That will really get the conspiracy theorists going. Congrats to TO. Need to continue and make the top 4 next year. Champo will be well worth the watch next year with Leigh, Toronto, TO plus Fax and Fev. If only Sky could be bothered showing it.

It will be a cracking Championship next season, not too many soft touches in there with probably Barrow also in the mix. The relegation battle will be as fierce as the top-four shoot-out.

So long as Toulouse and Toronto are in the Championship top 4 and hence the Middle 8s next season, everything will be going nicely for international development.

Once Toulouse are promoted to Super League, assuming Catalans remain there, we can probably look forward to a televised game from France every Saturday. And if the RFL are smart they will schedule each English club playing Catalans and Toulouse in France to do so on successive weekends, to give the English fans with the time and money the opportunity to stay in France for at least 8 days and see their clubs play both French sides.

William Barthau and Lucas Albert could make a potent halves pairing. I am assuming that Luke Walsh is leaving Catalans for Salford, though it is not official.

Can't see Leigh being part of Super League for a while now. If rumours are true about restructuring/licensing etc, I would be very worried if I were a Leigh fan.
Sort of reminds me of Rovers ten years ago. I fully believe that if they had been relegated in there first season, they would have never come back.
IMO, its alot easier to be included when you're already there. If super league expanded to 14 teams, Tolousd, Toronto, London, Bradford or Leigh? I wonder what the pecking order would be...

Thanks for your concerns....there's more to life than 'Sooper Dooper League' pal.....we'll be fine. Must admit though, I'm gonna miss our '5 drives then a kick' tactics.

Same couldn’t be said of last years scenes.

Good to know. I sincerely hope you are fine

We are used to NOT being in SL, I just feel sorry for our owner 'splashing the cash' for 1 season in the top flight.

This is the problem that the sport is facing.
Whilst I understand the reasoning behind franchising, what does the closed door policy do to clubs which ate outside of the top tier. Would I be right in saying that being a Leigh fan became alot more interesting once the middle eights where introduced. There certainly is more to rugby than Super League, but ultimately it myst be the ambition of every team to be part of it.

Indeed, trouble is the likes of Halifax, Featherstone, Batley, Sheffield, Dewsbury are NOT full time, and therefore have no chance of promotion to SL.
The only ambitious clubs are Toulouse, Toronto, and maybe London. When Bradford Bulls get their act together, they WILL be one major force. But for now, the only M62 clubs who might gain promotion to Super League, are ourselves and Bradford Bulls (2019 ?).....unless Fax & Fev go full time.

Quite right. But even with the teams mentioned, there are I would say, around 15 teams who see themselves as top tier teams.
By my reckoning, there will be at least one dissapointed team when (if) the restructuring takes place. How this team (teams) react to this will be key to how the sport progresses imo

We are almost inevitably going to end up with more North American teams too. Part of the reason I don't think it would've been the blow many thought if Catalans were relegated as Toronto and other possible North American teams look to be the way forward and leave interest in Catalans behind.

HKR fan Woody by any chance?

Slight difference in circumstances don't you think between the 2 games?

Salford were 2 scores behind with 90 seconds on the clock and dead and buried. What then transpired was arguably the most ridiculous 2 1/2 minutes in Rugby League history culminating in a 50m winning drop goal. The release in emotion from players and fans was understandable. Were his teammates expected to turn to O'Brien, offer a firm handshake along with the words "spiffing field goal old chap, well done!". Whilst I have every empathy with the HKR players and fans I defy anyone to have acted differently in the same situation.
Granted Koukash went too far tho.

Saturday's game was over well before the final whistle so most of the emotion had already been drained from the situation and relief rather than disbelief & euphoria were probably the overriding feelings at the final whistle.

A phrase that aptly sums up his tenure as a SL club owner.

i do feel for leigh, they were/are a progressive club despite there small town status, they are typical argument for franchising, give them 3 year lease and they would be more competitive.

i really don't like p&r its franchising for me, the RFl should be looking at having the 12 strongest best supported clubs with the best facilities and infrastructure, and be looking at adding 2 more and eventually up to 16 teams. think they bottled franchising last time when if was apparent they would not relegate 2-3 sides who were not cutting the mustard.

did not Batley Fev abnd halifax all say they would not accptep promotion if they won it as it was a poison chalice.

Leigh should be an assert to super Leauge not kicked out.

i do however think they may get a repprive, with koukach gone can anybody possibly see how salford can be sustainable next year with 2k crowds and no sugar daddy. they will be in administration by mid season. the RFl should make sure leigh are kept up if salford cannot produce a sustainable business model for next year.

The problem with your approach ("the 12 strongest best supported clubs with the best facilities and infrastructure"icon_wink.gif is that it effectively creates a closed shop based on a snapshot at a period in time. Just 4 or 5 years ago Castleford would have been a no-brainer to be excluded from SL on that basis - on a long losing run, crowds dwindling, at the bottom of the table and in a stadium that had looked out of date in the 1970s. Similar comments could be made about Wakefield.

Both teams had previously been relegated to the Championship, but had made it back through promotion. I think it's very doubtful that Cas or Wakefield would have found it any easier to get themselves into a credible position to be awarded a SL franchise than the likes of Halifax or Featherstone.

As an aside, I doubt very much that there's any evidence of anyone at Fev saying they wouldn't accept promotion. Mark Campbell has pumped huge amounts into the club for years to try and achieve just that.

Just on a point of order, Wakefield have never been relegated from SL, despite coming very close on a number of occasions and finished bottom on only one occasion (the season that they played Bradford in The MPG.

They were dropped from the old first division and beat Fev in the Final to earn their spot in SL.

yep wakey not been relegated Cas have twice. and yes Cas and wakey maybe should have been given the boot just because of not just their terrible stadiums but both (especially cas) keep coming out with pie in the sky lies and PR about new stadiums being due to start works. fact is if crusaders had nrt pulled out in last franchising one of them most likely wakey were getting the boot.

franchising is not really about punishing clubs is it its about trying to get the standards up and having a clear progressive business model. cas and wakey both have reasonable support considering, crowds don't fluctuate that much regardless of playing form, both Cas and wakey even in bad years have still had better crowds than some clubs who have been up the table (Huddersfield and salford) both clubs have good junior academy set ups and strong traditional clubs, there main down fall has been there lack off new ground or redevelopment. hopefully Wakey finally solved that, still waiting for a spade to be stuck in the ground for cas so called new new ground as the last one fell through.
salford could really struggle now Koucash has gone, shiny new ground. no academy poor support no real player development. Huddersfield poor support (although better) cavernous modern stadium, but good junior development.

anyway i am not picking which teams should be in the 12-14 just saying think we should have stuck with it at least 10 years not sack it off and 3 -4 years. but that's RFl for you. make it up as they go along.

Yes that was incorrect, good spot. My point was about the relative tasks getting into SL via promotion vs via franchising, but you're quite right to point that out.

No worries, we receive enough bad press and negative feedback, without folk besmirching our reputation further.

Looking at 2018, with the possibility of Toronto, Leigh, and Toulouse being in the top 4 of the Championship, it could mean that 3 current SL teams will be in serious threat of relegation next season.

Given a 12 team SL, then a 25% change of SL teams for 2019 would be a significant shift in the game.

It's about to get really interesting, and now they want to change the structure. They just can't follow something through!

September 2018 could be twitchy bum time for several SL teams, not just from. the 8's, but also from licence criteria.
Teams like Cas and Wakey need to start building these new stadiums and not just producing artist drawing.

It could be 14 teams from a possible 18 to 20 applicants. We could loose 5 or even 6 from the current 12 !

So you would jettison half of the current Super League, that makes sense


Toronto will probably be favourites for a SL spot.
However, just as Leigh found it difficult to gain promotion from The Championship through the current format, any other club will also find it far from straight forward.

Dropping half of the current top flight, in the HOPE of something better, would be quite ridiculous and it would have people leaving the game in droves.

Nice one Nigel but, think again.