That certainly looked the case near the end when they were under a great deal of pressure. And how can Liam Finn possibly be "100% Widnes" when he's basically a stop gap? Even Charlie Gubb lost loads of steam - I bet he was surprised how hard London were. Only stand out Widnes player was their full back Ashall-Bott - now he does look very good.

Living The Dream - difference between me and Charlie is that he was proved quite often to be wrong, whereas still waiting for my first hit

That pi88ed me off too. they kept on about Widnes being full time as if London were not. Do Sky and their presenters not realise that 3 out of the top 4 are full time. I think at one point they mentioned only Toronto being full time. Sky and SL are in for a shock. I can see 2 SL clubs going being demoted this time, one being the 'mighty' Leeds.
Our League is getting better and they need to wake up..

UP THE FAX!

I’m all for ex-players being involved in commentary but they need to be good at the job, most of these aren’t so just get a good commentator in who can learn the background.
Aussie tv have a few female commentators who know their stuff, far better than these dinosaurs.

The 2007 NRC victory was, I believe, irrelevant. The criteria at the time stated, amongst other things, that a club had to have reached the NRC final in 2009/2010. Therefore Ben Black's dropped ball did get Widnes back into SL.

Or should I say, gave the governing body an excuse to shove them in.

If Fax move up into SL will you be one of the arrogant ones ???

Widnes reached the NRC final in both 2009 and 2010 (therefore backing up my argument YET AGAIN that the Ben Black dropped ball did not contribute to thieir successful franchise bid) and Fax did not get to the NRC final in either 2009 or 2010 but were still one of those who bid for a franchise, so your argument falls flat on its face. Fax, however, did reach the NRC in 2011 (losing to Leigh) so you're probably getting all confused.

To settle this....


You had to win the nrc to allow a franchise bid,not just get to final.Widnes lost there in 2010 but won it in 2009.However Blacky's brainfart was in the 2009 semi,so it was totally relevant.

I think you've contradicted yourself there, Beaujangles.

And it doesn't explain why Fax were allowed to bid for the 2012 entry when they themselves hadn't won the NRC up to 2011.

You had to win "summat".

Because we got to the Grand Final..robbed on and off the pitch by Barrow.

Not at all...Getting to(not winning) the grand final was part of the criteria too and we got there in 2009 and 2010.

Maybe go back and check the criteria instead of guessing on memory. Beaujangles has it right in the most recent post.

As for Sky, what do you expect. They have no clue on the Championship clubs. Have they ever had? Even when one game a week was broadcast, I'd hardly say the knowledge they had was extensive. They just picked up bits and bats throughout the season on previous games they'd covered!

Hopefully last night's result will shock Super League / and Sky even more. It's certainly not shocked many Championship fans/clubs has it.?

The longer they show a lack of interest, knowledge, respect to the Championship, the better for me. They are clueless on the whole anyway.

Correct

Oh, they are awake to it. Hence they are trying to reduce funding and get rid of the middle 8s!

Widnes has to be a rugby blueprint for how not to run a club
Have a one man money pot-running the show his way.
Poor supporter base
Burn your legs pitch
Run for years with A coach who hasn't delivered.
Boring brand of rugby. Which you dread being the sky coverage match. 30 years ago world champions to 17 straight defeats and should hopefully be relegated , Oh dear they don't even enhance the Championship.

Strangely, winning the Challenge Cup wasn't on the list.

Is Tony Fax wrong? He's not right!

It's an absolute disgrace the way the RFL/SL have run down The Challenge Cup. It should be the last match of The season with the annual pilgrimage from the north. Now they've reduced it to the point of having a double header semi-final at Bolton and they can't even fill that! Shame on them!

The Challenge Cup was NEVER the last game of the season.
The semi final at Bolton was sold out.
Other than that, great post.

I said it should be the season's last game. The idea of having the double header was so it wasn't played out on tv with a sea of empty seats. It didn't work and yes, I was aware it sold out. Up The Fax!

I thought having a double header was a good idea, maybe garner a few people who usually watch something else on t v at that time.
Agree the CC should be the culmination of the season, RL s big day out, but since SL it is the Old Traffoed night out that takes the honours.

The problem is that fans just want to watch their own team's game.

So the stadium looks half full for both games - just different seats occupied.

Same problem at Magic and the Bash.

A double header can attract plenty of neutrals. The old Premiership Final (the actual end of the season) did well as a double header and attracted healthy crowds to Old Trafford.

The trouble is, with all the negative publicity surrounding the game, people are very disillusioned with RL and can find plenty of other things to spend their hard earned brass on. To think of selling out a 28,000 capacity football ground for two games between four clubs is an achievement tells you where we are at as a sport. Fax are a perfect example. We regularly got more support for 2nd team games at Thrum Hall than the 1st team attracts now. Sad times but we carry on. Up The Fax!