Fri 2nd-Sun 4th Sept: The Betfred Championship Match Thread

[John Drake]

Discuss this weekend's non-televised Betfred Championship games here.

FRIDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER
Sheffield Eagles v Featherstone Rovers KO 19:45

SATURDAY 3rd SEPTEMBER
Newcastle Thunder v York City Knights KO 19:00

SUNDAY 4th SEPTEMBER
Barrow Raiders v Dewsbury Rams KO 15:00 
Batley Bulldogs v Bradford Bulls KO 15:00
London Broncos v Leigh Centurions KO 15:00
Workington Town v Whitehaven KO 14:00

[spanishknight]

12 hours ago, John Drake said:

Featherstone by 22

York  Knights  by 14

Barrow Raiders  by 18

Batley   by 18

Leigh Centurions  by 30

Whitehaven  by 24

 

[Cw25]

4 hours ago, John Drake said:

Discuss this weekend's non-televised Betfred Championship games here.

FRIDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER
Sheffield Eagles v Featherstone Rovers KO 19:45

SATURDAY 3rd SEPTEMBER
Newcastle Thunder v York City Knights KO 19:00

SUNDAY 4th SEPTEMBER
Barrow Raiders v Dewsbury Rams KO 15:00 
Batley Bulldogs v Bradford Bulls KO 15:00
London Broncos v Leigh Centurions KO 15:00
Workington Town v Whitehaven KO 14:00

Sheffield 16-36 Featherstone

Newcastle 10-38 York

Barrow 44-6 Dewsbury

Batley 28-18 Bradford

London Broncos 16-42 Leigh

Workington 12-36 Whitehaven

[tim2]

Pretty much everybody will pick the same 6 winners, and they'll probably be right. And Fax as the 7th.

I'm not sure how to make the Championship more competitive, top to bottom. It is what it is, I suppose. The other year it was Toronto, then the next 6, then the rest. This year it's Leigh/Fev, the next 5, the next 5, then Dewsbury/Workington. After the first few weeks, very few results between teams in these mini leagues have gone against form.

Last night in the Premier League Southampton beat Chelsea. Man City have lost home games against lower clubs, and nearly lost the title twice on the last day against QPR and Villa. This kind of jeopardy makes each game more attractive. 

Rugby is diferent to football and scorelines accentuate what could be small differences between teams. I've seen teams lose by 20 or 30 points who were only just the lesser side, but the Championship (and League One) are very often 80% predictable every week.

[Neutralfan7]

15 hours ago, John Drake said:

Discuss this weekend's non-televised Betfred Championship games here.

FRIDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER
Sheffield Eagles v Featherstone Rovers KO 19:45

SATURDAY 3rd SEPTEMBER
Newcastle Thunder v York City Knights KO 19:00

SUNDAY 4th SEPTEMBER
Barrow Raiders v Dewsbury Rams KO 15:00 
Batley Bulldogs v Bradford Bulls KO 15:00
London Broncos v Leigh Centurions KO 15:00
Workington Town v Whitehaven KO 14:00

Fev

York

Barrow

Batley

Leigh

Haven

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, tim2 said:

Pretty much everybody will pick the same 6 winners, and they'll probably be right. And Fax as the 7th.

I'm not sure how to make the Championship more competitive, top to bottom. It is what it is, I suppose. The other year it was Toronto, then the next 6, then the rest. This year it's Leigh/Fev, the next 5, the next 5, then Dewsbury/Workington. After the first few weeks, very few results between teams in these mini leagues have gone against form.

Last night in the Premier League Southampton beat Chelsea. Man City have lost home games against lower clubs, and nearly lost the title twice on the last day against QPR and Villa. This kind of jeopardy makes each game more attractive. 

Rugby is diferent to football and scorelines accentuate what could be small differences between teams. I've seen teams lose by 20 or 30 points who were only just the lesser side, but the Championship (and League One) are very often 80% predictable every week.

This is why 2 x 10's wont work, would the two stepping down from SL be on less funding - No, would what funding is available be shared out equally by 20 clubs - No, would the 10 clubs that remain in SL take less funding say 1.2 million to give the other 10 approx 800K - No

As in the disparity you Identify it is tge money available through funding or the owners that finds a clubs position.

[GUBRATS]

2 hours ago, tim2 said:

Pretty much everybody will pick the same 6 winners, and they'll probably be right. And Fax as the 7th.

I'm not sure how to make the Championship more competitive, top to bottom. It is what it is, I suppose. The other year it was Toronto, then the next 6, then the rest. This year it's Leigh/Fev, the next 5, the next 5, then Dewsbury/Workington. After the first few weeks, very few results between teams in these mini leagues have gone against form.

Last night in the Premier League Southampton beat Chelsea. Man City have lost home games against lower clubs, and nearly lost the title twice on the last day against QPR and Villa. This kind of jeopardy makes each game more attractive. 

Rugby is diferent to football and scorelines accentuate what could be small differences between teams. I've seen teams lose by 20 or 30 points who were only just the lesser side, but the Championship (and League One) are very often 80% predictable every week.

Maybe a start would be for the scoring team to not get possession directly after scoring , that would probably have prevented last weekends 100 point score by Leigh , pretty much every other sport works that way 

Imagine basketball if the scoring team got the ball back ?

[GUBRATS]

2 hours ago, tim2 said:

Pretty much everybody will pick the same 6 winners, and they'll probably be right. And Fax as the 7th.

I'm not sure how to make the Championship more competitive, top to bottom. It is what it is, I suppose. The other year it was Toronto, then the next 6, then the rest. This year it's Leigh/Fev, the next 5, the next 5, then Dewsbury/Workington. After the first few weeks, very few results between teams in these mini leagues have gone against form.

Last night in the Premier League Southampton beat Chelsea. Man City have lost home games against lower clubs, and nearly lost the title twice on the last day against QPR and Villa. This kind of jeopardy makes each game more attractive. 

Rugby is diferent to football and scorelines accentuate what could be small differences between teams. I've seen teams lose by 20 or 30 points who were only just the lesser side, but the Championship (and League One) are very often 80% predictable every week.

The physicality of RL accentuates this as well , possession tires out the opposition much more than other sports , Union have got round it by changing the entire pack , we use interchanges 

[The Blues Ox]

FRIDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER
Sheffield Eagles v Featherstone Rovers Fev by 14

SATURDAY 3rd SEPTEMBER
Newcastle Thunder v York City Knights York by 38

SUNDAY 4th SEPTEMBER
Barrow Raiders v Dewsbury Rams Barrow by 48
Batley Bulldogs v Bradford Bulls Batley by 8
London Broncos v Leigh Centurions Leigh by 62
Workington Town v Whitehaven Haven by 2

Im not sure how to make the league more competitive but presuming Leigh go up, I think next year will be slightly different in that Toulouse will not be as dominant as Leigh and then if Leigh stay up and Wakefield come down then the 2024 season would have the potential to be excellent as I would expect Wakey to become a bog standard Championship team without having the SL money to sqander away.

[tim2]

11 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

The physicality of RL accentuates this as well , possession tires out the opposition much more than other sports , Union have got round it by changing the entire pack , we use interchanges 

Yes, but both sides can do it, and the better team usually has a bigger and stronger bench so it doesn't help the imbalance. Player welfare may be an issue, but I'd prefer to see substitutes rather than interchanges. I know Union does this but they allow way too many. 

[GUBRATS]

2 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

FRIDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER
Sheffield Eagles v Featherstone Rovers Fev by 14

SATURDAY 3rd SEPTEMBER
Newcastle Thunder v York City Knights York by 38

SUNDAY 4th SEPTEMBER
Barrow Raiders v Dewsbury Rams Barrow by 48
Batley Bulldogs v Bradford Bulls Batley by 8
London Broncos v Leigh Centurions Leigh by 62
Workington Town v Whitehaven Haven by 2

Im not sure how to make the league more competitive but presuming Leigh go up, I think next year will be slightly different in that Toulouse will not be as dominant as Leigh and then if Leigh stay up and Wakefield come down then the 2024 season would have the potential to be excellent as I would expect Wakey to become a bog standard Championship team without having the SL money to sqander away.

Ahh yes , but what if it's Warrington ? 

[tim2]

18 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Maybe a start would be for the scoring team to not get possession directly after scoring , that would probably have prevented last weekends 100 point score by Leigh , pretty much every other sport works that way 

Imagine basketball if the scoring team got the ball back ?

I can't remember when they changed this, but it did seem like an odd decision. I reffed several amateur games where some teams didn't touch the ball in the last 20 minutes as the score went from 40-0 to 90-0.

[GUBRATS]

Just now, tim2 said:

I can't remember when they changed this, but it did seem like an odd decision. I reffed several amateur games where some teams didn't touch the ball in the last 20 minutes as the score went from 40-0 to 90-0.

Egggsssacccctttlllyyy

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, tim2 said:

I can't remember when they changed this, but it did seem like an odd decision. I reffed several amateur games where some teams didn't touch the ball in the last 20 minutes as the score went from 40-0 to 90-0.

As I put on here last weekend , the second half stats stated by Adrian Lam was Leigh had 18 sets , scoring from 11 , York had 3 

Maybe that was completed ones , but if York had been receiving the kick , we wouldn't have racked up the 100 

[Tubby]

51 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

As I put on here last weekend , the second half stats stated by Adrian Lam was Leigh had 18 sets , scoring from 11 , York had 3 

Maybe that was completed ones , but if York had been receiving the kick , we wouldn't have racked up the 100 

I believe it was changed because a dominant team could score, then kick off deep, pressure the 'weaker' team into their own 20, then get the ball back and attack from close in.  With the new way, at least the scoring team have to go 100m.

Like you point out, it doesn't necessarily work like that though!

[Griff]

1 hour ago, tim2 said:

 Player welfare may be an issue, but I'd prefer to see substitutes rather than interchanges. 

I would be appalled if this came in.

[Griff]

2 minutes ago, Tubby said:

I believe it was changed because a dominant team could score, then kick off deep, pressure the 'weaker' team into their own 20, then get the ball back and attack from close in.  With the new way, at least the scoring team have to go 100m.

Like you point out, it doesn't necessarily work like that though!

There's no obligation to kick off from half way.

[Griff]

1 hour ago, GUBRATS said:

As I put on here last weekend , the second half stats stated by Adrian Lam was Leigh had 18 sets , scoring from 11 , York had 3 

Maybe that was completed ones , but if York had been receiving the kick , we wouldn't have racked up the 100 

21 sets ?  That's very low, even allowing for a lot of goal kicks.

[Tubby]

4 minutes ago, Griff said:

There's no obligation to kick off from half way.

Nope, don't see what you're getting at there.

[Griff]

1 minute ago, Tubby said:

Nope, don't see what you're getting at there.

What if the scoring team kicked off from their own 30 ?  Or 20 ?  Giving the opposition possession somewhere around midfield?

[Tubby]

1 minute ago, Griff said:

What if the scoring team kicked off from their own 30 ?  Or 20 ?  Giving the opposition possession somewhere around midfield?

Oh I see, you mean the rule could be changed to make them kick off from their own 20?  It might have an effect.

[tim2]

2 hours ago, Griff said:

What if the scoring team kicked off from their own 30 ?  Or 20 ?  Giving the opposition possession somewhere around midfield?

Bit harsh if the scoring team is chasing two tries to win in a tight game.

[Harry Stottle]

It was tried when the scoring team kicked of after scoring a try, then soon reverted back to the defending team kicking off, it was deemed if the scoring team was kicking off they could keep the defenders in their own half and also any infringements left them deep in their own half.

[GUBRATS]

1 hour ago, tim2 said:

Bit harsh if the scoring team is chasing two tries to win in a tight game.

Then you'd try a short kick off 

[Griff]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

It was tried when the scoring team kicked of after scoring a try, then soon reverted back to the defending team kicking off, it was deemed if the scoring team was kicking off they could keep the defenders in their own half and also any infringements left them deep in their own half.

Hence kicking off a bit further back.

Nothing's insurmountable.