England have what it takes to win

2011 Gillette Four Nations

England v Wales Leigh Sports Village 29 Oct KO 2.30pm England v Australia Wembley Stadium 5 Nov KO 3.30pm England v New Zealand KC Stadium 12 Nov KO 6.00pm FOUR NATIONS FINAL ELLAND ROAD 19 NOV KO 6.00PM

Tickets from £10 adults, £5 concessions.

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Contents

September 2011 Volume 1 Issue 3

Sammut’s cooking

30 Wembley spectacular

14 Willows farewell

22

Inside your next generation rugby league monthly

Front Row 4 American dream As World Cup Qualifiers loom, there’s encouraging news from the USA

4 Retiring - but not shy Andy Wilson of The Guardian pays tribute to Sean Long 7 Five Drives and a Kick This month’s stories are by Tony Hannan, Steve Kilgallon,

Lee Phelps, Steve Mascord, Paul Burland and Thomas McCooey

Prizes

13 Win! We’ve got two pairs of tickets to the Engage Super League XVI Grand Final

Columns 6 Louie the Lip Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook goes hunting with Keiron Cunningham

12 The Reality Is... Brian Noble wonders if Warrington have the edge on Cup winners Wigan 16 Married to League Penelope Davidson prepared for Wembley with a sausage 20 Radio Waves James Deighton, of BBC Radio Leeds, is in this month’s hotseat 25 View from the Back Richard Mathers shares the players’ view of big match preparation 42 Irvine’s Indigestion Christopher Irvine, of The Times, prepares for the union World Cup

Articles 14 Match of the Month Where else? Our editor-at-large Tony Hannan went to Wembley

18 Bad reputation The 2011 Lance Todd Trophy winner was Wigan’s Jeff Lima. Deserved? 19 Man on the Telly BBC TV commentator Dave Woods takes us behind the Cup final mic 20 Big bad Brian? Dignified in defeat, Phil Caplan profiles Leeds coach Brian McDermott 21 Capital progress Changes are afoot at the Stoop. AJ Carr has the latest from Harlequins 22 Variety of emtions As Salford say goodbye to the Willows, Gaz Shaw paints the picture 28 Murdoch’s millions What if Sky ended its Super League coverage, asks Wayne Gardiner 38 Hoisted high Our regional Grand Final wrap and Bill Cashmore reports from Hammersmith 40 Middle Eastern promise They laughed when Lebanon featured in the 2000 World Cup...

Postcards 24 Swinton Gareth Walker contemplates the future for the Championship One champions

26 Newtown Come sit on the grass-banking with Jeff Gabriel at Sydney’s trendiest club 29 Townsville Greg Shannon watches Johnathan Thurston fight back in North Queensland 33 Penzance Devon versus Cornwall at rugby league? Yeah, right. Yeah, right!

Interviews 27 Job well done Julie Stott talks to outgoing Wakefield Trinity Wildcats boss John Kear

30 Catch him if you can Angela Powers of Sky Sports nabs Bradford-bound Jarrod Sammut 36 Man at the top Part two of our managing editor Phil Caplan’s interview with Nigel Wood

Heritage 34 Literary first Tony Collins on rugby league’s debut at the Cheltenham Literature Festival

46 Parting Shot Tony Hannan uncovers the art of skaging.... all the rage in the 19th century

The Culture 43 Popular prop Lee Crooks has written his barnstorming autobiography. Here’s an extract

44 Book worms Neil Barraclough reviews a detailed biography of warhorse Jeff Grayshon 45 Berkeley by bus Dave Hadfield’s RL Good Pub Guide goes to Cup-winning Wigan

September 2011 Forty-20 3