MASSIVE congratulations are due to everyone involved in Rugby League in Wales, and especially those who will be taking part in this month’s Wheelchair World Cup in Australia.
The players, coaches and administrators were dealt a huge blow recently when their front-of-shirt sponsor pulled out. It probably looked to many of them, when the news came through, that the trip would be off.
The Welsh are made of sterner – and very imaginative – stuff, though. Someone came up with the brilliant idea of asking folk to donate a pound each, with the aim of raising the £10,000 needed to get everyone (and their equipment) to Australia.
And guess what? The target was hit, with time to spare, and I suspect that League Express’ readers will have played their part.
The folk behind the project are understandably cock-a-hoop and rightly enthused: “We believed that if the people of Wales came together we could put CYMRU on the front of the shirt and send a powerful message to our players: you are not travelling to Australia alone. Your country is with you.
“That’s exactly what has happened. Over the last few weeks, supporters from across Wales and beyond have donated, shared, encouraged and championed this campaign. Some gave £1. Some gave more. Every contribution mattered.
“Together, you’ve achieved something special. When the Wales Wheelchair squad pulls on its World Cup shirt in Australia, CYMRU will proudly sit on the front, representing every single person who helped make this possible.
“For our players, coaches and volunteers, this is about far more than funding. It’s about knowing that an entire community believes in them. It’s about knowing that the people of Wales have backed their dream. It’s about carrying your support onto the world stage.
“As Head Coach Alan Caron said: ‘Our players are now going to Australia knowing that they have a whole nation behind them. When we pull on that shirt and see CYMRU on the front, we will know that it represents every person who supported this campaign. To everyone who donated, shared a post, told a friend, bought a ticket, or simply cheered us on: Diolch yn fawr. Thank you.”
Donations are still welcome, though, to help further the cause of the Welsh Wheelchair squad and show the players that an entire nation stands behind them.
“Every additional £1 donation now represents something more than funding. It represents another person joining Team Cymru’s journey to Australia. Every donor becomes part of the story,” say the Welsh activists, adding, “So if you’ve been meaning to donate but haven’t yet, there’s still time. A single £1 helps us grow the Cymru family and sends another message of support to the players preparing to represent Wales on the world stage. When the team sees CYMRU across the front of their shirts in Australia, we want them to know exactly what it stands for: Thousands of people coming together to back Wales.”
Further donations can be made by visiting #Cymru #WheelchairRugbyLeague #WorldCupBound #SupportWales #TeamWales #Diolch #10kForCymru #TogetherForWales #RoadToAustralia #OnePoundOneSupporter
Far less uplifting, it’s struck me – and, frankly, it’s been upsetting – when compiling youth and junior results on Sunday afternoons for League Express, how many ‘walkover’ results are being lodged of late.
That’s certainly been the case recently in the North West.
It’s not been officially confirmed to me, so I could stand to be corrected, but it would appear that 25-0 is now the conceded scoreline, as against 24-0 (which is still used by some other competitions). But if 25-0 is an actual result, well I have to say that there’s an awful lot of matches closing with that score.
Take the weekend before last (ie Sunday, October 4).
Happily – so far as it goes anyway – the younger the age groups, the less prevalent are ‘walkovers’. Taking a ‘broad brush’ approach first, though, of the 77 results sent in by GameDay, 22 were 25-0s, 40 had actual scores, and 15 were ‘no results’ which is to say that no scores were sent to me for what I had down as designated fixtures.
On the face of it, that’s 28 per cent of fixtures blobbed on. And while it gets better the younger the teams, it’s awful regarding the older sides.
At Under 18s, all three Division One fixtures eight days ago were ‘25-0s’. In Division Two, two games were walkovers and two were played, while in Division Three one of the three matches was conceded, and the other two were ‘no results.’
So, at that age group as a whole, six games were walkovers, two were played and two were ‘no results’.
Looking at Under 16s, two of the four Division One fixtures had scores while another was 25-0 and the other was a ‘no result’. In Division Two, two of the three were played and one was conceded, while the reverse was the case in Division Three (two concessions and one played). Division Four, meanwhile, was a wipe-out in which all four fixtures were lodged as 25-0.
The totals for Under 16s, therefore, are seven 25-0s, five ‘scores’ and two ‘no results’.
At Under 15s, there were no walkovers in Division One, although there were three ‘no results’ and just one score. The two games in Division Two came in as ‘walkovers’, the two in Division Three were shown as a ‘walkover’ and a ‘no result’ while there were two games actually played in Division Four, another conceded, and another ‘no result’.
Happily, there’s a big improvement at Under 14s. Of the 15 fixtures, nine had actual results, three were 25-0s and three were ‘no results’.
Under 13s is better still with nine fixtures and seven scores, with only one 25-0 and one ‘no result’. And the Under 12s age group is, by comparison, something to crow about as there were no concessions among the 15 games, with 13 played and two no results.
My analysis is, admittedly, just a snapshot based on one Sunday (although I was prompted to undertake the exercise by seeing something similar in previous weeks) but the findings seem to suggest that the problems arise the older that players get. I’m sure that the Rugby Football League will be very much on the case anyway, and will provide feedback in their annual review.
