Is this not the perfect excuse to tweak the format?

No international tournament this year, so send the 2012 GF winners to Aus to play their champions in late October.

There is no international rugby league series / tournament this year?

If true, you can see why we are treated as such a joke by certain sections of the media.

There is no internationals being played by the Southern Hemisphere as they want a 'break' according to the NRL. We England will be having matches and we should 100% not have the wcc at the end of this year.

As sson as the NRL clubs learn how much $ they have to guarantee they back right away. Manly could hardly get any fans to a semi on the other side of Sydney so no wonder they weren't confident of hosting a WCC!

As said don't blame the Sl clubs for being more professional and better prepared.

What's funny about that?

cracking game

The Aussies are in pre-season. Perhaps they should bring their whole season forward to accommodate this one game. Or maybe they should play 2-3 warm up matches before it, risking injury to their players and disrupting their preparation for the NRL season.

Until the odds are even, this 'trophy' will always be meaningless. That's not a dig at Leeds, or any other club, but anyone who believes that the SL sides' dominance of this 'competition' is a true reflection of the relative strength of our club sides needs their head testing.

As would I. But this isn't about that. My comments would be exactly the same whoever was contesting the game.

So play the game in april

Whilst I understand your point I'd say that the Aussies choose not to even the odds rather than them being deliberately stacked against them. They choose to only come over a week beforehand, they choose to not play it in Australia despite several English clubs saying theyd be happy to play it over there, and they choose not to prepare with a few warm-up games.

Similar could be said for the international setup, that the odds are stacked in the Aussies & Kiwis favour. The schedule of matches (especially when held down under), the refs & reffing interpretations, and the fact the top British players usually play more games during the season than the Aussies or Kiwis. Yet when Australia or New Zealand win an international we don't say it's not representative.

Both teams had dominant periods of the game. Forme, Manly actually looked the more threatening but spilled possession too easily.

Leeds were more efficient with the ball but were aided by two fairly close calls in the Webb bomb spill and subsequent forward pass which provided the score to make it 20-12. Had those been at the other end, I doubt there would be any Leeds fans which would have been happy.

Sorry I must've missed something, i take it Wigan have had a pre-season down under then?

Not having seen the game, Leeds throwing a forward pass? Never

Leeds showed bags of character in the last 20. Manly made yards easier all night with Leeds having to work harder in defence. The score didn't reflect the game but it shows Leeds are willing to battle it out in the trenches so will be tough to beat this year.

Anyone know why Sean Long was sat up with the coaching staff for the game?!

and now they are talking about more teams in the format did we not have this a few years ago and it was rubbish

nowt better to do

What relevance does that have? The point was this...



Which Wigan have [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_World_Club_Challenge[udone[/u[/url. And for some reason that's funny?



Keep up.

matai's a horrible c**t......never liked him

To be fair, that's just below most player's knees

LOL. He took it bad last night, humiliated in front of a packed house and then stood like a moody little boy while the Champs received their medals. Only one Manly player managed a token clap. der der der der Jamie Lyon der der der der Jamie Lyon, LOL.

Wigan have done. Once. Nearly 20 years ago. And, at the time, it was impressive. Hardly relevant to the discussion about the modern competition and how it's weighted in favour of the SL team though.

If Manly had have won nobody would mention their preperation methods. They are aware of what theyre coming over for, they know the score so the only person to blame is themselves. lets not have a dig and take it away from Leeds. Its a long way to come not to take it seriously and it shows lack of respect to the travelling Manly fans who spend a lot of money coming over. So at kcik of it was all square with no balance of favour.

As for us playing at Headingley. Regardless of where we played in the UK the bulk of the crowd would have been Leeds fans even if it was in Scotland or London so it would still be "home" advantage

That's right.

If you start arguing along those lines it's easy to say the advantage is with the NRL side as they have money and play kin a better competition so are more battle hardened.

Fact is, Leeds won. In my opinion, they won against the odds as Manly looked set to steam roller them in the last 20. Regardless of Manly lacking match fitness, it was an impressive win for the SL.