The highlights of the last week in Rugby League, as seen by League Express.
TEAM: Huddersfield Giants travelled to Perpignan to face Super League’s top club Catalans Dragons and ended their run of four successive defeats with a convincing 22-14 victory (see page 17).
PLAYER: Will Dagger wasn’t a popular signing by Wakefield Trinity when he was swapped for Corey Hall in March, but on Friday night he was a hero after landing the field-goal that secured a 27-26 golden-point victory over Wigan Warriors, while he also kicked five goals, including a last-minute penalty that levelled the scores at full-time (see page 15).
TRY: Matt Dufty scored one of the tries of the season for Warrington Wolves against St Helens on Friday night. It began with Ben Currie dummying and breaking the line, his offload finding Josh Drinkwater, with Stefan Ratchford and Dufty adding the finishing touches (see page 16).
STORY: The RFL revealed the gradings handbook last week, which set out in detail all the criteria that clubs will seek to satisfy when the system is implemented in full from the 2025 season (see pages 3 and 4).
QUOTE: “The development of juniors should have been one of the first criteria in our sport and our country. If we ever want to do well internationally, it’s got to be high on the priority list. Our player pool isn’t as great as our rivals, and it will only get smaller, particularly when the focus is all on the top squads.” Hull FC coach Tony Smith, lamenting the fact that the IMG gradings award no points to clubs for the development of young players.
TWEET: “Just found out the batsman in this shameful spirit-of-the-game mocking stunt is not only ENGLISH, but a YORKSHIREMAN. What on earth are you doing Elliott Whitehead? Are you a closet Australian?” TV presenter Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) aiming a broadside at Canberra Raiders’ English player for taking part in the try celebration referred to below.
IMAGE: Canberra Raiders players, after scoring their first try against St George Illawarra Dragons, celebrated by mimicking the recent cricket controversy when Jonny Bairstow was stumped in the second Ashes Test. The celebration went viral and was shown on Sky Sports’ Test match coverage.
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