The Cook Islands are the national team closest to the centre with a number of club teams possibly being closest to the centre.
The club teams with the most players represented are:
12 - Brisbane Broncos
11 - St Helens
10 - Gold Coast Titans, Deesses Catalanes (who might win best name)
More of the national teams have players in just a few teams than in the men's competition.
Other things you might have noticed:
1 - There are only 23 Brazilian players. Like some of the smaller men's teams, the Brazilian team is made up of several players borrowed from rugby union, and I think that was as many as they could bring together.
1b - Note the NZ player who's club team is the NZ Sevens national team.
1c - Even the juggernaut that is the Jillaroos (Australian Women's Rugby League team) had players that couldn't turn up because of work commitments.
2 - Canada only gave information about the region the players play for, not the team the players play for. For the two players playing outside of Canada, the information give was the country they played in. Those players are both labelled as "other". One I am reasonably sure plays for London Broncos.
What were my views of the women's group stage?
Franciny Amaral of Brazil tackles like a demon. I would welcome her on any Saints team.
Yes, I wanted England to win, but some part of my heart will always belong to the PNG Orchids.
Now, a brief side step before we continue on through to the rest of the women's tournament - why is there no wheelchair World Cup diagram?
There is no data available.
At the last World Cup (which was men's and women's running at the same time) I had the same problem with a lack of data on the players in the women's world cup. Having seen how much the women's game has grown since then I am hopeful that next time, I'll be able to have three sets of diagrams.
Women's Semi-finals
Not unexpectedly, the 4 semi-finalists were from that central cluster of 5 teams in the group stage diagram.
The semi-final diagrams look like this:
Brisbane Broncos remain the club team with the most representatives (12), followed by St Helens (11). The Cook Islands players being removed from the diagram mean there's now 5 club teams with 8 players left in the competition (Leeds Rhino, Newcastle Knights, St George Illawarra, Sydney Roosters, Gold Coast Titans).
Much like the men's tournament, women's international rugby league needs to reduce the gap between the good teams and the not-good-yet teams, but I think more NRLW and Women's Super League (damn it soccer it was our name first) expanding and going professional will help that.
As is traditional, the Black Ferns's haka is significantly more terrifying than that of the menfolk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuZ1ExXUgFY
I did like Amy Hardcastle's look of "well bring it" in response. Unfortunately, New Zealand then did bring it and beat England (bah humbug).
If anyone ever wants the best "image of dejection" I think Jodie Cunningham, pigtails drooping with sadness, with two black eyes, apologising for the loss, takes some beating. Don't worry, you'll get them next time.
On the other hand, Mele Hufanga, playing for New Zealand in the absence of a Tongan team, is absolutely lovely and I love her.
<3 diagrams="" final.="" for="" her.="" lj-cut="" moving="" on="" text="Two last network diagrams" the="" to="">
<3 diagrams="" final.="" for="" her.="" lj-cut="" moving="" on="" text="Two last network diagrams" the="" to="">Both teams equally close to the centre, somewhat obviously, with Brisbane Broncos or Gold Coast Titans the nearest club team to the centre.
Brisbane Broncos have the most players representing them in the final with 12, followed by the Sydney Roosters and Gold Coast Titans on 8 and Newcastle Knights and St George Illawarra on 7.
As you can imagine, all the English teams got wiped out when England got knocked out - the women's game hasn't reached the stage where the Super League is the NRL's retirement home.
People were looking forward to this final because the group stage match between New Zealand and Australia had been so close, 2 points in it, same number of tries, the difference being a penalty.
It might be close this time ...
Australia had apparently lulled us all into a false sense of hope because the final was an annihilation.
Even with Ali Brigginshaw suffering from the same problems that every Australian and New Zealandish kicker seemed to have had.
Ali Brigginshaw winning player of the match in a World Cup final for the second time has gone remarkably under-remarked upon, which might also demonstrate how all conquering this Jillaroos side is.
We can only hope that someone gives them more of a fight next time (I might want that to be England, but I would be happy with anyone giving them more of a fight).
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