Rugby League 2022

[ironsonthebrain]

Thought I'd start a Rugby League thread, I know a few of you are fans ( or at least armchair ones! ) in what should be a World Cup year (held over from last year) - it will be here in England!

https://www.rlwc2021.com/

I know that the early rounds of the Challenge Cup have begun but this weekend sees the start of the Rugby League season proper, with the first round of Championship fixtures.

SuperLeague restarts in a fortnight - can St Helen's keep up their run of consecutive Grand Final wins? Will they do the GF and Challenge Cup double again? Can Catalan Dragons do it this year? Or will it finally be Warrington's year, as their fans always say ? Maybe with Darryl Powell as coach? With France's stricter Covid regulations will having two French teams in SuperLeague cause problems?

Closer to home and London Broncos have moved home yet again - this time they will play at AFC Wimbledon's Cherry Red Records Stadium ( and also play in AFCW's blue and yellow colours - for this season anyway). Clearly a big step up from Trailfinders SC in Ealing so perhaps a show of ambition to get back into the top flight? Only problem is AFCW's grass pitch will need to be reseeded that end of the football season so Broncos will find themselves playing 5 games consecutive away games mid-season. Wouldn't have been a problem with Ealing's artificial surface. Also the players will now be part time not full time professionals. A new coach with no experience at Championship level, an almost entirely new squad who mostly have no experience at Championship level- could they all step up or will they be out of their depth? Only about half a dozen of last season's squad have been retained after the disappointment of failing to make the play-offs, although a couple of ex-Broncos with top flight experience have returned to the Capital. Either way it's part of a massive rebuild , so maybe keep expectations low until the Broncos a have got a few games under their belt?

Any thoughts on the 2022 season?

[pablo jaye]

Will be hoping for a bit of a better show from Leeds Rhinos, who I started following when I was a student there in the late 80s.

Will also be tuning in to the NRL down under - a bit of a different game down there, dare I say it, a step up in quality across the board. Have followed the Manly Sea Eagles somewhat randomly after witnessing a monster scrap break out between them and Melbourne Storm about 10 years ago.



The second scrap between Karl Pilkington lookalike Glen Stewart and Adam Blair as they reach the touch line made it all kick off big style.

[wolf359]

Ex-in laws are Saints fans (I also worked in the town for 13 years.) I was at the grand final and usually go to a few games a season. Been to Wembley the challenge cup final in the distance past with Saints as well. I'll turn into a few games on Sky if I am free but would not usually change my plans to watch a game on the box.

Hopefully the season can be settled on points won rather than the ppg averages used which rather skewed things (depending who the missed games were against)

[LittleChris]

Ooops

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... r-60430547