Leaderboard

For the love of God! Stop the idea of tedious SL loop fixtures and let Toronto, Toulouse and London in to a 14 team SL. RL should see this as an opportunity not a threat.

We need a serious 're think. 14 team SL Toronto,Tolouse,London all done enough to justify their inclusion. What SL that would be, unfortunately the greed of Wigan and others will not have this.

This is a side to Toronto and its management that the haters choose to ignore. Kudos to them.

Great result for the Bears. The best thing about today was that the result never really looked in doubt. It was a confident performance from a Bears team that know when they play to their potential they can compete in this league. With a lot of the first team already re-signed for next year things are looking up for the Bears.

Here he is in the Outlaws, on the right of the picture. Jerry Lee Lewis in the middle, Richie Blackmore second left.

With the results today, I really believe RL should take this opportunity of expanding to 14 teams and let Toronto, London and Toulouse in to a 14 team SL for next year. This opportunity might not be there again, the sport to can show they can reach beyond the heartlands.

As a Leigh fan just want to say how envious I am of my team not being involved in this seasons qualifiers. But really well done to Toronto,Toulouse and London,who have proved without a doubt that there are decent teams outside of super league.

This has to be the most complete 80 minute performance yet by the Bears. Superb defensive play, great game management, in control after five minutes and it stayed that way. A credit to the coach Tom Tsang who has overseen a steady and incremental improvement in the team. Next year should see more progress on the field and off. Attendance of 380 wasn't bad for a side starting the day in third bottom slot!!!!

A lot of people questioned Danny Ward's appointment but, to quote Bruce Forsyth, didn't he do well? Plenty of positives coming from London right now.

However, the time to expand was this year. TWP, London and Toulouse have shown that, at the very least, they wouldn't be embarrassingly out of their depth, even with their present personnel. As it is, if Toulouse and or London stay down their better players will be picked off. Toronto is different as they have the cash. If they stay down, they have the wherewithal to win the League at a canter and take the only promotion place.

In 2004 we admit a French side (Catalans) that was just mulling around in Elite 1, with no stadium to play in and a squad that would struggle to beat Rochdale. We gave them 2 years to prepare for SL and gave them exemption from relegation for 2 years. In 2018 we are still p#ssing Toulouse about. Making them trawl through League 1 and then having to knock SL sides off to try and win promotion. No guarantees, no special lead-in time to SL, no exemptions. They've knocked off the likes of Widnes and Hull KR despite the system not because of it. Catalans have been to Wembley twice in 12 years and are now Challenge Cup winners. Why have we ignored this proven route to success for clubs in France? Everyone loves their trips to Perpignan don't they? What do Toulouse have to prove if you compare their situation with Catalans inclusion? Over 4000 there today. Are we hypocrites or just too bloody minded?

Thanks Alba. We played well last week at ‘Haven but today was the best we have ever played. Inevitiably we will lose a couple of our best players to the bigger fish but, our decision to try and build a squad that can commit to training twice a week is starting to pay off. We have a very young team and there is no doubt that they are gaining confidence as they gain experience. Above all we have always believed that everything we do has to be sustainable financially. We have no overdraft and we are not going to have one. If we are not competitive on the pitch in any given season - too bad. We are trying to play the long game and not trying to find quick fixes. COYR

I’ve no idea why we don’t just give two SL spots to the FRL and let them decide how clubs get in and out of SL. Then adding more French clubs if/when they become ready.

Batley Boys beat Bentley in the final today 11-10, superb performance.

Think this was the best sign of the day today

Ditto.

How freaking awesome is the last round of the qualifiers going to be. 6 / 8 teams are looking to win by heavy margins to secure safety from or gain entry to the MPG. Was at today's game with my boy and met Kayakman and his daughter and boyfriend. Missed some key parts of the game due to being there with a near 4 year old but great day, great atmosphere, great game and most importantly for us a great win. Safe to say no one in the world will give a crud about SL games next weekend eh? So many permutations available the standings can change as the try's get scored....looks like NH RL has matched the NRL season in the end....just not in the maiden competition.

I dont think so. One up one down is obviously not as easy for teams to get promoted, but, if more expansion sides who are well backed enter the league, it strengthens the Championship, which raises the overall quality. Doing this would probably create a situation for Superleague to expand once the top sides in the lower league are on par. The down side to this is the teams locked into super league on playing ability who would fall far behind some of these well funded sides in the business arena, so the future problem is probably related to small business teams needing to be removed form the Superleague. The positive side of this is the value of being in super league as a business asset for these clubs. Whilst they may be operating ain a small market, the value of their business is far higher because of their on field status. I think it works to be honest. Its easy to understand and creates more stable business models. The trade off, unfortunately is the excitement of the middle 8s, which hold far more interest for me than the Superleague competition.

The game has no rules, just wings it half the time.

I'm not touching those figures, statto or not! On a personal note I much prefer to stand but following York over the last few seasons I've got used to sitting. I'd like to see terracing at the new stadium but wonder who'd be funding it, the City fans have been calling for it for a while and with a bit of pressure along with the Knights I'm sure something could be sorted. Where there's a will there's a way etc.

Seriously rob? Black cushions on a neutral chair?

A couple of points to make: 1. They spent far more than that this season and it got them nowhere. 2. Leigh spent far more than that this season and it got them nowhere. Money does not correlate to success, maybe they need to ask Halifax how they do things.

Scoreline reflected the game, more a case of London playing well than Salford playing badly, defensively London very solid with Salford's two second half tries coming wide on the flanks. You can see the advance that has been made under Danny Ward. At the start of the season having lost Hendo and two senior players in Ackers and Barthau, on paper this looked a weaker side but Danny Ward has crafted a team with a lot more mongel than past years. To give you an example last year the two runts of the Super League litter, Widnes and Leigh gave London an absolute trouting . This year two wins over the bottom two Super League clubs. Granted the standard of Super League these days is pretty ordinary but if the Super 8's have proved anything this year it is that the gap between the bottom two in Super League and the top three in the Championship is now about the width of a Ritzla paper. Remember London may be a full time side but they do not pay up top the full cap. Standouts for London, Alex Walker safe under the high ball in a way that The London Phantom (Keiran Dixon) is not and my club player of the year. Eddie Battye putting in a shift and getting under the skin of Salford fans and Jarrod Sammut having one of his "on" days with his kicking game peerless and possibly being decisive. A good team effort especially, as I have posted in defence. Salford a lot of handling errors, and as you would think that today was more typical of mancunian weather than that of Ealing's little excuse. Some may point at Jackson Hastings absence which may be a factor but Salford got of to such a stonking start in the qualifiers that perhaps the side has put the cue on the rack so to speak. Nerve wracking for their fans who as the errors piled up showed the same degree of angst I felt when we kept on dropping Virat Kohli...Not so sure about Robert Lui doing the kicking duties either. He did Ok but nothing special. Some confusion on the final hooter as at one stage it looked like a scrum to Salford but sanity prevailed. Some pics from the game below

That is one hell of a comeback and win for Toulouse, really pleased for them they play a great brand of RL, personally I would much prefer them to come up rather than Toronto

I liked the spooky sounds at 44:20. I assume they were the ghosts of RL past, either approving or disapproving of what Dave Woods was saying. As for Ralph, I thought he came across well. He seemed down to earth and open minded about things. Obviously he couldn't say much right now that was definite, but he stressed that everything was under review and therefore, presumably, more details will be made available at the appropriate time.