I'd personally rather win knowing the opposition have no excuses.

You know the Aus pres will make a meal of it if we win and Manly' warm up game was cancelled etc. They'd call it a fix.

Some people may not be bothered though so....

Cant see it happening (although his point is valid) as Quins will object. I think they will get a good crowd by attracting the Aussies down in London to the Manly game. It will also bring out a lot of neutral RU supporters why might fancy seeing the best attacking team in the world play.

Who wants to go watch a poor Bradford team

Neither will Leeds so we could play you and Quins?

Manly arent a bad side either though you know

On the same weekend Mick? Why not, you might as well get two defeats out of the way at the same time I suppose.

That'll never happen as long as it's Aussies that are losing.

That is never going to happen while the match is played here in winter with a only home support. A warm-up doesn't make a difference to the Aussies opinion of this event.

Or Bradford to pick up four points and move eight clear at the top

I'm guessing Bradford would have been consulted re starting their season a week early. If they agreed to this, they get little sympathy from me. No good complaining about fixture congestion now; had their game not been called off they'd've had a less congested season than many of their rivals.

very true but we know ourselves that these excuses will go on forever as long as the competition is 'unfair' on the aussies. nothing we can do about it, but it would appear Manly are taking the competition more seriously than most so lets see what happens.