Challenge Cup - Group Stage draw

[RBKnight]

Group 1

Sheffield Eagles

Castleford Tigers

Featherstone Rovers

York Valkyrie

Group 2

Cardiff Demons

Salford Red Devils

Barrow Raiders

Wigan Warriors

Group 3

London Broncos

Bradford Bulls

Warrington Wolves

St Helens

Group 4

Hull KR

Leigh Leopards

Huddersfield Giants

Leeds Rhinos

[RBKnight]

Group stage matches start 16/17th March - Group 2 looks to my eyes the one that might provide some interesting results - will Cardiff have their RU players available early in the season ?

[unapologetic pedant]

On 10/01/2024 at 19:31, RBKnight said:

Group stage matches start 16/17th March - Group 2 looks to my eyes the one that might provide some interesting results - will Cardiff have their RU players available early in the season ?

If not, their number of players will be fewer than one. Unless you know something I don't.

Would expect most to play Union on Saturday, League on Sunday. Some players in Auckland have done that. Mele Hufanga was one, till she opted to focus exclusively on League prior to signing with the Broncos in NRLW.

[RBKnight]

In other news, Castleford have withdrawn from the Challenge Cup - "not currently ready" 

Leaves Fev as the only game in town for decent quality women's RL in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield at the moment.

 

[The Blues Ox]

2 hours ago, RBKnight said:

In other news, Castleford have withdrawn from the Challenge Cup - "not currently ready" 

Leaves Fev as the only game in town for decent quality women's RL in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield at the moment.

 

No real surprise about Cas, there was no way they were going to put their girls through playing those games. I heard Bradford are struggling as well and have been desparately contacting girls from the community game to make the numbers up. This season is going to be a real struggle for them.

[The Blues Ox]

Bradford having to cancel their game against Saints as they are unable to raise a team. I know they are hoping to pull in 1 or 2 girls from the winter league who have their finals next week and might be wanting to avoid injury but its a worry so early in the season. My own local team Halifax struggling as well after their new coach quit within a couple of months and they have yet to advertise the position and seem to have stopped trying to recruit players.

[gingerjon]

On 23/03/2024 at 09:57, The Blues Ox said:

Bradford having to cancel their game against Saints as they are unable to raise a team. I know they are hoping to pull in 1 or 2 girls from the winter league who have their finals next week and might be wanting to avoid injury but its a worry so early in the season. My own local team Halifax struggling as well after their new coach quit within a couple of months and they have yet to advertise the position and seem to have stopped trying to recruit players.

The BBC have it as 48-0. Is that the walkover score?

[RigbyLuger]

2 hours ago, gingerjon said:

The BBC have it as 48-0. Is that the walkover score?

Yeah. A good result for Bradford. 

[unapologetic pedant]

Without knowing what sort of team the stronger club fielded, the following results from Sunday seem promising -

Barrow 18 Wigan 20

London 6 Warrington 24

Featherstone 36 Sheffield 6

[RBKnight]

9 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Without knowing what sort of team the stronger club fielded, the following results from Sunday seem promising -

Barrow 18 Wigan 20

London 6 Warrington 24

Featherstone 36 Sheffield 6

Good post - I was going to put something similar. The Wigan team seemed to be missing a few names. Leigh had a decent dig too 36-6 against Huddersfield

Cardiff put 58 unanswered points past Salford.

On the other hand in League 1.....

Fryston Warriors 46 Wakefield Trinity 0

Stanningley 30 Castleford 12

 

 

[The Blues Ox]

13 minutes ago, RBKnight said:

Good post - I was going to put something similar. The Wigan team seemed to be missing a few names. Leigh had a decent dig too 36-6 against Huddersfield

Cardiff put 58 unanswered points past Salford.

On the other hand in League 1.....

Fryston Warriors 46 Wakefield Trinity 0

Stanningley 30 Castleford 12

 

 

Stanningly V Cas is a Championship game and looks like its going to be another long season for Cas.  Wakefield are really going to struggle despite dropping down another division and the other result from League 1 was a repeat of last years grand final between Thatto and Illingworth which ended 16-16 with a last play Thatto try preserving a 2 year unbeaten home record for them. It is looking like all 3 promoted teams from last years league 1 (Fryston(Methley), Thatto, Illingworth) are all going to be in the mix come the end of the season playoffs for a Championship spot.

[RBKnight]

49 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

Stanningly V Cas is a Championship game and looks like its going to be another long season for Cas.  Wakefield are really going to struggle despite dropping down another division and the other result from League 1 was a repeat of last years grand final between Thatto and Illingworth which ended 16-16 with a last play Thatto try preserving a 2 year unbeaten home record for them. It is looking like all 3 promoted teams from last years league 1 (Fryston(Methley), Thatto, Illingworth) are all going to be in the mix come the end of the season playoffs for a Championship spot.

Thanks for the correction re. Stanningley/Cas

[unapologetic pedant]

4 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Stanningly V Cas is a Championship game and looks like its going to be another long season for Cas.  Wakefield are really going to struggle despite dropping down another division and the other result from League 1 was a repeat of last years grand final between Thatto and Illingworth which ended 16-16 with a last play Thatto try preserving a 2 year unbeaten home record for them. It is looking like all 3 promoted teams from last years league 1 (Fryston(Methley), Thatto, Illingworth) are all going to be in the mix come the end of the season playoffs for a Championship spot.

Looking at the downward spiral of Bradford, Castleford and, to a lesser extent in terms of the distance fallen, Wakefield, one curious conclusion to draw is that a club allowing the women's team to regularly play at their home ground does not necessarily connote comprehensive commitment.

Edit: It's occurred to me that perhaps Wakefield, the place, have plummeted to the same degree as the other two. It's before I was paying attention, but wasn't there a team called Wakefield Panthers who were dominant way back when?

Edited March 26 by unapologetic pedant

[unapologetic pedant]

4 hours ago, RBKnight said:

Good post - I was going to put something similar. The Wigan team seemed to be missing a few names. Leigh had a decent dig too 36-6 against Huddersfield

Cardiff put 58 unanswered points past Salford.

I might be applying last year's standard in assuming that was more a good result for Huddersfield.

The margin of victory for Cardiff was a surprise. Could be very interesting if they get a winnable quarter this year.

[The Blues Ox]

4 hours ago, RBKnight said:

Thanks for the correction re. Stanningley/Cas

No worries, I saw a number of sections of the media having a mix up with the Championship and League 1 games this week for some reason.

1 hour ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Looking at the downward spiral of Bradford, Castleford and, to a lesser extent in terms of the distance fallen, Wakefield, one curious conclusion to draw is that a club allowing the women's team to regularly play at their home ground does not necessarily connote comprehensive commitment.

Edit: It's occurred to me that perhaps Wakefield, the place, have plummeted to the same degree as the other two. It's before I was paying attention, but wasn't there a team called Wakefield Panthers who were dominant way back when?

Saw something put out on the WRLA Facebook site the other day mentioning Wakefield Panthers and it looked like they dominated that league for at least 6 or 7 seasons although I have no idea what became of them. A few interesting names on there that took part like Halifax Blue Sox, Cas panthers, Huddersfield Ladies, and SIddal Ladies. It would be interesting to see the make up of the latter team as I have a funny feeling Amy Hardcastle and Shona Hoyle may have been part of it.

Back to the demise of some of these big names its ahrd to put a finger on what has gone wrong although I can't help but look much further than Leeds and Huddersfield simply mopping up all the talent and then when you add York in to that mix it probably leaves a shortage of players that actually want to commit to playing at that level and the community teams around them will be taking some of the players where they can maybe get away with not always having to train to play. Ive said for a while that there are too many clubs and not enough players after everyone tries to jump on the bangwagon and you end up with unatural growth rather than organic growth but my hope is that with junior participation increasing then eventually we see that filter through to open age.

[RigbyLuger]

Heard this mentioned on a podcast, but how can Castleford pull out of the Challenge Cup, but play league games when they would have been playing cup ties?

[HolmeKnight]

2 hours ago, RigbyLuger said:

Heard this mentioned on a podcast, but how can Castleford pull out of the Challenge Cup, but play league games when they would have been playing cup ties?

It was noticeable that they only pulled out of the Challenge Cup after the draw was made. It struck me they didn't fancy playing York and/or Featherstone. I may be being unfair but if they weren't ready why didn't they withdraw earlier so that another club could have taken their place?

They also left WSL1 unbalanced with only 5 clubs two years ago when earlier notice could have allowed a restructure. 

 

[unapologetic pedant]

5 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Saw something put out on the WRLA Facebook site the other day mentioning Wakefield Panthers and it looked like they dominated that league for at least 6 or 7 seasons although I have no idea what became of them. A few interesting names on there that took part like Halifax Blue Sox, Cas panthers, Huddersfield Ladies, and SIddal Ladies. It would be interesting to see the make up of the latter team as I have a funny feeling Amy Hardcastle and Shona Hoyle may have been part of it.

Got vague recollections of a Radio Leeds programme presented by Dave Woods. That would date it around early to mid 90s. Discussion with a few female players. Brenda Dobek was definitely one. So had to be Wakefield. I stressed the place in the previous post because I'm pretty sure Wakefield Panthers had no link with Trinity. David Topliss was also a guest. They weren't best pleased with him. He wasn't convinced women should be playing RL.

 

6 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Back to the demise of some of these big names its ahrd to put a finger on what has gone wrong although I can't help but look much further than Leeds and Huddersfield simply mopping up all the talent and then when you add York in to that mix it probably leaves a shortage of players that actually want to commit to playing at that level and the community teams around them will be taking some of the players where they can maybe get away with not always having to train to play. Ive said for a while that there are too many clubs and not enough players after everyone tries to jump on the bangwagon and you end up with unatural growth rather than organic growth but my hope is that with junior participation increasing then eventually we see that filter through to open age.

Why would an ambitious talented player go to Bradford or Castleford when so many ambitious talented players have left? She wouldn't need to be fully conversant with the minutiae. The salient facts speak volumes.

[unapologetic pedant]

9 minutes ago, HolmeKnight said:

It was noticeable that they only pulled out of the Challenge Cup after the draw was made. It struck me they didn't fancy playing York and/or Featherstone. I may be being unfair but if they weren't ready why didn't they withdraw earlier so that another club could have taken their place?

It's a sensible decision. Similar to a club declining promotion after topping a division. But should have been made before the draw.

Compounds the recent impression of Cas Women as a rudderless ship.

[The Blues Ox]

Nice to see Skybet still offering odds on these games. Had a bit of a punt today:-

Leeds -48 V Warrington
Saints V Huddersfield +40
Wigan -36 V Cardiff
York -68 V Fev

For Leeds its just a case of how many points against Warrington and the ame for York V Fev. I think both look good to cover the handicaps comfortably. Saints V Huddersfield is an interesting one, Hudds with their signings should no longer be getting hammered by the top teams although the Leeds results suggests that may still be the case. I just fancy Hudds to be a lot closer than 40 points to Saints. Wigan are going to win but I think its a hard one to judge by how many but plumped for Wigan to cover the handicap.

 

[RBKnight]

4 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Nice to see Skybet still offering odds on these games. Had a bit of a punt today:-

Leeds -48 V Warrington
Saints V Huddersfield +40
Wigan -36 V Cardiff
York -68 V Fev

For Leeds its just a case of how many points against Warrington and the ame for York V Fev. I think both look good to cover the handicaps comfortably. Saints V Huddersfield is an interesting one, Hudds with their signings should no longer be getting hammered by the top teams although the Leeds results suggests that may still be the case. I just fancy Hudds to be a lot closer than 40 points to Saints. Wigan are going to win but I think its a hard one to judge by how many but plumped for Wigan to cover the handicap.

 

Saints beating the spread already - 48-0 up against Huddersfield on the hour......

[The Blues Ox]

10 minutes ago, RBKnight said:

Saints beating the spread already - 48-0 up against Huddersfield on the hour......

Had far too much faith in Huddersfield.  I'm surprised they are so far off the pace this season, they look further behind than before.

[RBKnight]

17 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

Had far too much faith in Huddersfield.  I'm surprised they are so far off the pace this season, they look further behind than before.

Ended 74-0 - Hudds conceded 54 points in 2nd half 

[RBKnight]

Leeds beat Wire 70-10

[The Blues Ox]

Wigan 44-4. Bloody Huddersfield.