SIX TO GO - LIFE SAVERS, BIG WILLIE AND ARE WE REALLY OFF TO CANADA?

LIZZIE JONES DEFIBS

Many adjectives have been used to describe Lizzie over the last 10 months since she and her young twins lost Danny in such tragic circumstances. Her skills as a professional singer have gained her a huge following and a high profile, particularly in the Rugby League world, and it is great that she is using her profile so positively.

Not only did she campaign successfully for professional rugby league players at all three levels of the pro game to have mandatory heart tests but she has now thrown herself into raising awareness for the need of defibrillators to be available for use at all community and junior rugby league grounds in the UK and is helping to raise the necessary funds to make this possible with the assistance of the RFL Benevolent Fund.

Defibrilators cost around £1,000 each – that’s a lot of money for most community and junior teams – but they are a must have as they provide potentially lifesaving treatment for someone who has suffered a heart attack.  They deliver an electric shock to the heart with the aim of stopping ventricular fibrillation which is a rapid heartbeat that does not deliver blood to the brain or other organs.

Lizzie has donated £1000 to the fund herself and let’s hope the rugby league family get behind this venture and support it in the same way that we supported Lizzie and her family in their hour of need.

Former Bolton Wanderers defender Fabrice Muamba, who has thrown his weight and reputation behind the fund, suffered a heart attack during a Wanderers FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur 4 years ago and received numerous shocks from a defibrillator both at the ground and on the way to hospital in an ambulance.

If it hadn’t have been for the availability of a defibrillator he may not have survived.

Rugby league is a tough sport and everyone needs to do as much as they can to ensure that the great people who are involved in the sport – whether players, coaches, supporters or back room staff – have the right help when they need it.

BIG WILLIE IS BACK

Allow the name Willie Mason to pass through your lips in Hull and you will get howls of laughter from Hull FC fans and snorts of derision from the majority of Hull KR fans.

It’s fair to say that his previous spell in Super League with Rovers back in 2011 did not go exactly to plan, lasting only 6 games, and the majority of Rovers fans hold nothing but disdain for the former Australian international.

Rovers really milked this signing like no other – without a doubt he was the one of, if not the, highest profile signing the club has ever made. The club charged fans to attend his first press conference and they even charged fans to watch his first training session with his new team mates.

Unfortunately, the fact is that the signing should never have gone through. The deal rested on Mason obtaining a Tongan passport so he would not count on the overseas quota list as Hull KR’s was full at the time.

By chance, Rovers star scrum half Michael Dobson suffered a long term injury and, unbelievably, Rovers decided to de-register him so that Mason could be registered because the infamous Tongan passport had failed to materialise.

This led to the possibility of Dobson being poached by another club because he wasn’t officially registered with a Super League club – fortunately, Dobson had a sense of loyalty to the club despite this ridiculous decision.

There was even talk of Rovers captain Michael Vella obtaining a Maltese passport to get him off the overseas quota – it really was a farcical situation.

Big Willie was too big a name and too big a personality for the club to turn their back on.

Personally, as a Hull KR fan, I bear no ill will towards Mason and am glad to see him back in Super League. The situation back in 2011 wasn’t all his fault although he could have handled his exit better rather than going to meet Toulon RU club behind the clubs back.

Mason, himself, blames Hull KR chairman Neil Hudgell for the whole sorry mess – I know that because he told me himself in a tweet a couple of years ago.

Big Willie found Super League tougher than he thought I think – he made a storming debut against Crusaders, remember them, in a 40-22 win before Rovers lost their next three games.

The highlight of his stay was a Saturday afternoon defeat of Leeds Rhinos before his last appearance the following week in a man of the match performance against Wigan despite Rovers losing the game.      

The following week Rovers were facing local rivals Hull FC in the Good Friday Derby and with Michael Dobson now recovered from injury the club took the dramatic step of de-registering Mason to make Dobson available for the Derby – Big Willie was left to sit on the side line and ponder his future in French Rugby Union.

5 years down the track and with time spent back in the NRL with Newcastle Knights and Manly Sea Eagles after his ill-fated Union spell, Mason has headed back to France for a year with Catalans Dragons and I, for one, hope he shows he still has the ability to be a force in the game.

Without a doubt he is one of games biggest characters.

WORLD CLUB SERIES

The dust has settled on a little bit of the disappointment felt at the performances of the Super League clubs in the recent World Club Series against their NRL counterparts.

Before the series, I only expected Wigan Warriors to be competitive but they were blown away by a Brisbane Broncos performance that even Head Coach Wayne Bennett was impressed with.

St. Helens were always going to struggle against Sydney Roosters whilst Super League Champions Leeds Rhinos have lost a host of experienced and high quality players and have really suffered with injuries in 2016.

The Rhinos at least competed for the first 40 minutes of their World Club Challenge clash with first time NRL Premiers North Queensland Cowboys and held them to 4-4 at half time.

The Cowboys named the same 17 that won the NRL Grand Final over the Brisbane Broncos with a golden point drop goal from Jonathan Thurston last October whilst the Rhinos have really struggled to replace Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Peacock, Kylie Leuluai and Paul Aiton and were without new skipper Danny McGuire, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Stevie Ward, Carl Ablett, Tom Briscoe and Ashton Golding whilst new hooker Beau Falloon had yet to make a start for the club.

The Cowboys scored 34 unanswered second half points and cue lots of hysteria about the levels of the game in Super League and the NRL.

Without a shadow of doubt we must continue with this concept in it’s current form – talk of expansion and moving the series to Australia is premature.

It’s gives added incentive to both winning the Challenge Cup and finishing on top of the league at the end of 23 rounds and it also put’s our sport in the major headlines in the lead up to the games – something we generally struggle to achieve.

The England national side will compete with Australia and New Zealand at the elite level – we have one of the best squads we have had since the 1990’s in my opinion – but the lower down the scale you go the more you will see the difference in class and ability and that is why we had the blow out scores in this year’s Series.

There is no quick fix for this and I’m not sure that there is a long term fix either to be honest – the NRL competition holds all of the ace cards over Super League.

The talent pool in Australia is much larger than in the UK for a start. It is their national sport and money pours into the game from a TV deal that absolutely dwarfs ours and from sponsors willing to pay big money to have their names associated with some of the biggest names in the sport who have a profile like Wayne Rooney does over here.

Add in the climate which gives much better training conditions, especially in the all important pre-season and, arguably, better coaching and a more professional set up all giving a more intense competition and you can understand why British players want to play in the NRL.

That is before we mention the higher salary cap which I don’t think is the be all and end all for  British players who go over to the NRL, I think they are mainly motivated by wanting to test themselves in the best rugby league competition in the world.

However, it is vital that we retain the World Club Series as our sport needs high profile spectacles like this and our players will improve the more they are exposed to this level of competition.

KEEP ON TACKLING

There has been a lot of discussion in the last couple of weeks about tackling in rugby with some highly intelligent people saying that it should be banned in schools rugby up to the age of 18.

You will probably have noted that the letter signed off by 70 doctors and academics was aimed at rugby union rather than rugby league as that is the main code of rugby played in most schools in the UK and, certainly, Ireland.

Obviously, tackling is a major part of both sports and I am struggling to understand why this letter is aimed at just schools rugby up to the age of 18 rather than including the community and grass roots levels of the game as well.

From my knowledge of local youth rugby league in Hull – the majority of players who play school rugby league also play for a local club such as Skirlaugh, West Hull, East Hull, Hull Dockers etc – in fact school rugby league in Hull is a far more secondary concern against youth rugby in the city.

I don’t believe there should be a ban on tackling at any level of the sport – it is a fundamental skill of the game and, although the letter is right to point out the dangers of tackling (and being tackled), if it is coached and taught correctly then it will become as easy as passing and catching a ball.

If there is a case for banning tackling it is at the early age groups of U6 and U7 when players are still learning the game and the core skills such as catching and passing and they are also still finding out if they like the physical side of the sport or not.

This is when coaching is at it’s most important – the technique of tackling and how to fall when tackled (protective falling) must be drilled into the players at these early age groups. They need to know what parts of the body they need to use to tackle with – where should their shoulder and head be positioned? – what do they do with their arms? – how do they use their legs in the tackle? – what parts of their body should hit the floor first when they are tackled and falling forwards, sideways or backwards?

Some players learn quicker than others and I have some six year olds (now seven) at the club that I coach at who you use as an example because their technique is so good already – they have an almost natural ability to tackle correctly.

I know for a fact that some boys (and girls) will not play the game because they see the tackling that goes on and decide it is not for them – believe me there are some proper tackles that go in at the lower age groups and it is not always the small boys who are the intimidated ones – far from it in my experience.

My fellow coaches and I have been having the discussion recently about playing touch instead of tackling and whilst I am against it I can see the case for it but my thoughts are not based on the potential for injury which was the main case made in the letter discussed earlier.

Playing touch would probably help players improve their core skills in the knowledge they were not going to get tackled and would definitely allow some players to take part who did not like the tackling aspect of the sport, but at what age group would you introduce it?

My view is that tackling is a fundamental part of the sport and must remain so at all levels and age groups of the game.

It maybe that it is the ability of the coaches to deliver the right instructions that is the problem rather than tackling or being tackled. 

CANADA.....REALLY??

I am sure most people will agree with me that entering a Canadian club side into the League 1 competition is a very strange and, you would think, farfetched notion.

But then, this is rugby league and we don’t mind a bit of out of the box thinking do we?

League 1 is seen as the launching pad for clubs from outside of the heartlands of the game into the semi-professional code with participants from Toulose, North and South Wales, London, Newcastle, Gloucestershire, Coventry, Oxford and Hemel Hempstead alongside some historic names such as Hunslet, Barrow, Rochdale, York and Doncaster.

There were questions raised last season about the travel costs for League 1 teams to travel over to France to play Toulouse so you can imagine that the question of who pays the travel costs over to the Canadians team base of Toronto to play their league matches was very much at the forefront of people’s minds.

This has been cleared up by the Canadian Rugby League confirming that they will cover all of the transport, accommodation and all associated costs for each team to travel over.

This is good news for the League 1 teams who would have struggled to raise the necessary funds but it is a huge cost outlay for the Canadian Rugby League that I would have thought would be difficult to sustain in the long term.

Also the fixture list would have to ensure that the Canadian team played a block of home fixtures for 3 to 4 weeks and likewise the away fixtures in the UK.

It has already been heavily touted that former Leigh Centurions coach Paul Rowley will be the Head Coach of the Canadian team that will look to enter the competition in 2017 and, apparently, he has approached a few of his former charges at Leigh to see if they fancy playing for the new team.

I am assuming that the playing and coaching staff will be full time as no employer that I know will accept people being away from work for 3-4 weeks at a time 3 or 4 times a year – so the Canadians will have to pay full time wages as well which just adds to the costs.

I know the Canadian national team can pull in attendances of around 7-8000 for big games against the USA or Jamaica but would they get those kind of crowds on a regular basis for a club side?

Maybe at the start when there is some novelty value attached but the team would have to win games as I am sure that new spectators, or sponsors, will not be drawn to a losing team.

I am sure the RFL have done their due diligence over the last couple of years on this project, but the game has always struggled to keep clubs afloat from outside of the heartlands of the game in our own country let alone in a country over 3,000 miles away with no real tradition of playing rugby league.

What about the infrastructure of the club? What kind of youth set up do they have? If any. What about open age clubs in the local area?

There are currently 4 clubs in the Ontario Rugby League with two of them based in Toronto – the Centurions and the Saints – not exactly a hot bed of rugby league is it?

I am not against expanding our sport and I hope that this project is successful and long lasting and sets in place a legacy that will see Canada become a real power in international rugby league, but I just don’t see it and wouldn’t be surprised if this new club lasted less than a year or two.

I really hope I am wrong but we have so many areas of the game in our own country that are struggling and I think the attention of the RFL should be fixing the game much closer to home.  

KEEP QUIET, MARWAN.

I was watching the thoroughly entertaining Salford Red Devils v. Warrington Wolves game a couple of weeks ago and, at the time, the Red Devils were going along brilliantly and were putting the much improved Wolves to the sword.

I thought to myself isn’t it good that things have calmed down at Salford.

Last year there was a negative news story coming out of the AJ Bell just about every other week but in 2016 Marwan Koukash was taking a back seat and was enjoying watching his hugely entertaining squad play some great rugby league.

On that night in particular Robert Lui and Ben Murdoch-Masila were outstanding and Michael Dobson looked to be on his way back to top form.

Obviously, the last 20 minutes were cruel on the Red Devils as they let Warrington off the hook and a brilliant last second drop goal by Chris Sandow gave the Wolves a 31-30 victory – you could see the hurt in the reaction of the Red Devils players, you could see they cared.

Salford seemed to have put 2015 behind them and were showing themselves to be genuine top 8 contenders.

Then came the news the next day that the RFL have charged Salford Red Devils with breaching the Salary Cap in both 2014 and 2015 and they, potentially, face a 20 point deduction if found guilty.

Now, it should have been left at that. By all means Koukash and Salford have the right to reply to the charges and, obviously, deny them but do we need a full blown press conference for Koukash to vent his spleen at the RFL once again and be splashed all over the rugby league press and websites and social media for all and sundry to see?

Koukash has made it clear many times that he does not like the RFL and thinks that they are targeting his club and constantly wants to go into battle with them.

I like Koukash and think he is, overall, good for the game but he needs to reign himself in when it comes to his attacks on the RFL. He should know by now that he needs to work with them rather than against them and that, in the end, there will be only one winner.

He will have his opportunity to respond to the charges brought by the RFL and, if found guilty, he will have to accept the resultant penalties. If the club is found not guilty then he will have his chance to berate the RFL.

Unlike Melbourne Storm who were found guilty of breaching the salary cap in the NRL a few years ago, the Red Devils don’t have any Minor Premierships or Grand Final wins to be stripped of so, undoubtedly, any punishment will come in the form of a fine and, highly probably, a points deduction.

Even so, a points deduction will not concern them too much as they will be far too strong for the majority of teams in the middle 8 qualifiers and will easily retain their Super League position – but is it within the RFL’s power to relegate them if they decide that the breaches of the salary cap are very serious?

It will be a very interesting tribunal hearing.

SIX TALKING POINTS...........FROM SUPER LEAGUE ROUND 4

Sandow celebrates his winning drop goal.

1.

Two tight and exciting games went down to the final seconds this week and showed how important it is to have the ability to slot a drop goal over in a high pressure situation.

Salford Red Devils will be kicking themselves after dominating three quarters of the game against early pacesetters Warrington Wolves. 30-12 down with less than 20 minutes to go and it looked like the Wolves would lose their 100% record but they never laid down and had enough belief to take it to Salford the Red Devils cracked.

At 30-30 they probably thought they would get away with a point but then along comes Chris Sandow to send the ball crisply through the posts from 40 yards – a great sight and cue for massive celebrations.

The drop goal is much maligned at times but you cannot beat a last second drop goal to win a game.

You had to feel sympathy for Salford – they have improved significantly this season but should have seen the game out at 18 points up.

It remains to be seen how the news later that evening that they have been charged with breaking the Salary Cap and could face a 20 point deduction affects them.

Wigan were in a similar situation and led Hull FC 20-6 at the KC Stadium but allowed the home side to charge back and lead 24-20 before Josh Charnley’s late try levelled the scores. Scrum half Matty Smith edged them ahead before Marc Sneyd got in on the act to level the score at 25-25. That wasn’t the end of it though – Wigan marched back up the field and Smith nailed another drop goal to win the match 26-25.

Matty Smith celebrates HIS winning drop goal.

2.        
Hull FC had great start to the season winning their opening two games comfortably and have written previously that it was all about consistency with them. They need to win the tough games against teams challenging for a top 4 place if they are to be considered as the real deal by people outside of West Hull.

They have palpably failed to do that in the last two weeks losing home games to both Castleford Tigers and Wigan Warriors. They have given both opponents big leads and then got into a position to win the games before losing out at the death on both occasions.

After their first two performances of the season, I would be bitterly disappointed if I was a Hull FC fan. Without a doubt Wigan were there for the taking on Friday night and I fully expected FC to win that game.

Something else I noticed was the ‘’poor’’ attendances for the last two home games. They had well over 12,000 for the season opener against Salford and then just over 10,000 for the Castleford game (I know it was on TV and on a Thursday night) and the Wigan game was attended by just over 10,500.

With the signings they have made and after winning their first two games well I would have expected the FC faithful to be turning out in greater numbers than they have.

It’s not all doom and gloom for FC though – the last time they opened the season with two wins and then two losses they ended up in the Grand Final back in 2006. Do you believe in omens?

Joe Mellor was outstanding against Hull KR.

3.

Widnes Viking top the league with four wins from five after a comfortable 30-16 win over struggling Hull KR.

I don’t think they are going to be Super League’s answer to Leicester City but there is no doubt that they are full of confidence and playing some fantastic rugby league at the moment.

There back line is in top form and has bags of tries in it and absolutely ripped Hull KR apart on Friday night. They have electric pace through Rhys Hanbury, Cory Thompson, Charly Runciman and Joe Mellor and are guided by Kevin Brown and Chris Bridge – I still cannot understand why the Wolves let him go – and had a field day at times down the Rovers left edge.

Hanbury, Thompson, Mellor and Bridge all gained well over 100m each with Runciman gaining 98m.

They will be looking forward to hosting Hull FC on Thursday night and it will be a game they will be fully confident of winning.

Interim Hull KR coach James Webster.

4.

Hull KR fans were lifted after the game with the news that James Webster has been appointed as the Interim Coach until the end of the season. Webster is a quality coach and knows all about Hull KR.

There is no doubt that Rovers performances have improved over the last two weeks, even though they have been left pointless, but they were in apposition to win at the Viking on Friday night before three tries either side of half time put paid to those chances.

Having said that they did well to stop the Viking running away with the game and scored a cracking try through Thomas Minns. They have players coming back in the next two weeks and I think Webster has the ability to get them back on track.

Jimmy Keinhorst 'scores' that try.

5.

There where at least another two instances this weekend when tries were awarded when they shouldn’t have been.

Steve Michael’s second try against Wigan on Friday night was scored with his right foot clearly in touch before he got the ball down. There was no video referee so the try was given even though the touch judge had a great view.

This is happening just about every week at the moment. However, there was a video referee at the televised Leeds and Huddersfield game and they still got it wrong in my opinion. On this occasion it was the match levelling try by Jimmy Keinhorst who followed a kick thorough and touched the ball down with his little finger. If you look at it at full speed he did not get the ball down – sloe the replay down and you can see that he got a little finger on the ball – how can that be deemed to be downward pressure and in full control?

If you don’t have your hand on top of the ball, then you don’t score a try – simple.

I can see why Brian McDermott wants to enter the loan market – the Rhinos are really struggling at the moment and I cannot see them making the top 4.

Ben Roberts.

6.

I was surprised that Castleford Tigers gave up their unbeaten record at St. Helens.

The Saints have had a poor start to the season by their standards and the fans have been really unhappy with some selections by Head Coach Kieron Cunningham.

The Tigers started strongly and led 8-0 and 14-6 and it looked as though they could record their first win at Saints since 1992. However, injuries hit them and they lost Ben Roberts and Grant Millington and lost their way without their Samoan talisman who has had such a great start to the season.

Grumpy old man Daryl Powell will not have been a happy chap but Kieron Cunningham will have been delighted to get the two points against the in form Tigers.

The Saints still lie fourth despite this being one of the poorest St. Helens sides I have seen in years.
 

ROAD TRIP - LEEDS RHINOS V. NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS - A DAY OF EPIC FAILURE

This day of epic failure actually began a few weeks ago.

There was me thinking what a good idea it would be to head over to Headingley to watch Leeds Rhinos take on the North Queensland Cowboys and to watch the great man, JT, play – you don’t get that opportunity very often in the flesh.

I was excited about a full house at Headingley under the lights and a, potentially, momentous victory for the Rhinos.

It wasn’t until a few days after I had ordered the tickets that I realised that not all of the weekend’s Super League fixtures had been postponed and that my team, Hull Kingston Rovers, were at home against Wakefield Trinity Wildcats on the same day as the Rhinos were playing the Cowboys.

Rovers were kicking off at 3 pm with the Rhinos due to kick off at 705 pm – could I make both games on the same day?

I decided not and that was probably the best decision I made.

It gave us a bit more time to play with and I decided that a little education allied to a game of rugby league would be a good idea for my travelling companion – my 12 year old eldest son, Kelland.

Royal Armouries - educational!!

So I decided that we would take in the Royal Armouries prior to us heading over to Headingley for the big game.

The missus, not a big rugby league fan but leaning towards Hull FC, agreed to take our other kids to the Rovers game so they did not miss out.

One of my children is also a Hull FC fan, although I’m sure he thinks the Airlie Bird actually plays for the team such is his knowledge, and he was not happy about having to attend ‘’Caravan Park’’ with a load of Gypsies as he puts it so politely – although his head was soon turned by the promise of a hot chocolate and a hot dog – how easily some children are swayed!!

We both set off at about the same time – myself and my eldest son heading off down the A1079 and Mychelle heading towards the KC Lightstream Stadium for her first ever taste of the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ and the enticing thought of watching Rovers play Wakefield – quite easily the second biggest Super League match of the weekend!!

My eldest son was happy with a drink and a few snacks for the car journey to Leeds with the promise of a McDonald’s somewhere during the day whilst my other children were not quite sure that they would receive the usual treats at Rovers from their mother that they get from their father on match day – I assured them that their mother would not let them go hungry or deprive them of a hot drink on a cold day but I’m not sure they were convinced by the looks on their faces.

On the journey up the A1079 towards Beverley I was telling Kelland about the Royal Armouries and why it was a good idea to at least have a look around the place for an hour rather than spending it on his IPhone sat in a McDonald’s.

I have decided that all of my children are intelligent but that they just like to hide it from me.

Kelland could see that it was important to me that he looked at least a little bit interested in this piece of history and culture that we were going to experience together on our boys day out.

My son loves his rugby league and had watched the other World Club Series games over the weekend and asked me a very interesting question about why the NRL teams seemed so much stronger than the Super League teams this year – I was formulating my reply in my head when a sudden thought hit me like a freight train – ‘’TICKETS – I’VE FORGOTTEN THE TICKETS.’’

My son seemed to find this amusing until I glared at him and reiterated the fact that I had actually forgotten the tickets.

Now, this wouldn’t seem to be too much of a problem as we had not got that far from home but there were one or two other problems that my mind registered immediately:

1.       I didn’t have a house key on me (I don’t appear to be important enough to have one of them)

        and

2.       Mychelle had already set off for the Rovers game.

My only hope was the fact that Mychelle is generally late for everything and is never ready to go out when she should be.

Cue an immediate about turn at the next roundabout to head back home and a frantic phone call to Mychelle’s mobile.

As she was driving at the time, yes she had set off on time for once,  my 9 year old Hull FC supporting son answered the phone and I immediately screamed down the phone ‘’WHERE ARE YOU?’’, he then repeated the question to his mother because he didn’t have a clue and, to be honest, I am not altogether sure that Mychelle knew where she was but the question came back ‘’Why?’’ and I then told them that I had forgotten the match tickets.

My 9 year old Hull FC supporting son then creased up with laughter and struggled to get out the words ‘’He’s forgotten the tickets.’’ because he was laughing that much.

This laughter just annoyed me even further but I eventually agreed a meeting spot near Rovers ground where I would pick up a house key.

This meant that I would waste a lot of time travelling through the huge amount of traffic created by the massive army of red and white fans that would be looking forward to an enthralling afternoon’s rugby league at the KC Lightstream Stadium.

Fortunately, my timing must have been impeccable because I got through East Hull across Holderness Road and down to Preston Road pretty easily and met with Mychelle and the kids at our agreed meeting spot, picked up the house key and headed home to pick up the tickets and start the journey over to Leeds all over again exactly 1 hour since we had originally set off.

Now, Kelland may well have been thinking,  through his tears of laughter and incredulity at me forgetting the tickets, that he would get away with his slight brush with history and culture at the Royal Armouries and head straight to a McDonald’s instead.

No, we still had time to get across to Leeds and spend at least an hour walking around the museum.

As we were driving across to Leeds it was close to kick off time for the Rovers v. Wakefield game and Kelland wanted to listen to it on the radio – something I am not a big fan of purely because the majority of local radio commentators and summarisers cannot string two or three words together without ‘’yer know’’ being unnecessarily thrown into their comments. Something along the lines of ‘’I think Albert Kelly should have, yer know, kept hold of that ball instead of passing it, yer know, into the stand.’’

As it is the Hull accent does not lend itself to good radio listening – as proud as I am to be from Hull I don’t really enjoy listening to Hull people talk on TV or on the radio – we do sound quite thick at times.

Anyway, we started listening to the game and I was fully confident that we would win the match despite the number of injuries to key players that we have – we were only playing Wakey after all.

We seemed to start off OK and the early pressure was all from Rovers and we took the lead from a Kieran Dixon try in the corner – unfortunately we were without Josh Mantellato for the second week in a row and we, like Leeds without Kevin Sinfield, cannot convert tries without him – high quality goal kickers really are worth their weight in gold.

So, this lifted the mood a little bit after our mad dash around Hull but we were soon brought back down to earth when the inspired commentators told us how poor Rovers defended when letting first Mickael Simon and then Stuart Howarth waltz through our paper thin defence.

Unfortunately, Wakey have Liam Finn and he can kick goals – he converted both tries and Rovers were down 12-4. Adam Walker got us another try before half time but we missed the kick AGAIN.

By the time half time came around we had arrived at the Royal Armouries so we turned off our friends from Radio Humberside and headed for some history and culture.

The Royal Armouries is the national museum of arms and armour, including artillery and the Leeds section of the Armouries was opened in 1996 – the Royal Armouries historic base is actually the Tower of London and the Armouries as a whole is the UK’s oldest museum and is now spread across three sites – Leeds, Tower of London and Fort Nelson (Portsmouth).

The Leeds section is based at Leeds Dock in a purpose built £42.5million museum on the banks of the River Aire and was part of a regeneration of the Leeds waterfront area.

Hall of Steel - impressive.

I would like to say that I was thoroughly impressed but I would be exaggerating somewhat – it was interesting in some areas and the central ‘Hall of Steel’ that runs upwards through the building and holds in excess of 2,500 objects, apparently the largest mass display of arms and armour since the 19^th century, is impressive.

I particularly enjoyed the exhibits from the Crusades and the times of William the Conqueror and it brought back a lot of memories from my time at school and I tried to show as much enthusiasm as possible for my eldest son and urged him to look, read and learn rather than play with his IPhone.

He tried to show some interest, bless him, but museums seem to instantly conjure up boredom in a young person’s mind these days and I have found that the older my children have got the less ‘’cool’’ they believe learning and education is – I blame it on peer pressure.

Anyway, I couldn’t be too aggrieved with him because as I walked around and found some of the exhibitions a little bit dull I started following the Rovers v. Wakefield game on Twitter.

My mood slowly went downhill even though Rovers scored the only try of the second half through the magnificent Ken Sio.

Once again we failed to convert the try – Josh Mantellato hurry back please – and with Wakefield kicking a penalty goal we trailed 14-12.

I actually prefer following rugby matches on Twitter than on local radio – there are a distinct lack of ‘’yer knows’’ on Twitter and I can just put my phone in my pocket and easily pick up the thread again a few minutes later.

It was obviously a low quality match – Mychelle rang me at half time and decided that she would not be returning to her seat in the second half because it was too cold and the game was ‘crap’ in her words.

She decided to sit in the warmth below the North Stand with my Hull FC supporting 9 year old son who started complaining that he had a rash because he was at ‘Caravan Park’.

Rovers bombed chance after chance according to my Twitter timeline and Wakefield also had opportunities to close the game out but neither side seemed able to complete the simple task of touching the rugby ball down on the floor over the try line and either dropped the ball or were tackled into touch.

Anyway, by the time we left the Royal Armouries and got back to the car a few minutes later we had lost the game 14-12 – a result that would cost Head Coach Chris Chester his job a couple of days later - things could only get better!!

I set the SatNav for Headingley and started the short journey to the home of Leeds Rhinos.

Headingley Carnegie Stadium
 

I love the Headingley Carnegie Stadium as it has been known for the last 10 years and do not go there nearly enough.

It is a proper rugby league ground and celebrated it’s 125 year anniversary late last year with a sold out Tour Match against New Zealand.

The stadium was built in 1889 by Leeds St. John’s, who would later become Leeds Rugby League club, and they were joined in 1991 by Leeds Rugby Union club – now called Yorkshire Carnegie.

It is a fantastic ground and has always provided a wonderful atmosphere when full or close to it and that’s one of the things that drew me to the game with North Queensland Cowboys.

I used to travel to Headingley every season back in the 80’s when Hull KR where the top team in the league and took a huge away following. There was no segregation in those days and we often piled into the South Stand and competed with the Leeds fans to create a great atmosphere.

It was also the ground at which I saw my First Test Match – Great Britain v. New Zealand back in 1985 and also, just 7 months ago, Hull KR won a famous Challenge Cup semi-final victory over Warrington Wolves at Headingley to reach the Challenge Cup Final for the first time since 1986.

So, what else drew me to this game?

Certainly not the ease of finding a parking spot, we did eventually find one down the same side street that we had parked for the semi-final back in August, or the price of the food and drink in the ground.

I no longer find it surprising that I have to pay £3.80 for a hot dog or a bacon sandwich in a rugby ground but it still makes me wince and the price of the Fish and Chips certainly kept me close to my diet!!

Wet and windy on the Western Terrace!

The weather had started to deteriorate as well and we had tickets for the Western Terrace which is not covered. We had expected this and so were dressed accordingly but tried to keep out of the gale force wind and rain for as long as we could and ended up in the Sports Bar that looks out onto the cricket ground.

Now this is another thing I love about Headingley – it is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club – the reigning County Champions and the club that has won more Championships than any other.

The cricket ground is adjoined to the rugby stadium on the northern side and was opened in 1891 and started hosting Test Matches in 1899.

It is a great sight and I always want my kids to see it even though they have no interest in or any idea how cricket works!!!!! 

Plans have recently been unveiled for a major redevelopment of the stadium with a brand new South Stand on the rugby side which will include both a seated and standing area and a replacement for the existing joint stand which overlooks both the rugby pitch and cricket pitch on the northern side – as yet no timescale has been announced but I am sure it will be fantastic.

Everything Leeds Rugby club does seems to be fantastic – they are without doubt the template for an expertly ran sports club in my opinion.

To the match itself, and the main reason for venturing to Leeds on Sunday night was the opportunity to watch the one of the greatest rugby league players of modern times in action – unfortunately Jamie Jones-Buchanan was injured and we had to make do with Jonathan Thurston!!!

I jest of course – as good as JJB is, no one can hold a candle to JT.

When Leeds won the Grand Final back in October and the Cowboys did the same in Australia 8 days later, I made the promise to my eldest son that we would head across for this match in the New Year – the thought of a bouncing Headingley under the lights watching JT play in a hard fought meaningful encounter was enticing.

I really like this expanded World Club Series venture and fully believe that we need to continue it in it’s existing format for a few more years rather than expand it even further.

We have shown in one off matches in the past few years that Super League sides can compete with, and defeat, NRL sides.

From the World Club Challenge concept being re-born in 2000, when Melbourne Storm easily defeated St. Helens 44-6, and Leeds Rhinos defeating the Storm in 2008, Super League sides won 7 out of the 9 one off contests.

However, the tide has turned since 2009 and Super League sides had won only 1 out of 11 matches between the sides if you include the expanded contests from 2015 and 2016 leading up to this match.

On the two nights prior to the Cowboys visit to Headingley both the Sydney Roosters and Brisbane Broncos had embarrassed St. Helens and Wigan Warriors respectively – winning both matches comfortably.

The major concern was that the same thing would happen to the Super League champions.

Everyone knew that Leeds had lost players of the calibre of Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Peacock, Paul Aiton and Kylie Leuluai and it was clear to see in their opening two Super League games, losses at home to Warrington Wolves and a hammering at Widnes Vikings, that they were struggling to come to terms with replacing those great players.

Add in long term injuries to JJB and Stevie Ward, which mean they wouldn’t even start their season’s until much later in the year, and early season injuries picked up by new skipper Danny McGuire and new signing Beau Falloon plus Carl Ablett, Tom Briscoe and Ashton Goulding all in the disastrous defeat at Widnes and the storm clouds were already closing in on Headingley well before the teams entered the field for their warm up.

Lizzie Jones

I loved the fact that Lizzie Jones sung at all three games over the weekend – what happened to her husband and her family last May (if you have had your head in the clouds or are not a rugby league fan you will need to know that her husband, Danny, died of a heart attack whilst playing for Keighley Cougars last May) was heart breaking and tragic – their twins were only a few months old at the time.

Lizzie is a brilliant professional singer and has since sung at high profile events such as the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, to a rapturous and emotional welcome, before one of the Test Matches against New Zealand at the end of last season and, very impressively, at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards in Belfast last December.

She was singing at all three venues over the World Club Series weekend to help raise awareness of her campaign to ensure that enough funds are raised so that defibrilator’s are available at every rugby league ground, professional and amateur, in the country – a very worthwhile cause.

North Queensland named the 17 man line up that had so magnificently won them their maiden Premiership title last October with a golden point drop goal victory over Brisbane Broncos.

How many other Premiership winning teams from either side of the world have even retained their full squad for the following season let alone played them in World Club challenge?

A big cheer went around the ground when Jonathan Thurston’s name was read out on the team sheet, it appeared everyone in the ground was looking forward to seeing him play.

The Rhinos really did have a big job on their hands if they were to win a record fourth World Club title and for the first 40 minutes the Rhinos gave as good as they got.

Adam Cuthbertson started off well and was off loading virtually at will and the Rhinos seemed to have a spark that wasn’t there in the first couple of rounds and they were defending strongly.

JT’s first couple of involvements were not good either – the first was a kick through near the line that was cleared up easily by Ryan Hall and the second was a strong pass across the line that was knocked on under pressure.

However, it was 3^rd time lucky for JT.

The Cowboys had an attacking set close to the Rhinos line and JT was on the right hand side of the attack heading towards the Western Terrace where we were stood.

Michael Morgan dives over.

Hooker Jake Granville got the ball to JT and a dummy runner was enough to pull Rob Burrow in and JT hit his half back partner Michael Morgan with a beautiful pass and Morgan scorched in for the opening try – the Western Terrace echoed to my cry of ‘’WHAT A BEAUTFUL PASS!!!’’

JT continued to show he was human though by missing the conversion and his next involvement saw his pass intercepted by Ash Handley.

The Rhinos were really competing well and stand in skipper Rob Burrow was a constant thorn in the Cowboys side from acting half and it was his pass from close to the Cowboys line to the outstanding Cuthbertson that created the Rhinos first, and what turned out to be only, try of the night.

The former Newcastle Knights prop charged at the line and cleverly flipped the ball out of the back of his hand to the supporting Burrow who took Lachlan Coote over the line with him – the ground erupted and I think the Rhinos players were just as surprised themselves that they had got back on level terms.

Rob Burrow levels the scores.
 

Leeds managed to hold the Cowboys for the rest of the half, and created one or two chances themselves, and they could be proud of their first half efforts going in at 4-4 and in with a real chance of winning the match.

The second half was a different story and the Cowboys ran away with the game after scoring two very early tries – the first within a minute of the kick off from a dropped ball close to the Rhinos line.
It was a very soft try and seemed to deflate the Rhinos, and the crowd, and it was just a case of trying to remain competitive for the rest of the game.

They did manage that to a certain extent but Thurston and the Cowboys were now in cruise control with JT controlling everything the Cowboys did and having a hand in just about all of their tries.

JT scores against the Rhinos.

Put simply, he knows how to run a rugby league team. He doesn’t do anything particularly spectacular, he will not make 80 yard breaks, is not fleet of foot nor overly muscular and physical – he doesn’t need to be – but he is constantly thinking and making sure he, and his team, are one or two steps in front of the opposition.

The one thing to get the home crowd roaring in the second half was the cheap shot from Mitch Garbutt on James Tamou. I don’t think Garbutt should be lauded for what he did, a punch can be very dangerous and I don’t think Tamou deserved to be laid out because of a light slap on another player, in fact there was no need for Garbutt to get involved.

The former Brisbane Broncos prop deserved to be sent off and should have been banned for at least 6 games in my opinion – two is not enough.

There is nothing that gets a crowd going more than a bit of biff but strong hard punches to the head, like Garbutt’s, can prove life changing – we should do what the NRL have done and ban punching totally from the game.

We left the match with about 5 minutes left to play and the Cowboys scored their final try as we were departing the ground past the cricket pitch behind the North Stand so I didn’t get to see the trophy presentation or JT come up to the Sky booth – which was right next to us on the Western Terrace – to do his match analysis with Jon Wells.

Co-captains Matt Scott and JT.

It was now getting colder and we were wet and it was a school night and we had to negotiate our way through the very heavy Headingley traffic before even thinking about getting out of Leeds.

That in itself was a challenge.

We were parked down a little side street called Chapel Lane which was rammed with cars and we were lucky to find one parking spot half way down when we arrived 2 hours before kick off.

However, I wasn’t feeling lucky 60 minutes after the game had finished when I was still down Chapel Lane.

The traffic was ridiculous and we were hardly moving plus one or two other problems had occurred as well.

I travel the country a fair bit for my work and have come to rely on a SatNav to get me everywhere I need to be.

It was the same on this day even though I have been to Leeds many times. Call it an indictment on modern day society if you wish – I just like to make sure I don’t have to read too many road signs!!

Anyway, when we got back to the car – the SatNav wouldn’t charge.

A bit of investigation showed that, somehow, the part that connected my SatNav cable into the car charger had broken. This had happened in the time between us getting out of the car to attend the match and getting back in after it had finished – how did that happen???

My TomTom is a few years old now and the battery dies within minutes without a charger and this was the case again.

Next idea!!

Use my mobile phone. I got the map up easily but at the same time came the message that my phone battery was running low.

No problem – I’ll just charge my phone won’t I? No, I won’t because I didn’t have my charger with me and Kelland’s Iphone battery had also died – a modern technology nightmare!!!!

I knew my way onto Kirkstall Road which then leads onto the M62 but the turn off for the M62 East was closed and I was diverted around Leeds. This was a nightmare of mine because in pre-SatNav days many years ago when I had just passed my test there was an occasion when I just could not find my way out of Leeds.

I felt as though this was happening again – I was urging a very tired eldest son to stay awake and point out any signs that said ‘EAST’ on them.

We were driving around Leeds for about half an hour late at night when I eventually saw a sign for the M1 South – I took a gamble on this and turned the car around and was rewarded with a sign for the M62 EAST and the magical word ‘HULL’ – yes, we were out at last and on our way home.

Kelland could at last fall asleep and eventually got his McDonald’s at 1130pm and went to bed a very tired but happy young man.

It really had been a day full of epic failures but you can’t beat a road trip with your eldest boy and the chance to watch one of the greatest rugby league players of all time in action – I’m looking forward to the next trip already.

SIX TALKING POINTS.......FROM SUPER LEAGUE ROUND 3.

Dom Manfredi

1.

Only two teams have a 100% record after round three and at the start of the season you would not have been surprised that one of those teams would be Wigan Warriors. However, it is clear that they are not playing well and they have struggled to put any of their games to bed and were lucky to get away with the win at home to Salford Red Devils on Thursday night. The Warriors held a comfortable 16-2 lead at one point but allowed the Red Devils to get back in the game and they got seriously lucky with the winning try.

If the video referee had been in place for this match there would have been questions raised over Tautai’s play the ball and also Dominic Manfredi’s finish in the corner.

The Warriors are not looking fluent in attack at the moment and it could have been a different story if the game had been televised or if Salford had not had an unscheduled 4 day turnaround after their tough league win over Widnes Viking the previous Sunday.

I must admit that I like the look of Salford, particularly Robert Lui and Ben Murdoch-Masila.

2.        

Chris Sandow scoring his second try.

Warrington Wolves are the second team with a 100% record after three rounds and they were never in trouble from the instant Ben Currie went 90m to score after a Wildcats error. He showed an impressive turn of speed for a big man and is a true athlete and one of my favourite players.

The Wildcats head coach Brian Smith bemoaned the 5 day turn around his side had after picking up their first win of the season at Hull KR last Sunday but he can be proud of his team’s performance – remember that they lost last year’s corresponding fixture 80-0 – after they trailed 24-6 at half time. They could easily have fallen away but held the Wolves 10-10 in the second half.

It is great to see that Chris Sandow is firing on all cylinders at the moment. He scored two tries against Wakefield including one cracking individual effort when he chipped and regathered and had a hand in two other tries as well. He might be worth a punt on the Man of Steel award if he can stay fit.

Denny Solomona scores against Hull FC.

3.

Hull FC lost their 100% record in a fantastic contest against Castleford Tigers. I have mentioned before that it is all about consistency for Hull FC and winning the tough close games against teams who will be challenging for the top 4 and there level of performance dropped off only slightly against the Tigers but it was enough to cost them the game.

I don’t think they should be too upset.

The Tigers played really well and bossed the game through half backs Luke Gale and Ben Roberts, who is really sparking into life this year, whilst the FC combination of Marc Sneyd and Leon Pryce struggled at times.

At 12-0 and 18-6 down in the first half FC would have gone into their shell and accepted defeat in 2015 but they are a different proposition this year and should be credited for making the Tigers work really hard for their two points.

Jamie Shaul and Danny Houghton were outstanding for FC whilst, in addition to their half backs, Tigers wingers Denny Solomona and Jy Hitchcox played really well and scored all 5 tries between them – Solomona with the hat trick taking him to 6 tries for the season. Hitchcox, an Australian signed from Featherstone Rovers, looked comfortably at home after being called in late on when Joel Monaghan dropped out injured.

Green and Burns let fly.

4.

Hull KR’s atrocious performance at home to Wakefield Trinity Wildcats last Sunday helped towards Head Coach Chris Chester losing his job last week and the Rovers fans really needed caretaker coach Willie Poching to lift his players to a higher level against St. Helens on Friday night.

He certainly achieved that, particularly in the first half, but they lost their way when Albert Kelly left the field injured just before half time.

Kelly looks likely to miss this weekend’s trip to leaders Widnes Vikings, another injury blow to an already severely weakened squad and they could also be without in form prop James Green who has been charged for punching Travis Burns and could face a two match ban.

Former Rovers captain Burns faces the same charge for the punch up with Green – a simmering feud which was carried over from last year’s fixture when Green was responsible for Burns fracturing his cheekbone.

The Robins led a poor St. Helens side 16-10 at the break and could have had a bigger lead as a dubious video referee decision cost Ryan Shaw a try on his full debut in the corner.

The on field referee, Phil Bentham, called it up as a no try on the say so of his touch judge who thought that Shaw had a foot in touch. The replay clearly showed he did not but then the video referee, James Child, decided that there was a small amount of separation between Shaw’s hand and the ball as he touched down and because Bentham had called it as a no try it was easy for Child to turn the try down – it was a crucial decision.

Saints improved in the second half as Rovers started to make too many errors and concede too many penalties but there is no question that the Saints are struggling at the moment and whether they are good enough to make the top 4 remains to be seen.

The Coal Train in action.

5.

I feel as though I can’t stop writing about this guy at the moment but ‘The Coal Train’ David Taylor put in a his best performance so far against defending champions Leeds Rhinos on Saturday night. He was virtually unstoppable, scoring two tries and being a real handful throughout the match – he really is a joy to watch. His performance overshadowed the return to Super League of Willie Mason, who was solid if not spectacular whilst fellow Aussie recruit Glenn Stewart made a massive 56 tackles.

The Dragons came back well from their poor showing against Hull FC and could have tied the game up a lot quicker having led 24-8 early in the second half.

The Rhinos showed good spirit and played much better than they have this season and even though they remain bottom of the league after round 3, they will be hopeful of getting off the mark at the weekend against the only other team without a point so far this season, Huddersfield Giants.

Kevin Brown - England class?

6.

Whilst Huddersfield Giants are struggling, like Hull KR they have a skinny squad and plenty of injuries, the Widnes Viking went back to the top of the table with a comfortable 36-18 win at the Giants.

Vikings skipper Kevin Brown was on top form and Corey Thompson joined Solomona at the top of the try scoring charts – two tries taking his total to 6 as well.

Denis Betts stated that Kevin Brown was good enough for an England call up – there is absolutely no doubt about that but I’m afraid it is unlikely to happen.

A Brown and Danny Brough half back pairing for England would be better than anything we have now in my mind and it will be interesting to see if new England coach Wayne Bennett has a chat with Brough at some point.

Despite Brough being back in the Giants line up they are really struggling at the moment and need to get a few more bodies back before they look to compete for a top 4 place which is what they would have expected to achieve at the start of the season.