State of Origin 1

State of Origin I

As I let you guys down this week with no 5^th Round Challenge Cup review I decided, as Wednesday is my only day off, to do a State of Origin match preview for you all. I love Origin; I’m a Maroon!

Queensland v New South Wales;

Venue; Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

KO; 11:10am (BST) or 20:10pm (DST)

Referees; Tony Archer (complete wally) & Jared Maxwell

Teams;

Maroons;

Billy Slater, Darius Boyd, Dane Nielson, Willie Tonga, Jharal Yow Yeh, Darren Lockyer, Jonathan Thurston, Matthew Scott, Cameron Smith, Petero Civoniceva, Nate Myles, Sam Thaiday, Ashley Harrison, Cooper Cronk, Corey Parker, Jacob Lillyman and Ben Hannant.

Blues;

Josh Dugan, Brett Morris, Michael Jennings, Mark Gasnier, Akuila Uate, Jamie Soward, Mitchell Pearce, Jason King, Michael Ennis, Kade Snowdon, Beau Scott, Greg Bird, Paul Gallen, Ben Creagh, Trent Merrin, Tim Mannah and Dean Young.

If you’re not a big NRL lover you probably won’t know the players too well, their form and stats anyway. If you are an NRL lover then I apologise if I make any mistakes; as much as I love the NRL I usually spend most of my time watching Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk.

It’s pretty obvious why Queensland have won the past five series; in the last international match 10 out of 13 Australian players were Queensland players too, but more importantly, they covered the most influential and important positions on the pitch. At full back was Billy Slater, stand off or five eighth Darren Lockyer, scrum half Jonathan Thurston and at hooker was Cameron Smith. Those positions are what Mal Meninga, Queensland coach, refers to as the back bone of his team.  They are quite simply the best in the world, well in my opinion they are and any team with them four playing in, when they’re all fully fit, should and will (usually!) win. New South Wales just aren’t a patch on them anymore and have now received the title of the “underdogs”. 

The Blues definitely have the younger, less experienced of the two sides. You can take that anyway you want to; personally I don’t think that’s a good thing. When you have two full backs on the park, one being Billy Slater for Queensland and the other being Josh Dugan for New South Wales I think I know which one you’d rather have on your side. It’ll be difficult tomorrow (Wednesday) for Dugan, the occasion might get to him seeing as he hasn’t played in any “big” matches previously. Whereas Slater plays in internationals regularly and has 14 origin appearances under his belt. I doubt Dugan would be anyone’s side over Slater.

If Queensland needed any other incentives to beat their New South Wales counterparts a great one would be that this is their captain, and international captain too, Darren Lockyer’s final origin series. The word ‘legend’ is used very freely these days but that man certainly is!

I am honestly far too excited for origin to begin. There’s not much love on twitter for my maroons, everyone seems to be big blues fans! Well, I suppose someone’s got to support them! See you on Twitter in the morning for #stateoforigin. Have a lovely evening! 

Sorry!

I have literally only got time to write this message on here! I am so sorry but the 5th Round Review isn't going to be released, or written, because I am really busy this week with revision and exams. I promise you that the new feature, the mid week round up, will begin on Wednesday and the match previews for round 15 (can you believe we've got there already?!) will be up in time for the weekend's matches! Friday's match reports will be up on Friday morning after my Chemistry exam. Enjoy your week. 

Apologies, Hannah x

Challenge Cup 5th Round Preview

Sunday 22^nd May 2011       

Huddersfield Giants v Catalan Dragons;

Venue: Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield

KO: 15:00

Referee: P Bentham

Teams;

Huddersfield (17 from): Grix, Lawrence, Cudjoe, Gilmour, Hodgson, Brown, Brough, Crabtree, Robinson, Griffin, Faiumu, Lunt, Mason, Kirmond, Patrick, Horne, McGillvary, Cording, Ferguson.

Catalan Dragons (17 from): Blanch, Sa, Stacul, Bosc, Dureau, Ferriol, Henderson, Raguin, Mounis, Gigot, Baile, Millard, Vaccari, Simon, Martins, Fakir, Paea, Baitieri, Touxagas.

First and foremost the apparent presence of Mickey Rourke at the match and quite possibly David Haye as well is amazing! I hope they’re there and in the bar! I’m sure security will be quite high ;) Get down to the Galpharm for your chance to see MICKEY ROURKE!

Both sides pushed their luck to get through to this round of the Challenge Cup after beating Batley Bulldogs and Leigh Centurions, respectively. Huddersfield currently lie 2^nd in the Super League table (well joint 1^st ;)) after beating fellow title contenders St Helens last Saturday; Catalan were unlucky to lose against Leeds last weekend, despite the scoreline, they’re 7^th. It is Catalans, however, who you could say have the upper hand over their opponents as they beat them by a singular point in France just a few weeks ago. Regular readers or my Twitter followers will remember the horrendous couple of hours I had listening to French radio!

Huddersfield are without Luke O’Donnell, who got injured in the warm up before the Saints match last weekend and Joe Wardle who was injured during last weekend’s match. It is thought that O’Donnell’s hamstring injury is the worse of the two and he is set to be out for 6 weeks. Huddersfield will also be out Keal Carlile; although I doubt he’d play in this game anyway I’d just like to pass on mine and the rest of the Rugby League community’s best wishes for his heart operation. May he make a full recovery and return to the Huddersfield team in the future. Good Luck, Keal.

Catalans have three players back from injury: Scott Dureau, Lopini Paea and Daryl Millard. However, they’re still without Remi Casty, Ben Farrar, Steve Menzies, Clint Greenshields, Vincent Duport and Cyrille Gossard.

I hope that my boys play much better than they did against Batley! Of course I want my boys to win. Good luck to both sides.

Bradford Bulls v Wigan Warriors;

Venue: Grattan Stadium, Odsal (Bradford)

KO: 15:30

Referee: S Ganson

Teams;

Bradford (17 from): Ah Van, Briggs, Burgess, Crookes, Diskin, Donaldson, Elima, Hargreaves, Jeffries, Kopczak, Langley, L'Estrange, Lynch, Olbison, Platt, Raynor, Royston, Sibbit, Whitehead.

Wigan (17 from): Tomkins, Goulding, Carmont, Richards, Deacon, Leuluai, McIlorum, Coley, Tomkins, O'Loughlin, Prescott, Lima, Hoffman, Finch, Mossop, Farrell, Tuson, Charnley, Hughes.

I’ll admit that I do love both of these sides. One of the first rugby matches I ever went to was Bradford v Leeds at Odsal and for some reason I have always loved Wigan.

The reigning Super League champions are currently third in the league but have a game in hand (against Castleford to be played in July) whereas Bradford aren’t doing too well and lie in 12^th place and are without a win in 6 super league games. Their fourth round match against Halifax, was pretty atrocious, both defensively and offensively. They were lucky that Halifax’s defence was just as bad if not worse, which meant it was them who progressed to the fifth round. Wigan had a somewhat easier tie than Bradford, they played Barrow and thrashed them 52-0.

Paul Deacon and George Carmont, the two Wigan players that are supposedly retiring at the end of the season, are set to play after shaking off the knocks they picked up in their match last week. Whilst Olivier Lima returns for Bradford. Other than that there isn’t much team news to tell you about!

I’m going to throw a spanner in the works and tip Bradford for the win. Good luck to both sides & go and support your teams!

St Helens v Featherstone Rovers;

Venue: Stobart Stadium Halton, Widnes

KO: 15:00

Referee: J Child

Teams;

St Helens (17 from): Wellens, Gardner, Shenton, Soliola, Meli, Roby, Graham, Wilkin, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Ashurst, Magennis, Foster, Armstrong, Ashe, Makinson, Hale, Greenwood, Thompson, Hand.

Featherstone (17 from): Hardman, Powell, Smeaton, Bostock, Saxton, Kain, Finn, Tonks, Kaye, Dickens, Grayshon, Spears, Dale, Welham, Haley, Morrison, Worthington, Divorty, Hardaker, Dee, Davey, Steel, Carr, Mvududu, Nurse, Gaunt, Williams, Hepworth, Hemingway, Netherton, Chappell, Johnson, Pearson. (This is Fev’s full squad & not a 19 man squad, which is obvious if you can count…)

Saints’ are still injury ravaged and they’re coming into this match on the back of a loss to Huddersfield last weekend, a match that they probably could have won. I suppose the injuries didn’t help but ah well, that’s rugby!

Featherstone are also a tad injury stricken – clearly not on the same scale of Saints though - , themselves are without Tony Tonks (great name), Tommy Saxton and Nathan Chappell. Whilst Kirk Netherton cannot play as he is cup tied.

I’ve already done one shock of the round so I’m gonna play this one safe and go for the Saints victory.   

Good luck to your teams. I haven't proof read this so sorry if there are any errors in it! 

Challenge Cup 5th Round Preview

I have some exciting news for you all! As of next Wednesday (26^th May) I’m going to do a mid week round up of all the latest rugby league news :-) I told you it was exciting!

Saturday 21^st May 2011

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats v Castleford Tigers

Venue: The Hearwell Stadium/Belle Vue/ whatever it’s called these days, Wakefield

KO: 14:30pm

Referee: Richard Silverwood

Coverage on BBC 1 (and BBC 1 HD)

Teams;

Wakefield (17 from): Blaymire, Murphy, Korkidas, Rinaldi, King, Henderson, Morrison, Lee, Johnson, Morton, Mariano, Howarth, Veivers, Davey, Wildie, Hyde, Griffin, G Johnson, Amor.

Castleford (17 from): Arundel, Chase, Clark, Dixon, Emmitt, Ferres, Fozzard, Holmes, Hudson, Isa, Jones, Mathers, Milner, Orr, Owen, Snitch, Thompson, Widders, Youngquest.

I reckon this will be the match of the weekend, so don’t let me down fellow Yorkshire sides! I’ll be sure to tell you in my write up on Sunday night/Monday morning whether it lived up to my expectations or not.

Wakefield beat Castleford by four points in the Easter Friday meeting between these two sides after a thrilling game. Could Wakefield pull off another shock and beat their neighbours? Of course they could, I’m not saying they will though!

Castleford will have Willie Isa and Nick Youngquest back for this match after injury. They have also recalled Jordan Thompson and Daryl Clark; they missed last week’s thrashing against Warrington.

Wakefield have kept Dale Morton, who has scored three tries in the past two games, in their squad after a successful return after a serious knee injury. However, they are without five players, two of which are injured, Chris Dean and Luke George. Whilst the other three are all cup-tied, they are Liam Higgins, Tyrone McCarthy and Gareth Moore.

I’m not a lover of either side but I’d love to see Wakefield beat Castleford again. It may happen, but I’m not sure. Good luck to both sides.

Widnes Vikings v Hull FC;

Venue: Stobart Stadium Halton, Widnes

KO: 15:00

Referee: R Hicks.

Teams;

Widnes (17 from): Leuluai, Grady, I'Anson, Allen, Coyle, Heckenberg, Lunt, Tyrer, Kavanagh, Penny, Pickersgill, D Sculthorpe, Houghton, Ropati, Gore, Varkulis, Gardner, Flynn, K Haggerty.

Hull FC (17 from): T Briscoe, Dowes, Gleeson, Horne, Houghton, Kent, Lauaki, Manu, Moa, O'Meley, Phelps, Radford, Sharp, Tickle, Turner, Washbrook, Westerman, Whiting, Yeaman.

Widnes will be somewhat weakened for this match after their three dual registered players, Dom Crosby, Logan Tomkins and Joe Mellor have not being given permission to play by their parent club, Wigan.

Richard Agar is going to rest Sam Obst for this match as he suffered a side strain in their match against Salford last weekend. Craig Fitzgibbon will also be rested and Sean Long is still out with his broken hand.

I know very little about this match as you can probably tell from the preview. I reckon Hull will beat Widnes, in some style. They’ll miss the Wigan boys.

Challenge Cup 5th Round Preview

Friday 20^th May 2011.

I hope you’ve had a great week!  Exams are coming thick and fast so please excuse me if the previews and reviews are a bit short over the next few weeks. I’ll try my best to keep up with it all but as you can imagine I’ll be a little short of time!

Warrington Wolves v Swinton Lions;

KO: 20:00

Venue: Halliwell Jones Stadium, Warrington

Referee: T Roby

Teams;

Warrington (17 from): Atkins, Blythe, Bridge, Briers, Carvell, Clarke, Cooper, Grix, Higham, King, J Monaghan, M Monaghan, Morley, O'Brien, Riley, Solomona, Westwood, Williams, Wood.

Swinton (17 from): Mort, Foxen, Dodd, Hurst, Flooks, Ainscough, Watson, Morrison, Smith, Holland, Hawkyard, Cunniffe, Joseph, Ashall, Wilson, Paterson, Meekin, Gallagher, Hamilton.

I used to think Swinton were actually called Swindon; I still called them Swindon up until sometime last year when I was told that they’re two completely different places. You guys will definitely sleep tonight after hearing that, I’m sure!

Warrington have been given arguably the easiest tie of the round, and that’s no disrespect to Swinton. League leaders of Super League (Swinton are also league leaders, of Championship one) Warrington will rest Brett Hodgson who got injured last Friday during their thrashing of Castleford last Friday, he confirmed that night on his twitter page that it was only a spasm and that he’d be fit, there is no point playing him in this match anyway! Louis Anderson will also be rested and not Vinnie as reported by the BBC, as the latter no longer plays for them!

Swinton are clearly doing well this season as they are sat at the top of Championship One. I don’t really know too much about them I’m afraid so if you’re a Swinton fan I apologise for not knowing your geographical location (you wouldn’t have thought that I got an A* in Geography the other day would you?!) and for knowing literally nothing about your team. Oh and for what I’m about to say….

To be honest, I can’t see this being anything other than another 50+ score for Warrington. They’re on fire at the moment and whatever they do seems to come off for them. Good luck to both sides.

Leeds Rhinos v Harlequins RL;

KO: 20:00

Venue: Headingley Carnegie Stadium, Leeds

Referee: B Thaler

Teams:

Leeds (17 from): Smith, Delaney, Senior, Hall, Burrow, Leuluai, Buderus, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Ablett, Sinfield, Lauitiiti, Bailey, Kirke, Burgess, Hauraki, Clarkson, McShane, Hardaker.

Harlequins (17 from): Ambler, Bailey, Bolger, Burnett, Calderwood, Clubb, Dorn, Ellis, Gale, Howell, Koupartisas, Krasniqi, Melling, O'Callaghan, Randall, Temata, Ward, Wilkes, Williams.

You’ll be happy to know that I know the geographical locations of both these cities as I visit both regularly, aha.

Leeds are in good form at the minute having won their last five matches (in league and cup) whereas Harlequins are quite the opposite. Their Super League form is terrible; they haven’t won a Super League match since the 11^th March. They did thrash Gateshead a couple of weeks ago to progress to this round of the Challenge Cup however, it was nothing more than expected.

Chris Clarkson is set to return for the Rhinos this weekend after limping off in the previous round’s match with a suspected broken ankle. They’re still without the other two players, Danny McGuire and Brent Webb, who were injured in the same game.

I’m not to sure as to which way this result will go. The Challenge Cup is a whole different game and it depends on who is most up for it on the day. I’ll stick with the form – and home – side, Leeds for the win!

 Salford City Reds v Hull KR;

KO: 20:00

Venue: The Willows, Salford

Referee: T Alibert

Teams;

Salford (17 from): this never fails to happen on Challenge Cup weekend. I am lacking team news!

Hull KR (17 from): Briscoe, Cook, Cockayne, Clinton, Dobson, Fox, Fisher, Galea, Green, Hodgson, Lovegrove, Latus, Murrell, Netherton, Vella, Wheeldon, Webster, Welham, Watts.

Despite lacking team news for Salford several sources have told me which players are set to miss out, through injury or otherwise. Wayne Godwin and Ashley Gibson won’t be playing as they were both injured in last week’s defeat by Hull FC. Sean Gleeson is set to return, however, after recovering from a hernia operation.

Hull KR may well be without Liam Watts despite scans showing that he hadn’t broken his thumb in the victory over Bradford last weekend; Clint Newton and Liam Colbon are also out. Scott Murrell will be available to play though.

This is the sort of match that I’m not really bothered who wins. Hull KR.  

Super League: Round 14 Review.

Friday 13^th May.

I mentioned in my previews for this round that some teams could have their worst dreams come true on Friday 13^th and for Harlequins and Castleford that pretty much came true! More of that later…

Salford City Reds 16-32 Hull FC;

Hull FC continued their winning run on Friday night with victory against Salford. Hull opened their points bank early, going 18-0 up by the eleventh minute. Similar to how the started the match against St Helens a couple of weeks ago; we all know how that finished! Hull didn’t want to let Salford mount a comeback like Saints did.

Salford had put 102 points past their opponents in their last two matches so you could say that confidence was pretty high. Their defence this week was dreadful, especially in the first quarter. They did score two tries before halftime and were back in the game, despite being 14 points behind. The half time score was 24-10 in Hull’s favour.

Salford started the second half better than they did the first half. They scored first through a Stefan Ratchford try which was converted by Daniel Holdsworth, however that was their final score of the match with Hull going on to score two more tries.

Crusaders RL 23-10 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats;

Crusaders still sit bottom of the table despite their victory against thirteenth placed Wakefield. It was the away side that started the game better, scoring two tries both of which were scored by Dale Morton. Only one of which was converted by Josh Griffin, however. The Yorkshire men went into the half time break 10 points up.

Crusaders got back in the game immediately and it was soon 10 all and it was clear to see that Crusaders wanted this victory more than the Wildcats, despite their performance in the first half.

A Michael Witt drop-goal in the 68^th minute gave Crusaders the lead for the first time in the match; whether it’s one point or a hundred, it’s still a lead! Wakefield put a lot of ball to ground and it was probably their handling errors in the second half that lost them the game. Ryan O’Hara and Rhys Hanbury both scored in the final few minutes to seal victory for Crusaders who are now only 2 points away from Wakefield in the table.

 Leeds Rhinos 30-6 Catalans Dragons;

Leeds continued their winning streak with victory over French side Catalans. The win takes them up to 5^th place in the Super League table. According to all accounts the scoreline flatters Leeds a little as Catalans tried their very best, with quite a few players out, and were still in the game for at least an hour.

It must have been a real tough encounter in the first half as only one try was scored; Ryan Hall was the scorer for Leeds. 6-0 was the half time score.

It was a battle of the defences throughout the whole game and it wasn’t until the 52^nd minute when the next try was scored, Kylie Leuluai scoring his second try of the season for Leeds. Ryan Hall ran 60 metres only to be taken in to touch 20 metres away from Catalans’ line. Catalans themselves scored ten minutes after Leeds’ second try with Ian Henderson scoring; it was converted by Thomas Bosc. That was their only score of the game.

Sinfield kicked a penalty for the home side before Zak Hardaker scored two tries near the end of the game to seal the victory. Rob Burrow also scored to give Leeds a 24 point winning margin.

Wigan Warriors 54-6 Harlequins RL;

Harlequins absolutely thumped Gateshead in the Challenge Cup last weekend but they were 24 points down by the 12^th minute of the match, no repeat of their victory against the reigning super league champions again this year!

It’s pretty clear from the scoreline that they were never in the game and they were losing by 42 points at half time, imagine the team talk! Admittedly, the Londoners did get better in the second half, well marginally, but lets face it they were never going to come back from 42-0 at half time were they?!

Former Wigan wing-man Mark Calderwood scored Harlequins’ solo try which could only give them mere consolation on the journey home. Harlequins, it could have been worse, you could have been Castleford playing Warrington.

Warrington Wolves 62-0 Castleford Tigers;

Castleford got well and truly destroyed on Friday night by Warrington who were playing in their charity kit. I am possibly the only person who likes that kit as the consensus on twitter was that it was “vile” and “disgusting”. Eddie called it gold, is he bloody colour blind as well as being a complete idiot?

Castleford were physically strong enough to battle with league leaders Warrington who were on fire. They went 10 points up within seven minutes as Super League debutant Gareth O’Brien and Warrington legend Lee Briers both crossed for Wire.

Castleford’s defence was pretty much none existent, well it wasn't players were there, obviously, they just couldn’t “defend the indefensible".

There are so many tries, eleven in total, to talk about but I actually feel sorry for Castleford. I know what it’s like to be on the wrong end of that sort of scoreline against Castleford – Challenge Cup last year, worst match ever!

Well done Warrington, it’s back to the drawing board for Castleford.

Hull KR v Bradford Bulls

Hull KR v Bradford Bulls;

Venue: Craven Park, Hull

KO: 15:00

Referee: R Silverwood

Teams;

Hull KR (17 from): Briscoe, Cook, Cockayne, Clinton, Dobson, Fox, Fisher, Galea, Green, Hodgson, Lovegrove, Latus, Netherton, Taylor, Vella, Wheeldon, Webster, Welham, Watts.

Bradford (17 from): Ah Van, Bateman, Briggs, Burgess, Crookes, Diskin, Donaldson, Hargreaves, Jeffries, Kopczak, Langley, L'Estrange, Lynch, Olbison, Platt, Raynor, Royston, Sibbit, Whitehead.

Neither side is in wonderful Super League form at the moment, and Bradford were pretty lucky to beat Halifax last weekend after another, dare I say it, dreadful performance. They both won but they conceded more points than they would have wanted, that’s for sure. I find it difficult trying to big up either of this sides of as they’re not my favourites!

Ben Jeffries will make his 50^th appearance for Bradford tomorrow after rejoining them from Wakefield. Jamie Langley and Matt Diskin are set to return to the depleted Bradford side after recovering from their respective injuries. They are without Chev Walker and Marc Herbert as they are both injured.

Hull KR will welcome back their full back Shaun Briscoe back into the side, he has missed the past six matches with a knee injury. Captain Michael Vella is also back in the side as he was rested for the Challenge Cup game against York last weekend.

I’ll go for the Bradford win, only because they’re nearer to me, haha.