This week the regular Super League and NRL season came to an end and the play-offs confirmed and there are some absolutely fantastic games, worthy of Grand Finals, this week to see. In Fiji the Major Semis were played out and the second last round in PNG. International squads from 5 nations have been announced as well, from Tour, to the 4 nations, European Cup and Colonial Cup.
Round 26 of the National Rugby League was played out and the finalists decided. Results are Brisbane 16-18 Canberra, Gold Coast 21-18 Wests, Parramatta 12-26 New Zealand, Penrith 50-12 Cronulla, North Queensland 8-18 Sydney City, Melbourne 34-4 Newcastle, Manly 24-30 Canterbury, St George/Illawarra 38-24 South Sydney. The final standings were:
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | St George/ Illawarra | 26 | 17 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 219 | 38 |
| 2 | Penrith | 26 | 15 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 156 | 34 |
| 3 | Wests | 26 | 15 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 34 | 34 |
| 4 | Gold Coast | 26 | 15 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 22 | 34 |
| 5 | New Zealand | 26 | 14 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 53 | 32 |
| 6 | Sydney City | 26 | 14 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 49 | 32 |
| 7 | Canberra | 26 | 13 | 0 | 11 | 2 | 6 | 30 |
| 8 | Manly | 26 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 2 | 35 | 28 |
| 9 | South Sydney | 26 | 11 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 17 | 26 |
| 10 | Brisbane | 26 | 11 | 0 | 13 | 2 | -27 | 26 |
| 11 | Newcastle | 26 | 10 | 0 | 14 | 2 | -70 | 24 |
| 12 | Parramatta | 26 | 10 | 0 | 14 | 2 | -78 | 24 |
| 13 | Canterbury | 26 | 9 | 0 | 15 | 2 | -45 | 22 |
| 14 | Cronulla | 26 | 7 | 0 | 17 | 2 | -255 | 18 |
| 15 | North Queensland | 26 | 5 | 0 | 19 | 2 | -242 | 14 |
| 16 | Melbourne | 26 | 14 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 126 | 0 |
The Finals games now are St George/Illawarra vs. Manly, Wests vs. Sydney City, Gold Coast vs. New Zealand and Penrith vs. Canberra. The Saints game looks on paper to be great with a hot rivalry there, but Manly have been decimated with injuries and suspensions. Will the baby Eagles soar? Wests against the roosters is another hot game wile the Gold Coast New Zealand game will be another cracker with two very in form teams set to bash each other. Though I think Canberra will cause the upset of the finals beating the Panthers.
Round 27 finished of the regular Super League season with the Crusaders securing their first place in the finals. Only in existence for 5 years and having to “re-brand” themselves last year its a phenomenal result. So the weekends results were Wigan 34-12 Bradford, Hull FC 14-18 Leeds, St Helens 40-30 Castleford, Harlequins 22-36 Warrington, Crusaders 30-24 Hull KR, Catalans 12-26 Huddersfield and Salford 16-14 Wakefield. The finals tables were
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | Wigan | 27 | 22 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 511 | 44 |
| 2 | St Helens | 27 | 20 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 399 | 40 |
| 3 | Warrington | 27 | 20 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 397 | 40 |
| 4 | Leeds | 27 | 17 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 164 | 35 |
| 5 | Huddersfield | 27 | 16 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 319 | 33 |
| 6 | Hull FC | 27 | 16 | 0 | 11 | 0 | -15 | 32 |
| 7 | Hull KR | 27 | 14 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 21 | 29 |
| 8 | Crusaders | 27 | 12 | 0 | 15 | 0 | -185 | 24 |
| 9 | Castleford | 27 | 11 | 0 | 16 | 0 | -188 | 22 |
| 10 | Bradford | 27 | 9 | 1 | 17 | 0 | -200 | 19 |
| 11 | Wakefield | 27 | 9 | 0 | 18 | 0 | -200 | 18 |
| 12 | Salford | 27 | 8 | 0 | 19 | 0 | -411 | 16 |
| 13 | Harlequins | 27 | 7 | 0 | 20 | 0 | -344 | 14 |
| 14 | Catalans | 27 | 6 | 0 | 21 | 0 | -338 | 12 |
The finals series shapes up with some fantastic games. A different system to the Australian one the top 4 teams play each other while the bottom 4 of the top eight play each other. Wigan and Leeds shapes up to be a real grudge match, this is the 4th time this year they have played, while, St Helens and Warrington also shapes up to be a fantastic game. Huddersfield and Crusaders also shapes up to be fantastic with the Welsh club looking to go through to the next round and do a Catalans last year. But the big game of the weekend is the Humberside Derby between Hull FC and Rovers. Board up your houses, get the padding out, get the barriers up at the stadium, this will be an explosive match that will give the winner Bragging rights for the the next year.
In Fiji the Major Semi Finals were played out with Nabua 8-11 Sabeto and Saru 16-14 Namatakula. The Grand Final this weekend will see Sabeto take on Saru. My tip is that Saru will take it, being the dominant team all season.
I have three results from round 17 of the PNGRFL Bemobile Cup from the weekend. Results were: Enga 29-12 Gurias, Mendi 14-6 Capital City, Lae 6- 12 Port Moresby.
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | Gurias | 17 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 160 | 25 |
| 2 | Mendi | 16 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 22 | 25 |
| 3 | Goroka | 14 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 177 | 20 |
| 4 | Enga | 14 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 48 | 19 |
| 5 | Port Moresby | 14 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 79 | 17 |
| 6 | Capital City | 16 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 1 | -47 | 15 |
| 7 | Kundiawa | 15 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 2 | -54 | 15 |
| 8 | Lae | 16 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 1 | -116 | 8 |
| 9 | Mt Hagen | 16 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 2 | -249 | 8 |
I am still looking for some past results from sources and will update once I get them. There is one more regular round left before the finals series starts.
The FIRL grand final was played on the weekend, nearly 2 months after the regular season games and the split between the two factions in the Italian Rugby League. Piacenza defeated Padova 36-18 in the final.
The second round of the provincvial championships was played this weekend with a surprise result Auckland losing to Wellington 18-24. Other results Northern 10-86 Counties Manuka, Waicoa Bay 36-18 Heartland and South Island had the bye.
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | Wellington | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 4 |
| 2 | South Island | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 2 |
| 3 | Counties Manuka | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 76 | 2 |
| 4 | Waicoa Bay | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -14 | 2 |
| 5 | Auckland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -6 | 0 |
| 6 | Heartland | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | -32 | 0 |
| 7 | Northern | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -76 | 0 |
The postponed game between Auckland and Counties Manuka will be played later today
The next round of Serbian domestic matches was played after their break for the internationals and Summer. A new team has joined the next round while the top 4 teams are playing out for a spot in the finals. The teams have split into two groups now. In the top group which is playing for the finals spot Dorcol 76 beat Radnicki 12 and Tsar Lazar lost to Red Star 32-16. Eventaully it will be the best 3 teams that go into the play-offs. The standings for group A are:
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | Dorcol | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 2 |
| 2 | Red Star | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 2 |
| 3 | Tsar Lazar | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -16 | 0 |
| 4 | Radnicki | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -64 | 0 |
In the other group a new team, Stari Grad has enterd to play and give all the clubs more games to develop and new Technical Director Lee Crooks a chance to see all the talent on display. One match was postponed and that was between Nis and Podbara but Belgrade University suffered a loss to the newcomers Stari Grad 34-18. The table for the bottom group is:
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | Stari Grad | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 2 |
| 2 | Nis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Podbara | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Belgrad Uni. | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -16 | 0 |
USA Tomahawks squad, Colonial Cup v Canada, Sunday, September 19, 2010
Andrew Kneisly,Conway Maraki, Kevin Wiggins, Mike Brazill, Nate Smith (ASTON BULLS) – Apple Pope, Bob Knoepfel, Kenny Britt, Matt Clark (JACKSONVILLE AXEMEN) – Curtis Cunz, Will Garcia (CONNECTICUT WILDCATS) – Derrick Roma (NEW HAVEN WARRIORS) – Gareth Baxendale, Mike Cartwright, Sean Taylor (NEW YORK KNIGHTS) – Jared Frymoyer, Larry Madden (PHILDELPHIA FIGHT)
Lebanon’s Autumn international squad to play Italy and Pakistan
Mohamed Akar, Peter Rahal, Mohamed Tawil (AUB) – Abdul Bekdache, Riad Khoury, Sami Mansour (BALAMANDB) – George Aroyan (BOSTON 13s RLFC) – Mounir Finan, Youssef El Helou, Pierre Nasr (JOUNIEH RLFC) – Raymond Finan, Robin Hachache (C), Rudy Hachache, Jad Hachem, Mohamed Jamil, Bahije Saridar (LAU Immortals) – Rony Akel, Wael Harb, Khaled Rafii (USJ SAINTS) – Nemer Saliba (WOLVES RLFC)
Frances squad for the European Cup this October
Romaric Bemba, Roman Gagliazzo, Teddy Saddiou (CARCASSONNE) – Jean Philippe Baille, Thomas Bosc, Remi Casty, Olivier Elima (c), Jamil Fakir, David Ferrioll, Cyril Gossard, Clint Greenshield, Gregory Mounis, Sebastian Raguin (CATALAN DRAGONS) – Matthew Alberola, Thibault Ancely, Andrew Bentley, Julian Bousquet, Nicolas Munoz, Florian Quintilla, Micheal Tribillac (LEZIGNAN) – Dane Chisholm (MELBOURNE STORM) – Maxime Greseque, Christophe Moly (PIA) – Jason Baitieri (SYDNEY ROOSTERS) – Vincent Duport, Matthew Griffi, Kevin Larroyer, Antony Maria, Yoan Tisserye (TOULOUSE) – William Barthau, Kane Bentley, Tony Gigot, Sebastien Martins, Quentin Nauroy, Eloi Pellissier, Michael Simon, Cyril Stacul, Julian Touxagas, Fred Vaccari (UTC).
New Zealand have announced a 39 man train on squad for the 4-Nations
Alex Glenn, Antonio Winterstein (BRONCOS) – Bryson Goodwin, Ben Roberts (BULLDOGSu) – Bronson Harrison (RAIDERS) – Greg Eastwood (LEEDS RHINOS) – Kieran Foran, Steve Matai, Tony Williams (SEA EAGLES) – Adam Blair, Sika Manu (MELBOURNE STORM) – Junior Sa’u, Zeb Taia (NEWCASTLE) – Krisnan Inu, Fuifui Moimoi (EELS) – Sam McKendry, Frank Pritchard (PENRITH) – Nathan Fien, Jason Nightingale, Jeremy Smith (DRAGONS) – Roy Asotasi, Issac Luke, Eddy Pettybourne, Fetuli Talanoa (RABBITOHS) – Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Joseph Leilua, Mose Masoe, Frank-Paul Nuuausala, Sam Perrett, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (ROOSTERS) – Lewis Brown, Aaron Heremaia, Lance Hohaia, Kevin Locke, Simon Mannering, Ben Matulino, Russell Packer, Sam Rapira, Jerome Ropati, Ukuma Ta’ai, Manu Vatuvei (WARRIORS), Benji Marshall (WESTS), Thomas Leuluai (WIGAN WARRIORS).
Australia’s 4 Nations train on squad
Darren Lockyer, Sam Thaiday (BRONCOS) – Michael Ennis, Ben Hannant, Jamal Idris, Josh Morris (BULLDOGS) – Paul Gallen (CRONULLA) – Cooper Cronk, Greg Inglis, Billy Slater, Cameron Smith (MELBOURNE) – Kurt Gidley (NEWCASTLE) – Matt Scott, Johnathan Thurston, Willie Tonga (NORTH QUEENSLAND) – Jarryd Hayne, Timana Tahu (PARRAMATTA) – David Taylor (SOUTH SYDNEY).
Australia’s Prime Ministers XIII squad lto play PNG
Matt Gillett, Andrew McCullough, Corey Parker, Jharal Yow Yeh (BRONCOS) – Brett Kimmorley (BULLDOGS) – Luke Douglas, Blake Ferguson, Kade Snowden (CRONULLA) – Jarrod Mullen, Akulia Uate (NEWCASTLE) – Tim Mannah, Ben Smith (PARRAMATTA) – Michael Crocker, Ben Lowe, Nathan Merritt (SOUTH SYDNEY).
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