what I’ve read it was a good game with Paramatta staging a late push but it’s rare you’ll find someone to bet against Melbourne in a Grand Final even after last years defeat.
In this hemispehere we had the play off semi finals in which Leeds got to play their pick of Catalan Dragons and Saints faced up to Wigan and well that went pretty much as expected. Leeds probably got a tougher game than they were expecting but they won and Saints had a tough run against Wigan but also won, which unusally gives us a Saints Leeds grand final, again. It would be nice if someone else could contest this at some point but yet again some came close but couldn’t quite make it. As for the actual grand final, hmmm my money would probably go on Leeds for another victory.
Club call, all rather predicatable
Well I got up this morning and planned to put my prediction for the club call on here but the site was down again, it’s one of many issues that have plagued fifth and last this year but as we near the end of the season there’ll be plenty of work going on during the close season to ensure we’re back better than ever next year.
Onto the club call, had I managed to put a post up this morning I would have been revelling in a correct prediction right now as, I’m sure, would most other people who looked at the possibilities.
- Catalan having to travel again from the south of France are surely a better prospect to play than Wigan coming over the Pennines.
- Saints and Wigan should be a massive draining game for both teams leaving whoever gets through possibly with some injuries but certainly with some tired tired players.
And so with the gimmick of the club call out of the way we can get on with the rugby and look forward to a greulling Saints – Wigan derby and also see if the minnows of Catalan can overturn the mighty Leeds!
NRL rebranding
Well in the light of all the trouble off the pitch in the NRL this year they're considering re branding even going so far as to change the name of the league.
I'm not sure how much it'll do to distance the NRL from the troubles of this season but for a competition that spans Australia and New Zealand it may be worth re branding at least to take notice of that fact.
But back to the naughty boys and Foxsports lists a long list of recent NRL trouble makers (http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26015385-5018866,00.html)
- Setaimata Sa slapped his girlfriend during an alleged rampage which led to his arrest on Sunday night.
- Manly fullback Brett Stewart banned for four weeks for getting intoxicated at the club's season launch before being arrested for alleged sexual assault
- Former Cronulla five-eighth Greg Bird being found guilty of glassing his girlfriend last year
- A 2002 group-sex scandal involving Cronulla players being revisited that eventually cost former Sharks five-eighth Matthew Johns his career at the Nine Network
- Roosters forward Nate Myles suspended for six weeks for defecating in a hotel corridor
- Melbourne superstar Greg Inglis – who alongside Stewart was the face of the NRL's advertising campaign – was stood down for two weeks after being charged with allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend Sally Robinson
Not good reading for the NRL bosses. So they are look to distance themselves and re launch, possibly with a new name and identity. Could be interesting and I don't think there would be any detriment to a name change but I doubt it'll have a massive effect in removing the source of the trouble or in making people forget where the players who caused trouble were from.
Toughest nuts in league – The final – Noel Kelly v Les Davidson
So then who's the toughest in NRL history? Go on get voting
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25988887-23214,00.html
Name the teams of the NRL
Few server problems meant I didn't get the quiz up yesterday but it'll be up tomorrow. In the meantime head over to sporcle and play name the NRL teams, just click the link below.
http://www.sporcle.com/games/national_rugby_league.php
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