Exciting development, the new Rugby League International Scores Logo news that on Saturday we will have the Lebanon Rugby League Championship final updated live on Rugby League International Scores. News on the Dutch and Norwegian domestic competitions and also from Canada. The struggle between Club and Country also continues.
The new logos for Rugby league International Scores have been awarded and unveiled. You will see them on the website and also any forums, blogs and twitter that RLIS is involved. If you haven’t seen it, here it is:
On Saturday/Sunday the Lebanon’s Bank of Beirut Championship Final will have live updates on Rugby League international Scores. The link for the updates will be http://www.rugbyleagueinternationalscores.com/Results/Domestic/Lebanon/Final and will be up soon today. The update will include the team lists for LAU and AUB and will also have time and commentary on tries and significant events happening during the game. There will also be twitter coverage at http://www.twitter.com/leaguescores . Coverage start locally at 17:30, GMT 15:30, USA 11:30 and Australia AEST 00:30 Sunday morning.
The Norwegian domestic competition will start next weekend, 14 May. Speaking to Warren Heilig the other day, he is very excited about the first ever Norwegian competition and that there will be Norway’s first dedicated rugby league club, the Oslo Seagulls participating as well. Its no surprise that the team are the Seagulls and have the Red Green and white of Wynnum-Manly in Brisbane since warren used to play for them!
The Ontario rugby league will be having a training day on the 16th of May. Anyone wanting to participate can contact them on ontario@canadarugbyleague.com and britishcolumbia@canadarugbyleague.com . Canadian Rugby League are also looking for sponsors to help get the team to the “War on the Shore”.
The first round of the Dutch Rugby League competition has been played. Teams play three games in each round in a 9’s format. Gouda 8 lost to Den Haag 12, Nootdorp 4 lost to Capelle 32. Den Haagen 12 lost to Capelle 16, Nootdorp drew 20-20 with Gouda, Gouda 4 lost to Capelle 24 and Den Haagen 26 beat Nootdorp 8.
| Team | P | W | D | L | PD | Pt |
| Capelle | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 6 |
| Den Haagen | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 4 |
| Gouda | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -24 | 1 |
| Nootdorp | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -48 | 1 |
Sione Vuki from the Vava’u Rugby League in Tonga are looking for help. This can be in different forms, but mainly asks for equipment and gear for players. But also if anyone can help sponsor the competition would be welcomed as well. He can be contacted on sionevuki@hotmail.com .
So the Rep season begins tonight with the ANZAC test kicking off. Now many get a bit confused here, fans say “Why don’t they play this match on ANZAC day?” Well Its simple, its the ANZAC test and not the ANZC Day Test. ANZAC day already has many traditional rivalry games like St George and Sydney City so no point in having the Test then. So The name is taken after the two nations and not the day as such. Anyway I bet you all want to know my prediction for tonight? well I am going out on a limb and will predict the upset. New Zealand by 8 points.
Also the City-Country Origin match is on in Port Macquarie. This is the trial match for the NSW Origin team and from reports there are 16/17 spots up for grabs in the team, so tonight’s match in Coffs Harbour has added significance. Well being a city boy I have to go with the allegiance and predict a City win. These always end up being tight affairs and so I will call City by 3 points.
Despite all the great work that has been done in the last 3-5 years with international Rugby League, there is always someone that unwittingly has to ruin it for the rest of us. Now this is a real pickle of an issue when it comes to it.
So I refer to Mr. Richardson not releasing Sam Burgess for the June test for England. England will take on France in Leigh June 12th and hoping to have a full strength team will have to do without Sam Burgess it seems. Sam is rightly disappointed but the whole debate of Club verses country comes up. I actually do understand Souths position and that they have to protect their investment but I am sure that if it was Australia they would quite happily release a player for that test match?
I don’t buys into this “Oh its France and its not an important Test” … Bull! Every single international is important. No other sport in the world treats its international with such disdain as Rugby League does and quite frankly I am sick of it! Burgess should be released, if England decides to Choose him or not is another thing.
This leads to the next issue and that is the lack of real leadership from the International Federation. This is precisely a point where they have to step in and do two things. 1. Make a clause that that players should be released for international. 2. Have a 3 week a mid year window for internationals where clubs do not suffer by not having their best players, either that of have all tests and internationals played at the end of the year in a 8 week block. But we know that this does not suit some of the smaller nations. So what is the solution? well who knows.
I am not going to go either way in this part as of yet, I will leave that for another time. But I want to put a couple thing out to think about. Basically in the NRL each club has $4.1 million to spend. On average that means a player gets $164,000. This translates to roughly $3,154 per week, or $5,467 per match if they go all the ay to the Grand Final. Not too bad a money? Wish I was getting that! Of course some players get less and others more. The minimum wage is $50,000, so roughly $1000 a week. The highest paid players if we believe the report are around $5-600,000. Lets take the $600k one, this is roughly the equivalent to $11,500 a week! So is this enough for players to do what they do? Or do they deserve more?
Rep payments I do agree should be increased. Currently players get $3000 per rep match, or around there. This is effectively two NRL matches worth of pay, which for State of Origin I think is acceptable. I would have a ranking scale for Representative matches. City-Country players get the equivalent of 1 average NRL match payment, so $3,000. State of Origin game equivalent of 2 NRL matches i.e. $6,000, Thus if a player gets selected for City or country and then all three Blues matches they stand to make $21,000 extra. A test Match would be the equivalent of three NRL matches, so $9,000 per test. So the most successful of our players could make in the year, if they get selected for all rep matches stand to make an extra $66,000.
Another comments has come to light that just annoys the crap out of me. It show the disrespect for the game internationally and what’s more is apparently comes from a top official. I refer to the Tommy Raudonikis article where he talks about being sick of the whinging players. But there is a comment in there from Dean Ritchie “Players claim that rival codes pay more for rep games but league officials say those sports are more international” BS, BS, BS, BS! (OK Dean is quoting what has been said so its not him I am having a go at) As long as that attitude continues we will always have a problem. This is where having a good set of regular tournaments being played all around the world is needed. There are over 40 countries that play rugby league internationally and so wee need to start pushing that aspect! We need to have countries like Australia, New Zealand, England and France start playing other nations like Wales, PNG, Fiji, USA, Tonga, Samoa more often in TOURNAMENTS. Have a regular 4 year cycle where the tournaments have some added value because they do only come around once every four year. The build up would be massive, Soccer does this and its why its such a successful sport. We need to start having regional tournaments and qualifiers have a 6 nations tournaments then a world cup. Other sports do this and so must we if we are to compete.
Its an attitude change of the sport that needs to begin at its very core – The Fans – they need to be fans of Rugby League and not just the NRL or the ESL. Get out and support every international and rep game from amateur to the World Cup. Show the sponsors and players and admin that you care and love the sport, only then will they change their ways. Hammer the media and the journalists who i feel “DON’T” care about Rugby league (only NRL) to start treating the sport with more respect.
Rugby League is the Greatest Game of all, what it has gone through in it 118 year history a Hollywood script writer could not make up. Lets live, eat, breath and love that history and show the world what the sport is all about.
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