By Dave Hadfield

The disregarded bit-part players of Ireland and Scotland are saving this world cup. Alright, there weren't that many Irish or Scots accents among the players in action on wednesday night, but when they perform like that, who cares?

i wouldn't have given Ireland a prayer against Samoa, but they matched them physically and produced the pentrative rugby when it was needed.

By Dave Hadfield

Rugby league hasn't covered itself with glory in the run-up to the World Cup. There was the farce of the contrived draw - sorry PNG, but someone has to be the sacrificial Adrian Lam - followed by the chaotic business of trying to sort out who can play for whom.

By Dave Hadfield

It was one of my better guesses - 22 out of 24 names right in Tony Smith's England squad. I'm not claiming any powers of prophecy. It's more a matter of the coach already having made it pretty clear what he wants in the various departments of his team.

By Dave Hadfield

No disrespect to James Graham, a young prop whose whole approach to the game I admire more than I can say, but my choice as Man of Steel would have been Keiron Cunningham.

By Dave Hadfield

The National League Grand Finals at Warrington on Sunday could be rather a low-key occasion. It isn't that games like Salford-Celtics and Doncaster-Oldham will be poor. On the contrary, they could be hugely entertaining.

The problem has been convincing people that they mean something. The RFL has been trying its best, but Salford and the Crusaders already know they are going up, so the main raison d'etre has gone.

By Dave Hadfield

I'm writing this week in the brief gap between trips to Perpignan. Let's face it, none of us expected to be there for one play-off this year, let alone two, but there's no doubt that they are there on merit.

You'll probably have seen how good Catalan Dragons were last Saturday, even allowing for the fact that Warrington were pretty lame. If you aren't right on your game, their combination of forward power and great skill levels on attack will take you to the cleaners.

By Dave Hadfield

Apologies to anyone who has tried to reach me on the good old-fashioned steam-powered telephone recently. All lines into Hadfield Towers have been blocked by Wigan fans calling to say 'I told you so.'

You see, I've spent the last decade assuring them that only a certifiable lunatic would want to drive them and their cash out of the JJB and that to think otherwise was a paranoid delusion. Well, just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean someone isn't out to get you.

By Dave Hadfield

I know that not everyone in Widnes, for instance, will agree with this, but we should welcome Toulouse into NL2 with open arms.

I don't believe that a second French club in Super League in three years time is a done deal. For one thing, it's now established that Toulouse will have to reach a Grand Final before they qualify to apply. Unlike other clubs, they have only two years to do that rather than three.

By Dave Hadfield

Is it possible to be too relaxed for a Cup final? History suggests that it is.

St Helens announced this week that they can't be bothered with the traditional Wembley walk-about the day before they play Hull. In some ways, you can see their point. Just about all their players were there last year so the place holds no mysteries for them. And a couple of hours on a bus negotiating the nightmare of London traffic hardly seems like the best use of time the day before a big match.

By Dave Hadfield

It's a sad fact that Don Fox will be remembered for one thing only - his missed kick in the 1968 Cup final. He deserves far, far better.