The
Rugby League Family
When people
talk of ‘The Rugby League Family’ they are most often referring to the way we
come together to support those having problems and the most recent notable
example is the support for Rob Burrow.
But we
think there is another side to this. When we go to Fev’s home matches in
particular it is great to watch the team, hopefully winning and playing well,
but there is also a very strong social aspect to it. It is the meeting up with
friends and watching the match together with them. It just wouldn’t be quite
such a wonderful experience without having Mick and John, David and Steph, and Austin,
Nigel, Frank, Len, Jane and Terry and Pat to share the occasion with. Some of
those we have been sitting next to or near to for the best part of 30 years!
Sadly we
ended last season with four successive away matches and then started this year
away again. Then the first home game gets postponed and the next 2 Championship
matches are away. So you can imagine the cheer that went up in this house when
we watched the Challenge Cup draw and Fev came out with a home tie. We didn’t
care who it was against, all we wanted was to be at home.
It will
have been 169 days between home matches and that really is too much to bear!
Yes, there have been pre-season games but they don’t really count. It’s never
the same when winning doesn’t matter.
Of course,
travelling to away matches is great and we get to everyone we possibly can,
including trips to Canada and France in recent years. That’s a different
experience and a very good one. But it’s not quite as magical as sitting in the
stand at Fev surrounded by friends!
Dual
Reg and Toronto
We see that
in the last week Toronto Wolfpack and Rochdale Hornets have announced a dual
reg partnership. No real surprise their because, when the Wolfpack are in England,
they share a training facility at Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale.
Given the well-publicised
fact that Toronto only have 23 contracted players at the moment it looks
unlikely that Rochdale will get much opportunity to include Toronto players in
their squad. We do wonder, therefore, whether we will see a new aspect to dual
reg. With League One clubs only playing 20 league games in the year and
consequently having a few clear weekends then maybe there will be an
opportunity for a few Rochdale players to get a taste of Super League rugby. No
inside information, just a bit of guesswork!
West
Wales Raiders
We are having more and more doubts as to whether this club
should be within the professional ranks. They are now into their third season
under this club name (there are strong links to the previous South Wales
Scorpions/Ironmen club) and in all that time they have managed just one win.
Last weekend they played host Huddersfield amateur side Underbank
Rangers in the Challenge Cup with most pundits rating Underbank as the
favourites. Yes, amateur teams do occasionally beat professional sides in the
cup but it says something when the amateur side are expected to win. Not only
did Underbank win but they did so pretty easily by 30 points to 8 in front of
an estimated crowd of 50! Usually first outings of the season attract above
average gate, probably for the reasons we wrote about under ‘The Rugby League Family’.
Is this really the best way to develop rugby league in West
Wales? One of the oft cited reasons for expansion clubs is to provide amateur
players in the area with something to aspire to. But do people aspire to play
for a club like this? In all honesty it makes a mockery of ‘professional’ ruby
league. Yes, 2019 was a little better than 2018 but it could hardly fail to be
when you remember that in 2018 they lost every single game, conceded an average
of 81 points per game and had at least 100 points scored against 7 times.
West Wales are so poor that we suspect any one of the 11 amateur
sides who made it through to the 3rd round could have beaten them.
Away
at Bradford (Dewsbury)
Fev’s travelling support is excellent but we have a sneaking
suspicion that one or two will either miss or arrive late for Sunday’s game.
What are the odds that someone will forget that Bradford are playing at
Dewsbury this year and they will turn up to find Odsal locked up?
We have remembered and will be travelling to Dewsbury but have
to admit that when we first looked at the fixture list, for a moment, we thought
of freezing at Odsal in February.
Mind you we will be hoping for some decent weather because it
can get mighty cold at the Tetley’s Stadium. Memories of our game there in
February 2013 when we all froze and Liam Finn telling us that he ha never felt
so cold. He was, at least running around, whilst we were just sitting or
standing as the frostbite threatened to set in!
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