Local derbies are an important part of rugby league: Wigan vs St Helens, Hull FC vs Hull KR, Easts (Sydney Roosters) vs Souths in the NRL

Catalans vs Toulouse was a great local derby in the French Elite competition over a decade ago. Hopefully it will soon be reinstated in Super League.

But Leeds vs Bradford was one of the great local derbies of the first decade of Super League. I miss it. Don't you?

Well this is going to end well...

Be a few years before its back.

Miss it massively. Although the games against Leigh filled the gap well from 2015-16 especially the 2015 Championship opener at their place!

Yep, one of the big games in sport.

Personally, not one iota.

No

Local derbies are for misty eyed, parochial stuck-in-the-pasts Jean. What us Northern rugby league fans really want is Belgrade Vs Winnipeg.

LOL how your pigeons and your ferrets doing jean

Yes. Always loved those games, although normally I wouldn't walk to the end of our garden to watch an all-Yorkshire match. I've never cared about Hull v Hull KR, but Leeds v Bradford somehow did catch the imagination. Of course the huge crowds and razzmatazz of the early SL era at Bradford helped.

Leeds and Bradford were among the few SL clubs that could each attract over 10,000 of their own fans to a game. That meant that if the ground where they met was a good one, you had a good chance of attracting over 20,000 fans if both clubs were at a roughly equal standard of competitiveness. Unfortunately each of their current home grounds are at the moment substandard. But a game at Wembley for the CC was a guaranteed crowd puller. I think that if they were both strong members of Super League and met in a CC final at the new Wembley they could almost fill it, given the general interest in the CC final from all RL fans. That is because a competitive Bradford and Leeds could generate great atmosphere.

That is why I hope that Bradford can revive itself sufficiently, management wise, stadium wise, financially, and coach and player wise, in the next few years to be eligible for a return to Super League. Although I am in favour of pursuing SL expansion in France and north America, Bradford is probably the one heartland/M62 club not now in Super League, that could do the competition a lot of good by being there in a competitive presence.

In response to the original question, no, not really. I'm more excited about Saints v Cas to be honest since I think that will be more of a spectacle of a game with open rugby.

Whilst local derbies can be a good marketing opportunity and capture the imagination of the locals, it becomes a bit staid for people outside the immediate post codes without any personal affiliation to either club. This is probably even more so when they are frequent, say 3-4 times a year. Then as a neutral you are more interested in a full, bloodied, open match with lots of skill and drama. Derbies don't always bring that.

Sky are quite good at building up derbies particularly in football. I remember a few years ago they did a big promo pre-match for the Swansea v Cardiff City football match. It was emotion enticing. Yet within 10 minutes after kick off I was bored and switched channels.

After saying all that, yes I think Saints v Cas will be a good spectacle. However I'm more interested in my own team which is why I'll be at Craven Park tonight.

Tigers Vs Rhinos has now become the number 1 and most popular West Yorkshire derby. When we next meet at Elland Road it will break the record for SL attendances.

It probably will break SL attendance record, so it should with all the marketing we are throwing at it, but it`s still just a regular fixture to me. The atmosphere when Cas come to Headingley is no different to any other Weekly fixture, and the atmosphere at Cas is rubbish in the away end. Not a patch on the old Leeds Bradford games, but that`s in the past now, and i doubt we will ever see it in the form it was again.

25004??

That's a big ask. Especially at Elland Rd. Awful place. Great if you manage it.

I`m sure they will beat it TBH, it`s a one of at Elland RD, i know of a lot of mutual spectators going (Not sure why), there seems to be a lot of marketing surrounding this game, our supporters im sure will show up in there usual numbers, and Cas seemed to bring a good following to most away days last season, i expect the crowd to be above 25k.

With the building work going on at Headingley, this is an excellent idea and something quite innovative.
It would be a hell of an achievement to persuade 25,000 folk to go. Good luck to them.

I'm not sure how you would measure the success, but wouldn't it have been an idea to offer a limited number of reduced tickets to Leeds United season ticket holders? Surely a potential new recruit at a discount price would be better than a potentially empty seat?

There was an allocation of tickets offered to Leeds United members and season ticket holders. Not sure how many or whether there was a discount involved, but it was promoted directly to them.

What a pointless post Jean, get with the times is all I can say. Stop living in the past.

Yeah, miss this derby.

More than this particular fixture though, I miss the Bulls in both Sooper Dooper League & Championship generally.

As Bulls Boy 2011 alluded to up thread, the games between Leigh & Bulls over 2 years were great events. There was a real rivalry on the pitch, fiercely fought games & to a great extent the fans of both clubs developed a mutual camaraderie & respect.

Even though I now visit this site infrequently, I still like to 'call in' on the Bulls page say hi, catch up on what's happening & wish them well.

If franchising should ever return *beyond the French & N.A expansion* then I would hope for the eventual inclusion of Bradford.

oh absolutely, nothing quite shouts derby game passion like the accoustic equivellent of a butterfly f@rting in an oli drum that was any crowd noise at Odsal.

Wheldon Road may be on its last legs but the the average neutral will agree there is more atmosphere down the lane than in a 100 x AJ Bells or Galpharms.

I miss it.

The sooner Leeds Rhinos are relegated down to meet them again the better!

As daft as it sounds the two best atmosphere's I have witnessed live in the past 6-7 years was the 20k crowd against Leeds in 2012 at Odsal as we honestly thought we were going to die a death and it was an emotional time. And 2015 Championship opener at Leigh. Especially after we raced into a 24-6 lead or something at halftime.

Loved the games against Leigh and we hit each other at the right time in terms of us on the way down and you on the way up so we faced each other as equals. Plus that draw at Odsal in 2016 was unreal as was the Summer Bash.

But back to the original post, yes I do miss them. We've had 7 home games since 1996 against them above 20,000 people and quite a few in the 18,000-19,000. And all were fantastic events and occasions. The Headingley games were better attended like and personally I loved the us against them part of it.

To be honest as a Leeds fan the Bulls rivalry was somewhat trumped up. Pre-SL they were to a degree just another local derby. The Cas one has always had more of an edge to it - partly because games at Wheldon Rd always seem(ed) to descend into intense nailbiters in the '80s and '90s with the whole place going nuts. Before we started winning trophies the Premiership quarter final there in '91 comfortably made it into my top 10 list of favourite games.

And I haven't mentioned 'Unslet who are the real enemy.

I do miss Bradford, of course - and a couple of 15k+ crowds would always be welcome. But those peak years (say the 15 years after the '96 CC semi) were a relatively brief moment in time rather than a longstanding tradition. The two Cardiff games, the two Grand Finals and the Harris saga really created a feeling between the two clubs. But unlike some other teams I really do find the Bulls difficult to really dislike.

The stadium holds 38,000 and is a whole lot better than Odsal, Belle Vue and Wheldon Road.

25,000 is a big ask though. 20,000 (15,000 Leeds 5000 Cas) would be a good achievement.