del capo

Have a look at A1.12. Operational Rules. Presumably the RFL will have been relaxed enough over this point given the MIdlands name change the other year

Fantasy stuff - Young or Farnworth ( preferably both ) as non quota might squeeze them into Wigan salary cap. If Wigan have a weakness at all its the right flank. They would be invincible with those two..........

Set piece from England scrum takes us to 0 -22 with 10 to go. Playing really well. Credits all round.Should be enough now. Roll on tuesday.........

Another in the bin ! Ref killing England......

0 -8 to us with 7 min to half time and man in bin

Good day all round. Fev usually sell about 5k beer on a match day according to their people but ran out at 8k before scamperimg around the town for more. NCL will bank gate receipts of approx 4.5k Real point though is that both games were compelling played in super atmosphere with skill levels certainly matching quite a few in the Pro ranks. Catch a game next year if you can - some of the best value for money on offer in our sport

I understand it costs something like £850.00 + VAT which includes stewarding and food for the 4 clubs concerned. NCL keep the gate , Featherstone keep the bar and refreshment takings. Normally with a decent and fairly thirsty crowd ,winners all round.

I believe that Steve McCormack from RFL Cares, with his background in player welfare , High level coaching and his Cumbrian connections is to be getting involved........

Nor have I but logic would dictate ( if only for consistency ) it take place at the home venue of the Championship side as finishing higher up in the system. But if it were down to me I would instead tag it on to the Championship Grand Final itself , ( the way the NCL finalize their Premier Division for the following season ) and which is scheduled for 29 / 30 October. Might be a bit of a wait for the League 1 side , but certainly a better day out for most !

All the play off formats are regulated by Operational Rule A1 : 11. . It's all there. I believe the RFL Board have the power to alter matters if there becomes an urgent need. I suspect League 1 play off spot ( with promotion the prize ) would need to take place at a venue that meets Championship standards or has the Board approval - otherwise it's at the home of the highest placed survivor, but could be wrong on that......

Maybe the Applicants have been given a comprehensive list for them to be marked against.? But otherwise there has been no transparency for the wider RL audience. Membership is dealt with by the RFL Articles of Association. I'm sure that's where Hemel's ref to 70k Bond comes from for defaults. Nicknames may also need to be changed given the use of them by existing members.It's certainly not all in one place. Otherwise the standards facilities in A2 of the Operational Rules gives some idea of what is needed , the finance in A3 and especially the comp and cup rules become relevant. The potentially expensive backroom regulatory stuff that semi pro status brings should not be under estimated. IMG remains a party to the process in terms of ranking ALL pro clubs not just SL. They will have to give the successful applicant a mark so surely they will help / give advice in the selection . The RFL seem desperate to fill the spot. I hope they will make a hard business decision rather than take a punt and risk one that might produce yet another disaster in a division crying out for stability and a decent level competition.

With yet more redundancies in the offing at the RFL I doubt that there will be any financial assistance forthcoming. At least 5 clubs some with established and sustainable history declined to further their initial interest in joining. Does anyone know why ?

By no means entirely. The RFL have their own reasons. From an amateur point of view though , basically , yes. Standards and numbers of those actually committed to playing ( forget the registered gym monkeys and tick rugby, keep fit types - every club has them and they remain of course welcome ) remain at best static. We absolutely need everyone we can persuade to go on the field.....

The Pats held his registration on the RL players Register and following a telephone call from France they graciously agreed a free transfer for the Catalans to register him for SL !!

He played for Wigan St Patricks in their Masters team last month. Has Masters become a new source for recruitment ?

There is an interesting watch for anyone interested in these encounters. This sunday 7th july at St Pats 11.00 am ko English Lions regional 16's ( picked from local community sides ) take on their French counterparts from the Provence Region ( Avignon , Salon , Carpentras etc ). All as usual welcome. Bar and kitchen open......

And all the more reason his views on this issue and especially the costings should be taken seriously. Couldn't make it work when much closer to London with freedom of movement and much looser Kolpak regime in place.......

The midlands based podcast featured him recently. He's an Aussie with a finger in the sports recruitment business helping individual cricketers who are not good enough for the big time but turn out as local club professionals. No idea of his knowledge of semi professional RL . It's one thing for NCL / Aussie country lads to swap a couple of months on a different continent ( they do it regularly ) Quite another to wade through the Governance paperwork needed for a season in League 1 - just ask South Wales......

And perhaps more to the point why. Will the RFL have firmed up their criteria having at first simply floated the invite to see who showed interest? Would love to see what they needed of any new applicant. An investment of 150k per year will be essential ( maybe a million should be allocated ) and that has to be generated from somewhere, without any meaningful return at least initially. There is no profit in lower level RL. Recruitment finance and facilities are all critical. Due diligence will be vital to the whole exercise . And the RFL have made a rod for their own back in that the position has to be filled quickly if their current plan for League 1 is to be met. Good luck to the three clubs who have applied. They are all new kids on the block without a single player between them of League 1 standard. They appear to be cuckoos without nests of their own. If you don't have the bar many community clubs struggle for income. These 3 will be no different. Vipers landlords Wymondham RUFC ( a charity ) were gifted 200k from their own trading company ( the Bar ) last year....bet the Vipers don't get any of that...... Goole Vikings appear to have the best chance if only because they are within a mile of the M62 and play in the backstreets., thereby ticking two of the most important boxes. Their leading light is a Hessle fellow from down the road. Their idea is to work out of the downtown Pleasure Grounds used by the FA once a promised levelling up £2.3 million revamp takes place. Are we going to be getting a Hull Reserves outfit ( as opposed to their first team on current form ! ) entering League 1 ? Whatever else I really hope that the existing community efforts in these clubs will not fall away but there have to be real concerns

Egremont sent their second team to Lock Lane in March 2015. They lost 98 - 4. They then won the National Cup. That result , in splte of much later season success , almost cost them their Premier status. They were only saved from relegation by a points difference of 25........ That's the risk you take when you enter the Barla Cups. The NCL fixtures are in stone from January every season ( subject to change by mutual agreement ) . Blank days such as Bank holidays and catch up dates are well known to Barla who I understood would use those dates when they could. Failure to complete an NCL fixture has draconian consequences. What team a club chooses to send remains of course a matter for them , whether that be for a League or Cup game. But all NCL clubs know the score.... That said a number of clubs have given it a go. The last non NCL club to win the National Cup was Sharlston Rovers as long ago as 2014. Looking to the present , Mayfield are really well placed in the Premiers ( currently 3rd ) whilst Lock Lane prop up the Division at the bottom. Orrell St James are quality opposition but I might have been tempted nevertheless Never though a good thing especially at national level for any club to get a walkover into a once prestigious final.

Groundhog day. Have a look at Page 2 of this thread as long ago as Nov 2021...... All the points simply being repeated once more. And yes RL Cares ( rightly or wrongly ) holds the brief for the project. At least they seem not to have been spending any of their hard earned charitable income in this direction just yet., certainly not over the last 3 years....

This game is too close to call. The politicians perhaps know differently . I heard at a local game last night that Martin Offiah's guest at the match could well be a certain Sir Kier Starmer. I have no doubt that he actually doesn't care about the outcome but a roll back of the Red Wall and with that the games true heritage and with that recognition is for me more than welcome

A sufficient majority at NCL to pass it was not achieved last time, clubs clearly indicating they were unsure and more work on the detail was needed. Once that work was completed and presented the vote was easily in favour. The dual registration at CARLA was always extremely limited in nature, as you probably know well and borne out of desperation as because of player numbers the very existence of CARLA itself was in question . The Children's leagues introduced rules to try to mitigate the impact on numbers created by the Scholarship / Academy system, but again were very limited in scope. Limited in all three cases to players signed within the last 12 months and only able to return to their junior club and nowhere else ? What the NCL did was not come late to that party, but rather set up a brand new one with far more invitations issued. Whether that helps put them in the progressive or conservative camp I'll leave to our posters........

The NCL is member controlled unlike virtually all other Leagues who are RFL owned and do what they are told. The take up by those leagues was last year minimal - perhaps half a dozen for the whole of Tier 5. NCL management hammered out the new regulations with the RFL to the point where they felt able to put it to their members to vote it in , which they did to some success. I prefer it that way. Tier 4 clubs ,the top of the community game, are of course clearly much more attractive to pro clubs who want to share their talent. On a separate but related point, the NCL have been driving the issue of Amateur compensation to the clubs who have been producing talent for the game over the last few years ( to a large extent their own members ) and are pleased to see that at the next grant release to the Pro clubs in July approx 90K will be redirected back down to the grass roots. Maybe I misunderstand your thinking but do not accept for a minute any innuendo that the NCL and its members are anything but progressive in their efforts - wish quite frankly it was an attitude more prevalent in the game.......

As of last weekend some 40 players are now duel registered with NCL clubs . This is increasingly looking a ' win win ' situation for the NCL initiative with both clubs and players benefitting......