The Official Super League Thread

bye bye promotion & relagation (I hope)

:confused:It's good to see Celtic Crusaders getting through to SL for next season, but cannot see how clubs like Wakefield, Hull KR, Castleford, Warrington made the cut!
With Salford I can see how a team has to play out of the manchester area.
But what about a team up in the cumbria region, gateshead thunder or even toulouse. if the NRL has problems with the number of sydney clubs, I can see in the future clubs in Lancashire/Yorkshire will not survive!!!
Clubs like Wigan, St Helens, Bradford, Leeds & HullFC would but these clubs like Leigh, Doncaster would they even in the lower tie of rugby league.
I think the RFL is doing the wrong thing by keep so many of these BACK WATER CLUBS what only get 500 to 2 thousand people to there matches.
I can see the Super League becoming the number 1 Rugby League comp in the world in future with all the top players in their comp, but they need a lot more changes before they get close to the NRL!!!!:brickwall:
 
Welcome to the forum, mate. 1st post about ESL? :)

Cumbria couldn't survive in SuperLeague. If they were constantly successful then there may be a chance but in reality, not really. Rugby League is played in the parts of Cumbria that are about as far from the motorway network as you can get without needing a wetsuit, i.e. the coastal towns. The roads are pretty shocking from the m-way esp. in Winter. They'd never get more than 2000 per game in a results slump. Nothing like the Knights who can pull in 20k+, even with patchy form.

Gateshead's the same but with better access to road and rail networks. The problem here is football. Football is by far the most popular sport over here, as you can imagine. It's hard enough to fight against football in Lancs/Yorks (the "traditional" areas) where RL support is strongest never mind in the North East where RL isn't played so widely.

Overall, they can't just ditch the likes of Hull KR and Wakefield because the uproar would pretty much kill RL.
 
Thank you & Question?

Thank you pommie_knight, no one in all the forums I go to, as every told me the truth about the topics I raised in my first thread about the Super League. It's something I forgot about the premier league in the north east (I would say all over england would be the same) of the uk. Thanks mate

pommie_knight can you tell me if the format for the challenge cup will be changed now that the 14 clubs are locked in for the next 3 years?
 
No bother. You'll get a lot of fans on other forums who won't want to see the realities of things. I suppose that's why they're fans. :)

I don't see the RFL changing the format of the Challenge Cup. There'd be no need to IMO - other than allowing two more teams to skip the earlier rounds of the comp.
 
Hull KR beat a tired looking Catalans 30-16. Michael Dobson had a cracker of a game - pulled the Dragons to bits in midfield and his kicking game was solid. The one bright spot for Catalans was a spot on 40-20 from Gorrell from acting half, otherwise it was dropped ball, trying the million-dollar highlight pass on 1st or 2nd tackle, and the forwards looked AWOL. KR's forwards were the exact opposite - Gene, Vella, Aizue all fronting up. Fox and Welham stood out from the backs. Chris Chester was taken to hospital in a neck brace (I didn't see this). He was getting tingling sensations down his left arm.

Wigan also hammered the Airlie Birds of Hull 66-6 at JJB. I didn't see this but it was humiliating for Hull - the crowd at Craven Park were going mental whenever the score was flashed up on the big screen.
 
Quick bit of news - Mitchell Sargent's got a viral infection so won't make his debut for Cas today but David Faiumu might get his first run out for Huddersfield.

Watched the Warrington - Leeds game last night. If Chris Hicks had done better than 1/6 with the boot, Leeds would have been embarrased. The Rhinos just looked tired and really missed Brent Webb at the back.

Lee Briers was outstanding last night, esp. in defence - he looked to me to get everything right, including 1-on-1 tackles on Keith Senior on more than one occasion. I'm still a bit concerned about the Wolves' winger Kevin Penny - his defence was good last night but his handling lets him down occasionally. He was penalised for not playing the ball correctly but IMO he wasn't tackled and could have gone the length under the sticks.

Leeds vs. Bradford next Friday (big test) and Warrington away to St. Helens on Saturday (bigger test).
 
It's been announced that Dean Pay is to assist Kevin Walters at Catalans from 2009. I remember watching Pay playing Origin a while back and thought he was pretty good. What was he like in domestic games?
 
Personally I thought he was great, a no nonsense style approach to games and a real tough man of Rugby League.

Fantastic to hear he is still involved with the game in some form and equally chuffed that he will be working with Catalans next season.

I expect a big change in players like Mounis, Guisset and Ryles when he turns up next season.
 
correct me if im wrong, but he was an assistant coach for Country this year wasnt he? so a bit of experience under the great Laurey Daley :tongue:
 
St Helens 17 - 16 Warrington. Cracker of a game in absolutely horrible conditions. Pishing down with rain. Last minute drop goal from Sean Long breaks Warrington hearts. Warrington should have won tonight, Saints were lucky. Still, it keeps them on top of Super League.
 
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