NRL Round 16 looked pretty straightforward on paper but turned into carnage for teams with finals dreams as the bottom clubs ran amok – let’s work through it in your talking points. That were diabolical I went in pretty hard at New Zealand last week… Read More »NRL Round 16 Talking Points: Season-killing performances as finals pretenders fumble golden opportunities
When Mark Twain talked about lies, damned lies and statistics, he clearly wasn’t referencing the 2024 Super Rugby champions, the Blues. Their 41-10 win was not only a superb exhibition of wet-weather, finals football, it tied directly to every meaningful metric. Wrap your head around… Read More »The Wrap: Unrelenting Blues power to superb title win, Wallabies selection a sign of the times
NSW need to change their tactics around shutting down Reece Walsh or the State of Origin shield will be heading back to Queensland for the third year in a row on Wednesday night at the MCG. Their plan backfired big time in game one when… Read More »Michael Hagan: How Blues can shut Walsh down without using high-risk outside in strategy
By now there have been hundreds of articles written on why it is a silly idea and why locating an NRL team in Port Moresby won’t work. It’s time we turned our minds to the positive. If we had to do it, what needs to… Read More »Incentives, cameos and the reverse draft: Why rugby league can work in PNG
After their dire 1-1 draw with Denmark, I was wondering how to describe this version of Gareth Southgate’s England. ‘Southgate-ball’ has no ring to it whatsoever, whilst ‘ready salted crisps of tactics’ might be witty but won’t escape the realms of pub jokes. Well, whatever… Read More »‘With so many conductors, no one left to play instruments’: What comes next for Southgate’s sluggish England?