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Yakstorm last won the day on April 15

Yakstorm had the most liked content!

About Yakstorm

  • Birthday 29/12/1982

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  1. So long as the overall presence of the game continues to grow, the turbulence is definitely healthy. For a country the size of the US, to even be truely classified as having a presence we need a lot more clubs than what we've got now, and the work of the CRL, NARL and USA Women's RL has actually done wonders in fast tracking some growth which had been stagnant for too long under the USARL banner. I just hope though, once it comes to opportunities to work together (ie. next World Cup Qualifiers), that there can be enough cooperation between the leagues. There is no doubt some decent talent running around outside of the USARL competition, and it would be a shame for the Hawks to not consider them for selection.
  2. So from everything I've read, the new 'Western USA' league, which involves the NARL West owner, Lars Haven, the California RL founder, Tom Stevenson, and the Utah RL founder, Richard Fale, will not be associated with the NARL (they have dropped everything even indicating there was once upon a western competition) and unlikely to be associated with the USARL. As such, we'll have the NARL & USARL fighting out for the East, and a new bigger league out west. Not sure how I feel on that. Arguably the US is big enough for all 3 for the short - medium term, but clearly something isn't right in the USARL that so many individuals, who have previously worked with them or tried to, are now looking to do their own thing.
  3. There is definitely a strong historical connection between the Roosters and French Rugby League and there is no doubt that connection has been strengthened since Trent Robinson took charge, but some of the claims in this thread aren't quite correct. Firstly on the jersey / colours, the primary Roosters kit is inspired by the touring French teams, same with the chosen mascot, but the club isn't the only NRL team to use Red, White & Blue (Newcastle has always declared those three colours as their team colours and arguably uses the correct 'French Blue'). On players, Jérôme Guisset (Canberra) was French born, whilst Dimitri Pelo (Canberra) and Dane Chisholm (Storm) were French representatives who were signed and played NRL before Remi. You then had the likes of Tony Gigot (Cronulla), Sebastien Martins (Brisbane) and Benjamin Garcia (Penrith) who had contracts but didn't play NRL (Ben did play in the Auckland Nines) in recent times plus a few others who have played in the junior systems like Baptiste Fabre, Cesar Rouge and Levy Nzoungou at the Storm. On the WCC, whilst unfortunately it didn't happen, Melbourne attempted to play Catalans prior to their match against Leeds in 2008, however they were denied by Super League and ended up moving their camp and match to Halifax. And as for McNamara, he was assistant coach at the Warriors when he was given the Catalans gig.
  4. Today's results: Mendi will play Waghi next weekend for the opportunity to join Lae in the Grand Final.
  5. Another club in Edinburgh would be ideal and better for the game in Scotland in the long run. The only reason I was suggesting two teams for Edinburgh was arguably their top squad is too strong for the Scottish domestic league and in many ways they'd be better off being tested in a higher standard League (like NE), but at the same time Scotland's domestic competition is too small to be able to afford losing a team. The two club approach makes that division a lot cleaner, or alternately, the SRL could always look at having some sort of Barbarians team in the NE for top players and then keeping the same clubs in the domestic league. Anyway, regardless its great to see Scottish Rugby League on the grow again and 2022 is looking even better.
  6. Disappointing to read about Strathmore, however as others have said, not completely surprising. It's definitely a learning for Scotland Rugby League that if they plan to have dual code clubs that this is one of the risks and that they need to ensure they structure the competition to minimise it if they keep these clubs. I wonder, because Edinburgh is dominating the competition as much as they are, if that also contributed to Strathmore's decision. Ideally Edinburgh can have two teams next year and play in both the North-East and Scottish competitions.
  7. If that's how you interpreted it, then sorry that not what I meant. To me I don't feel like a million+ upfront investment is a meaningless statement when trying to highlight that the NRL actually does invest in the Pacific. It's certainly a lot more than anyone else has put into Tests not involving them. As for more evidence, what would you like? I can't just hand over balance sheets from NRL events and contray to what you've implied the NRL has never released costs for the Pacific Tests in any official statement.
  8. So how much do you think it costs then? Remember you have accommodation and insurance for every player taking the field (102 players), travel for a significant portion (PNG players were predominantly based in Port Moresby in previous years, and players from the UK have flown back to take part and in 2019 one of the matches was played in Auckland), daily allowances for players in camp as per RLPA agreements, match officials fees, venue hire, marketing, fee to the IRL, etc. Sure the NRL makes up some of these costs in ticket sales, corporate hospitality, government grants, TV rights, etc, but the upfront costs are still around the million mark.
  9. The Australian Government does help fund these programs, however they don't fund the programs end to end. Using the PNG Hunters as an example, DFAT provides the Hunters over AUD300K per year for the club to operate, the NRL provides the Hunters a grant of AUD400K per year. They have provided of AUD200K to the Silktails in 2021. The Pacific Tests double & triple headers cost over a million dollars each year to run. Of the Pacific programs, the DFAT funding is exclusively for programs. The staff in the countries are funded by the NRL. The NRL also funds the staff that negotiate these deals, they don't just happen because DFAT likes Rugby League. The NRL lists in their Financial Report that the NZRL, NSWRL & QRL get $46m a year. Now the NSWRL & QRL get $20m each of that (which you can see in their respective Annual Reports), leaving $5-6m for the NZRL.
  10. The NRL has poured a lot of money into the Pacific game over the past decade and for anyone to say otherwise just shows how little they understand what the NRL does below the Premiership. To begin with, just using the Hunters and Silktails, roughly half of PNG's funds and about a third of the Silktails comes from the NRL. The NRL has paid Development staff in PNG, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. The NRL has underwritten the Pacific Tests since 2013 and it has been funding the NZRL for a number of years (that amount has been significantly increased in the past 12 months). They have literally poured tens of millions in investment outside of Australia. Now are they perfect? Far from it and of course the clubs, just like Super League clubs, are selfish parasites only concerned about themselves. But to say the NRL has done nothing for the Pacific is out and out lies.
  11. Since the last World Cup, Australia has won 2 out of 4 Tests they've played, so they are by far the same dominant side as they were back in 2017. Of that NSW team that played, both Jarome Luai and Brian To'o have said that they want to play for Samoa at the 2021 World Cup and Junior Paulo has previously played for Toa whilst Tariq Sims and Daniel Saifiti have previously played for Fiji. Playing on the dry track of Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville is also nothing like playing at any of the fields in the UK, except for Leigh... but I don't think they'll get a match there.
  12. They've named the squad, it's Jackson Hastings. Sheens felt he didn't need anyone else when deciding who should play for the Combined Rest of the World Other Nationalities All Stars Invitational XIII, although I hear Blake Austin is an outside chance of either Wing, Fullback or Prop forward.
  13. It's great to see the Edinburgh Eagles actively seeking additional games to play and for the North East Rugby League to help accommodate them. Also great to see that newcomers, the Forth Valley Vikings, have already launched a juniors program for ages 13 - 18 as well.
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