So with 12 games gone and 11 left before the split, what are your thoughts on the season so far? Who has impressed and who will make the 8?

Overall I think the general quality is poor, however that has resulted in some fantastic matches.

Impressed with Catalan, and Wakey have done better than expected. Surprised at how poorly Huddersfield and Leeds have performed. Other than those four I think everyone, within a place or so, are where I would have expected to see them before the season started.

I think the current top five will be the finishing top five with everyone else appearing to be tripping over themselves trying to miss out on the Super Eights. Suspect that Salford and Castleford will make the top eight but the final place could be anyone.

Pretty poor standard with only a few high intensity games, lots of topsy turvey results with some big blow out scores. Who would have thought 2 of the best teams from last season falling off a cliff in Huddersfield and Leeds. Obviously Warrington and Catalan look the better placed to be definite top 4 at the moment.

There is a very remote possibility of a team in Wigan being league leaders after 23 rounds with a negative points difference if the unpredictable scores carry on into the second half of the 23 game period.

Its a Jekyll and Hyde competition with most teams playing good in one short period then playing diabolical in the next couple of games. Ref standard probably an all time low and add the factor of a lot of time wasting by players making game time much longer, the sport has gone sterile and will get worse before it gets better if the RFL don't address issues.

Not overly thrilled at Cas having the worst defence in the league. Missing Shenton chronically, his defence and leadership are not replaceable.

Defences are just not good enough. I'd rather see an 18-12 over these 38-34 like scores

I think it's been a great season so far. First season in a while with genuine unpredictability about the winners of each game.

Who saw HKR blowing Cas away today? Hudds nilling Wire? Wakey destroyin Wigan the other week?

Agree that the quality hasn't been what it should but there have been a lot of injuries which has had an impact on that. But there have been some of the best games I've seen this year, the Saints vs Leeds one being the most recent.

This season is getting too unpredictable, it’s about time the S.C. was increased, and then normal service can be resumed.

What the Hell is going on? Jumped-up rubbing-rag clubs like Catalans & Hull threatening to spoil the status quo, Leeds in the bottom half, it’s an outrage.

I think it's great that clubs are being able to challenge the top clubs now. In years gone by Leeds would have won 3 or 4 of the games we've lost this season because those clubs wouldn't have held out and would've crumbled when we put some pressure on them.
It's not at the kind of NRL standard where you have to be good to win each week. But I think we're past the age of getting away with playing poorly and winning now.

I'd also say that it's no wonder the quality of the league has been affected when you look at just how many injuries there are across the league. With a small player pool it's something the RFL should've been monitoring long ago and should really investigate now.

I think top 5 will stay the same. From 6 down it could be anyones....Cas need players back bad or we will start dropping down the ladder quickly.

The number of season long injuries in the first half of season is a worry

A significant number of games are now starting to to look like basketball scores.

Good to see a couple of the non favoured clubs up the top.

Wigans crowd last week was a worry, how are crowds looking this year?

We do have a lot of mediocrity now in Superleague now that the effect of a low salary cap and the unavailability of the top quality player starts to bite. With probably the possible exception of Warringon and Catalan all the other "top clubs" have dropped down a level instead of the "bottom clubs" raising the quality of super league.
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There is also the threat of our small top quality pool of players sinking to the southern hemisphere for both the challenge and the australian dollar.

I would agree with this on the whole.

Warrington,Wigan and Catalans should make the top 4 from here and the other spot seems up for grabs, probably between Saints and Hull FC.The Widnes bubble appears to have burst but they could still make the 8. Although the general standard has been poor, hopefully the Super eights should be good quality and i expect the play offs to throw up some quality games as always.

Hopefully Catalans make OT, would be great for the competition.

How does the salary cap here or down under explain the total lack of WC half backs or general paucity of quality backs in this country?

Good question, but this has been an issue for a long, long time over here. Can surely only be down to the quality of coaching, or lack of.

Quite simple, too many ex forwards as coaches.

Two bright spots: Catalans retaining second place on the ladder, despite injuries and suspensions, and in the Championship London Broncos are definitely top two.

Third Bright Spot: in League One Toulouse appear headed for top 2 position, despite their draw with wicked Rochdale.

Look to the junior game to see the antecedent to that problem - community teams, coached to win by angry Dads with a level 2 coaching badge that they earned through a half day course; pass it to the big lad, stick the little ones on the wing and take to Twitter to laud the achievements of your young charges.

If only it was that simple.

I fully agree with you.

I guess many on here have played amateur Rugby as a young lad and seen It was always the biggest strongest most developed lad put at 6 or 13 or in a role where the ball handler should be. Its generally all about winning at that level and not enough focus on the goal of developing the right lads in their correct roles.

My eldest lad was very lightweight as a seven and eight year old but could pass a lot better than any other kid in his team and more accurately than most of the coaches. He would regularly, and without prompting from his coach, deliberately pass the ball over the head or behind the coaches chosen first receiver (the big lad) straight into the hands of a better placed runner further wide. He gave up playing as his name was never called to get a run with the ball and was invariably substituted as soon as he missed a tackle hence he rarely played for more than five minutes in a game.

Just to add, he's nineteen now and whilst not a big lad he's a solid 5'10" of bone and muscle. Not for one second suggesting that he could/would have made it if he'd continued to play, but I'm sure there are plenty like him out there who could have but were put off and allowed to slip through the net by 'angry dads' who wanted to win at any cost.

Actually think we could see a new winner thus year and because of the unpredictablilty of things this year still time for most teams to get in the 8 and stand a chance, points are being spread out more. Going to be a hell of a fight for 6-8 if the Giants and Rhinos can put a run together.

A not unfamiliar story; and the sad thing is, the 'big lad' is often just an early developer who soon becomes the average lad when his peers catch up - and he's learnt nothing from several years in the junior game of just running over smaller kids.

I'm not sure what the answer is - there's a whole load of excellent voluntary involvement in jr rugby without which, there would be no community game; but coaching is just too important to be left to poorly qualified volunteers.

Didn't Andrew Johns a few years ago touch on this and say that introducing a weight category rather than age category might help matters?

They are probably there in place with the academy and u/19's teams but struggle with the development transition to Superleague. We have probably have plenty of examples where young players start off at half back but professional clubs won't take a short term risks to play them in that position and end up on the wing, full back or hooker.

Take my club for example off the top of my head we have had Eastmond, Wheeler, Roby, Moore, Lomax, Gaskell, Charnock, Swift, Bailey etc and not one of them have nailed down a half back position.