Wigan Take the First Silverware

By Daniel Andruczyk

This week in the Super League Wigan have taken their first silverware since 2002, by taking the league leaders shield. In Australia, the NRL is has many places still up for grabs while through Europe and the pacific there are championships coming close to their end. In Hunslet, Jamaica took on the GB Community Lions in their warm up to the Floodlit 9s tournament.

National Rugby League

In the NRL round 24 was completed and the fight for 8th spot is still on while the Minor premiership competition is still live and kicking. Results were: Newcastle 44-18 Brisbane, Penrith 54-18 South Sydney, Manly 19-16 New Zealand, Melbourne 24-4 Cronulla, North Queensland 20-22 Canterbury, Canberra 32-16 St George/Illawarra, Parramatta 18-20 Wests, Sydney City 14-23 Gold Coast.

The top 8 so far is shown in green with the teams in red that can still make it into the top 8. But Gold Coast and Wests still can usurp the top spot from the Dragons if the results fall right for them in the last two rounds.

Super League

While in the UK, the Super League League Leaders Shield (minor premiership) has been decided last weekend with Wigan winning their first LLS in a while and the first silverware since 2002. Results in round 26 are: Warrington 36-18 Hull FC, Leeds 52-6 Catalans, Crusaders 10-36 St Helens, Bradford 38-28 Wakefield, Castleford 40-28 Harlequins, Huddersfield 52-4 Salford, Hull KR 18-38 Wigan. The only places up for grabs are 8th spot between Castleford and Crusaders and 2nd spot with Warrington and St Helens fighting it out.

This weekend is the Challenge Cup final at London’s Wembley Stadium, with a sell out stadium (approx 90,000) it promises to be a classic match. Leeds and Warrington have brought back the romance into the Challenge Cup. My pick is that Leeds will take the final, however I am predicting that “The Wire” will win the Super League title this year finally breaking the dominance of the “big four”.

Fijian Championships

In the Fijian Championships the first week of play-off started with the quarter finals kicking off. Results are: Nadera 12-13 Nabua, Police 30-26 Namatakula, Sabeto 24-10 Makoi, Saru 68- 10 Lautoka. So this means that in the second week Namatakula and Police will play once more and Sabeto play Nadera. Nabua and Saru go through to the third week automatically.

All Ireland Final

In the all Ireland grand final the Leinster Champions Dublin City taking on the Munster Champions Treaty City. The champions were Treaty City with an emphatic victory over Dublin City 52-24.

Jamaican Championships

In Jamaica, just one match was played on the weekend, with the Vauxhall Warriors defeating the Dunhaney Park Sharks 48-30. There are still three matches left to be played over the next week before the play-offs begin. GC Foster take on Vauxhall, Olympic versus Vauxhall and GC Foster take on Olympic. The current table stands as:

New Zealand

In Auckland the Preliminary final was played with Otahuh defeating Te Atutu 28-14. Otahuh this weekend will take on Mt Albert in the Grand final. Also This weekend the Provincial Championships start with round 1 seeing Wellington take on Waicoa Bay, South Island versus Heartland, Auckland at home to Counties Manuka and Northern have the bye.

Papua New Guinea

In PNG, I’ve only been able to find results for two matches in round 15, with Kundiawa beating the Gurias 4-2 in a try-less match and  Mt Hagen scoring their first away win of the season against the Lae Bombers 16-14. The table stands as:

American National Rugby league

In the United States, the Semi Finals of the AMNRL were played and the Finalists decided. In many ways there were no surprises with top of the table New Haven beating last years champions New York 42 –18 while Jacksonville did a total demolition job on the Aston Bulls 46-4, despite the Bulls having the services of Daniel Wagon. Thus the AMNRL Grand Final XIII will be played between New Haven and Jacksonville in Philadelphia on Saturday 28th August at 3 pm. My tip, Jacksonville by 20 points.

International

In International Rugby League news, Jamaica took on the RFL’s GB Community Lions, over the weekend in Hunslet. This is a match as a warm up for the Floodlit 9s that Jamaica are taking part in. The Jamaicans showed a lot of character in their loss to the Lions 22-50. They were able to keep up with the Lions for a good part of the match and seemed to have a comeback in the last 10 minutes, but poor handling and time was against them. The word from some people I know that were there said that Jamaica have the speed and basic skills to be competitive, but their handling was what let them down by not respecting the ball enough. Still its great to see the Jamaicans getting out and getting an international before this years Atlantic Cup, where they will be taking on the United States Tomahawks and Canadian Wolverines.

Rumour Mill

A quick rumour I have got from a source in Jamaica. With Usain Bolt showing interest in working with Jarryd Hayne in Jamaica, the Jamaican Rugby League is looking into exposing the two champions to Reggae Rugby League and having Bolt and also 400 m runner Jermaine Gonzales as their top fans of Jamaican Rugby League. Be interesting to see where this goes in the future.

Daniel Andruczyk’s email: daniel@rugbyleagueinternationalscores.com