Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup : Sat Aug 29, 2015 4:25 pm  

Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup It was billed as the most one-sided Challenge Cup final for years as the cup holders and runaway league leaders the Leeds Rhinos took on the Super 8s Qualifiers and massive underdogs, Hull Kingston Rovers. Brian McDermott showed that he was far from complacent in mid-week interviews against the team who had already defeated the likes of Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves in the earlier rounds. Would the sleeping giant of Hull KR finally awaken in the Wembley cauldron or would it be business as usual for the all-conquering Rhinos. The next eighty minutes would tell a magical story for one set of fans at the packed national stadium. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup It was billed as the most one-sided Challenge Cup final for years as the cup holders and runaway league leaders the Leeds Rhinos took on the Super 8s Qualifiers and massive underdogs, Hull Kingston Rovers. Brian McDermott showed that he was far from complacent in mid-week interviews against the team who had already defeated the likes of Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves in the earlier rounds. Would the sleeping giant of Hull KR finally awaken in the Wembley cauldron or would it be business as usual for the all-conquering Rhinos. The next eighty minutes would tell a magical story for one set of fans at the packed national stadium. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Re: Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup : Sat Aug 29, 2015 5:45 pm  

SL has come down to just 3 teams who are capable of winning something. The rest are making up the numbers in a league that is predictable. I spoke to a lifelong Wigan fan last week and he believes RL is slowly dying as there is just not enough real competition. It isn't a case now of SL possibly needing a strong Bulls back but it needs another 5-6 strong clubs in there with a chance. There seems to be a coach load of quality players about and they are in just a few clubs. The rest have average players and it shows.
Your heart has to go out to Dixon. Pace to burn but championship level with every other part of his game and too many other SL players fall into that bracket - good at one thing but average at most others. There just isn't enough real quality spread out between all clubs which is why people are not going anymore.

Bad day for RL today. This morning the BBC run a story on how Union are spending £10m to get 750 more secondary schools playing the game and joining up with pro clubs. RL has lost its sport England money due to lack of participation. Then our show-piece is boring as hell. Last year wasn't much better. I don't know what the answer is to make this fantastic game of ours more popular.

Re: Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup : Sat Aug 29, 2015 6:43 pm  

If we get promoted, or whoever gets promoted, if anyone gets promoted, then that team is a middle 8 team hoping for promotion.

Re: Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup : Sat Aug 29, 2015 7:22 pm  

woolly07 wrote:

SL has come down to just 3 teams who are capable of winning something. The rest are making up the numbers in a league that is predictable. I spoke to a lifelong Wigan fan last week and he believes RL is slowly dying as there is just not enough real competition. It isn't a case now of SL possibly needing a strong Bulls back but it needs another 5-6 strong clubs in there with a chance. There seems to be a coach load of quality players about and they are in just a few clubs. The rest have average players and it shows.
Your heart has to go out to Dixon. Pace to burn but championship level with every other part of his game and too many other SL players fall into that bracket - good at one thing but average at most others. There just isn't enough real quality spread out between all clubs which is why people are not going anymore.

Bad day for RL today. This morning the BBC run a story on how Union are spending £10m to get 750 more secondary schools playing the game and joining up with pro clubs. RL has lost its sport England money due to lack of participation. Then our show-piece is boring as hell. Last year wasn't much better. I don't know what the answer is to make this fantastic game of ours more popular.

Spot on there, the powers that run the RFL are so self absorbed that they are forgetting about what the games all about. Instead of putting forward a pattern for growth, it is a pattern for shrinkage. We actually needed to have 16 teams in SL which could have been made into 2 x8 quite easily, making each eight very competitive and having a Grand Final each year whilst creating a nursery within the bottom four teams to bring in players to allow the game to grow from the bottom - not the top. We also need to look after our home grown players as they are the fabric of which our sport will depend. The sport needs to be attractive at all levels - not just the top few teams. Many of our friends have given up on the sport which can't be good for our game.

Re: Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup : Sat Aug 29, 2015 7:30 pm  

Was that the worst final ever?

Re: Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup : Sat Aug 29, 2015 7:52 pm  

Have to agree with everything that has been said, the RFL are very shorted sighted when it comes to promoting the game, by giving the screening rights to Sky and most of the money to SL they think they have done their job.
They may say they have promoted the game by Sky getting the rights to the Championship, however, with more fingers on my hands than Sky have televised a Championship game it's a poor do and makes the RFL look pretty daft. Well done Leeds for the win but in all honesty not one of the RFL's finest hours.

Re: Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup : Sat Aug 29, 2015 7:53 pm  

debaser wrote:

Was that the worst final ever?

deffo if you come from east Hull.

Re: Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup : Sat Aug 29, 2015 7:57 pm  

Super League was exciting up to and including 15 October 2005. It tailed off greatly after that.

Re: Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup : Sat Aug 29, 2015 9:02 pm  

Credit to Leeds, they've got themselves extremely well organised and their back line is so much better than the other SL teams its actually pretty frightening.

The challenge is for other teams to match them, but it doesn't seem like its happening. Leeds must be odds on to win the Grand Final as well, probably quite easily. Who is going to stop them? Perhaps Wigan if they catch Leeds on an off-day. But, beyond that, there isn't anyone really.

[Bulliac]

Re: Rhinos Masterclass to Retain Challenge Cup : Sun Aug 30, 2015 9:31 am  

debaser wrote:

Was that the worst final ever?

It was certainly the most one sided I can remember and, of course, the score says so in capital letters. The highlight of the game was Lizzie Jones and abide with me - that was just so emotional. One real classy lady.

You can't blame Leeds for being good though, and they have a truly outstanding team. The number of teams genuinely competing for the 'pots' seems to be diminishing too, so the gains of the previous ten or fifteen years or so seem to be being reversed.