GeordieSaint

This is where a competent press would be investigating and calling out the RFL if there is any truth.

Sensible… Allez!

Oh my ###### Jesus… please tell me he’s wrong? What an awful use of hard earned money. DEVELOPMENT, DEVELOPMENT, DEVELOPMENT YOU INCOMPETENT MORONS!!

Just need to get some top tier ones moving more too. They are going but WE WANT MORE!

I remember the pitch being small but what were the other issues? Ack on the City issues.

We need to develop a strategy for France. Long term wise, it is in our strategic interest to do so. A game or two a year or allowing a side or two access to SL is not going to cut it, particularly with the threat of relegation. The game on both sides of the channel need to work together to define what ENDS they seek to achieve - where do we want to be in 10-15yrs time? You then work out how to get there and with what means - but those targets need to be realistic (a professional French competition isn’t!). Immediate actions should be: 1. PROTECT Catalan and Toulouse from relegation. 2. Regular annual international games between nations at junior and senior levels (both genders) 3. Salary cap dispensations for French players in English teams. 4. Encourage more French juniors into English Academy system - London should be an immediate focal point. As with anything in the Northern Hemipshere, short term fixes DON’T work.

Odsal is disgraceful as a top tier sporting venue. What’s issue with sharing Valley Parade like in the past? Surely that’s the solution…

Another one?

This. Toulouse and Catalan are already sharing a huge financial burden each year. So let’s not force them to play in the CC as well.

210 and 211 as well. Buggers just won’t sell…

There’s not loads up there. The 2 x end sections only have about 700 seats in each of them so you are looking at about 4000 on sale up to and less than 2000 in the bottom two tiers.

We’ll see. I expect London to be in in 2027. The likes of York, Toulouse and even Bradford, Huddersfield and Castleford could be vulnerable with tweaks to the system and some accurate auditing.

Where’s Romano gone - Hull? Toulouse should be in for Seguier and Dezaria…

I am not very confident about Saints. We are offloading a lot of players (Batchelor, Bell, Bennison, Knowles, Sambou, Vaughan, Ritson et al) and so far only brought in Host and Wright. We’ve also got no Head Coach. The likes of Lomax and Paasi are well passed it plus Walmsley, Percival et al are on their last legs. The club as in real risk of falling further behind unless radical changes are made and quickly.

I share your scepticism, but not necessarily York - but the number of clubs in Yorkshire. It’s unhealthy noting the community game isn’t strong. Diversifying and strengthening the player pool is vital so a key reason London is a must when ready.

The clubs most at risk from London’s inevitable rise will be from 4 x Yorkshire clubs and Toulouse. The latter should be protected.

Now this looks great…

A well deserved disco disco!

I like most of them - but not Mbye. I wouldn’t even want to wish that on our closest rivals.

Amend the criteria. Improve it. Add stuff to make it more robust. The Grade A should be for excellence across a broad range of criteria. I think everyone, including the Bradford club, know they are not 0.21pts off a Grade A (or whatever it was in the end). They are not the only club who don’t really justify their proximity to that A grade club status.

The concept is not a bad one. It’s the implementation as always - and that’s done by the RFL and clubs. There are positive signs from the IMG input - attendances both in the stadia and on TV, as well as social media engagement. The likes of Wakefield, Leigh et al really get their houses in order. So many positive signs. Simply getting rid of it would be a kick in the balls for the sport and its ability to do any form of long term planning. So I’ll repeat again, the RFL’s implementation, management and governance is the fundamental issue.

I’d be after the ones in bold if I was Toulouse.

We now need some leadership. Protect Toulouse. Let them grow in SL. In a few years, you’ll have a beast of a club that’ll be hugely beneficial for SL, France and Northern Hemisphere RL.

That’s a very sensible post. Thank you.

2027 PYBC. I think the investment came a tad too late… … but London is hugely important to the success of the sport over here.