fevnut's blog: Bradford Away (CC)

2017 Match 7: Bradford Bulls Away(Challenge Cup)  

fevnut's musings  

 

Getting steamed up - again!

I was in two minds, with this being a challenge cup week, whether to devote this musing to the challenge cup or to another issue until I realised that the other issue actually does have a bearing on the challenge cup.

How on earth do we expect young players to develop when they train regularly but hardly ever get to play a game? We have now played six games this season but here are the number of times that some of our squad have played a game. Some may be carrying injuries but not most of them.

Luke Cooper and Scott Turner: 1  

Sam Day, James Duckworth and Kyran Johnson: NONE  

 

How on earth can we have a healthy sport when these players, who have loads of potential, are simply not playing?  And the same story must be repeated at many other clubs. I am becoming more and more convinced that the ruling body of rugby league thinks that dual registration has solved the problem. IT HASN’T - outside of Super League! There are opportunities through dual registration for SL club fringe players to gain game time as Leeds players Aston, Baldwinson, Delaney, Handley, Mullally, Ormondroyd and Walters have done with us. And, in my opinion, all of those, bar one, have given their all while playing for Fev. I had hoped that the dual registration partnership announced with York might have helped our players but there has been no move on that front so far and I see that York have now announced a dual reg agreement with Hull KR which saw George Milton turning out for them last Sunday.

It really is about time that the RFL showed some concern for the clubs and players outside of Super League and ran the sport accordingly.

If we don’t want to start losing players from the part-time professional game then it seems to me to be essential to reconstitute a proper ‘Reserve’ team competition and to make it compulsory for clubs (at least in Super League and the Championship) to run a fully fledged reserve team in those competitions. I used to love going to watch our ‘A’ team, trying to spot the next youngster coming through who would go on to make the grade. In my mind it is a total dereliction of duty at the highest level to let the situation arise, as has happened here, that players are getting virtually no time on the pitch.

Mark Campbell and Jon Sharpe have said that they would like to have a reserve team but  it’s no use having a squad when there is no opposition for them to play against. It’s an issue that simply cannot be solved by individual clubs. What this needs is proper leadership from Red Hall.

As I said, it is an issue that does have some relevance to the Challenge Cup. It will be interesting to see the line-ups for many teams on the weekend because, I presume, SL clubs will not want to see their players on loan or dual reg to get cup-tied by playing for a different club. That will be particularly interesting when we get to see the Bradford team bearing in mind that they currently have four loan players from Leeds, one from Castleford and another from Salford. Put that together with our dual reg Leeds players and the teams running out on Sunday may be very different from those who have been playing in the championship.

 

 T'Other Side: Bradford Bulls

 

Head Coach: Leigh Beattie (caretaker)

We know very little about Leigh Beattie. As far as we can ascertain he has never played professionally in the UK, and certainly not in the summer era. Nor has he previously held a position as head coach. All we have been able to discover is that he has been with the Bradford Bulls for many years and has at various times been kitman, groundsman and U16 academy coach. In January the new owners of Bradford Bulls announced that they had appointed Geoff Toovey as head coach but we believe that they are still awaiting for all the paperwork to be accepted before he can officially take over. Toovey was a half-back or hooker with Manly and played 13 times for Australia and made 16 appearances for New South Wales in State of Origin. He was head coach at Manly from 2012 to 2015

Leigh Beattie



Geoff Toovey

 

Captain: Leon Pryce



Leon Pryce

Leon Pryce has returned to Bradford Bulls where he started his career back in 1998 and was with them until the end of the 2005 season before signing for Saint Helens. His route back to the Bulls has been via Catalans Dragons and Hull FC. In his original stint at the Bulls he played 206 times and scored 93 tries. For his other clubs it has been 279 appearances and 101 tries. 15 appearances this season for Bradford would bring up 500 club appearances, a very rare achievement in the modern era. Including representative appearances he has already passed the 500 with 8 for England, 17 for Great Britain and 4 for Yorkshire.

He once caused apoplexy in the Australian press when he told them that he preferred Blackpool Beach to Bondi!

 

New Signings for 2017

t  Phoenix Hunapo-Nofoa (Samoa RU Sevens)

t  Iliess Macani (London Broncos)
t  Jon Magrin (London Broncos)
t  Scott Moore (Wakefield Trinity)
t  Ross Peltier (Keighley Cougars)
t  Leon Pryce (Hull FC)
t  Colton Roche (Featherstone Rovers)
t  Lee Smith (Leigh Centurions)

 

After the turmoil of last winter, Bradford lost many players including several who they had newly signed for 2017 (Jason Walton being one of them). At present they are relying quite heavily on loan players but their parent clubs are likely to not allow them to play on Sunday because they would then be cup-tied and unable to turn out for their own clubs in future rounds.

The most intriguing incomer is Phoenix Hunapo-Nofoa. This speedy 22 year-old is yet to make his debut for Bradford, or indeed his rugby league debut, having made his reputation playing for the Samoan national rugby union sevens team.

Jon Magrin and Iliess Macani have arrived from London Broncos. London-born Macani can play on the wing or fullback but his been used by Bradford on the wing so far this year. Jon Magrin is a prop and a Maltese international.

Scott Moore, an experienced hooker, was released by  Wakefield and picked up by Bradford in mid-February.

 

Ross Peltier is another prop who started at Hunslet and then had three seasons with Keighley. He is a Jamaican international. Colton Roche has been primarily used by Bradford as a second rower. His previous clubs have been Oldham, Sheffield, Fev (2 spells) and York. Roche has also played for Ireland.

Although better known as a fullback, Leigh Smith has played the last two games in the halves. As well as playing for Leeds, Wakefield and Leigh he has played union for Wasps and Newcastle Falcons. He has played league 8 times for England, but not since 2009.

 

 

The Fev Connection

Three members of the current Bradford Bulls squad have played for Featherstone Rovers. James Mendeika was one of the host of youngsters brought in from Warrington Wolves by John Bastian in 2014. In his case he was actually signed by Fev (several were loans) and he played 21 games, scoring 20 tries. After just one game the following year he went to Bradford, an opportunity to become a full-time player. Jordan Lilley is one of four players at Bradford on loan this season from Leeds Rhinos. This very promising young halfback played for Fev three times under dual reg in 2016. Colton Roche had two spells with Rovers, making just one sub appearance in 2014 but returning for the 2016 season during which he impressed initially but then seemed to fall out of favour.


Today: Previously  -  March 19^th 

Rugby League

March 19th has been very kind to Rovers. Hitherto we have played 13 matches on that date and won no less than ten of them. It all began back in 1924 with a surprise 14-13 win over the powerful Huddersfield at Post Office Road. In 1927 we won 11-6 at Wigan but it wasn’t at Central Park. The match took place at the Tunstall Lane ground, the home of Wigan Highfield our opposition on the day. In 1989 Fev went to Saint Helens for a league match and came away with a stunning 31-10 victory. The team was:

Chris Bibb; Paul Hughes, Paul Newlove, Ian Smales, Danny Beach; Alan Banks, Deryck Fox;  Jeff Grayshon, Trevor Clark, Glenn Bell, Karl Harrison, John Bastian, Peter Smith. Subs: Nigel Barker, Glen Booth.

 

It was quite a day for John Bastian. He only ever scored 4 tries for Fev and half of them were in that match!

 

Without doubt one of the most stunning matches on March 19th came just a year ago. Drawn away at London in the Challenge Cup 4th round we were 14-0 down after half an hour only to hit back and take the Broncos apart running out winners by 48-26. A memorable match for Ian Hardman who scored 5 tries.

 

In 2011 Dewsbury beat Toulouse 35-6. A result they would love to repeat this year after having lost in France by 56-2 last month.

 

On the international stage, in 1988 Great Britain U21 lost 8-4 to the French U21 side. There were 2 Rovers in the GB side - Chris Bibb and Paul Newlove (who didn’t score a try but kicked 2 goals). Also in the team were Shaun Irwin, a future Fev captain, Gary Price who went on to play for Fev and later became head coach and Steve Lay who played a few games for Fev in 1996 and 1997.

Martin Luther

 

World Events

In 1522, Martin Luther begins preaching sermons in Wittemberg

In 1776, Adam Smith’s book ‘The Wealth of Nations’ is published
In 1908, founding of football team, Inter Milan
In 1918, Russian Bolshevik party renamed The Communist Party
In 1963, Beatles begin their first British tour (as support act to Chris Montez!)

 

Birthdays



Eddie Rombo

1454 Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer after whom America is named

1629 Tsar Alexis I of Russia
1881 Ernest Bevin, Labour Foreign Minister
1910 Samuel Barber, American composer (Fanfare for a Common Man)
1934 Yuri Gagarin, first person to go into Space
1967 Eddie Rombo, Featherstone winger who was from Kenya