Rugby League World – For a sport with a mind of its own…

First published in Rugby League World Issue 364.

It’s possible that QuinsRL may be gone from Super League next year, even if they win a licence in the next round of franchising. The club are reported to be considering a name change, with a switch back to London Broncos a distinct possibility.
I’d welcome that.
Although I was born and raised in Bradford, I saw my first live game of Rugby League at Fulham’s Craven Cottage, so I’ve a lot to thank them for. I’ve maintained an affinity with the club in its many guises ever since, even though I live and work in rock solid Rugby League territory in the north of England. I admire the dogged resilience of those involved who have kept the club alive when it would have been easier to give up, and I respect the RFL’s efforts to keep a professional top-flight presence in the capital in the face of often overwhelming criticism.
But that name, it just hasn’t done them any favours and I would not mourn its passing.
The Quins brand is too closely associated with rugby union for there to be any cross-over benefits for Rugby League. The latter’s identity has been almost lost.
However, a change of name alone will not be enough to lift the club from the doldrums into the hearts and minds of the local population. What counts as local in London? Imagine one Super League club in the whole of Yorkshire and expecting all supporters of Leeds, Bradford, Castleford, Wakefield and Huddersfield, let alone Hull FC and Hull KR to regard it as their local club. Such is the problem of scale in London. Geographically, it’s massive. It’s unrealistic to expect a single club to capture the attention of people in one of the world’s biggest cities who don’t already have an affinity with Rugby League. They need a bit of help.
This time next year, the London Olympics will be upon us. Rugby League won’t be part of it. But it could be. A bit of creative thinking is what’s required.
Rugby League is good at hiding its light under a bushel. Look at the way the current Nines festival is being buried away on Tuesday nights for the amusement of a few diehards, when the simple accessibility of this modified version of the game could be a fantastic means of hooking new people into the sport.
So, we have a Super League club in London struggling to establish its identity and we have a Nines tournament in the north passing unawares. Why not combine the two? Move the Nines to London and play it during the month the Olympic and Paralympic Games are taking place. It would need an added twist: instead of a club based tournament turn it into a European event and invite the burgeoning membership of the RLEF to take part. It’s harsh but true that sports fans flocking to London for the Olympics are unlikely to be swayed by the prospect of Bradford v Featherstone playing Nines at The Stoop as an alternative entertainment on the days they aren’t watching handball, beach volleyball or Greco-Roman wrestling: the fact that all these otherwise ‘minority interest’ sports events will be packed out proves one thing; if the branding is right and there’s an international element you can sell pretty much any kind of sport to the public.
A Rugby League Nines festival featuring the likes of Serbia, Russia, Germany, Holland, Czech Republic and others alongside England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and France should prove a much more tempting prospect to casual sports fans. In the absence of Australia and New Zealand, we could give the Exiles another run out and polish their brand recognition into the bargain. If each Super League club affiliated itself to one of the smaller European nations to help them with accommodation and travel, perhaps even field some of their own players to boost the quality of the product on display too, it could have unimaginable long-term benefits for the game in many of our developing nations at the same time as providing London’s Super League club with an opportunity to exploit its status and raise its profile as hosts.
Sky do not have the rights to broadcast the Olympics so an alternative international event that seeks to complement rather than rival the 2012 Games could be of interest to them too.
It would take some organising and it wouldn’t be easy, but it would be more worthwhile than spending next summer moaning about our sport being completely eclipsed by the Olympic jamboree. If it provided a stepping stone towards the establishment of a Rugby League World Nines tournament, so much the better. Carpe Diem?

John Drake

What’s to be done about the Challenge Cup? It’s a question that crops up round about this time every year, usually in the wake of a blowout scoreline or a disappointing attendance. There is never any shortage of options for changing the game’s oldest and most famous knockout competition to try and address its apparent failings, ranging from straightforward seeding through to more complex fixture formats.
The danger is that any perceived weaknesses are magnified out of all proportion and knee-jerk changes are then made which could actually make matters worse.
The essential beauty of the Challenge Cup is its simplicity and openness. No matter what level a club plays the game, they can all have a crack at Wembley and dream of winning the Challenge Cup.
Of course, the harsh reality of modern sport is that the full-time professional clubs have an infinitely better chance of winning the major tournaments, but the dream still endures for the rest. Winning really isn’t everything when it comes to allure of the Cup, or at least it shouldn’t be. To remove the opportunity to dream, however remote the reality might be of a club from outside Super League reaching Wembley, by tinkering with the way in which the current draw works could end up diminishing interest in it completely for many people.
Once a club loses its own stake in the ultimate prize, why should they care about it any longer?
Warrington Wolves head coach Tony Smith perhaps surprisingly sets his face against making dramatic changes to the Cup format, even in the aftermath of his own club’s 112-0 hammering of Swinton Lions and there seems to be little appetite for change from the Championship clubs themselves.
The open draw may not have done Swinton any favours this year, but other Championship clubs have pushed Super League opposition hard when given their chance. The quarter-final draw has produced four potentially mouthwatering clashes too. Just how ‘broke’ is the Challenge Cup in reality?
Rather than look for some kind of dramatic restructure, why not consider some degree of augmentation instead, to make it more appealing to diehards and casual spectators alike, to boost crowds and keep the Wembley dream alive for more clubs and for longer.
The simplest solution to increasing crowds is to include the games in the cost of a season ticket. But further to that, Rugby League is not averse to dusting off an old idea and giving it a new polish, as we’ve seen this season with the arrival of the Exiles (aka Other Nationalities) so I’d like to see the reintroduction of the ‘Plate’ competition which burst into life in 1997 and then disappeared immediately afterwards. It was denigrated at the time, wrongly in my view, as a consolation prize, a second chance for defeated clubs to sneak past winners and claim a Wembley appearance by default. Those criticisms could be challenged with a bit of positive ‘spin’ and a tweak or two to the qualifying criteria to avoid clubs potentially ‘throwing’ an earlier round game in order to benefit from entry into the ‘easier to win’ Plate. Over time, the actual experiences of those clubs outside Super League who currently have little chance of reaching Wembley getting to enjoy a day out on the biggest stage of all with all the glamour and money-making opportunities that go with it, would surely boost its status.
It would add even greater value to the Cup final experience without detracting from the main event. It would help to reconnect those fans who feel their clubs have been left behind by the onset of full-time professionalism and add even more sparkle to Rugby League’s most popular day out.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see old established names like Leigh, Batley, Featherstone, Swinton, Barrow, Hunslet (who appeared in the original Plate final against Hull KR) and newcomers like Gateshead, London Skolars and South Wales be in with a genuine shot of playing at Wembley, rather than being left to chase what increasingly looks like an impossible dream?

John Drake
First published in RLW issue 363

Say what you like about the Easter weekend schedule having too many games, but it rarely fails to come up with the goods, producing matches that will live long in the memory of those who experience them.

This year, five different teams have topped the Super League table so far: Castleford, Harlequins, Huddersfield, Warrington and St Helens. We certainly appear to have travelled a long way from the days of the ‘Big Four’ who dominated the competition between them in its formative years. Even those clubs who find themselves near the foot of the table, though they lack consistency to challenge for honours themselves, still have it in them to claim the scalps of the frontrunners, as both Crusaders and Wakefield proved over Easter to the chagrin of Huddersfield and Castleford respectively.

Last season’s Champions Wigan have yet to hit the league summit, but their last gasp victory over Saints on Good Friday in front of a capacity crowd at the DW Stadium must rank as one of the games of this or any other season. Simply breathtaking entertainment that serves to remind us why we all love the game of Rugby League so much and helps to blow away the cynicism that can sometimes surround aspects of it in our minds.

We all have our own views on the merits of licensing, salary caps, overseas quotas and the rest of the rules and regulations which govern our sport’s premier competition, but just a few short years ago we could only have dreamed of a league capable of throwing out so many shock results, so many different clubs topping the table and with names like Castleford and Harlequins amongst them. Something, somewhere is going right, even though if you’re a member of a tipping competiton, as I am, you’re probably struggling to achieve any level of consistency too as one round’s big winners come an unexpected cropper the next.

Easter also brings out the crowds in record numbers with almost 85,000 fans watching the seven round 11 games on the Thursday/Good Friday and a further 65,000 turning out for round 12 over the Monday and Tuesday. That’s an average of almost 11,000 across the fourteen games played. It puts the Magic Weekend into some kind of perspective, but it demonstrates the enormous potential there is for Rugby League if only the genuine ‘magic’ of the Easter weekend could be replicated throughout the season.

There’s no doubt the holiday aspect helps draw the more casual supporters out from their armchairs as does the great weather of the kind we were blessed with this year, but there’s also something intangible going on too: games over Easter are transformed into unmissable events. The blanket television coverage helps to convey the excitement to a wider audience, rather than deterring those who are able to get to the game in person from doing so, as can sometimes happen at other times of the year.

It’s that wider audience Rugby League needs to engage on a regular basis. How could any sports fan, Rugby League aficionado or not, have failed to be thrilled by the spectacle on display over Easter. Let’s not be dismissive of the appeal of other sports, which is churlish and self-defeating (we won’t win over a football or rugby union fan by telling them what they already like is rubbish) but let’s be positive about the virtues of our own sport as it continues to develop and grow. It’s something pretty special and we shouldn’t be afraid of sharing it with as many others as we can.

JOHN DRAKE

First published in Rugby League World Issue 362 (June 2011)

New Scientist journalist Michael O’Hare explodes the popular myth that Rugby League has failed in London.

First published in Rugby League World issue 361.

You can read the article in full by clicking here.

If the above will not display on your computer you can view/download the feature in PDF format here: London: The Impossible Dream? – Issue 361

Our resident Super League star columnist Jamie Jones-Buchanan interviewed Gareth Hock in November last year about his absence from the game and his ambitions to return to play for Wigan in 2011. 

You can read the interview in full by clicking here.

If the above will not display on your computer you can view/download the feature in PDF format here: Gareth Hock Interview – Issue 356

Has he gone yet? By the time you read this, Kyle Eastmond may have officially announced that he is to become a rugby union player. Or he may not. Whatever Kyle’s actual decision about his future employment turns out to be, the earth will not tilt off its axis and Rugby League will not vanish up its own behind as a result. You could be forgiven for thinking such a cataclysm were likely, given the outpouring of anxiety and self-doubt that grips Rugby League whenever the ‘free gangway’ between the two rival rugby codes, which Rugby League fought so hard to establish in the first place, works in the opposite direction to the one we would all prefer.

Kyle Eastmond is a sportsman. That’s how he earns his living. Even for the very best talents, it is a relatively short career. Rather than condemn Kyle for considering what is after all, nothing more than an alternative job offer, we need to look at the reasons a player of his undoubted quality might think himself better off out of Rugby League.

Not that we need to look that hard, and it isn’t necessarily always about money. Even if it were, it’s unfair to brand our players as mercenaries for seeking a better pay packet, particularly in financially straightened times and in a sport like ours which was born out of a desire to see that players should be paid for their services.

At exactly the same time Super League was kicking off with a full round of games at a two-thirds empty Millennium Stadium, rugby union’s Six Nations international series was in full swing, playing to packed crowds and a besotted media.

Meanwhile, Kyle Eastmond was playing for St Helens in Cardiff in what turned out to be a thrilling 16-all draw, one of the standout games of the Magic Weekend. But apart from the people rattling round the inside of the stadium at the time, the few hundred thousand watching the game on Sky Sports and the readers of the Rugby League press on Monday morning, who knew or cared?

Contrast that with the manner in which a former Rugby League player like Chris Ashton has been transformed from ‘Chris Who?’ into a media darling in the space of the few dozen metres he ran to score what was by anyone’s standards a great try for England’s rugby union team at Twickenham and it becomes easier to see the appeal of the rival code to any ambitious Rugby League player.

So should we panic, throw our hands in the air and wail in despair while watching helplessly as the floodgates open? Or should we concentrate instead on further developing Rugby League into a sport that can provide its own opportunities for stardom on the national and international stage, which in turn ought to generate increased levels of public awareness and sponsorship?

I think the latter is the sensible option. 

Let’s start with the Magic Weekend. If it is going to become a regular part of the annual calendar, and it seems that it is, then more bums on seats are needed. That, more than anything else, will dispel the ongoing criticism this particular event attracts each year and will also make it a far more enticing event for players to play in. At the moment, the numbers turning up are simply not good enough and no amount of self-congratulatory backslapping from the organisers can hide that.

We’ve seen a terrific World Club Challenge this season between Wigan and St George-Illawarra Dragons that showed off all that’s good about top class Rugby League. But it’s complacent to accept that an almost sold-out DW Stadium is a big enough stage for an event like this. It shouldn’t be. It needs the kind of imaginative thinking that led to Wigan kicking off the concept against Manly in 1987 to take it to a higher level now.
Then there’s the mid-season international. Anyone know for sure who England will play, or where or when? We can be certain of several things: it won’t be at an exciting venue like Old Trafford or Wembley, it won’t be sold out and hardly anyone outside Rugby League will notice or care. That has got to change.

It’s not all bad news. Rugby League has the Challenge Cup Final and the Super League Grand Final in its portfolio of events. These are a match for any other sporting event on the planet and we should cherish them and evangelise about them at every available opportunity.

However, the international stage is where it really matters, and Rugby League falls down badly here. The ambition of the 1990s that saw Great Britain take on Australia at Old Trafford for the very first time and which also saw the Kiwis gracing Wembley has sadly been lost somewhere along the line. The DW Stadium in Wigan, the Galpharm Stadium in Huddersfield, these are both fine venues in their own right, but they ought to be far too small and insignificant for our national team to play in.

Until our sport shakes off its current timidity and puts the national team back on the biggest stages and in the most iconic stadia the country has to offer, the rival code will inevitably look a more glamorous proposition.

We should not bemoan the existence of the ‘free gangway’. It has and will continue to cost our game some of its better players, but at the other end of the scale it is allowing people who once upon a time would never have dared to contemplate playing Rugby League for fear of the repercussions, the opportunity to do so. Not all of them will turn out to be world beaters, or even remain playing the game for any length of time, but they will at least have become aware of it. The wider Rugby League spreads its net like this, the more chance it has of filling a stadium like Wembley to watch England play. And if we’re ever bold enough to dare go back there, the more chance we have of convincing players like Kyle Eastmond to remain in Rugby League.

John Drake, Editor

(Page XIII: First published in Rugby League World, Issue 360)

Stray microphones can be dangerous things. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown found that out to his cost during last year’s General Election campaign when he was caught referring to a voter he had just been having a friendly chat with as ‘that bigoted woman,’ once he thought he was out of earshot.

Brown was wearing a Sky TV microphone when he got into his car and made the disparaging comments, not realising it was still switched on. It’s hard to say that this one incident cost Brown his job as Prime Minister when his party was already behind in the polls at the time, but it certainly didn’t help him keep it. 

Now, demonstrating that no matter how high profile an example has been set as how not to behave when you’re wired up to a microphone, two of Sky TV’s own employees, football anchors Richard Keys and Andy Gray have lost their jobs for making unguarded and unsavoury comments about a female match official. Their only defence was that the comments weren’t intended for broadcast.

In Rugby League World issue 358, we interviewed Sarah Bennison, an RFL qualified touch judge and referee. Sarah explained that she took up officiating in Rugby League because of the lack of opportunities available for female officials in football. So far so sexist. Perhaps Keys and Gray really are representative of a Neanderthal tendency in the round ball game, rather than a couple of isolated fools caught out by their own arrogance.

However, Sarah went on to explain that she has also come across obstacles to progress in her Rugby League career put there purely and simply by people who do not like the idea of female officials in the game, so we can’t congratulate ourselves too much that such attitudes don’t exist in our own sport. Clearly they do, though to its credit, the RFL as a governing body works hard at the top level to encourage people from all walks of life into the game. It may take society at large a few years to catch up with their enlightened stance, but they are absolutely right to be taking a lead rather than having to be instructed by some awkward piece of legislation to play catch up later.

Indeed, though it was not a popular decision in many quarters at the time, the RFL made it crystal clear last season that homophobia will not be tolerated in Rugby League either. It is often all too easy to criticise the RFL for the things they fail to do, but in this instance, they took quick and tough action to nip an emerging problem in the bud. They have since become the only sporting organisation to be named in the top 100 of the Stonewall Workplace Index, the definitive national benchmarking exercise showcasing Britain’s top employers for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff.

Many will scoff at such things. Haven’t the RFL got better things to be doing than courting minorities? Promoting events like the Magic Weekend, for example. But are the two mutually exclusive? Gareth Thomas will be making his first appearance as a Rugby League player at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Perfect symmetry, if you ask me.

You can’t put a price on the value such positive messages have in the wider world. 

It’s not about that dread term ‘political correctness’. It is simply about treating all players and officials with the kind of respect you would expect to receive yourself. It ought not to be too much to ask to judge people by their ability alone, by performances on the field, not by their sex, their sexuality, nor of course, their race. Not because you’re forced to do so by rules and regulations, or even peer pressure, but simply because it is the right thing to do.

The more open and welcoming Rugby League is, at all levels and to all people, the stronger it will grow and the more proud we can all be to be part of it.

John Drake, Editor

First published in Rugby League World issue 359 (March 2011)

GARETH Thomas has revealed how a Rugby League World magazine article written by Jamie Jones-Buchanan led to Hollywood star Mickey Rourke making a film of the Welsh player’s life.
Rourke is expected to be in Cardiff this week for the Magic Weekend to hold talks with Thomas and gain an insight into the competitive nature of Rugby League.
He has told Thomas that he is prepared to have two false teeth removed for the role, which will chart the Welsh star’s career and his December 2009 revelation that he is gay.
But talks only started after Rourke was sent a copy of Rugby League World magazine last year.
“I did an article with Jamie Jones-Buchanan, and it was such a relaxed interview because he’s such a good guy,” Thomas said.
“I wanted to tell him at the Leeds game (the recent friendly between the clubs) that it was his interview that sparked it, but unfortunately I didn’t get to see him.
“Mickey read that interview, and it sparked him to go online and read the whole story.
“Then he got in touch with me directly, and the story has unfolded from there.
“There was a lot going back and forth through contractual issues, but I was in touch with Mickey through it all and I said ‘if you’ve got the passion to do this, then it’s a great tool for the promotion of the game and my story’.
“The legal side got figured out, and here we are now – Mickey will be in Cardiff learning and watching the game.
“Hopefully he will be speaking to some of the players, and learning what goes on in their heads.”
Thomas added: “Mickey actually has two false front teeth from when he was a boxer, but they’re permanent ones.
“His plan is to get them taken out for the look that became a bit famous with me having two teeth missing.
“If a guy is willing to go to those lengths, then he’s obviously serious about making a real film.
“To me, it just shows his commitment to the whole process.”
Thomas is hoping that Millennium Magic can help Wales build on the awareness of Rugby League that was boosted by the country’s European Cup win last year.
“Millennium Magic is a great carnival of rugby, and it’s a great promotion for Wales and the sport in general,” he said.
“People I have spoken to about the Magic Weekend have always preferred it when it’s in Cardiff.
“It’s a great city, the stadium is smack in the middle with all the pubs around it, and people don’t have to travel.
“Hopefully it will bring the Welsh fans out and bring out a lot of local interest in the game. And, if we’re successful, then it will promote what we’re doing as well.
“It’s a magical stadium. I’ve got some bad memories there, but on the whole, great, great memories.
“To go back there with a new team that I’m committed to, and a fresh, enthusiastic team in a game I’ve almost learnt to love, will be a different and very special experience for me.”
Thomas has also confirmed his desire to take part in the Four Nations at the end of this season.
“I didn’t go through all that last year not to be involved,” he said.
“I went in there with the aim of being European Champions so that we could play in the Four Nations, and didn’t put myself through it not to have the opportunity to play against the real big guns in the world of Rugby League.
“Hopefully it will be a fitting way for me to walk away in a competitive team.
“And hopefully it will make Wales Rugby League and some of the boys household names.
“The boys deserve a lot of credit, but because Wales is such a union country, they don’t know much about the league players.
“I just want to be part of something that’s successful, leaving something of a legacy behind.”

By GARETH WALKER (from League Express, Mon 7th Feb 2011)

Read Jamie Jones Buchanan’s interview with Gareth Thomas here.

LORRAINE MARSDEN chats with one of the up and coming stars of Rugby League officialdom, 21-year-old Sarah Bennison.

THANK goodness for football.
That might be an odd opening line for a feature in a Rugby League magazine but, truth be told, if it hadn’t been for lack of opportunities she faced in the round-ball game, the Rugby Football League would not have bright young thing Sarah in their ranks.
Sport has always been in Sarah’s blood, with the 21-year-old already on track for a career in the industry. Not only is she on the RFL books as a referee and touch judge, but she is also studying for a Sports Development degree at Leeds Met University.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever break into the full-time ranks with the RFL,” admits Bradford born and bred Sarah, “but I just want to get as high up in them as I possibly can.
“I’ve enjoyed my reffing and touch judging since I did my first game and as long as I’m enjoying it I’ll keep doing it and working my way forward.
“I started out by refereeing a few junior level football matches. I’d always wanted to play football and felt I was pretty good at it but unfortunately around Bradford there was just no team in my age group around for me to play for. It meant that the club I was with at the time put me and a couple of other people onto a refereeing course and I started down that route.
“I didn’t really do many games and there wasn’t much development or help around for me, so I ended up giving up on it.
“One day I just happened to look on the RFL website and they had something on there about applying for match officials courses. It was only about 12 quid to do it so I though ‘why not, I might as well go and do it and see what comes out of it’.”
And the rest, as they say, is history. At the age of 17, Sarah did her first two-day match officials course at Shaw Cross in Dewsbury and has never looked back in the four years since then. On March 12, 2010 she became the first female official to take part in a Championship game, running the line as Blackpool beat Rochdale 36-14.
Not that it’s been an easy ride for the Bradford Bulls supporter, who now views the game in a different light when she returns to the terraces.
“On the course we covered the laws of game and went through some drills before taking an exam at the end of the two days,” adds Sarah. “If you pass that you are put into a society and then work your way up from there and do more training and course along the way.
“I was in the Bradford and Keighley referees society to start covering games in the West Riding League and for the first two seasons I was working way up from under-12s to under-16s.
“In my third season with them, once I had turned 20, I wanted to push for open-age games and in order to do that I had to do under-18s games and I was struggling to be given them by the Bradford society. I think there was a couple of people there who didn’t like fact I was getting somewhere in the game, so I left them and joined the Dewsbury and Batley society, who I’m still with now.
“I’ve also now had two seasons actually within the RFL ranks. To join that you have to be referred to them by a development officer from the society and take a fitness test.
“When I first joined them I was able to touch judge in under-16 scholarship games and a couple of under-18 games. I took another test in January 2010 and passed that so was able to move up to touch judge in Championship games and actually referee the scholarship games.
“It’s like a ladder you move up each year and I want to get as high as possible. Ideally I’d love to be able to be on the touchline for Super League games and referee at the highest possible level I can. I’d love to referee in the Championship leagues but there’s a lot more of the process to go through before I get to that level.
“Nothing has stopped me or put me off yet. On a few occasions I have hit times when there has been a few individuals who haven’t liked the fact there is a female official I’ve battled through it and kept going, and probably earned more respect because of it.
“I was nervous leading up to the Blackpool v Rochdale game but it is really good to know that I was the first girl to touch judge at that level. I remember it was a cold Friday night game, but I really enjoyed it and went quite well.
“I got more games after that, including my first Sky game in August between Hunslet and Workington. The nerves built up all that week but Stuart Cummings was at the game and he helped me through and told me not to let the pressure get to me and just to treat it as any other game. I did and I got through it.
“In a way it is probably easier doing Championship games on the touchline than being involved in junior games.
“In junior games you’ve always got parents there who are constantly on your back and you can hear individuals constantly screaming at you all game, but during championship games the crowd is much bigger and who can’t really make out clearly what they are saying, so it’s easier not to hear it.
“My brother played rugby and I was a Bulls season ticket holder, although I couldn’t get to any games last season because I was always officiating somewhere else. Since I’ve done the course I’ve never really been able to watch a game in the same way again.
“I now tend to watch the referee and touch judges and when supporters get on their backs, most of the time I find myself saying ‘well actually that was the right decision’.
“I remember being at a Bradford-Leeds game a couple of years ago. It was a really close game and Leeds had gone over and scored but I knew from the position of the touch judge that it wasn’t going to be given. I wasn’t overly worried about it but I think my friends and family I was with were. I was right, it wasn’t given, so having the knowledge of a referee and touch judge comes in handy that way as well.”
Although 110 per cent enthusiastic Sarah may have to take a back seat at the start of the new season owing to a foot injury she is currently receiving treatment for. But that is not going to dampen her desire for more games.
“I’m seeing a specialist because I have tendonitis in my Achilles and some other problems with foot and ankle,” explains Sarah.
“It’s frustrating because I’ve not been out doing a game for a while but I’m hoping I’ll get told what I need to do to get back out there. I’m just swimming as much as I can at the minute so I can keep my fitness levels up. I’ll be missing this year’s RFL fitness test because of the injury but once that’s sorted I should get to do it. I just want to be back out there as soon as possible.”

This article was first published in Rugby League World – Issue 358 (Feb 2011). You can subscribe to future issues here.

So that’s 2010 finally done and dusted. The England Academy team managed to blow away the annual hangover of international failure and give us something to smile about by defeating the Australian Schoolboys in their two-Test series. After the senior England team’s Four Nations flop, the Academy success has demonstrated that English players can cut it against their Australian counterparts after all. It’s time to dump the inferiority complex. The big test now will be to see how the players in each of these opposing squads go on to develop their skills with senior clubs. Will the defeated Australians race ahead in the NRL, or can the triumphant England youngsters make the best of the opportunities that come their way and secure their status as big name homegrown first team stars of the future?

I hope it is the latter.

A new year is a time to look forward, so here are a few more of my hopes (and fears) for 2011.

I hope it doesn’t snow in February and muck up the Super League Magic Weekend. The British weather is often described as unpredictable, but it isn’t really. It often snows in winter. The scenes on most Christmas cards are a bit of a giveaway. They don’t depict Santa Claus in boardshorts surfing his way across the rooftops. He’s generally in a sledge, a mode of transport best suited to snowy conditions. As we’ve seen already this winter, our country’s infrastructure has trouble coping with snow and planning for it seems to take the form of hoping it won’t come, rather than putting in place effective contingencies if it does. A few flakes of the white stuff in the run up to Super League’s Cardiff extravaganza could be a real spanner in the works.

The Magic Weekend is a concept that has divided opinion since it was first conceived. To some, it is a carnival of Rugby League; feast yourself silly on game after game, all in one place. To others, it is a bloated, over-expensive, under-promoted affair that fails to capture the enthusiasm of enough fans to make it worth persevering with. Moving it away from a Bank Holiday weekend is a gamble. Using it as the launchpad for the new season is an even bigger gamble. Staging it in Cardiff in February is the biggest gamble of all. The weather will have no impact on the games inside the Millennium Stadium courtesy of the closed roof, but it could have a major impact on the number of fans who can get there to see them. So, fingers crossed the weather is on our side and all those other gambles pay off too.

Moving on, whichever way you look at it, 2011 is going to be a difficult year financially for many people. Given the impact of government spending cuts, tax rises, public sector job losses, rising fuel prices and inflation, zero wage rises and other factors as yet unforseen, there’s not going to be a lot of spare cash sloshing around. Our Rugby League clubs are going to have to work extra hard to dislodge the few remaining leisure pounds from people’s pockets.

That’s why I hope those clubs who have been innovative already in coming up with ways to encourage people to support them reap the reward of their initiative. Perhaps the most obvious to date has been Bradford Bulls, with their eye-catching discounted season ticket scheme which required a magic number of 10,000 advance pledges to be made to secure a price drop to just £60. The Bulls got the pledges, but more encouragingly, they managed to turn those pledges into sales and head into the new season with a guaranteed support base of 10,000 plus before a ball has been kicked or passed in anger at Odsal. Coming off the back of a hugely disappointing season in 2010, it is a remarkable achievement, but no matter what price has been paid for a season ticket, only improved performances on the pitch will keep the fans happy and willing to keep coming back for more.

I hope what happens on the pitch, not just in Bradford but at every one of our clubs no matter what competition or what ground they are playing in, will be the key to success in 2011, but I fear it will be anything but. Rugby League is a sport that thrives on controversy. If we’re not arguing the toss over the rights and wrongs of who should be in Super League, we’re arguing over the structure of the various competitions, when and how many games should be played, what standards our grounds should be expected to achieve, how high or low the salary cap should be, what punishments are appropriate for the latest financial misdemeanours. 

Perhaps we occasionally allow ourselves to get too wrapped up in all this and forget what draws us to the game in the first place. The skills of the players, the ebb and flow of a tight game, the breakthrough try, the last ditch tackle, the win against the odds, the crucial penalty or field goal, the agony of defeat and the ecstacy of victory, the camaraderie of sharing it all with those around you in the stands or on the terraces, no matter how great or few in number.

My biggest fear is that whatever happens on the pitch this season, it will be overshadowed by the inevitable arguments that will follow the announcement of the latest batch of three-year Super League licences, and the even more inevitable accusations that the process has not been fair, whoever wins or loses. My hope is that, in the absence of interest from WikiLeaks to provide us with chapter and verse on what is really happening behind the scenes, the RFL will go out of its way to make the whole process open and transparent anyway. The tumultuous events at (Celtic) Crusaders since their elevation to Super League in the last round of licence applications has proved beyond doubt that taking a punt and hoping for the best harms those who are supposed to be the ‘winners’ in the process, as well as alienating those who lose out.

Finally, I hope that you will all continue to support Rugby League World by buying a regular copy each month. Our next issue is out on 4th Feb and features our big club-by-club Super League season preview.

Don’t miss it!

John Drake, Editor

This article was first published in Rugby League World – Issue 358 (Feb 2011). You can subscribe to future issues here.