Rugby League Today: Brain injuries, international boycotts and Bateman future

Drew Darbyshire

There are lots of different topics today, from brain injuries in sport, to players refusing to play internationals, to John Bateman’s future.

What’s on site

Our player spotlight feature has returned and this week we look at Dewsbury Rams star Josh Guzdek.

Love Rugby League editor James Gordon has produced a column on the return of Super League and talks about how a number of teams and players got on in the opening weekend.

Fiji players have threatened to boycott future internationals after not being paid their World Cup prize money.

With the Betfred Super League kicking off again last weekend, so has our team of the week feature.

Sheffield Eagles coach Mark Aston has said that he is concerned about the player shortage in Rugby League.

What’s in the papers

Daily Mirror’s Nigel Wiskar has done a nice feature on the seven talking points from the weekend’s Super League action, including talk on Catalans Dragons, Ben Barba, Chris Hill, Ryan Bailey, Leigh Centurions, Jack Walker and Luke Gale.

Paula Cocozza, of The Guardian, has done a look piece looking at whether children are at risk of brain injury from playing football and rugby or not. The article looks at whether you should play it safe and stop them playing the sport…

Wigan Warriors ace John Bateman is on the radar of NRL’s Newcastle Knights, Brisbane Broncos and Canberra Raiders, according to The Sun.

The Daily Star have done a feature on the top Rugby League stadiums ranked by capacity. 

What’s on social

Our paper talk feature always gets a lot of views on the site, and it created a lot of discussion on Facebook yesterday…

Workington Town’s Scott Rooke was seriously injured in a collision with Whitehaven’s Callum Philips at the derby game on Sunday and Workington have provided us with an update…

Wigan Warriors and Hull FC will compete for the Kenny Sterling Shield in Australia and the shield has been unveiled.

What’s on TV/Radio

The Super League Show made a return last night! It is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Not a live show, but make sure you check out the new Rugby League on talkSPORT 2 podcast hosted by Mark Wilson. Download now.

Monday’s Rugby League on Radio Yorkshire podcast is now available to download, hosted by Mark Wilson plus special guests.

The Final Hooter podcast is back on loverugbyleague.com, hosted by Dave Parkinson and Adrian Jackson.

James Gordon hosted Love Rugby League Weekly LIVE on our Facebook page on Friday and was joined by Love Rugby League’s main reporter Drew Darbyshire.

Features Ben Barba

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