Re: England vs Samoa : Mon Oct 28, 2024 9:02 am  

I think i have a good idea why International RL doesn't work or grow in this country, yesterday was an awful experience.

Started off with the national anthems, plenty near us not bothering to stand and talking all the way through them and being generally disrespectful.

Then you had the wally's with their "Who are ya" and "Come on Wigan!" rubbish. Was a good moment when Leilua turned to him and shouted "Samoa!".

When the Samoa player got into the face of Lewis lots of people near us shouting things such as "Punch him!" which led on to talk of their shared disdain for Lewis. He is playing for your country FFS, get behind him! The irony is the Salford fans where talking about how disrespectful the idiot shouting at the beginning was, but then didn't find it disrespectul at all as they wanted the samoan to do them a favour and "drop the little sh*t".

These sort of comments went on throughout the game from numerous different groups near us, typically aimed at both Welsby and Lewis but also some aimed at Williams.

As for the Salford fans behind us, they must have been upset that no Salford player had been picked as they had turned up just to watch "Welsby and Lewis get smashed / injured" and also to support Samoa over their own country. They actually left in a huff with around 15 mins left because England was winning!

Went to the bogs at one point and there was a Hull KR fan in the concourse shouting and bawling about how Mikey Lewis was being shunted, it was a disgrace he was on the bench for the Sake of Smith and how because he was man of steel he should have been a guarenteed starter. Like literally shouting and arguing with people over it, saying how he had come all the way from Hull to watch Lewis and he wasn't even playing (he was on the bench but ok).

Yeah, i don't think i will bother going next week, will just watch it from the sanity of my own couch. Shame too because it was actually a decent game, a little slow and lacking aggression at times for an international but decent all the same.

Re: England vs Samoa : Mon Oct 28, 2024 10:35 am  

I thought the game was an anti-climax all be it England were very strong. I agree that club rivalries get in the way and there will be supporters struggling to cheer on Lewis or Welsby because they don't like them. There are Saints fans too that won't support England purely because Wane is the coach, its mad really.

I do actually think though that Nsemba should've played over Bateman whether people accuse Wane of Wigan bias or not. He was sensational last season and is an unknown entity to Samoa. We know what Bateman does and he's a shadow of the player he once was. Would've been nice to see Nsemba on that stage and how he handled it. He's the future going forward not Bateman.

Re: England vs Samoa : Mon Oct 28, 2024 11:21 am  

Love Rugby League fb page reporting Australia coming over here for a 3 match series next year