Fri 18th Apr: The Betfred Championship Match Thread

[Mumby Magic]

On 16/04/2025 at 08:40, The Blues Ox said:

Please not by 1.  

With all due respect you've backed yourself to win. After last year's predictions aswell....

 

[JonM]

14 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

That said...5 Warrington players in on DR according to Widnes social media. Only meant to be 4 allowed normally, so presumably one of them's on loan.

Some very threadbare Championship squads this season.

Indeed. 4 of those 5 players have previously been out on loan to League 1 clubs and I think only one of them has played first team for Warrington, and that was some years ago. Widnes have 5 players injured from the Barrow game, by the looks of it. Oldham seem similarly patched up, with several loanees from Wigan to make up the numbers, again not players with recent first team appearances.

[Harry Stottle]

Can Fax keep the unbeaten sequence going I hope so, basically they have come from being also rans not fancied, no money, rookie coach, this is proper rugby and how we get excited with P&R.

[The Phantom Horseman]

17 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Can Fax keep the unbeaten sequence going I hope so, basically they have come from being also rans not fancied, no money, rookie coach, this is proper rugby and how we get excited with P&R.

A lot will surely depend on how injury-free they stay, Eastmond has done a remarkable job so far, but he's been very much helped by having  Douglas and Calcott, who have always looked their best 2 middles when I have seen them, back from injury, and Fax seem to have led almost a charmed life in terms of injuries this year esepecially in comparison to other Championship clubs.

That surely can't last and the test from them will come when the inevitable injuries start to bite, you'd think much will depend on what they get from St Helens as the season goes on. At the moment though they look full value for their league position.

[Simon Hall]

A lot of Championship clubs seem to be relying on loans and DR quite heavily again. Must be confusing for the players when they've played for 4 clubs already this year.

 

[DEANO]

3 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

Can Fax keep the unbeaten sequence going I hope so, basically they have come from being also rans not fancied, no money, rookie coach, this is proper rugby and how we get excited with P&R.

I do fear for fax. They apparently have no money but are paying winning money every week

[Griff]

1 hour ago, Simon Hall said:

A lot of Championship clubs seem to be relying on loans and DR quite heavily again. Must be confusing for the players when they've played for 4 clubs already this year.

 

Heritage numbers are whizzing along.

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, DEANO said:

I do fear for fax. They apparently have no money but are paying winning money every week

I didn't realise we had gone back to winning and losing money Deano, also winning money for an away draw and losing money for a home draw.

Is that correct with Fax?

[DEANO]

18 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

I didn't realise we had gone back to winning and losing money Deano, also winning money for an away draw and losing money for a home draw.

Is that correct with Fax?

Actually I don’t know. Just thought it always has been and still is

[Fevrover]

3 hours ago, DEANO said:

I do fear for fax. They apparently have no money but are paying winning money every week

Sods law that lol.

[JonM]

Barrow v London is being livestreamed, if anyone doesn't have a game to go to tomorrow.

[The Blues Ox]

7 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

Can Fax keep the unbeaten sequence going I hope so, basically they have come from being also rans not fancied, no money, rookie coach, this is proper rugby and how we get excited with P&R.

Lets not get carried away, we are only 6 games in at the moment and still to play Bradford and Toulouse who I still see as the best two teams in the division.

4 hours ago, DEANO said:

I do fear for fax. They apparently have no money but are paying winning money every week

We got rid of some big contracts during and at the end of last season lets not forget and also running with what must be the smallest squad in the league. 

Again we have been lucky with injuries but maybe that makes up for the awful luck that we had last season. I mean if we didn't lose Calcott and Douglas for the season and O'Brien for most of it all in one game before the league season started, we would not have been flirting with relegation despite what happened off the field.

My worry tomorrow is that we have Hansen and Dixon both missing who have both been superb and are both big losses for such a big game and that was my fear at the start of the season, on paper we have a starting 17 who should be in or around the playoffs, there is a lot of quality in our squad that got over looked based on last season, but if we do get injuries then it could be a struggle but for the moment things look a lot rosier than last season.

[Bearman]

47 minutes ago, JonM said:

Barrow v London is being livestreamed, if anyone doesn't have a game to go to tomorrow.

How do I watch it please?

[Yorks Tim]

5 minutes ago, Bearman said:

How do I watch it please?

Barrow YouTube account

Should be on here according to Broncos' Twitter.

Edited April 17 by Yorks Tim
additional text

[DEANO]

14 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Lets not get carried away, we are only 6 games in at the moment and still to play Bradford and Toulouse who I still see as the best two teams in the division.

We got rid of some big contracts during and at the end of last season lets not forget and also running with what must be the smallest squad in the league. 

Again we have been lucky with injuries but maybe that makes up for the awful luck that we had last season. I mean if we didn't lose Calcott and Douglas for the season and O'Brien for most of it all in one game before the league season started, we would not have been flirting with relegation despite what happened off the field.

My worry tomorrow is that we have Hansen and Dixon both missing who have both been superb and are both big losses for such a big game and that was my fear at the start of the season, on paper we have a starting 17 who should be in or around the playoffs, there is a lot of quality in our squad that got over looked based on last season, but if we do get injuries then it could be a struggle but for the moment things look a lot rosier than last season.

Have to say it’s a fabulous start

[kiggy]

15 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Lets not get carried away, we are only 6 games in at the moment and still to play Bradford and Toulouse who I still see as the best two teams in the division.

We got rid of some big contracts during and at the end of last season lets not forget and also running with what must be the smallest squad in the league. 

Again we have been lucky with injuries but maybe that makes up for the awful luck that we had last season. I mean if we didn't lose Calcott and Douglas for the season and O'Brien for most of it all in one game before the league season started, we would not have been flirting with relegation despite what happened off the field.

My worry tomorrow is that we have Hansen and Dixon both missing who have both been superb and are both big losses for such a big game and that was my fear at the start of the season, on paper we have a starting 17 who should be in or around the playoffs, there is a lot of quality in our squad that got over looked based on last season, but if we do get injuries then it could be a struggle but for the moment things look a lot rosier than last season.

Fax winning will set up an interesting match against TO in a couple of weeks. Both small squads with some prominent players missing.

It's one match I'm going to make the effort to go and see this year. We're taking two RL newbies with us, one Dutch his girlfriend Hungarian, so it will be an interesting experience for them!

[Ainley Top]

19 hours ago, Simon Hall said:

A lot of Championship clubs seem to be relying on loans and DR quite heavily again. Must be confusing for the players when they've played for 4 clubs already this year.

 

Correct and the SL clubs will be loving it. 

[Wolford6]

This week, the Bulls have sent  prop Logan Bailey on loan to Batley and and brought in prop Eribe Doro on loan from Hull KR. 

Frankly, Dual Registration stinks.

[Spidey]

18 minutes ago, Wolford6 said:

This week, the Bulls have sent  prop Logan Bailey on loan to Batley and and brought in prop Eribe Doro on loan from Hull KR. 

Frankly, Dual Registration stinks.

Oli Leyland is in both Widnes’ & Warrington’s squads today. It’s a farce and needs tidying up

[DEANO]

13 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Oli Leyland is in both Widnes’ & Warrington’s squads today. It’s a farce and needs tidying up

Always been a farce

[DEANO]

Hunslet winning at Batley after half an hour. 22-10

[Fevrover]

4 hours ago, Ainley Top said:

Correct and the SL clubs will be loving it. 

That's who benefit really.

[JonM]

Sounds like a decent game at Batley - 3 consecutive tries for Batley have put them within sight of winning it. Batley 24 Hunslet 28 after it being 10-28 early in the second half.

Edited April 18 by JonM

[JonM]

20 hours ago, Bearman said:

How do I watch it please?

 

[JonM]

Widnes 0 Oldham 4 HT.

Oldham well on top in the first twenty minutes, with Widnes barely getting out of their own half. Widnes spent quite a lot of time on the Oldham line in the second part of the half, but really don't look like they can create a gap. Probably neither side's attacking fluency helped by the number of players on DR, although Widnes with several ex-Oldham players and Oldham with half a squad full of ex-Widnes players.