Sun 12 Sept: The Betfred Championship Match Thread

[John Drake]

Discuss this week's Betfred Championship games here.

SUNDAY 12th SEPTEMBER
Batley Bulldogs v Dewsbury Rams KO 15:00
London Broncos v Featherstone Rovers KO 15:00
Oldham v Newcastle Thunder KO 15:00
Sheffield Eagles v Swinton Lions KO 16:30
Whitehaven v Halifax Panthers KO 15:00
Widnes Vikings v Bradford Bulls KO 15:00

[Neutralfan7]

Batley

Fev

Thunder

Sheffield 

Haven

Bulls

[Blind side johnny]

Double post.

[Blind side johnny]

2 hours ago, John Drake said:

 

SUNDAY 12th SEPTEMBER
Batley Bulldogs v Dewsbury Rams KO 15:00
London Broncos v Featherstone Rovers KO 15:00
Oldham v Newcastle Thunder KO 15:00
Sheffield Eagles v Swinton Lions KO 16:30
Whitehaven v Halifax Panthers KO 15:00
Widnes Vikings v Bradford Bulls KO 15:00

[Moscow01]

Batley Bulldogs 32-16 Dewsbury Rams 
London Broncos 10-48 Featherstone Rovers 
Oldham 16-33 Newcastle Thunder 
Sheffield Eagles 20-22 Swinton Lions 
Whitehaven 23-22 Halifax Panthers 
Widnes Vikings 21-22 Bradford Bulls 

[Barley Mow]

Batley Bulldogs v Dewsbury Rams
London Broncos v Featherstone Rovers
Oldham v Newcastle Thunder 
Sheffield Eagles v Swinton Lions 
Whitehaven v Halifax Panthers 
Widnes Vikings v Bradford Bulls

[The Blues Ox]

Batley Bulldogs v Dewsbury Rams Batley by 30
London Broncos v Featherstone Rovers Fev by 50
Oldham v Newcastle Thunder KO Oldham by 4
Sheffield Eagles v Swinton Lions Sheffield by 16
Whitehaven v Halifax Panthers Haven by 16
Widnes Vikings v Bradford Bulls Bradford by 20

[doc]

Batley

London

Newcastle

Sheffield

Halifax

Widnes

[Southern Reiver]

Batley

Featherstone

Newcastle

Sheffield

Whitehaven

Bradford

[JonM]

Widnes 6 Bradford 0 after 17 minutes, good game so far with both sides having consecutive sets on the opposition try line. Sizeable following from Bradford too.

[JonM]

Widnes 6 Bradford 0 HT. Enjoyable first half, but a lot of errors from both teams - knock-ons and forward passes galore. Adam Lawton in particular seems to be struggling to hold the wet ball - must've dropped it six times (and conceded a couple of penalties for high tackles).

[Spidey]

2 minutes ago, JonM said:

Widnes 6 Bradford 0 HT. Enjoyable first half, but a lot of errors from both teams - knock-ons and forward passes galore. Adam Lawton in particular seems to be struggling to hold the wet ball - must've dropped it six times (and conceded a couple of penalties for high tackles).

Error ridden but think Widnes look a little bit more composed. Bradford overplaying a bit

[JonM]

Nice short kick from Brough puts Lilley in under the post to make it 6-6 after 50 minutes. All Bradford so far in the second half.

[JonM]

Widnes 8 Bradford 8 with 15 minutes to play. Bradford dominating the second half, but not really threatening much near the line.

[Fevrover]

Can't believe Rams result didn't see that coming.

[JonM]

Widnes 8 Bradford 9 in the last minute - drop goal from Brough.

[JonM]

Spectacular finish gave Widnes a win rather against the run of play.

Difficult penalty goal from the halfway line for Widnes in the final seconds of the game after a Bradford player in possession appeared to elbow Lawton, to make it 10-9 final score.

Once Bradford reverted to five drives and a kick from Brough in the second half, and stopped trying to pass the ball, they dominated territory and possession. Didn't see who the offending Bulls player was, but I'm sure John Kear will be furious.

[Spidey]

35 minutes ago, JonM said:

Spectacular finish gave Widnes a win rather against the run of play.

Difficult penalty goal from the halfway line for Widnes in the final seconds of the game after a Bradford player in possession appeared to elbow Lawton, to make it 10-9 final score.

Once Bradford reverted to five drives and a kick from Brough in the second half, and stopped trying to pass the ball, they dominated territory and possession. Didn't see who the offending Bulls player was, but I'm sure John Kear will be furious.

Dan Fleming I think it was. 
 

Bradford needed a bit of composure throughout and would have won with ease. That last minute incident summed them up

[JonM]

1 minute ago, Spidey said:

Bradford needed a bit of composure throughout and would have won with ease. That last minute incident summed them up

Nice end to the live RL watching season for me. Hopefully the last time I have to trek up (or down) from Cambridge to watch a game too. 

[Barley Mow]

10 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

What a final week ofChampionship RL we are in for.  Fax vs Batley with Fax needing win to avoid France.  

Bulls vs Haven with home playoff and playoff place on the line.  Broncos must win in trip to York. 

What a great result for Widnes, finish season on high next week and they can be positive for next season to be in playoff Hunt. 

Cut the money fine but 14 team championship  and this playoff structure should absolutely stay .

It looks like it could be really entertaining.

The only thing you write there that I don't agree with is the 14 team championship - we have 36 pro/semi-pro clubs (assuming none of them fold due to funding cuts), why don't we have 3 divisions of 12? It makes no sense to me to have 14 in the championship and 10 in league 1.

[doc]

I must admit I thought Bradford would win. Until the dumb penalty at the end. 

Does Brough do the no look pass all the time?

[Havenfan10]

Another solid Haven performance today. Tackled Fax out of the game in the 1st half. Other results went our way too big game next week. If we play like we have been I see no reason why we can't beat Bradford and claim a playoff place. 

[LeeF]

1 hour ago, Havenfan10 said:

Another solid Haven performance today. Tackled Fax out of the game in the 1st half. Other results went our way too big game next week. If we play like we have been I see no reason why we can't beat Bradford and claim a playoff place. 

I think that providing Haven “do better” result wise* than London then they get into the Top 6. So a draw would suffice if London lost

* my maths may not be accurate

[Havenfan10]

2 hours ago, LeeF said:

I think that providing Haven “do better” result wise* than London then they get into the Top 6. So a draw would suffice if London lost

* my maths may not be accurate

So the highest Haven can finish is 6th? Even if the 3 teams above us get beat next week? 

[LongStandingBull]

47 minutes ago, Havenfan10 said:

So the highest Haven can finish is 6th? Even if the 3 teams above us get beat next week? 

Halifax play Batley so they can’t both lose this weekend.

Bradford look like they are happy to have made the playoffs so I expect a haven win next week as one team is bang in form and up for the fight and the other is in rest mode. 

I’ve seen comments about how exciting the Widnes v Bradford game was and yes the atmosphere was good with the game in the balance but make no mistake it was a game with over 30 errors between the sides. It was only exciting as both sides couldn’t keep hold of the footy or threw it forward. If either team could have respected the ball they would likely have put 30-40 points on the other