144-0

[TrueBull]

Did they manage to send 17 players today? I think twice(?) this season, they’ve only had 15 or 16 players.

[The Future is League]

Scores like this don't do Welsh Rugby League or Rugby League as a whole any favours .

[rlno1]

7 hours ago, DavidM said:

I hope the York coach doesn’t come out and say ‘ credit to them , they never gave in , they had a dig blah blah ‘ like coaches always do in that patronising way when they touch someone up bigstyle . Often in the cup !

It's not rugby union.

That was the talk after Australia beat Namibia 146-0 in a Rugby Union World Cup tournament game.

[Man of Kent]

That scoreline is really pushing the limits of what is possible within 80 minutes, so well done York! A club on the up!!

[Oxford]

8 hours ago, Celtic Rooster said:

#####! Feel free to ban me. I would love nothing more than to never see what these ###### idiots keep putting on these forums ever again.

It'll take far more than that to get you banned!

[moorside roughyed]

I really do worry about the state of rugby league in that area,scores like this don't help.They need to get some more experienced player's on top of the local players they already have.I am at a loss,it must be soul destroying for all at the club to be working towards a goal only for things like this to happen.Hopefully they can see the season out.

[headtackle]

Congrats to York - it takes some doing to score 144 regardless who you are playing. 60:0 at half time so 84 points in the second half is incredible

I do worry for West Wales after this. I have witnessed a couple of these games at Saints (Carlisle and Trafford Borough) and look what happened to them

It will get some publicity but not that much. Who knows no such thing as bad publicity so maybe the West Wales public will now have an awareness and may get behind the underdog to help restore pride.    

Perhaps this is an argument that all development clubs should spend their first few years as feeder clubs for SL clubs. They can then benefit from having access to a better quality player and avoid scores as bad as this. 

Too late for this season which could be a long one for them. Given the "rugby" talent pool in Wales though it would be interesting if a bigger club did form links, sent a few dual reg players to help stabilise things then use WW as a base from which to identify talent and recruit players from the valleys

 

[groundhopper]

A long thread but so far no positive suggestions

Clearly a not is lot right in South ( West) Wales at the moment. The calling off of the first game was a disaster in PR terms and the club are actually new. the distance from Merthyr where they played less than one season is close to 40 miles

The present situation cannot continue but the traditional RL response, certainly when clubs like Liverpool were adrift was to lend players. The distances involved make this much harder, especially as the players are needed on more than a matchday.

I think it is up to the RFL to say, what do you need, not with cash, signing some aged RU players for a payday who will become unavailable in August is short term but maybe one or two experienced lads. Certainly the end of the RU season will be a boost but wont be a solution

We need an RL presence in Wales and we need youth development, and although chicken and egg that needs player pathway. The clubs needs to be in Championship 1. Games against known names help and the development league referred to existed and had two sometimes three Welsh teams in it but has collapsed

No real ideas here from myself just a desire to see the club supported rather than lose what presence we have in another area. I accept many will say the 70k could be out to better use but since the reality would be slightly higher wages in Super League it would not be. Money is short in RL but a development officer in Wales would still probably be economic with long range planning and might help West Wales

If it was given to support a  replacement for the Southern Conference or for youth development for NCL clubs, I might struggle to argue against

There are a lot of us on here who will have much better suggestions than me but lets turn this into a positive thread

ps for those who bring Coventry into this, as others have said, they played well yesterday and were ahead using players living locally and had a decent attendance considering Wasps were also home      

 

[Ivarr the Boneless]

The RFL need to learn that expansion isn't a case of admitting a club and walking away. Supporting Deve!opment Officers are needed. If that can't be funded then quite simply don't do it on the cheap, it doesn't work. We've proven that a few times in recent years. Frankly we'd better off funding a Development Officer or two now with a view to a future semi-pro team than funding a semi-pro team and no development work. The briefest look at the story of Oxford RL shows that.

Best wishes to all at West Wales. We had a few horrible days at Oxford but nothing quite like that. I hope the support you need is forthcoming. It certainly wasn't at Oxford.

[AB Knight]

I missed the first 15mins, York were already 5 trys up, it was relentless. It got to about 80-0 though and while I was enjoying the York performance and attitude, it did seem like a boxing match which needed to be stopped.

A few things: I think West Wales had 4 or 5 sets, I counted 1 set right on the 80th minute in the York half, the rest were in their own half (maybe someone who was there for the full 80 can correct me). They kicked out on the full from kick off twice and it didn't go the 10 on at least one occassion. They didn't have to deal with many if any high kicks as York simply swung the ball left or right or strolled up the middle.

One thing that surprises me was the size of the West Wales players. They had 2 players who were a bit more bulked up, the rest were skinny, or very small. Nothing wrong with being short in height, Rob Burrow was a great player and didn't have a bad career but when half the team looked that size, well you've got problems against a strong York side. There was one guy on the wing who looked about 17, although he didn't actually do too bad against Ash Robson.

They need experience in the side urgently. With their location though it's very difficult - for example it's not like York or any of the heartland teams can lend a few fringe players, when those players are likely to be working 9-5 during the week up here. So they are restricted to those who can move with work, or full time players. But again, most Super League and full time Championship clubs set up DR with other clubs well before the season begins, I just can't imagine there are many full time clubs with free players who can or are willing to go down there.

South Wales Ironmen - they weren't that bad were they? What happened to all their seasoned players? Are none available?

I wish them well, and hope they get through the season and can build and learn. It's a steep learning curve, and what happened in the first match was a real PR disaster. There's no doubt next week at Odsal will be a big scoreline but after that in theory it should get a bit easier for them.

[FearNothing]

34 minutes ago, AB Knight said:

South Wales Ironmen - they weren't that bad were they? What happened to all their seasoned players? Are none available?

 

I think the better ones either retired from playing or moved elsewhere..it's a shame, but now they've moved further out west, geography certainly doesn't help them

[mickhornet]

Probably break all records at Odsal

[bowes]

13 hours ago, Rach said:

Fed up with seeing the Bears getting drawn into these arguments , lost only by a try to Skolars today in a cracking match , points difference against the Bulls was less than Keighley but because of their geographic location they keep getting pinged as a team that shouldnt be in L1 

Hemel and West Wales probably shouldn’t be in League 1, though it’s not obvious where they should be playing instead (as much as people say it, a southern league won’t happen) I am biased, but think the Bears being a little better than them on the field, using locals (unlike Hemel), having a decent ground, a reasonably big city and reasonable support levels does justify a league spot. 

[Moscow01]

Sad to see really.

A penny for Steve Parry’s thoughts. For the past few years he’s been one of the best players in League 1, and also one of the top try scorers in the competition while at the All Golds. His performances under Lee Greenwood were so good he went to the World Cup and played in every game for Wales.

Yesterday he’s playing scrum half for West Wales. I can’t imagine he touched the ball more than five times. 

[ojx]

35 minutes ago, bowes said:

Hemel and West Wales probably shouldn’t be in League 1, though it’s not obvious where they should be playing instead (as much as people say it, a southern league won’t happen) I am biased, but think the Bears being a little better than them on the field, using locals (unlike Hemel), having a decent ground, a reasonably big city and reasonable support levels does justify a league spot. 

The problem is, if you get rid of Hemel and West Wales. The pressure will then be on Coventry, as they will be the weakest of the expansion teams.

[Celtic Rooster]

Sincere apologies for my outburst of bad language. I shouldn't look at the forums after I have been drinking. However, my feelings remain the same. I wish I could give up watching Rugby League because I detest what Super League and the RFL are doing to the sport I love. They are killing the rest of the game outside of Super Greed. I can't give up because its still the greatest sport on the planet even though I mainly just watch amateur these days.

[Cake Tiger]

16 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

Bulls fan behind me at the game today was saying to his mate about what good does that do RL. It was League 1. It gets next to no press coverage. The only people who will know will be RL fans. The big worry now is what the Bulls will do next week. They will want to win the title and won’t want to risk losing out on points difference. I just hope WWR can regroup and at least get through the season.

And those who read the front page of the BBC Sport website.

[bowes]

34 minutes ago, ojx said:

The problem is, if you get rid of Hemel and West Wales. The pressure will then be on Coventry, as they will be the weakest of the expansion teams.

The thing is though I’m not sure what the point of bussing Dewsbury reserves to Hemel to get hammered in front of 50 fans is, nor the point of entering a Welsh league level club into League 1. Coventry Bears are more like how Skolars or Gateshead we’re a few years back 

[Wellsy4HullFC]

27 minutes ago, Celtic Rooster said:

Sincere apologies for my outburst of bad language. I shouldn't look at the forums after I have been drinking. However, my feelings remain the same. I wish I could give up watching Rugby League because I detest what Super League and the RFL are doing to the sport I love. They are killing the rest of the game outside of Super Greed. I can't give up because its still the greatest sport on the planet even though I mainly just watch amateur these days.

How can this be Super League's fault? 

[Mumby Magic]

11 hours ago, rlno1 said:

It's not rugby union.

That was the talk after Australia beat Namibia 146-0 in a Rugby Union World Cup tournament game.

And I bet no one said throw Namibia out of the Cup.

[terrywebbisgod]

3 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

How can this be Super League's fault? 

Because everything's Super Greeds fault.

[Mumby Magic]

33 minutes ago, Celtic Rooster said:

Sincere apologies for my outburst of bad language. I shouldn't look at the forums after I have been drinking. However, my feelings remain the same. I wish I could give up watching Rugby League because I detest what Super League and the RFL are doing to the sport I love. They are killing the rest of the game outside of Super Greed. I can't give up because its still the greatest sport on the planet even though I mainly just watch amateur these days.

It won't beat Mick Gledhill's thread on here years ago whilst he was in Spain and had had a few sherbets!!!

[Moscow01]

It shouldn’t go unnoticed that the other ‘Welsh’ team endured a bit of a bad day yesterday. They beat Hemel but only 215 fans turned up. When you consider they were getting 800-1000 people as recently as 2016, it’s extremely worrying. 

 

Id be interested to get the view of a Crusaders supporter on what’s going wrong. 

[Wellsy4HullFC]

Just now, scotchy1 said:

Because they give L1 sides money and players.

Or that they are talking about no longer giving L1 sides money and players.

Or that they don't give them more money and players.

Must be one of them.

But before SL there wasn't a club in Wales anyway (not one that did well if there was one) so can't exactly blame them.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

9 minutes ago, Moscow01 said:

It shouldn’t go unnoticed that the other ‘Welsh’ team endured a bit of a bad day yesterday. They beat Hemel but only 215 fans turned up. When you consider they were getting 800-1000 people as recently as 2016, it’s extremely worrying. 

 

Id be interested to get the view of a Crusaders supporter on what’s going wrong. 

Haven't they just moved ground?