Bolton Leyther

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Double D is right. Take, for ecample, the Six Nations. Plenty of people who have no real interest in the sport attend those matches. The reason they sell well is because they're competitive fixtures between the home nations in a sport with a big imprint in the country's consciousness. It's a similar situation to how the English take such a keen interest in the Ashes - the tournaments become vehicles through which the long-standing emnity and rivalry between particular nations can be expressed.

That took you longer than I expected.

Greece's No.9 looks like a player.

Swinton Lions represent Swinton. They don't play in Swinton and haven't for a long time, but Swinton is obviously central to their identity as a rugby league club. Because of the economics of professional sport nowadays, that might necessarily, if fact certainly will, mean they can't ever be one of the biggest clubs. But there's no disgrace in that. Not every sports club has to have ambitions to be the biggest and best, and if retaining the Swinton name, for good or ill, is of critical importance to the club's supporter base then that's their decision to make and has to be respected. Sports clubs should exist for the benefit of their supporters, and it would be a sad state of affairs if the supporters' wishes aren't first and foremost in any strategic planning. The opportunity to establish a rugby league club in Manchester, something which we desperately need to do, was Manchester Rangers. The people involved there did many good things and the club's potential should've been supported and nurtured by the powers that be. In there's any short-sightedness in this whole chain of events it's not from the Swinton Lions supporters, it's from the RFL and their failure to embrace Manchester Rangers to the fullest extent.

I think they'll sign a few top quality players. In fact, I think they'll do much better than people are expecting.

That doesn't make me feel any better.

How fantastic it is for the sport that we don't have two of the usual suspects in the grand final for once. It's just a shame I keep remembering that Paul Rowley's involved with them.

Correct on both points.

A brilliant result for the competition. I feel very pleased for the Salford supporters, even if my joy is tempered somewhat by the reminder that Paul Rowley is a member of their coaching staff.

Is he still playing?

I remember watching a video on, I think, Manchester Rangers' website (if not it would've been on their Youtube account) of an interview with a teenager playing in their junior set-up. He said that he got into the sport through some sort of community college initiative, and that he wouldn't ordinarily have played for a club because there wasn't one near enough to where he lived in Manchester. He was a newcomer to the sport and seemed to be really enjoyed it. I've got no idea where he'll be now.

It's more likely than the idea that people from Manchester are genetically predisposed to an inability to appreciate rugby league, or that there's a cultural boundary between Salford and Manchester which is so distinct and significant that the sport can gain a foothold in one city but not the other.

Manchester Rangers was a hugely promising opportunity which should've been supported to the fullest extent.

I was referring to your characterisation of Swinton supporters as insular.