Sat 4th-Sun 5th Mar: The Betfred Championship (Non-TV) Match Thread

[Ovenden Grunt]

13 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Im probably in the minority that thought Sheffield would win comfortably against Widnes. I think people are underestimating just how well Sheffield have started the season and and overestimating how well Widnes played against Fax who put in probably their worst display in at least 4 or 5 years. I think Sheffield will be top 4 this year barring a bad run on injuries.

As for Fax luckily our season didn't end today  but in all seriousness we picked up where we left off against Widnes in the first half, dropping off tackles, getting totally doimated, and to be fair to Batley they were pretty much only having to play one up rugby against us and were good value for their half time lead. Second half was a lot better but we stil look way off the pace but we did at least show some fire and luckily for us it helps having the best winger in the comp because he's still scoring for fun without us playing free flowing rugby that we got used to last season. 

Spot on!

[sentoffagain2]

  I went to the game and Sheffield never looked like losing.Widnes had a few tilts at the Sheffield line from the start of the second half to the 60 min mark,but good try line defence kept them out.Then once Sheffield went the length of the field to score it was game over.On a shoestring budget Mark Aston has built a team capable of achieving the play offs.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, sentoffagain2 said:

  I went to the game and Sheffield never looked like losing.Widnes had a few tilts at the Sheffield line from the start of the second half to the 60 min mark,but good try line defence kept them out.Then once Sheffield went the length of the field to score it was game over.On a shoestring budget Mark Aston has built a team capable of achieving the play offs.

Sheffield didn't look incredible in Wimbledon .....they looked just good enough to beat us ...not a complement 

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, sentoffagain2 said:

On a shoestring budget Mark Aston has built a team capable of achieving the play offs.

Are you sure it's a shoestring budget for them this year? They have the biggest squad in the division and have a lot of big-name ex-SL players, not saying they are up there with the biggest spenders but my guess is there are a few teams in the league that wouldn't mind having their "shoestring" budget.

[The Blues Ox]

11 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Are you sure it's a shoestring budget for them this year? They have the biggest squad in the division and have a lot of big-name ex-SL players, not saying they are up there with the biggest spenders but my guess is there are a few teams in the league that wouldn't mind having their "shoestring" budget.

I would imagine they have spent similar to Fax maybe 450-550k which is obviously a long way off big spenders Fev, Toulouse and Bradford and maybe a touch less than Widnes and York. This year has certainly seen a bit of a jump for them though.

[Griff]

34 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Sheffield didn't look incredible in Wimbledon .....they looked just good enough to beat us ...not a complement 

Early days yet.

[kiggy]

46 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

I would imagine they have spent similar to Fax maybe 450-550k which is obviously a long way off big spenders Fev, Toulouse and Bradford and maybe a touch less than Widnes and York. This year has certainly seen a bit of a jump for them though.

You would be shocked if you knew how little Toulouse have spent. If they had money, then they wouldn't have started the season with 19 players and expecting the Elites to step up. 

[Griff]

1 hour ago, kiggy said:

You would be shocked if you knew how little Toulouse have spent.

No doubt less than last time they were in this division but, still, I dare say, a decent wedge.

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, kiggy said:

You would be shocked if you knew how little Toulouse have spent. If they had money, then they wouldn't have started the season with 19 players and expecting the Elites to step up. 

I agree, the fact that two or three potential targets ended up with Fev strongly suggests that.

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of their costs. Sarrazain said they have a budget of 4 million euros this year. I understand the costs of flights and also those of running the Elite 1 and junior squads, but to a lot of Championship teams that will sound an enormous sum of money.

[The Blues Ox]

2 hours ago, kiggy said:

You would be shocked if you knew how little Toulouse have spent. If they had money, then they wouldn't have started the season with 19 players and expecting the Elites to step up. 

How much do you reckon?

[JonM]

20 hours ago, Stirlin said:

Never saw the 0-40 coming at Swinton who must have had an off day , even with DR players from Saints , good to see Clarky the skipper back for us.

Haven't seen a match report, but someone who went said Swinton were missing 10 of their starting line-up and had no recognised hooker or playmaker.

[kiggy]

2 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I agree, the fact that two or three potential targets ended up with Fev strongly suggests that.

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of their costs. Sarrazain said they have a budget of 4 million euros this year. I understand the costs of flights and also those of running the Elite 1 and junior squads, but to a lot of Championship teams that will sound an enormous sum of money.

Don't forget Hankinson also, the club couldn't agree to his terms. I wonder where Bernard got his 4 million from as it's not all spent on the staff that's to be sure.  Some of that budget is for debt repayment (maybe the next president can bring something to the table).  As a club they do run more teams than most Championship teams, they have rugby schools from U5 upwards, but I would agree with you in the main that they will have more than most, but that's what you have to cough up if you want to be a fully professional team.

[georgeb1]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

Haven't seen a match report, but someone who went said Swinton were missing 10 of their starting line-up and had no recognised hooker or playmaker.

i went and seeing their shirt numbers it was certainly not 10

[spanishknight]

4 hours ago, georgeb1 said:

i went and seeing their shirt numbers it was certainly not 10

Swinton had 14 players playing with numbers on their backs under 20, so that's only 3, the Knights had 8 players missing against the Bulls.

[DEANO]

They had 3 on dual reg. maybe it was the swinton players saying we don’t want them so didn’t put a shift in

[georgeb1]

32 minutes ago, DEANO said:

They had 3 on dual reg. maybe it was the swinton players saying we don’t want them so didn’t put a shift in

Actually no , the dual reg were carp

[mozzauk]

11 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Sheffield didn't look incredible in Wimbledon .....they looked just good enough to beat us ...not a complement 

Mark Aston even said the same to be honest, that we were luck to get out of the capital with the 2 points, and the team understood it was a sub par performance.. 

Roll on Siddal in the Challenge Cup

[Thunder fan]

Very happy with our start to the season, apart from the keighley away defeat i was upset by that result, keighley were poor, we were worse, now stanningley away on saturday our 6th away game in a row, then the broncos at home which is a huge first home game of the season, onwards and upwards.