From The Guardian...

1) Widnes, Cas and their homegrown halves

Three rounds into the First Utility Super League season and it's a pleasure to salute Castleford and Widnes. Two resonant rugby league names, two towns steeped in the game, two clubs who have endured difficult times outside the elite, but now two teams who have started 2014 with a bang.

The similarities do not end there. Each has a British coach with a stack of international caps – Castleford's Daryl Powell and Denis Betts, of Widnes, were team-mates on numerous occasions in the 1990s, sharing famous Great Britain and England victories over Australia. They have each dabbled in rugby union, too – Powell with Leeds, and Betts with Gloucester – before returning to league with ambitious and well-run Championship clubs.

Perhaps most pleasingly, they have a clear determination to build their teams around British half-backs. Betts has been drooling at the development of Joe Mellor, one of many former Wigan youngsters in his squad, for a couple of years, and it was easy to see why when the 23-year-old directed Friday night's stirring victory over Huddersfield, making light of the absence of the senior Vikings playmaker Kevin Brown.

Half-back was a potential problem for Powell at Cas this season, after Salford swooped for Rangi Chase during the winter. But he had confidence in Liam Finn, a 31-year-old who had been such a reliable on-field general at neighbouring Featherstone. So far Finn has amply justified Powell's faith, in partnership with Marc Sneyd, who Brian Noble, the Salford coach, was happy to release on a season-long loan – and whose idiosyncratic goalkicking style caught the eye in Friday's win at Hull KR.

The results speak for themselves – Widnes and Castleford have a combined record of played five, won five.

This is seriously good news, because it is in the key playmaking positions that GB and now England have been consistently exposed at the highest level, and in which Super League clubs have most often looked overseas. Seven of the 14 had all-European half-back pairings at the weekend (including Leon Pryce and William Barthau for the Catalans), while four had two antipodeans pulling the strings. Three of those four clubs lost – Hull KR (whose Australian coach, Craig Sandercock, has rebuilt his team around Kris Keating and Travis Burns), Wakefield Trinity (Jarrod Sammut and Pita Godinet) and London Broncos (Ben Farrar and Josh Drinkwater).

The exception was St Helens, for whom Luke Walsh has made such an outstanding start, underlining the impact that can be made by an established playmaker from Australia. But even he had been playing alongside a young Brit, until an injury to Gary Wheeler led to a recall for the veteran Kiwi Lance Hohaia at Salford last Thursday night.

Obviously, the reduced financial competitiveness of British league against the NRL has played a major part in this shift. But with exciting young half-back talents in the system at Wigan, Warrington, Hull and Leeds, there could be a few more options at international level in coming years.

To be honest it is a long season, but i do feel Castleford and Widnes have stronger depth in reserve than the previous seasons. With relegation i can also see teams that are in the mix signing players on loan in desperation to stay up.This is already happening with Bradford and Wakefield getting loan players. I am not getting carried away either, and to get close to the playoffs would be an achievement. I think it is nice to see a article good about Widnes for a change.

Love having Castleford at the top of the table, If it's not us (it never is haha) it should be them! My second team.

Not like Gary wheeler to be injured.

He's fit, for now

[url=http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/mar/03/rugbyleague-superleagueLink to the original article[/url

Because, y'know, copying the copy and putting it on a forum doesn't tell the national newspaper that people are actually interested in their RL coverage...