DEAL OR NO DEAL

There have been some interesting and unexpected decisions emanating from RFL HQ recently. Firstly, the choice of Stobart as Super League title sponsors in exchange for advertising on a fleet of branded lorries travelling the nation’s highways, rather than opting for the ready cash offered by a betting company.
Personally, I don’t have any prudish objections to seeing Rugby League associated with sports betting. It’s a free country and betting is not illegal. The Super League Handbook we’re giving away with this issue of Rugby League World would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship we have received from William Hill. Ultimately, the game’s image depends on the behaviour of its players, administrators and supporters, not the business of its sponsors, as the Mail On Sunday painfully reminded us at a time when Super League had no sponsor at all.
With the British economy teetering on the edge of another recession, it’s a brave choice to turn down a cash injection of any kind. Only time will tell if the intangible benefits of advertising via Stobart lorries will produce a better return in increased awareness over the next three years. It won’t do any harm, but how will its impact actually be measured? Stobart have certainly got themselves a great deal. It won’t do their own brand any harm to be associated with Super League.

OUT OF THE BLUE

The other suprising announcement to emerge from the RFL was the news that they had bought the lease of Odsal Stadium from Bradford Bulls. There is a lot of speculation – and an inevitable degree of criticism – surrounding the news. Could it herald the eventual and oft-stalled redevelopment of the stadium and its possible use by the RFL as a national base for the sport?
It’s often been argued that Rugby League suffers from not having its own permanent base to stage major events, such as that enjoyed by the RFU at Twickenham. I can see the logic of that position. I held it myself for long enough. But even though I was born and raised in Bradford and still live barely a stones throw from Odsal, my worry now would be that a sport that has been trapped for so many years by the geography of its origins – the ‘northern’ game – ultimately wouldn’t be doing its public image any favours to confine too many of its major events to one particular city in the north. If the aim of the sponsorship deal with Stobart is to spread the Super League brand further afield, it would send a confusing message if the sport were seen to be pulling up the drawbridge in other ways.

WELL PLAYED

Congratulations are due to former Crusaders and Wales Rugby League player Gareth Thomas, who took part in the latest series of the ‘reality TV’ show Big Brother on Channel 5. Not only did he make it to the final (finishing third overall), he earned the admiration of all his fellow housemates and managed to retain his dignity too. No mean feat.

John Drake, Editor

First published in Rugby League World, Issue 371 (March 2012)

RISE TO THE CHALLENGE

One of the downsides to the professional game switching to a summer season (albeit a ‘summer’ that starts earlier with every passing year) is that the first round draw for the Carnegie Challenge Cup generally takes place at a time when media interest in Rugby League is at its lowest ebb, after the international season has ended and in the run up to Christmas. In many respects, the early rounds are the ones that give the Cup its ultimate appeal. They provide the glue that binds the grassroots game to its higher semi-professional and full-time levels. It may be unlikely that University of Gloucestershire All Golds, for example (drawn away to Rochdale Mayfield in the unappealingly named Preliminary Round: let’s just call it the first round and stop mucking about) will progress far enough in the competition to end up playing current Cup holders Wigan Warriors, but it is possible, and no other Rugby League competition can boast that unique selling point. We should make more of it.

John Drake, Editor

First published in RLW Issue 370, 6th Jan 2012

As Quins rebrand and London Broncos are reborn, Michael O’Hare meets the capital club’s chief executive Gus Mackay.

This interview was first carried out in 2010, well before Gus Mackay joined the Broncos as chief executive officer in January 2011 Which is a bit odd I guess, until you learn that back then I had met his predecessor Paul Blanchard and asked him the same set of questions only to hear the week after that Paul had been offered a more exciting job elsewhere (I know, surely some mistake) and my carefully honed words were set to go to waste.
Actually, being a lazy old hack, it’s very rare that something does go to waste. How about I interview Paul’s successor I asked the RLW editor? That way I don’t have to think up any new questions, just turn up and do what I did last year. Astoundingly – and clearly recognising a fellow swinger of the lead ¬– he acquiesced, and then interrupted my stifled giggles by adding: and you could compare their different answers couldn’t you? Which suddenly doubled the workload and required a modicum of journalistic input. That really hadn’t been my idea at all…
Nonetheless it was so far, so familiar. I took the same train to Twickenham, walked the same roads to the Stoop Memorial Ground and sat in the same office – the same chair even – as I switched on my recorder. But, of course, while both men were keen to emphasise the positives of Rugby League in London, Gus Mackay was not Paul Blanchard. CEOs are like fingerprints – they share a similar purpose but no two are entirely the same.
For a start, not surprisingly, they look different. Mackay looks for all the world like a rugby forward. Except he isn’t. His sport was cricket (he was too modest to tell me he’d played internationals for Zimbabwe) while his more recent background is in cricket administration, ending up at Surrey. “But I found myself wanting a change,” he says. “The Rugby League opportunity came up and I’m really enjoying it. I know so much has been said before about what London’s Super League club can achieve so we’ll be judged on what we do. But we are lucky having such a great sport and one people really care about.”
And there’s another difference. Mackay is more measured with his words. Paul Blanchard wore his heart on his sleeve a little more. Both approaches have their appeal, of course, and Blanchard was passionate about his club and the game, but the new incumbent seems intent on thinking his way around the issues.
Maybe that’s because he’s a Rugby League outsider. He’s being careful finding his way. “Certainly being a non-Rugby League person has its strengths,” he says. “I’ve seen it in cricket when we’ve employed executives from other sports. You come in with an open mind. It’s refreshing – my team here has people from other sports.”
An open mind may be a benefit, but you only have to read the letters pages of the Rugby League press to find its direct opposite: insularity. Many people think London’s Super League club shouldn’t exist at all. “It’s frustrating,” he admits. “The game is still viewed as ‘northern’, which we try to counter. The detractors have their passions too and love their game and their clubs. However, we must understand that for the greater good of the sport, it has to grow and rightly London is seen as one of the RFL’s key strategic markets. The nation’s commercial, media and political hub is in London. If we are successful most people will eventually realise the value of a team here.” Blanchard made the same comments and it is clear that getting this message across is key for whoever sits in the CEO’s chair.

Sex appeal

And it’s not as though success isn’t achievable. It’s often been pointed out that concerns about attendance figures at London’s Super League club obscure a deeper success story. Amateurs and schools constitute a large playing base in the south-east that 20 years ago simply did not exist. It’s a point Paul Blanchard raised and Gus Mackay has statistics to back it up. “There are 2,500 registered club players in London and the south-east playing in 110 teams. There are more than 300 secondary school teams, including 70 girls’ teams. And an additional 1,700 people played touch, tag, masters or wheelchair Rugby League in 2010.” Perhaps of greater significance he points out that 29 London-raised players were in the first team squads of Harlequins RL and Championship 1 club London Skolars in 2011.
He has a point. When commentators insist the current London professional team is not as successful as, say, Fulham once was, they fail to understand that success can be measured in different ways. Fulham, remember, had an entirely northern-based squad. Nobody from London played in the team (in fact hardly anybody in London played the game at any level). That’s very different now and the whole squad is, of course, London resident.
Of course the problem is not just convincing sceptics in the north. It’s as vital to challenge stereotyped attitudes to league in London. Mackay agrees. “We’re having a big media push. We are partnering with the Evening Standard again this season. Last year the Standard promoted our free ticket offer for the Castleford match – 35 per cent of the people who received them turned up – a great return. And we are working hard on social media,” he adds. “Smartphones and instant access have taken over – we need to provide ticket offers that can be taken up immediately. It will be interesting to see how traditional sales like season tickets compare to individual matches where we can offer new fans one-off deals via social media.”
Sensible stuff, but will this help to defeat the pervading sense that, in London and perhaps media-led opinion elsewhere, Rugby League lacks sex appeal? “To change attitudes especially in London the game needs icons and heroes,” agrees Mackay. “Other sports have Jonny Wilkinson, Freddie Flintoff, Wayne Rooney. They transcend their sport. We need similar stars, a new Martin Offiah; possibly the last widely known league player in London.” But like Paul Blanchard before him, Mackay is adamant that “we have a great game, it’s action-packed, great for the family. If you come from a neutral background – our target audience – and see it for the first time you get a high rate of converts. When you consider the huge population of London we only need 10,000 people who think the same. And 17,000 at the Four Nations at Wembley in October were from London and the south-east. I’m not saying we’ll have 10,000 people every game next season but I think we’ll take steps towards that.

Broncos reborn

Will reverting to the London Broncos title help? Would it be fair to say the Harlequins name could never work in Rugby League circles? It’s a question that for obvious reasons Paul Blanchard avoided, but that was when the club was still saddled with the Harlequins moniker. Mackay can now explain some of the background behind the reversion to the Broncos. “At first I was privileged to be appointed CEO of Harlequins RL,” he admits. “But I soon found myself explaining to people that we were not the union club. And even then they’d say ‘but you beat Wasps last week’. That convinced me the name wasn’t working.
“We consulted fans and players – 90 per cent wanted London in the new name and 60 per cent wanted Broncos. We also engaged a creative company with the brief that we didn’t want London Broncos as a title, purposefully to get people to think differently. But ultimately we opted for Broncos, despite all that had gone before, and to be honest it’s what our chairman David Hughes wanted.”
How did Mackay feel about that? “I was 50:50 because I could see the benefits of a fresh start. But the negative side is the marketing you have to do to get that new name out there. With ‘Broncos’ the job is half done. Research shows that when we became Harlequins people stopped supporting us, particularly those who liked Rugby League but supported other union clubs in London. There was no way they were going to support any team called Harlequins. And there is a group of league supporters who feel the same.”
Would it be fair to say that the name had led, at least in part, to the slow attendance decline the league club has experienced? “I believe it did,” he admits. “Supporters of Rugby League see themselves as different, not an addition to a union club. Hopefully those people will return. Originally there was a hope that all Harlequins union season ticket holders would become league season ticket holders. It never worked – two different games, two different supporter groups. Union people already like their own game.” And vice-versa, of course.

Doorstep challenge

Which brings us back to support levels, especially the comparison between league and union. Paul Blanchard believed union marketed itself well but also had a complicit media, hence its rising attendances at the expense of Super League in London. He also suggested union could afford to fill its grounds with discounted or free tickets, something league couldn’t do. Mackay agrees: “Union has the Premiership which it markets and televises well. Like soccer, they have created something that attracts people and makes them think they are watching the best exponents in the world’s best competition. This is our challenge. Take our branded Broncos London taxis – we went for ‘Rugby League on your doorstep’ as our slogan. It’s telling people you can get in a black cab and go watch Rugby League in your home city. The game as a whole has to raise its profile. The Four Nations posters on the tube didn’t push ‘Rugby League’ hard enough. They showed Wembley, and ‘rugby’ players, but we needed people to know they were getting something different. If it’s the greatest game in the world, tell people.”
But how ‘on your doorstep’ is Rugby League in London? It’s been argued that the Stoop is quite inaccessible, even for Londoners. “At the moment we can only control what we can control,” says Mackay, “such as our brand, and squad strength. What we can’t yet control are things like where we play because we have a year left on our stadium agreement. We are renegotiating to extend this but we are exploring games on the road to take the Broncos to new markets.” We now know one of the club’s 2012 fixtures will be at Leyton Orient FC in east London. “This could help us map out our best pockets of support. One of the problems has been a lack of long-term strategy; not necessarily the fault of the Rugby League club. Ideally you’d select an area, arrange a 20-year lease on a stadium and have a 20-year strategy to match. But that’s still only an aspiration.”

Bums on seats

So what of the immediate future? The new squad is noticeably different from 2011. “We have tried to bring in marquee players. Squad depth was our problem. Now, it’s cohesive and talented under coach Rob Powell – and we have our expectations. The minimum is a play-off place. It’s a three to five year plan but it starts with the right platform in place. We have some high-profile names too, players like Craig Gower and Shane Rodney. We set out to control the things at the club which we could do something about to drive bums onto seats. We all know a successful team in any sport attracts spectators. We’ve also made structural changes. We have up to 15 football department staff and eight in admin – three more than a few months ago.”
All of which should bear fruit. But could the slow process that’s been put in train be fast-tracked by positive discrimination for clubs such as the Broncos and the Skolars of the kind that saw Paris and London promoted to Super League in 1996, for example? Can a special case be made for London? This is something Paul Blanchard had been pugnacious about, but he knew his tenure was ending and could afford to be provocative. He said positive discrimination was a no-brainer – despite opposition from supporters of northern clubs he argued that London should be treated differently. Mackay, however, is more circumspect. “We are fortunate to get excellent help from the RFL because they recognise our strategic marketplace,” he admits. “They understand sometimes the rules may be relaxed – an example is we didn’t compete in last year’s Nines Championship because the RFL understood it was logistically difficult. We also don’t attain the Super League licence attendance figure but importantly the RFL understand we are working to improve it. They use their discretion. We aim to move from a C to a B licence and we know we need to address attendance figures, playing results and commercial structure.”
All of which leaves the ultimate question for any CEO: where does he see the club in five years? Mackay is succinct: “Our mission statement is ‘To build a profitable sports business that represents London Rugby League and in doing that becomes a high performing Super League Club that our stakeholders want to be involved with’. It’s a simple as that.” He then elaborates succinctly: “We want to play at the highest level and want people to watch us. In five years I want to be able to say that this was one of the most successful periods in our history – not one-off success but consistent.”
Mackay will be up against 13 other Super League CEOs working towards the same thing for their clubs. Of all of them it could be argued that his is the most challenging role. But with a population of umpteen million people on his doorstep, it’s also perhaps the most exciting one.

This article was first published in Rugby League World Issue 370 (Feb 2012)

UPS AND DOWNS

Like the Grand Old Duke of York, the RFL marched everyone up to the top of the hill (or Media City in Salford to be precise) for the announcement of the venues for the 2013 World Cup, only to march everyone back down again by failing to reveal any of the juiciest details regarding exactly where the opening ceremony, the semi-finals or the final itself would be held.
The venues for the group games certainly have a wide geographic spread, including Avignon, Perpignan, Limerick, Wrexham and Bristol which is enough to gladden any expansionist heart.
I still have my fingers crossed that Wembley will be used for the final at least, despite worrying whispers that it may not figure on the itinerary at all.

LOSING ITS MAGIC?

The moveable feast that is the Magic Weekend has upped sticks again, this time from Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium to Manchester’s Etihad Stadium. It’s also been ditched as the season opener after just one year. It has moved locations and purpose so many times, does anyone have a clue what the point of it is anymore?

BRIERS BOWS OUT

Much of the focus in the Four Nations was on the retirement of Darren Lockyer, and rightly so. The bloke is a dead set legend. It is a measure of his greatness that despite having broken our hearts yet again, most English fans at Elland Road stayed behind to applaud him from the field and celebrate an incredible Rugby League career.
Welsh captain Lee Briers played out his own international swansong in front of a much smaller crowd and with a fraction of the fanfare, but his service to the game in Wales has been immense. He certainly hasn’t been in it for the glory as there hasn’t been much of that for the Dragons in the Four Nations, but he has provided invaluable inspiration to a new generation of Welsh players that no matter how daunting the challenge, there is no greater honour in our sport than pulling on your national jersey.

LOST AND FOUND

Rugby League expansion has always been a roller coaster ride. Never more so than in 2011 when we disappointingly lost Crusaders from Super League, only for the club to be reborn in Championship One before the year was out. Now, moves are in hand to bring in four more expansion clubs to Championship One in 2013, beginning with Northampton. We welcome them and hope that they fully understand the massive challenges that will lay ahead as they seek to establish themselves as a force in the game.

John Drake, Editor

First published in RLW issue 369

Australia’s Four Nations Final man of the match Johnathan Thurston has been named as the winner of the 2011 Golden Boot, which is awarded annually to the game’s greatest international player by Rugby League World Magazine.

Thurston edged the award by the narrowest of margins over 2007 winner Cameron Smith in a vote involving five former Golden Boot winners, Wally Lewis, Brett Kenny, Hugh McGahan, Ellery Hanley and Garry Schofield, plus Australian coaching guru, journalist and broadcaster Phil Gould, former France coach Louis Bonnery, Papua New Guinea legend Stanley Gene and journalists and supporters from both hemispheres.

Rugby League World editor John Drake commented, “It was one of the closest races for the Golden Boot in years, which emphasises just how much fantastic talent there is in our game at the highest level. It gets harder and harder to separate the best players when it comes to individual awards in what is very much a team game.

“Johnathan’s stand out performances for Australia in the Four Nations thrilled the crowds in England and Wales just as he has thrilled the crowds back home with his club, North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL and for Queensland in State of Origin.

“The Golden Boot award recognises a whole year of performances at domestic and international level. Johnathan’s match-winning performance in the biggest game of the season, the Four Nations final against England proved he is a worthy recipient. The very best players produce their very best performances on the biggest stages.

“We’re delighted to add Johnathan Thurston’s name to the Golden Boot roll of honour, which includes so many international Rugby League legends.”

2011 RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD GOLDEN BOOT – RESULT
1 .Johnathan Thurston (North Queensland Cowboys/Australia) – 175 points
2. Cameron Smith (Melbourne Storm/Australia) – 170 points
3. Darren Lockyer (Brisbane Broncos/Australia) – 141 points
4. Sam Tomkins (Wigan Warriors/England) – 110 points
5. James Graham (St Helens/England) – 89 points
6. Ryan Hall (Leeds Rhinos/England) – 49 points

(The full breakdown including the votes of each individual panel member are included in the January 2012 issue of Rugby League World Magazine on sale from 2nd Dec 2011).

It’s the first time the shortlist has included an equal number of Englishmen to Australians and reflects the growing stature of Steve McNamara’s team on the international stage as they head to Leeds for the Gillette Four Nations Final showdown against last year’s runners up.

The winner award will be decided by a panel featuring a host of former Golden Boot winners including Ellery Hanley, Garry Schofield (Great Britain), Wally Lewis, Brett Kenny (Australia), Stacey Jones and Hugh McGahan (New Zealand). The panel also includes former NSW Origin coach Phil Gould, Papua New Guinea legend Stanley Gene, former Australian Test forward Mark Geyer now a leading media commentator down under, Rugby League World columnist and Sky Sports analyst Jon Wells and members of the international media. Fans will also be given their say on the panel via social media. The full result of the vote and the name of this year’s winner will be revealed in issue 369 of Rugby League World on 2nd December.

Though the shortlist is currently six-strong, a wildcard option is available to add another player after the Four Nations Final.

Rugby League World editor John Drake explained, “Our shortlist contains six players who we believe would walk into any Rugby League team, anywhere in the world. Their selection is backed up by strong and consistent domestic performances throughout the year, but with particular emphasis on performances at international level too. Darren Lockyer is quite simply a Rugby League legend. Cameron Smith was Man of the Series in Origin and was named Hooker of the Year by the RLIF. Both have won the Golden Boot before. Johnathan Thurston is RLIF Half-back of the Year, an Origin winner with Queensland and is currently thrilling fans in the UK with stand-out performances in the Four Nations.

“The three England players are there completely on merit. Ryan Hall is a Super League champion with his club Leeds Rhinos and has scored some spectacular winger’s tries in this tournament against both Australia and New Zealand. Sam Tomkins has been in sensational form for England with five tries to his name and enjoyed a Challenge Cup winning season with Wigan. James Graham is the granite in the England pack, a Golden Boot nominee last season, he made it to another Grand Final with Saints and has been headhunted by Canterbury Bulldogs to play in the NRL.

“The Golden Boot goes to the best player in the world, and the best players usually reserve their best performances for the biggest games. They don’t come any bigger than the Four Nations final.

“We reserve the right to reward a standout performance in the final with a place on our shortlist through the wildcard option, which we first introduced last year. It’s a tough decision to limit the shortlist to six, and there are several outstanding players who will be appearing in the final who were unlucky to miss out, but the chance is still open to them.”

Two players who might have been expected to make the shortlist, but won’t have the opportunity to grab the wildcard lifeline, are last year’s winner, Benji Marshall whose Kiwi side failed to reach Elland Road after their 28-6 defeat to England, and perhaps the most surprising omission of all, Dally M Medal winner and RLIF International Player of the Year, Australia’s Billy Slater.

“Billy Slater is without doubt a world class player and would almost certainly have made our shortlist under normal circumstances, “ John Drake continued. “He won the Golden Boot in 2008 so he has already proven he possesses all the qualities we look for in our winners, but sadly, the injury which saw him leave the field against England at Wembley has proved crucial to our decision not to include him on this year’s shortlist.

“There’s a reason we wait until after the final international game of the season to decide the Golden Boot, and that is you can never tell what is going to happen, which players will rise to the very peak of performance when it truly matters and which players will just fall short, despite an otherwise outstanding year. Billy falls into this category, with his injury costing him the opportunity to dazzle us all once more in the biggest international game of the season. But, there’s no doubting a player of his incredible talent will be back for another crack at winning the Golden Boot next year.

“Benji Marshall has suffered individually as a result of the general loss of form of his team. New Zealand have failed to spark this year, underperforming in the ANZAC Test and failing to reach the Four Nations final too. Benji remains a fine player, a worthy runaway winner of the Golden Boot in 2010, but he himself would probably agree that 2011 has been one to forget and that’s the reason we felt other players deserved nomination ahead of him this time round.”

One player on the shortlist stands poised to make history if he wins the Golden Boot in 2011.

“What can you say about Darren Lockyer that has not already been said? He is one of the greatest players any of us has ever seen, who has once again led Queensland to victory in the State of Origin and will captain Australia in his final international appearance on Saturday. It’s just impossible not to include him on the Golden Boot shortlist. We have seen before that he can win the biggest games almost single handed, and it was his virtuoso performance against Great Britain at Elland Road in 2004 that resulted in the announcement of the winner of the Golden Boot being permanently moved after the final rather than before it. Not only has he left his mark on the whole sport, he’s left his mark on the Golden Boot too, and who would rule him out of becoming the first player to win it three times?”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

2011 GOLDEN BOOT SHORTLIST

James Graham (St Helens / England)
Ryan Hall (Leeds Rhinos / England)
Darren Lockyer (Brisbane Broncos / Queensland / Australia)
Cameron Smith (Melbourne Storm / Queensland / Australia)
Johnathan Thurston (North Queensland Cowboys / Queensland / Australia)
Sam Tomkins (Wigan Warriors / England)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After all, for the first time ever we got a Grand Final without either of the top two clubs contesting it, so the play-offs must have been a spectacular success, right?

Wrong. Blow-out scores, slumping crowds and the contrivance of a ClubCall that no one cared about, least of all the coach of the club that earned the dubious honour of making the choice saw the business end of the season get underway with all the excitement of a visit to the dentist.

You can’t legislate for great games of the kind that sent Saints and Leeds on their way to Old Trafford, but you can take decisions that will make them more likely rather than less.

I would argue it is time to go back to the original top five play-off format.

At the moment, Super League just does not have the strength in depth to justify a top eight. Okay, in the absence of a relegation dogfight, the expanded play-offs inject a little bit of extra excitement lower down the table, but at what price?

If, for example, Bradford Bulls had managed to string a few late season wins together and sneaked into the eight, their supporters, most of whom had paid just £60 for a season ticket entitling them to watch 13 home games, would have been asked to fork out at least a third of that to watch a single extra play-off game away from home. How many do you think would have turned up? The kind of bargain season ticket deals that clubs promote nowadays leaves the play-offs, which are not included, looking like a very raw deal indeed.

We have to find a way of including play-off games in the cost of a season ticket, even if it involves carrying a credit over to the following year, or an eventual refund for clubs which fail to make the cut.

Our clubs need to be incentivised to promote play-off games, too, and avoid at all costs the kind of situation that saw Wigan coach Michael Maguire bring down the veil of silence on his players in the lead up to a vital game – a game which went on to draw a derisory attendance of just 6,790 to the DW Stadium.

It’s unfair to blame Maguire for that decision: he is a coach, and he will do whatever he thinks is required for his team to be successful. The blame should lay with a system that allows him the freedom to make such a counter-productive decision in the first place.

As editor of a Rugby League publication, of course I have a vested interest in players being available to the media, but ultimately we are all involved in the same business – promoting the sport of Rugby League. It’s hard to do that when not everyone is willing to play ball, and harder still when quality is far too often sacrificed for quantity.

John Drake, Editor

First published in Rugby League World, Issue 367 (Nov 2011)

I’ve rarely missed a Challenge Cup final since my first in 1983 – I’ve always paid for a ticket, never on a press freebie, even now as editor of Rugby League World I prefer the stands to the press box – and no matter what the result, I’ve never left feeling short-changed or felt that I’d have been better off at home watching it all on TV. It is a magical experience. A game is lifted out of the ordinary by its surroundings and sense of occasion.

This year, it isn’t just the Challenge Cup final at Wembley. Rugby League fans are being invited to make a second pilgrimage on November 5 for the Four Nations double-header between Wales and New Zealand, England and Australia. The earliest tickets went on sale for just ten quid. Arguably the best value event of any kind ever staged at Wembley, but the clamour for tickets isn’t exactly deafening, and the RFL’s conviction in filling the stadium appears so limited that top tier tickets in the stadium aren’t even available for purchase online, for some reason.

Okay, depending on which economic experts you believe, we’re either just coming out of a recession, or just heading back into one. Either way, times are hard and money is short. But Rugby League has spent the last decade at least, the so called boom before the bust, staging internationals at tiny venues for fear that not enough fans wanted to watch them, when money or the lack of it, was not the main issue.

The return to Wembley – site of Rugby League’s record international crowd of 73,631 in 1992 – is a bold move by the RFL after such a period of timidity, and one I wholeheartedly applaud, but it runs the risk of backfiring spectacularly if more effort is not made to promote it, and not just to those who always turn up to the major events. There aren’t nearly enough of them.

Rugby League fans won’t just turn up. They have to be enticed, cajoled, enthused and so far, that doesn’t seem to be happening. Perhaps it is too early and a major promotional push is in the pipeline after the Challenge Cup and Grand Finals are out of the way, but that doesn’t leave much time to shift the tens of thousands of tickets needed if this international showpiece event is to live up to its billing. Our clubs should also take an active role in selling tickets for internationals, as they do in rugby union. If they can’t see the benefit of doing so, their short-sightedness deserves to be remedied by making it a provision of a Super League licence in future.

Of course, much of the reluctance to travel anywhere, let alone London, to support England stems from the fact that they haven’t exactly the greatest record against the Aussies (though the record is actually much more impressive in games at Wembley) but if sports fans were only willing to watch their national side when they are likely to win, it begs the question how on earth the Welsh rugby union can sell out the Millennium Stadium for games against the All Blacks when they haven’t beaten them at home since 1953, and why anyone at all ever bothers to watch England play football when they haven’t won a tournament of note since 1966.

The resistance towards the international game within Rugby League is at the heart of its inability to crack the national media. The bitter truth is it doesn’t really matter much outside Wigan and Leeds how fantastic the Challenge Cup final was or who won it. Once the TV broadcast is finished, it’s forgotten about by the majority of casual sports fans who are not Rugby League nuts. The real opportunity to grab and hold them and the media which serves their interests takes place at Wembley on Bonfire Night, and we all have our part to play by packing the place to the rafters and demanding to be noticed.

Remember, remember the 5th of November: it’s the day that our best players could take a step towards national stardom and international Rugby League could finally come in from the cold.

John Drake, Editor

First published in Rugby League World, Issue 366 (Oct 2011)

The 25-year history of Rugby League’s Golden Boot throws up so many intriguing tales, not least the winner that never was.
To cut a long story short, Adidas in Australia sponsored the award that was the brainchild of Open Rugby magazine back in the mid to late-eighties. The inaugural award went to Wally Lewis, the Australian captain, for his performances for club, state and country in 1984 with his international teammates Brett Kenny and Garry Jack scooping the award in the next two years.
But problems began to materialise in 1987 when Harry Edgar, the publisher and editor of Open Rugby, informed Adidas that the New Zealander Hugh McGahan was to win the next Boot on account of his wonderful performances in 1987. Adidas, clearly wanting an Australian winner, demanded that Peter Sterling win the award. Edgar was unhappy but settled for a draw, and the players shared the award.
There could be no arguments over the next winner, Ellery Hanley, who picked up the award based on his sensational displays for Wigan, Balmain and Great Britain in 1988, but Adidas were less than impressed when Hanley collected the award dressed in Puma gear. Hanley, in turn, had been unimpressed that Adidas, for the first time, hadn’t forked out on a lavish awards ceremony: he was instead asked to drive to Newcastle, a couple of hours from his Sydney base, to collect the award at a low-key pitchside presentation.
Two years later when Adidas were informed of another non-Australian winner, they refused to sanction it. For Edgar, the Golden Boot had turned into an annual battle with its Aussie sponsors, and, sadly, as a result, the plug was pulled. The would-be 1990 winner had an inkling of what had happened, but it wasn’t until 2007 that Edgar broke his silence on the real reason for the demise of the ultimate individual Rugby League honour when he revealed that the Leeds and Great Britain stand-off, Garry Schofield, should have been formally recognised as the world’s greatest player for his superb international performances in the first year of the new decade.

Better late than never

Rugby League World, which bought out Open Rugby in 1998 and re-introduced the Boot in 1999, is now proud to be able to put that right. On Tuesday 13th September 2011, Garry Schofield OBE will finally be presented with the 1990 Rugby League Golden Boot which is his by right, by current Rugby League World editor John Drake at the League Express Albert Goldthorpe Awards ceremony at The Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield. As Harry Edgar told Rugby League World in a special feature to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Golden Boot last year: “After Garry’s performances in 1990, he should have been the rightful winner. He’d been absolutely outstanding on the tour to New Zealand and in the Ashes series against Australia – the closest we’ve been to them in years. Garry was a brilliant player – no one can deny that.”
Schofield’s international career began when he was selected to tour Australia in 1984. He lost his first six Ashes Tests as Great Britain were whitewashed in 1984 and 1986 although the young centre scored seven tries in those games, including one in ’84 that was adjudged the try of the decade. In 1985 he scored four tries in one Test as Great Britain hammered New Zealand at Wigan but injury cost him the chance to experience Britain’s famous win in Sydney in 1988 and their Test series win over the Kiwis in 1989.
He came back into the side in 1990 and after two wins over France, was selected to be vice-captain of Great Britain’s tour of Papua New Guinea and Australia. It was a tour that a few of the high-profile players didn’t fancy as Jonathan Davies, the recent convert from rugby union, remembers: “We were missing a lot of players from that tour who probably didn’t fancy touring New Zealand and, in particular, Papua New Guinea. We drew one-all with Papua New Guinea but upset the form book to win the series in New Zealand and Garry was the difference in an attacking sense. We won both of those first two Tests by just a point with him in great form, making breaks and creating tries. He had a great career, but I think that was the best rugby he ever produced.”
Ray Fletcher, the veteran Rugby League journalist, who along with David Howes, produced two decades of Rothmans Yearbooks in the 1980s and 1990s is adamant that Schofield thoroughly deserves his Golden Boot and rates him better than Ellery Hanley as the best British player he has ever seen and alongside Lewis, the inaugural winner of the Boot.
“Garry was a top-class club player, no doubt about it,” he says. “I always felt that Schofield was one of the few players that went above his club form, on the international scene, and that’s saying something because he was so good for Leeds. Leeds were never the best of teams, but he was the key man and very often he dragged them to victory in many games. He also adapted very well because he started off as a poaching type of centre and ended up as a playmaker and an exceptional team man when he moved to stand-off.
“I’d put him ahead of Ellery Hanley based on his exceptional Great Britain career. We’re talking about a time when we were getting well beaten but he still produced great performances.
“I recall the 1990 tour when Schoey was the vice-captain and he dictated absolutely everything on the field. In the three Tests he had a hand in or scored every try. I remember from the records I kept around that time that he was involved in 18 out of 20 successive Great Britain tries. That’s an incredible feat.
“He was also very good with the press because we’d had Ellery as captain but when Schoey took over, he got the message across to the press as well as the players. He changed the feel of the tour as it had been a closed shop under Ellery, and the entire squad was more approachable. I can’t speak highly enough of him.
“I was on the panel that awarded him the 1991 Man of Steel, and we took into account performances from the summer of 1990, so that included what he did in New Zealand, and I’m delighted he’s finally being given this Golden Boot. I’ll accept that Wally was the Emperor, but from what I saw of him, Garry was on a par because Garry never had the great players around him that Wally did.”

Big year

Exceptional performances aside, 1990 was also a big year for Schofield because it was the one that saw him move from centre to stand-off.
“It was David Ward, my coach at Leeds, who first moved me to stand-off and the extra responsibility put a smile on my face,” says Schofield. “I felt that I was being wasted in the centres at Leeds and I wasn’t getting the service I needed at the time. If it wasn’t for David taking that chance, I wouldn’t have played there for Great Britain and I probably wouldn’t have won this Golden Boot.
“I always roamed in the middle of the field as a centre. I knew I had it in me to play a more central role but I don’t think I’d have ever asked. Malcolm Reilly then decided to play me there for Great Britain, but I got off to a nightmare start, having a shocker in the first Test against Papua New Guinea, a game we lost by a couple of points.
“I had an awful game, absolutely shocking. Nothing went right for me at all and when we were back at the hotel, Malcolm Reilly came up to me and actually asked me if I knew how to play stand-off!
“’You’re the main man on the field and you take charge!’ he told me, but he hadn’t said that before the game. I got murdered for it and everyone was asking why, when I was usually a centre, was playing at stand-off for my country. But after he said he wanted to take control, it was like music to my ears. That’s not coaching, it’s man-management and Malcolm was brilliant at it.
“My best performances that year came in the Test series in New Zealand and I loved it when Phil Clarke told me that Shaun Edwards’s dad put pictures of me wearing the Great Britain number-six jersey up in his kitchen to motivate him into getting the jersey back. But from then on, Shaun wasn’t getting that jersey back, it was mine. I took a lot of job satisfaction from being good at what I’d been asked to do.
“All the big boys had pulled out but it probably worked in our favour. Mike Gregory turned out to be an excellent captain. What Mike did was make sure that everybody was part of the touring team, from 1 to 26. It wasn’t the most talented team that went out there, but, boy oh boy, did we want to win a Test series down under.
“I’ve been on four tours, and it was certainly the most enjoyable from a team-spirit point of view. There were no cliques and I don’t think we’d have had the same team spirit if the big players had been there. Big players have big egos and if you have too many, the team spirit can suffer sometimes.”

Full of belief

After producing an against-the-odds series win against the Kiwis, the British went into their series against the touring Kangaroos full of belief that they could win back the Ashes after 20 years of Australian victories.
“The guys knew that the team would be broken up for the big names to come back into the squad to play Australia,” said Schofield. “They were realistic about it but they’d gone down in history and could be proud of everything they did. It wasn’t an issue because they knew players would be coming back. If we were going to beat the Aussies in 1990, we needed Ellery and the others back so it wasn’t an issue.
“We knew we could win the Ashes and the interest levels were massive compared to now. The international scene has declined now because there are no expectations. Back then, there was. Nowadays, I don’t think even the players believe they can win a series. We did have the belief and in those days there were far more column inches devoted to the sport. The newspapers went really big on the Ashes and the games were on BBC1, rather than on Sky, where the audience is limited. Our best players were much higher profile now and plenty of non-Rugby League fans would have been tuning in to watch.”
Schofield helped Great Britain to one of their most famous wins against Australia by producing another great performance in a fondly-remembered 19-12 win, but was helpless to prevent a heartbreaking last-minute Mal Meninga try at Old Trafford in the second Test. It wrested control of the series away from Schofield’s men, and the Kangaroos wrapped up the series at Elland Road.
“Wembey was a massive experience – it was incredible. We played the game at our pace, kicking early in the tackle count, walking to scrums and frustrating the Aussies. The first 40 minutes were great and we knew we had the Aussies where we wanted them. Malcolm told us to stick to what we were doing and we’d win. Not one player went from the gameplan and we delivered a really professional performance in the second half. Ellery had a great game and we typified what British Rugby League was all about by producing some great off-the-cuff play.
“We couldn’t wait for the second Test. There were two weeks between each game, but we wanted to be out there straightaway. People were desperate for tickets and the RFL Headquarters at Chapeltown Road could barely cope with the demand. The national media were so interested in us because we had the Aussies on the ropes. Again, the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic. We had the same gameplan, kicking early and slowing the game down. It was working again, with another nip-and-tuck game. Paul Dixon and I produced a Leeds move for a try but Cliff Lyons scored a great try. But we didn’t panic and Paul Loughlin scored that great intercept but, as we all know, he chose not to kick the goal. Paul Eastwood took it and sadly missed and we all know what happened at the end.
“They won a late scrum near their line and I’m sure Lee Jackson gets reminded all the time that he bought Ricky Stuart’s dummy. Ricky went 50 or 60 metres and Mal Meninga supported to score. Mal fouled Carl Gibson to get there but there are no excuses. It shouldn’t have happened but the Aussies played for 80 minutes, and all credit to them. It’s still heartbreaking to talk about it now! We were devastated because we knew we’d played well enough to win.
“If I’m honest, I think that, looking back, the Aussies were always going to win the third Test. The pressurised games they play every week helped them later in the series. We didn’t have enough players who could cope with that level of intensity. They had 15 such players, we only had seven or eight probably and that’s why we fell down, and the same for 1992.”
As for being the winner of the Golden Boot that never was, until now, Schofield says: “I’d heard a rumour at the time that I was in line to win the Golden Boot but then I heard nothing. I made an enquiry but heard the sponsor had pulled out. I was disappointed of course, but didn’t think much more about it.
“Being formally recognised now is, for me, recognition of what coaches like David Ward, Arthur Bunting, Frank Stanton and Malcolm Reilly did for me and when you look at the list of winners, it’s an unbelievable feeling to be joining it. Wally, Sterlo, Brett and Hugh McGahan were amazing players.
“I enjoyed every minute of my career and owe my mum and dad so much for supporting me like they did, buying me my first pair of boots for three quid. There was also all the support from Adele, my wife at the time, and my kids Danielle and Jonathan. You need that sort of support if you’re going to be successful at anything.
“This means as much to me now as it would have done if I’d received the award 20 years ago and it will sit proudly alongside my Great Britain caps.”

Words: Richard de la Riviere
First published in Rugby League World – Issue 362 (June 2011)

The saddest aspect of Super League’s licensing process is that the performances of the players on the pitch take second billing to the machinations of accountants and administrators. I know all professional sport is a business, but there is no business without the sport and it is beyond frustrating to see exciting competitions like the Challenge Cup and the Northern Rail Cup reaching their climax right now yet being eclipsed in importance by a discussion about which clubs have the best business plans. The timing, if nothing else, is an avoidable disaster.

Those who devised the licensing process insist it is working, but honestly, how can it be when we have clubs granted a licence in 2008 lurching from crisis to crisis ever since? If the vetting that took place back then wasn’t vigorous enough to spot the business cases that were more like basket cases, it is difficult to have much faith in it now. This rollercoaster of uncertainty is one of the things that licensing was supposed to avoid.

Of equal concern is the manner in which Wakefield had the shadow of the axe hanging over them for so long this season, damaging their prospects, only to see it lifted at the last minute in a decision which appears to have been unexpected even to them.

Similarly, Halifax were told very publicly earlier this year that they had ticked all the boxes for entry into Super League, yet they were still denied at the big reveal, to the bafflement of many.

Widnes Vikings already knew that had made the cut, but that’s after having waited three years since missing out in 2008 when they were told that going into administration was a deciding factor. Yet Wakefield were recently in administration too. So much for consistency.

If the licensing process was working effectively, there ought to be no shocks associated with it. No rabbits out of the hat at the eleventh hour. Those clubs meeting their obligations under the licensing criteria should be fully aware of their position on an ongoing basis and those that are not should not be able to carry on hoodwinking their employees, supporters or the RFL in pursuing a further licence under false pretences. This is Rugby League, a sport, not an episode of The Apprentice in which Lord Sugar waves a finger at some hapless wannabe and bellows ‘you’re fired’ to achieve maximum dramatic effect for the TV cameras.

The drama should be confined to the field of play, where players serve it up in sizeable quantities every weekend. Off the field, there needs to be much more transparency in a process that clearly lacks the trust of the sport’s paying customers. It is not enough for the RFL to go on insisting it is fair until they are blue in the face because few people seem to believe them anymore. We live in a cynical age and sadly, whether it is MPs fiddling expenses, bankers awarding themselves fat bonuses at public expense or newspapers resorting to phone-hacking for a scoop, the cynicism is all too often justified. Don’t tell everyone licensing is fair, show everyone it is fair.

While the decision by Crusaders to withdraw from Super League doesn’t help the cause of growing Rugby League in Wales, it needn’t be the end of it. It’s easy to look at a Super League club in an expansion area and think ‘that’s it’, but in Wales as in London, it is the tip of the iceberg: the game has grown apace at grassroots level. And why wouldn’t it? We can hardly go around calling Rugby League ‘the greatest game’ in one breath and then declaring that it’ll never catch on outside the north of England in the next. Crusaders may have failed as a business in Wales, it does not follow that Rugby League has failed as a sport.

John Drake, Editor
First published in Rugby League World, Issue 365 (Sept 2011)