More fans is good no matter what

Correspondent

 

Well it’s been a busy week, we launched the love rugby league stats system and I’ve been rather pre occupied. Too busy to spend too much time getting worked up about the goings on in rugby league, but time enough to enjoy it. Last weekend saw a good weekend of rugby and a great session in the live scores chat room with plenty of people joining in, if you have a bit of time spare during a game I recommend popping on and joining in the chat. One thing that you may have missed last weekend was Rochdale’s push for a 10,000 strong crowd for their game against Workington. I will say now I would have loved Rochdale to make the total but I feel that it was really under promoted and if you’re trying to get a crowd up from an average on 400 – 500 to 10,000 you need to do a lot of work. I get North West tonight news and there wasn’t a mention of it there, in fact the only instance I saw of it was a few tweets and re tweets and as I said on Sunday tweeting to 600 followers isn’t going to do the trick. 

In the end 1021 people turned up to watch the game which is great, more than double the usual crowd and hopefully some of those people stick with the Hornets who produced a 45 – 20 win. That achievement gets easily lost though against the 10,000 target which is a pity. I’d certainly like to see it tried again at some point in the future but maybe with a more achievable target and a lot more promotion because at the end of the day any effort to get more people watching the sport is worthwhile.

The afternoon in the chat room though did allow me to keep track as I racked up another 100% week on the tipping. I was surprised to see how many people weren’t expecting a Leeds defeat away to Catalan, many people are still stuck with the idea of Leeds of past seasons and haven’t quite come to terms with the team who have been playing this season. Although I guess that in itself is not unusual it’s taken some people 4 seasons to realise Bradford aren’t a top four team anymore.

I sadly don’t expect a repeat of my success from last weekend with a few more in the balance games but you never know I’ll do my best, here’s how I reckon the weekend will unfold.

Leeds 22 – 18 Hull – A close one I think, as already mentioned Leeds just aren’t as formidable as they used to be and Hull have been playing well. However Leeds are still capable of a good performance and I think they could lift their game to grab a home win.

Saints 22 – 10 Catalan – So many times in the past this would have been a Saints win without a question, but not at the moment. Catalan are playing well, hot on Saints tails for a top 4 spot and I expect a tough close game but Saints to assert their dominance as a top 4 team.

Wigan 48 – 8 Wakefield – Wigan all the way here, Wakefield have looked poor in recent weeks, their tackling last week was atrocious and unless there’s a big improvement Wigan will be picking holes all over the place with ease.

Crusaders 32 – 30 Castleford – Whilst I’d say Cas are the better team they played 3 games in a little over a 7 days last week and it’s often this end of a run like that you can often let yourself relax a little bit more and get caught out. Crusaders have often looked short of ideas and will welcome back players suspended for last weeks game who should all have a point to prove. It’ll be close but I think Crusaders could snatch their fifth win of the season.

Quins 8 – 56 Warrington – Warrington showed last week what a great team they can be but they soon took their foot of the gas in the rain. I can’t see them doing the same this week against a 12th placed Quins team and I expect another 50 pointer to boost their impressive points difference.

Hull KR 22 – 10 Salford – Salford are a horrible team to make predictions for, they have pulled out a result with no prior warning at various points in the season. I’m going to stick with the form guide though and back KR to win this one.

Bradford 8 – 28 Huddersfield – A good old all Yorkshire affair for Sunday afternoon, the embodiment of traditional rugby league surely? A win here for a strong Huddersfield team and I’d be confident with a 20 points margin though again Bradford are capable of an upset and Huddersfield can still be caught out.

 

So that is the week and I’m always hoping for a 100% record but I wouldn’t be putting any money on this week. Sticking with the American connection from last weeks video a few adverts for the Jacksonville Axemen were posted online this week, going with a “No pads, no helmets” tag line we then get a lazy looking play the ball to kick off the promo.

 

Jacksonville Axemen Commercial July 16th from Tristan Morhous on Vimeo.

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