Since his release, various clubs within Super League have been fighting each other in order to sign him up to wear their Rugby League Shirts for the 2011 season. The race to earn his signature has hotted up with a handful of clubs wanting the disgraced player in their ranks for the new season.

There is no question about the talent of the 28-year-old; it’s his behavior off the field that may put a lot of top clubs off him.

Catalans, Castleford and Harlequins have all expressed their interest in Monaghan and would be a real coup for any three of these sides considering they failed to make the Super League end of season play-offs last season. A player of Monaghan’s calibre really needs to be at a top club but after his behaviors he should be happy to settle for any club that wants him.

He is currently training with Warrington due to his brother, Michael Monaghan plying his trade there and needs to be in top shape and good condition in order to perform to a high standard in Super League. He has the ability to take the English game by storm and will have a lot of friends and of course family in the country who can help him through the nightmare he has found himself in. he has wrecked his international career and will have to repay the club he signs for, for the faith shown in him.

His reputation in Australia is in ruins following his sick stunt and if he wants to win over the Rugby League fans in England he will need to show what he can do the pitch and be a consistent performer for whichever club is luckily enough to sign him.

Previously played at Murrayfield in Scotland the one-off event was to allow Rugby League to be introduced to other countries that are more interested in the other code of the sport, union. Promoting the game around the UK seemed like a great idea but has the novelty started to wear off for the fans.

The first time in Wales was a huge success with big turnouts and a chance of a weekend away for Super League’s devoted supporters too good to turn down. Ticket prices were rather generous to say a day’s play consisted of three high class games and the atmosphere was electric. The excitement was for all to see.

Then it was moved to Scotland, too see what the Jocks made of the game. This time however, the Magic weekend was poorly attended with a lack of interest because of the games that were arranged and the prices of hotels and transport overpriced.

The RFL have taken steps to ensure that this year’s Magic weekend will once again be a success in Wales. They have changed the games to make sure there is more interest for the fans, providing the weekend with numerous local derbies to add more spice to the two days.

The thing that is being frowned upon by various supporters, including some of those over at Rugby 13 is the timing of the weekend. With the season starting at the beginning of February, there is less chance of there being a sell-out crowd watching the big games.

There are too many other sports that they are competing with including football which is starting to heat up two months into 2011. For the real, committed League fans it will be a great occasion and a chance to move around the country watching their team but for people who are less committed to rugby league, they will either go watch their football team or go to the pub and watch it on the big screen.

There is also a chance to go and see their team play in the South of France against the Catalans where the weather is a hell of a lot warmer compared to Cardiff in early February. That’s why the popularity of the Magic weekend has started to decline.

It’s a great challenge the RFL face and although they have taken steps to try and benefit attendances, there is still a long way to go before it is all-ticket for the Millennium Magic.

Moody began playing mini rugby at the tender age of five and continued to play for Bracknell until he was 12 years old. He went on to play for the Leicester Tigers youth team as flanker and at 18 years old became the youngest Leicester Tigers player to play a league game.

He made his full England debut against Canada in June 2001; and in the 2002/03 autumn internationals was picked ahead of Lawrence Dallaglio. Even though his England career suffered through injuries, he played a part in all seven of England’s World Cup matches in 2003, including winning the final line-out which eventually led toy Johnny Wilkinson’s amazing last minute winning drop goal against Australia.

FHM November 2010 Issue

In this month’s FHM, Lewis Moody explains what to do and how to eat to achieve a World Cup-winning physique. The article sets out six simple steps that you can do at the gym or in your home, ranging from push-ups to the more rugby specific ‘Jackal Drill’ exercises.

‘Powerful hamstrings are crucial for explosive kicking and sprinting,’ according to Lewis ‘Mad Dog’ Moody.

FHM – After Dark Special – out now

As we near Halloween it seems appropriate that the November issue of FHM also includes 45 pages of ‘nocturnal naughtiness’ including a 16 page ‘sexy vampire’ showdown between TV and film vampire vixens Diora Baird of 30 Days of Night’s, Twilight’s Christian Serratos and True Blood’s Natasha Alam. The article features never before seen pictures and exclusive interviews.

httpv://www.youtube.com/v/oulcKquVfWM

FHM is a month magazine for men and covers fitness, health, fashion, film, music and games.
For more exclusive content on Diora Baird or to buy FHM magazine now, visit www.fhm.com/afterdark.

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This is the controversial report in full,  from Cambridge Judge Business School:

Looking at two major rugby competitions in both rugby codes – Super 14 (Australian-New Zealand- South Africa Rugby Union competition) and Super League (British and French Rugby League competition) – Dr Lionel Page (Cambridge Judge Business School) and Dr Katie Page (Heythrop College) revealed that referees give a significant edge to teams of their own nationality in these competitions.

Specifically, referees were less likely to penalise the team of their own nationality, and more frequently penalise the team of a different nationality. For instance, in Super League, a British team received significantly fewer cards when it played against a French team than when it played against another British team. On the contrary, the French team received significantly more cards for offences which were actually classified as more benign afterwards by disciplinary committees using video evidence.

In addition, the study found that the foreign team is more likely to see its try attempt denied by the referee. The timing of decisions also played a major role. Decisions in favour of the team from the referee’s nationality were noted to take place at the most crucial moments in particular when the scoreline was close, while the foreign team received favourable decisions in situations when they were less likely to affect the final outcome of the game.

One of the most striking results of this study is that the compound effect of these decisions makes a large difference to the final outcome of the match. Looking at matches against a team from similar ability the researchers found that in the Super 14, the home team would win only in 38% of the cases when the referee is from the nationality of the opposition while it would win in 91% of the cases when the referee was from their own nationality.

In the case of the Super League, the French team won only in 38% of the cases when the referee was British while it won in 75% when the referee was Australian or French.

In addition, the researchers predicted that such a bias should be higher when the level of scrutiny of the match refereeing was lower. To test this hypothesis, they looked at matches broadcast live on TV where referees faced a close scrutiny from TV commentators using video replay and where numerous try decisions were made by a video referee. Comparing Super League matches broadcast live on British televisions and those not broadcast on live television, they indeed found that on comparable matches with an English referee, the French team won in only 30% of matches that were not shown on TV, whilst they won 59% of matches when the match was on live on British TV.

Overall the size of these effects is so large that in practise the outcome of the competition is affected. In the Super 14 the referees biases may on average tend to even out, however the final result of a close competition may well depend on a match won or lost with a referee having the nationality of one of the teams. In the specific case of the British Super League where one French team is most of the time refereed by British referees, this bias implies that over the 2006-2009 period the French could have won nearly twice as many matches with a neutral refereeing.

These results are of interest for other club competitions which present cross national matches like the Magners League which will welcome Italian teams next season and the NRL which includes a New Zealand team in a mostly Australian competition. The reality of these competitions often prevents refereeing to be neutral given the
available pool of referees. Dr Lionel Page suggests “For these cross national competitions where neutral referees are not available, one of the easiest changes to implement could be the `challenge call’ like in NFL, NBA or cricket, where a team can challenge a referee decision using video replay. It would provide a natural mechanism of checks and balances to limit potential refereeing biases.”

Beyond the specific issue of cross national matches, this study reveals how much the referee can influence the outcome of a game in rugby. According to Dr Lionel Page, “These results should prompt Rugby Federations to work further to limit the amount of referee subjective decisions in matches. Rugby is characterised by the necessity for referees to make a large number of subjective decisions in ambiguous decision. This study shows that this subjectivity may play a disproportionate role in the final match result. One of the ways forward could be to use technological innovations for some categories of decisions like offsides and forward passes.”