S
SAMOAN
Guest
The tournament originally scheduled for last year, begins tomorrow. Alongside the men's, there is also a woman's event and a wheelchair competition. Fixtures are being played all across England, with Coventry, Newcastle and Middlesborough being 3 of the more unusual venues for the sport.
England kick off the tournament against Samoa at St James' Park and the Samoan's do look the biggest threat of all the " Island teams. " Indeed, with a large pool of players from the Australia's NRL comp, it could be argued that they are a realistic threat to win it all.
Australia will be well fancied, but not sure this team is a good as previous ones. New Zealand will be thereabouts and look to be minimum semi-finalists. England and Samoa are closely matched and are vying for 3rd Favourite. Tonga should prove tough and round off the teams that can realistically be crowned champions.
In the woman's event, Australia will be hard to beat, but the English are improving at a good rate and I would expect Amy Hardcastle to make here presence felt.
The Wheelchair guys don't hold back either and the English look to hold a fair chance and have a recent victory over a top French team, which should have boosted confidence.
All games are being shown on the BBC (One, Two, Three, Red Button and Online) so certainly a great opportunity to showcase the sport.
Full List of teams in the Men's -
Australia
NZ
Samoa
England
Tonga
Fiji
Papua New Guinea
France
Ireland
Cook Islands
Scotland
Lebanon
Italy
Wales
Greece
Jamaica
England kick off the tournament against Samoa at St James' Park and the Samoan's do look the biggest threat of all the " Island teams. " Indeed, with a large pool of players from the Australia's NRL comp, it could be argued that they are a realistic threat to win it all.
Australia will be well fancied, but not sure this team is a good as previous ones. New Zealand will be thereabouts and look to be minimum semi-finalists. England and Samoa are closely matched and are vying for 3rd Favourite. Tonga should prove tough and round off the teams that can realistically be crowned champions.
In the woman's event, Australia will be hard to beat, but the English are improving at a good rate and I would expect Amy Hardcastle to make here presence felt.
The Wheelchair guys don't hold back either and the English look to hold a fair chance and have a recent victory over a top French team, which should have boosted confidence.
All games are being shown on the BBC (One, Two, Three, Red Button and Online) so certainly a great opportunity to showcase the sport.
Full List of teams in the Men's -
Australia
NZ
Samoa
England
Tonga
Fiji
Papua New Guinea
France
Ireland
Cook Islands
Scotland
Lebanon
Italy
Wales
Greece
Jamaica