Blind side johnny

Yep.

Even the clubs themselves had no real idea until just before the season began and, even worse, will have no real figures for 2025 either. Sugar-daddy clubs and SL ones have the major upper hand under such arrangements. And, before folk start castigating IMG (justified in other areas) this has been mishandled by the RFL for years.

A statement from the club some weeks ago said that all of their resources this year were being targeted at raising their IMG score with investment in the squad increasing significantly next season. So, given the consistency of club management, probably yes.

Good question - apparently not so gardening will beckon.

It's that time of year. Plenty of clubs are talking to players, including ours, presumably. As with the comments re Bradford, money talks and always has done. The days of Dewsbury paying a record fee for Lance Todd are now far behind us.

"Recent years" = 30 years+ All sports have changed, there is no going back.

Read the forums of other Championship clubs and you will see the same message - DR isn't run for our benefit. Add to this the impact of HIA protocols whereby players may be missing from SL squads due to having failed a test and they are reluctant to ship out any that might be close to making their squads. And just to be clear, why shouldn't their reserves take precedence over a DR club?

Not looking at the top, then?

I can think of one.

No doubt someone will suggest banjo music for the next home game!

And not wishing to be a wet blanket but last week against Doncaster we let in three tries straight from the ptb with dummy half sneaks. Yesterday the same thing once again. This is surely basic stuff and I am hopeful that DM will have spotted it.

A very good first half from us with bags of enthusiasm and some good rugby on show. Games against Toulouse have always been entertaining as their open attacking style is often matched by a less than tight defence, which does lead to a more open game. They focussed more in the second half and had clearly recognised some weaknesses that they then exploited. I felt that the difference in fitness between full-time and part-time players began to show at the end, resulting in a score line that didn't really reflect our performance. As Paul March said in his post match interview we were beaten by the better side; they were bigger, faster and fitter with a sprinkling of experience and gamesmanship that we didn't match. Overall a game that was pleasing to the eye and offered some encouragement, albeit producing zero points in the table, once again. I will be difficult to see us getting anything from the next three games, however, after which our race might almost be run. I was baffled by the penalty count but would never accuse any referee of bias. It will be interesting to see a video of the game, if we still produce one. I often feel that, on rewatching games I find that the referee was actually correct most times when I thought that he was wrong, but let's see. One final point for those who regularly advocate for reducing the entrance prices in order to increase the crowd size (speculate to accumulate is a popular theme), the proof of the pudding was there to be seen yesterday.

According to reports their result at Wakefield didn't reflect how competitive they were, being let down by poor discipline, thankfully not something that we suffer from. Given that our squad is only boosted by one DR this week it is difficult to see where an immediate improvement on recent performances might come from. We can enjoy the day of celebration and possibly see some enjoyable rugby to give us hope. Rams 18 - 32 Toulouse FTS: Davies Att: 925

I hear that Toulouse have requested that we get a load of pasties in for the after match celebration.

True. Sadly you and most others always assume that the fault lies with us. I don't know any more than you do but wouldn't be surprised if we weren't getting the best of assistance from the Giants either. People seem to imagine that SL clubs enter into DR arrangements out of some sort of charitable instinct. They don't; they use them largely to their own benefit first and foremost.