The LU Blog: December 14-20

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NRL
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Throughout the off-season, keep up to date with our weekly blog scooping up all the news in one easy spot for you to digest.

All times listed are AEDT (NSW, VIC, ACT & TAS local time).

Sunday 20 December

7:30pm

Nathan Cleary is Penrith's 2020 Merv Cartwright Medallist. The link to watch the broadcast, along with the full winners list, are in the news item below.

4:30pm

Penrith will award their player of the year tonight in a live stream event on their website. You can check out the winners from other clubs here.

10am

The pre-season calendar is just about locked in, with most clubs only playing a single trial game.

Saturday 19 December

6pm

We have a bunch of lower grade draws in from both the QRL:

We also had on Friday the re-signing by Penrith of rookie Spencer Leniu.

Thursday 17 December

11am

The Dragons have signed former Eels prop Daniel Alvaro for two seasons.

9:30am

Construction is well and truly underway on the new facilities at Brookvale Oval as part of a massive upgrade to create a 'Centre of Excellence' for the Manly club:

Wednesday 16 December

3pm

After months of speculation, Canterbury have confirmed the signing of rep winger and current Storm premiership winner Josh Addo-Carr on a four-season deal starting in 2022.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys have revealed that Jason Taumalolo will join Michael Morgan in sharing the club's captaincy duties in 2021.

Tuesday 15 December

4pm

Still on the Raiders and their trial match - originally scheduled against the Wests Tigers at Leichhardt on 26 February - has been changed. The Raiders will now face the Roosters on Saturday February 27 at 5:30pm. The match is still at Leichhardt. The Tigers' new opponent is Manly on the Sunday, also at Leichhardt. The change has been made to accommodate the fact the originally planned trials - Raiders-Tigers and Roosters-Manly are both Round 1 NRL fixtures following the announcement of the draw a fortnight ago.

1pm

Canberra have locked in outside back Jordan Rapana for one more season. Rapana re-joined the club after the COVID-19 layoff in June after having left at the end of 2019 for a stint in Japanese rugby, signing a deal for the 2020 season, which has now extended into 2021.

Following from the Men's Intrust Super Cup draw release last week, today the QRL have released the 2021 BHP Women's Premiership draw. Ali Brigginshaw will be part of the action playing for Valleys Diehards, who come in to the eight-team competition replacing the Ipswich Brothers side. We'll have the full draw on our website later today.

9am

Top of the morning to everyone - especially those in Wigan this morning after the Leigh Centurions were named the successful applicant for promotion to the 2021 Super League season.

Monday 14 December

7pm

NRL.com reports the Warriors have experienced a surge of ticketing interest for their Round 5 home clash against Manly, with news today the Australian and NZ governments are advancing discussions around a 'travel bubble' in early 2021. The Warriors will still base themselves in Australia for the time being and play the first two matches in Gosford.

Meanwhile, the Tele is reporting that the 'Penrith exodus' is set to continue with Zane Tetevano being chased by UK club Leeds.

2pm

The ARLC has announced the Kangaroos' "Merit Team", along with a new naming rights sponsor for the national team - Gallagher (an insurance broker). The merit team is:

1 James Tedesco, 2 Josh Addo-Carr, 3 Dane Gagai, 4 Jack Wighton, 5 Daniel Tupou, 6 Cameron Munster, 7 Nathan Cleary, 8 Josh Papalii, 9 Damien Cook, 10 Christian Welch, 11 Boyd Cordner (C), 12 Felise Kaufusi, 13 Cameron Murray
Interchange: 14 Ryan Papenhuyzen, 15 Payne Haas, 16 Angus Crichton, 17 Tino Fa'asuamaleaui

The merit team is a composition of the best players eligible to play for the Kangaroos - who were unable to play a Test match in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team was selected by the Australian selection panel and members of the ARLC.

10am

Canberra five-eighth Jack Wighton took out the Sportsman of the Year award at the annual Dreamtime Awards on Friday night. Wighton also won the 2020 Dally M Medal and was joint winner of the Raiders' 'Meninga Medal' for player of the year.

Looking to the northern hemisphere, a decision on the promoted Championship side to join the 2021 Super League competition is due at midday Monday BST - which is 2am AEDT here in Australia. The decision will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK. The six aspirants are Leigh Centurions, Bradford Bulls, York City Knights, London Broncos, Featherstone Rovers and French club Toulouse Olympique.

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