 |
| North Queensland celebrate winning the Grand Final. |
The Rabbitohs took the honours easily defeating the Saints 39-0
but it was the presence of the Rabbitohs owner Russell Crowe that made most of
the headlines. He chose to be in St. Helens rather than attend the Oscar
ceremony in the USA and was good value for money as an ambassador for the
sport. Sam Burgess also attended the game to support his former team mates.
It was a great idea to extend the concept to 3 games over 1
weekend and that will be repeated in 2016 with St. Helens playing Sydney
Roosters, Wigan once again facing Brisbane Broncos, both Grand Final runners up
in 2015, before the weekend is rounded off with treble winners Leeds Rhinos facing
off against the Australian Grand Final winners North Queensland Cowboys, JT et
al, at a bouncing Headingley on Sunday 21st February2016 – this will be the
Rhinos first big game in the post Sinfield, JP and Leuluai era and it will be
interesting to see how they go.
I think I might just purchase some tickets for that one.
 |
| Danny Jones in action for Keighley Cougars. |
Tragedy
and Inspiration - Danny and Lizzie Jones
Tragedy is never far away from sport. Whether it is a boxer
being badly injured, a grand prix driver dying after a crash, a cricketer
killed by a bouncer or a part time rugby league player leaving home to play a
game and never returning home.
Nothing has touched our sport in 2015 in the same way that
the tragic death of Keighley and Wales international half back Danny Jones did.
And nothing has inspired us more than the way in which the
Rugby League family responded to the tragedy and in the way that his wife,
Lizzie, rose from the devastation of losing her husband and the father of her
young twins so suddenly and unexpectedly.
The most emotional moment of my year came at Wembley
Stadium in August for the Challenge Cup Final when Lizzie sang ‘Abide with Me’. You can watch her emotional performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PtdOMf-0qI
I have no admitting that I was close to tears when the pictures
of her and Danny and the twins came up on the big screens – her performance and
the reception she received was truly heart warming as was the response to the
JustGiving page set up for Danny.
The target total was quickly revised many times as the
Rugby League family took this cause to their hearts and they have so far raised
over £280,000.
If you haven’t already, you can still donate at www.justgiving.com/dannyjones29 .
Lizzie performed before the Third and final Test of the
recent England v. New Zealand Test Series and the reception she got showed just
how much love and respect the Rugby League family have for her. |
| Ken Sio scores Rovers first try in the semi final. |
Hull
KR reach the Challenge Cup Final
Let’s forget about the Challenge Cup Final itself and
remember the semi-final victory over Warrington Wolves.
What a fantastic day that was.
From arriving home at 4 a.m. in the morning from a 2 week
holiday in Turkey, having 4 hours sleep before heading over to Leeds, via
McDonalds, with 2 of my boys to witness my first Challenge Cup semi-final for 9
years (their first ever), meeting up with a load of old rugby playing friends
at the ground, witnessing a superb Hull KR performance and singing Erasure’s ‘A
Little Respect’ at the end of the game.
It is my greatest memory of the year – just watching the
Ken Sio try on TV the other day raised goose bumps on me it was such a
wonderful try.
It showed great vision from Albert Kelly to spot the
opportunity and brilliant timing and athleticism by Sio to jump higher than his
opposite number, never breaking stride or slowing down, to collect the ball
brilliantly in the wet conditions and slide over for Rovers try of the season.
We were so close to the action on that side of the pitch we
felt as if we could touch Sio.
It was a wondferful Hull KR performance and showed what the
team are capable of doing when they put their minds to it – the Rovers support
on the day was superb and helped carry the team along to a famous victory which
was only blighted by the near season ending injury to Albert Kelly, something
we didn’t know about until a few days later.
The after match celebrations in the pouring rain were
brilliant and I managed to get a couple of bear hugs with Shaun Lunt and Kieran
Dixon – who looked as if he was literally in a dream.
The fact that I experienced this magnificent occasion with
2 of my boys made the day even greater – who cares about a record defeat at
Wembley!!!!! |
| Salford owner Marwan Koukash. |
Under the leadership of Marwan Koukash they have gone from
the ridiculous to the downright unbelievable at times and it seems that every
single week there has been a story of some kind emanating from the AJ Bell
Stadium.
Unfortunately, the majority of it has been to the detriment
of the Salford club and, to a lesser extent, rugby league in general.
I have half been expecting to find out that Koukash does
not actually exist and we’ve all woken up from a bad dream.
From his infamous ‘’I’ve had enough’’ tweet after the
hammering by St. Helens in their first home game of the Super League season,
the early release of one of the Deviluotion’s biggest names, Gareth Hock, after
he received a 6 match ban, the Challenge Cup defeat to Championship pace
setters Leigh Centurions, with Hock in their ranks, the infamous foul mouthed
press conference, the extended ‘sick leave’ of Head Coach Iestyn Harris before
his eventual release, the resignations of New Zealand international full back
Kevin Locke and French international half back Theo Fages, the pay disputes
with Tony Puletua and the aforementioned Locke and the eventual termination of
the contract of Koukash’s star signing Rangi Chase – phew, have I missed
anything??
Oh yes, I hope Niall Evalds is enjoying his Maserati!!!!
The one bright spot out of this season of turmoil has been
the appointment of legendary Australian coach Tim Sheens as Director of Rugby –
there is nothing Sheens has not done in rugby league at the highest level.
Multiple Grand Final wins with Canberra Raiders and Wests
Tigers, victories at State of Origin level with New South Wales and a World Cup
win with Australia.
If anyone can turn the tide at Salford, it is Sheens –
quite what the attraction is for him I have not worked out yet. |
| Sam Burgess |
 |
| Jarryd Hayne |
Obviously, the press has gone into over drive since Sam
Burgess’ decision to turn his back on his contract with Bath Rugby and return
to South Sydney Rabbitohs.
The up and down journeys of Burgess, as he tried to earn a
position in the England Rugby Union World Cup squad, and Jarryd Hayne as he
worked tirelessly towards earning a professional contract in the NFL have been
played out in the full glare of the media in both the UK and Australia and, in
Haynes case, the USA.
As we all know, Burgess succeeded in earning a place in the
World Cup squad and subsequently became a scapegoat for the teams failure to
make it’s way out of the group of death that saw Australia and Wales qualify
for the quarter finals at England’s expense.
Hayne’s achievement in earning a professional contract with
the San Francisco 49ers and a place in their final 53 man roster for the start
of the regular season was an even bigger achievement than that of Burgess.
Both left a sport and an environment that they were very
comfortable in to test themselves and, lets be fair, hopefully earn a lot of
dosh.
That both have succeeded in the way that they have is a
testament to the sport that they grew up playing as is the way that they have
carried themselves with dignity and integrity throughout testing times in 2015.
Leeds Rhinos won everything on offer in England and did it
with style and panache whilst playing a wonderfully entertaining brand of rugby
league.
They also showed some big cahounas after the Challenge Cup
Final to come back from 3 successive defeats at the start of the Super 8s to snatch massive wins at
Huddersfield to win the League Leaders Shield, with the helicopter transporting
the trophy looking for a place to set down in Wigan, to deny St. Helens late on
in the semi final a week later and then to finally overcome a hugely determined
and talented Wigan Warriors side in the Grand Final.
The fact they knew that three legends of the club, Kevin
Sinfield, Jamie Peacock and Kylie Leuluai, would be leaving at the end of the
season just seemed to galvanised them in their moments of struggle.
Even if it wasn’t the departing players themselves who
pulled off the decisive plays, although Sinfield’s 40/20 in the semi-final
against Saints probably did change the course of the match, the rest of the
team just demanded that they meet their destiny and end up with a clean sweep
of the trophies
The Rhinos have an abundance of talent on the field and
have the best Head Coach in Super League leading them.
The fact that Zak Hardaker took home the Steve Prescott Man
of Steel Award and Bran McDermott the Coach of the Year Award showed just how
dominant the Rhinos where in 2015.
Their Challenge Cup Final demolition of Hull KR was hard to
watch but easy to admire – plenty of Super League teams would have put in a
better performance than Rovers did but I don’t think any of them would have
denied the Rhinos on the day.
Even though they scored 50 points, it was probably their
defence that impressed me most – Hull KR never had a sniff of the Rhinos try
line in the full 80 minutes.
Then you have to add in the fantastic army of support that
they have and the wonderful atmosphere that is created at Headingley,
especially under the lights when a big match is being played as testified to by
a number of the recent Kiwi touring team after over 20,000 crammed into the
stadium to watch them take on the Rhinos.
If my team, Hull KR, did not exist I would be a Leeds
Rhinos fan. Enough said.You can see Ryan Hall's try that won the Rhinos the League Leaders Shield here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipPGY9RogNA
The
final bit of extra time thinking for 2015:
Will Leigh Centurions get over the massive disappointment
of finishing bottom of the middle 8s when they were so confident of gaining one
of the four Super League places up for grabs?
There is no doubt that they will be the front runners in
the Championship again.
They have basically gone out and bought all of Salford’s
best players and have today finally announced the signing of Rangi Chase,
although he didn’t seem too happy about it himself. That was probably because
no-one in Super League wanted him.
Where will he play and who will make way? I can’t see Chase
being happy at this level of the game or being rotated with Ridyard, Brierley
or McNally and I predict that he will not see out the season with Leigh, let
alone his two year contract.
=============================================================================
Has anyone signed a Marquee Player yet? Is Sam Tomkins Wigan’s Marquee signing? There was a massive fanfare about this rule coming in and I was half expecting the majority of the current Australian Test team to be making their way over to Super League to play for Salford. But it hasn’t happened and I wonder if club’s are actually struggling to work out how to use it and who to use it on. It could be a bit of a damp squib.
=======================================================================Has anyone signed a Marquee Player yet? Is Sam Tomkins Wigan’s Marquee signing? There was a massive fanfare about this rule coming in and I was half expecting the majority of the current Australian Test team to be making their way over to Super League to play for Salford. But it hasn’t happened and I wonder if club’s are actually struggling to work out how to use it and who to use it on. It could be a bit of a damp squib.
The end to the Super League season was fantastic with the
Rhinos taking the League Leaders Shield with the last play of the season, a
wonderful semi-final between the Rhinos and the Saints (although the Giants
bottled it again) and the best ever Grand Final that saw the Rhinos fittingly
send off their departing legends with the treble in a storming game against
Wigan Warriors.
But was this down to the introduction of the Super 8’s and
did ‘Every Minute Matter.’’?
It certainly did if you had something to play for and the
middle 8’s kept the season alive for a number of teams – but teams like Hull
FC, Catalans Dragons and Warrington Wolves were dead and buried very early and
were basically left with a few friendly fixtures to fulfill in the Super 8’s.
Would it be better if the points total went back to zero at
the start of the Super 8’s just as it did with the Middle 8’s? It would
certainly have made the Super 8’s even more exciting this year.========================================================================
I mentioned the Super League Grand Final above but the NRL Grand Final the week before surpassed even our great Final.
Fortunately for Thurston he got another opportunity after
the Broncos knocked on from the kick off. The ball was worked back to him and
he kicked the winning drop goal – the stuff dreams are made.
It was fitting that it was Thurston who kicked the winning
point – he lives and breathes every moment of the Cowboys matches and is never
far away from the action – he is without doubt the greatest player in the game
at the moment.
The fact that both Finals pulled in huge crowds – over
80,000 in Sydney and a first time sell out 73.000+ at Old Trafford showed that
our game is pretty healthy at the moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dOkKCyOTHM - NRL Grand Final Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRwEy1Ax-2g - Super League Grand Final Highlights
========================================================================
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