Dragon

beat Ireland beat Everyone level on points On the run rate tiebreaker it looks like this Scotland +0.75 Zimbabwe 0 West Indies -0.27 Ireland -O.48

beat 34-12 but it was a good performance from Greece.

Quick history lesson. Rugby League split off from Rugby Union in the late 19th century. Rugby Union remained an "amateur" sport for another century but rugby league immediately became professional and had a a "rugby league" based in the North of England which was why the sport got its name. "League" developed roots in New South Wales and Queensland in Australia and the South of France as well as parts of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea but never got bigger than that. Along the way the rules changed. Instead of 15 players as rugby union has, there are only 13 in rugby league (2 fewer forwards). There are no line-outs and scrums are a lot less important. Traditionally Great Britain and Australia have been the giants of the sport but in the last 30 years Great Britain has split into England, Scotland and Wales and Australia have dominated the sport with New Zealand emerging as the second best team. What used to happen was amateur rugby union players would be tempted to sign for professional rugby league teams but when rugby union went professional in 1995 that basically ended in Europe but continued for Pacific Islanders. Now Tonga, Samoa and Fiji make up the top six teams with England, Australia and New Zealand. The weaker teams in this World Cup are made up of countries who have a lot of second and third generation immigrants in the strongest three countries of England, Australia and New Zealand.

This is the beauty of Totallympics. I can talk to people from the Netherlands or Iran about cricket, Greeks about Rugby League and ask questions about Volleyball to Serbs or Handball to people from Denmark

Results so far in the preliminary groups beat create a big shock by beating and the biggest shock comes when defeat the 2012 and 2016 champions

The Supreme Court of Guatemala objects to some of the rules of their national Olympic Committee and the IOC sees that as government interference

It ended 34-12 to New Zealand. Not a great game but a fantastic display from the Lebanese to be competitive to the end of the game

Well, it's not going to last long but just now lead 6-0....

Ireland defeat Jamaica 48-2 in the second match of the day

I can't see Russia giving him permission or else others might follow his example.

Their star today...

Will Jakovlev be eligible to qualify for the Olympics?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-63271423 Some things definitely did go wrong

This is so sad. Russian mothers try to protect their children from Putin's madness.

I know a couple of athletes who have been moved up in World Athletics championships events. They say you almost never get the money owing to you when others get disqualified for doping years later

I can only talk about about Games I remember but Melbourne, Rome and Tokyo 64 all have good reputations from those who remember them. 68 was spoiled by the effects of altitude, 72 ruined by terrorism, 76 was just average and 80 and 84 ruined by politics and rampant drug taking. Now to those I can talk about. 88 was a good Olympics but Barcelona was a fantastic Games. Atlanta 96 was great as long as you were watching on TV but the athletes and spectators were treated badly if you were there. Sydney was just magnificent, Athens OK, Bejing good, London almost as good as Sydney, Rio was fine and it's not fair to judge Tokyo 2021 because of Covid. My top three would be 1 Sydney 2 London 3 Barcelona But it depends a lot of where you come from and the problems with time zones

Good win by 42-8 over but I think England were the best team of the four today.

On which channels? The BBC coverage has been fine.

Even the BBC commentators were saying the all-star Samoa team were the favourites today but England just won 60-6.

Well, Samoa have just looked hopelessly under-prepared in this game...

By the way, don't trust the World Rankings are 8th in the world but lost in the qualifying tournament to both lower ranked and by 80 points...

Group D 6th appearance - world ranked #2 Best result - 1 x semi-final The revelation of the last tournament when they beat New Zealand and got close to reaching the final. Again, all their players come from the Australian NRL and will be challenging Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, England 8th appearance - world ranked #5 Best result - 1 x 4th place The most popular sport in PNG by far but they've fallen behind other Pacific nations in the last 10 years although they did beat Fiji in June. Should qualify from the group. 3rd appearance - world ranking #20 Best result - 1 x 9th place Team based on players with Cook Islands heritage from around the lower levels in Oceania. Beat the USA and South Africa before Covid struck. 6th appearance - world ranking #16 Best result - 2 x semi-final (or 3 x winners as part of ) 25-30 years ago Wales were behind only Australia, New Zealand and England and gave good performances in semi-finals in 95 and 99. Then Rugby Union turned professional and the conveyor belt of star amateur rugby union players signing for professional rugby league teams stopped completely and actually reversed. Their one rugby league superstar, Regan Grace, signed to play Rugby Union in France earlier this year. May challenge the Cook Islands but will lose to Tonga and PNG.