Promotion and relegation

[The Phantom Horseman]

5 minutes ago, gazza77 said:

I'd have thought Tolouse would have also wanted to restart, so given Leigh's stance, it may be them rather than London as the 3rd team.

Jamie Langley from a recent Yorkshire Post  interview:
“So we’re massive advocates now for trying to get the competition underway by any means. We might be in the minority there but we feel we’ve a great chance to get back to where we feel we belong – London in Super League.”
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/london-broncos-coach-jamie-langley-calls-return-franchises-and-says-top-flight-needs-them-back-2855426

No sport allowed in France until at least September, which might have tempered Toulouse's enthusiasm, Catalans might be able to relocate to England for SL but might be tougher for Toulouse.

[gazza77]

4 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Jamie Langley from a recent Yorkshire Post  interview:
“So we’re massive advocates now for trying to get the competition underway by any means. We might be in the minority there but we feel we’ve a great chance to get back to where we feel we belong – London in Super League.”
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/london-broncos-coach-jamie-langley-calls-return-franchises-and-says-top-flight-needs-them-back-2855426

No sport allowed in France until at least September, which might have tempered Toulouse's enthusiasm, Catalans might be able to relocate to England for SL but might be tougher for Toulouse.

Fair enough. I'd only picked up on Langley wanting a return to franchises, which made me wonder if the London view was not to restart but hope for promotion anyway... 

[The Phantom Horseman]

2 minutes ago, gazza77 said:

Fair enough. I'd only picked up on Langley wanting a return to franchises, which made me wonder if the London view was not to restart but hope for promotion anyway... 

Aye you might not be far off there. Personally I'd love to see a strong, well-supported London team in SL, but they'd have to earn it on and off the field, and they've done neither recently.

[Cardypaul]

8 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Aye you might not be far off there. Personally I'd love to see a strong, well-supported London team in SL, but they'd have to earn it on and off the field, and they've done neither recently.

Yes but to be honest I can’t see that ever happen we have been trying to do it for 40 years and not even close 

[gazza77]

If the season were to continue, how would we do for getting DR players from Leeds? Given there is likely to be a increased frequency of games to complete the season, is it not probable that Leeds will want to hang on to their players to prevent burnout or injury, much like usually happens over the two game Easter weekend? 

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, gazza77 said:

If the season were to continue, how would we do for getting DR players from Leeds? Given there is likely to be a increased frequency of games to complete the season, is it not probable that Leeds will want to hang on to their players to prevent burnout or injury, much like usually happens over the two game Easter weekend? 

Yes, this scenario is outlined in this article.
https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/fixture-pile-bring-it-says-leeds-rhinos-youngster-2854399
On the plus side, we'd start back healthier than we've been all year (as would everyone else of course), but not having access to DR players would be an obvious blow.

[Steve Slater]

If we ever see any Championship RL this year it's more likely to be a mini league consisting of a handful of clubs that want to play on, and the reduced fixtures might mean less cover for certain positions is required, or loan players from clubs not participating might offset the lack of D/R? In a Utopian world promotion would still be on the cards, prompting Sky to broadcast this handful of games between the leading contenders if they were behind closed doors, paying a worthwhile fee?

Dream over, this lockdown's causing me to hallucinate, a snowball in hell has got more chance!

[The Blues Ox]

Hi all, hope you are all keeping well. Just thought I would check in as I have kind of lost touch with Rugby in the time away.

Regards getting the competition going again I really can't see how it could be possible logistically. The testing costs for the players and their famillies alone would run in to hundreds of thousands which might be ok for London and Leigh with their money bag owners but for teams like Fax and probably the rest of the competition I just can't see it. I don't blame Fev for wanting to sort things though as it was clearly a great chance to get in to SL for them this year but I could see a start date been announced only for the RFL to come out a couple of days later and pull up the drawbridge.

[The Phantom Horseman]

There was a piece in League Express/TotalRL by Matthew Shaw which is entitled "Championship eyes return at end of August".

That title looks a bit over-optimistic when you read the full article, though it's probably a bit less downbeat than previous comments in the media. Shaw does say "there is still a feeling that the challenges presented may prove to be too great for the competitions to overcome", which is what most of us have expected, but he also raises the possibility of testing costs not being as excessive as might have been feared. Clubs are reportedly motivated by the potential loss from season ticket revenues and commercial partnerships.

Apparently rough proposals for a revised season have been drawn up though it would be a much-reduced structure. There wouldn't be any midweek games so you'd think maybe they are looking at something like each club playing the others once instead of twice. That would mean each club needing to play between eight and ten games, plus any play offs.

At least I suppose given they aren't talking about returning until the end of August they don't really have to make any decisions yet and can see how the infections/deaths etc trend over the next few weeks.

[J Phil Loxton]

7 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

There was a piece in League Express/TotalRL by Matthew Shaw which is entitled "Championship eyes return at end of August".

That title looks a bit over-optimistic when you read the full article, though it's probably a bit less downbeat than previous comments in the media. Shaw does say "there is still a feeling that the challenges presented may prove to be too great for the competitions to overcome", which is what most of us have expected, but he also raises the possibility of testing costs not being as excessive as might have been feared. Clubs are reportedly motivated by the potential loss from season ticket revenues and commercial partnerships.

Apparently rough proposals for a revised season have been drawn up though it would be a much-reduced structure. There wouldn't be any midweek games so you'd think maybe they are looking at something like each club playing the others once instead of twice. That would mean each club needing to play between eight and ten games, plus any play offs.

At least I suppose given they aren't talking about returning until the end of August they don't really have to make any decisions yet and can see how the infections/deaths etc trend over the next few weeks.

The biggest sticking point is if a player tests positive after a few games then will the rest of your squad be isolated? Let's hope this virus 'does one' soon.