Championship Talk: Flying start

fevnut's blog is absolutely delighted to have received permission to bring you a regular column from Gareth Walker.

Gareth is a top rugby league journalist who has one very exceptional distinction. He chooses to write about matters pertaining to the Championship and League One.

Although this blog is devoted to Featherstone Rovers it is always good to read opinions about matters relevant to us, but not specifically about us. We hope you enjoy reading Gareth's column each week.

Flying start

TORONTO Wolfpack’s stunning 34-12 win at title favourites Leigh headlined a fascinating opening weekend of Championship action.

          Paul Rowley took his pack of former Centurions back to his old club, and the bookies’ pre-match predictions looked accurate when they fell 12-0 behind inside the opening nine minutes.

          But the ambitious Canadian club dominated the remainder of the match, scoring 34 unanswered points with ex-Leigh duo Ryan Brierley and Liam Kay contributing 14 and a hat-trick of tries respectively.

          It is only round one and the impressively-assembled Centurions will come again, but this was a significant early marker laid down by the Wolfpack in terms of their Super League aspirations.

          Mention too of the excellent crowd at Leigh Sports Village, with 5,452 witnessing a game that was televised live on both sides of the world.

          Dewsbury Rams and Sheffield Eagles formally kicked the Championship season off with a Friday night thriller at the Tetley’s Stadium.

          Neil Kelly’s side looked in total control at 14-0 at the break, but the hastily-recruited Eagles scored three tries in 11 minutes to lead going into the finally quarter.

          In the end, Dale Morton’s try and Paul Sykes’ touchline conversion proved the difference in an exciting 20-18 win that will have encouraged both coaches.

          It was similarly tight at Featherstone until the 63rd minute, when man of the match Martyn Ridyard’s try finally wrestled control for his side against Halifax.

          Anthony Thackeray’s late score completed a 20-4 win for Rovers over a team they will expect to be top four rivals come the summer.

          The match was watched by another healthy crowd of 2,743.

          On Saturday, Toulouse started their attempts to earn a Qualifiers spot with an accomplished 46-14 win over Swinton Lions, with a late flurry of four tries in the final 10 minutes blowing the scoreline out somewhat.

          Sylvain Houles has made some shrewd additions to his squad for 2018 and this was a promising start.

          Finally - with Rochdale and Batley having been postponed due to a waterlogged pitch - London Broncos also finished strongly to see off promoted Barrow 56-12 in the capital.

          Keiran Dixon finished with a brace of tries but the headline story was a man of the match performance from teenage half-back Jamie Meadows - could he be the next young London star off the Broncos’ impressive conveyor belt?

          He’ll get a second chance to impress this weekend at Dewsbury while the pick of the matches sees Featherstone entertain Toulouse in another game that should provide some early top four pointers.