BBC SHOULD PUT TANYA CENTRE STAGE
With the World Cup now only six months away, I am deeply concerned about the role the BBC will play with their worldwide coverage of the event.
I have nothing but praise for BBC North and the Super League Show. Although it is restricted to a mere 40 minutes late on Monday nights, it is hosted by the superb Ms Tanya Arnold with her encyclopaedic knowledge of the game. The programme incorporates highlights of matches, interviews with players and coaches and an analysis of current issues that are of interest to the Rugby League community.
Then come the games that the BBC is allowed to show in full – Challenge Cup ties and internationals. And what does the BBC do? They show Ms Arnold the yellow card, send her to the side-lines and replace her with a soccer reporter, who’s lack of understanding of the sport is soon obvious to both viewers and studio pundits alike. At which point the pundits quickly turn the broadcast into a discussion between themselves, which the presenter cannot control.
The result is chaos with little analysis…a throwback to the days of Eddie ‘Up and Under’ Waring.
Adding to this shambles, the BBC turns to a former player who does an impromptu impression of Darcy Bussell in the middle of the field, which seems designed to irritate the players during the pre-match warm up. It certainly does not add to the dignity of the occasion.
As the world will be watching BBC coverage of the World Cup, I am fearful that this type of BBC presentation will do the sport no good at all. A far more professional approach is needed.
The answer is simple. Move Ms Arnold to centre stage to enhance the credibility of the BBC and of Rugby League in general.
Jack Miller, Golborne, Warrington
RHINOS TOO IMPORTANT TO BE RELEGATED?
Regarding Martyn Sadler’s article ‘Could Leeds really be relegated?’ (League Express, 28 March), if the Rhinos were to finish in position 12 at the end of the regular season an issued statement from the Rugby Football League would say ‘due to the continued expansion of Super League for season 2023 the division will have 13 teams – there will be the promotion of a team from the Championship, but no relegation from Super League.’
This will follow a ‘secret’ meeting of the RFL, Super League Europe and the new Joint Venture Company at which it will be agreed that the promotion of Rugby League will be seriously short of obtaining the desired input of existing and new revenue without Leeds Rhinos being in Super League.
The key fact is that Leeds Rhinos at Headingley are the prime team in Rugby League, whether they finish first or twelfth in Super League.
John Walton, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex
WESTERMAN HAS FOUND HIS TRUE ROLE
I see all the pundits and commentators are raving about Joe Westerman and rightly so.
What I don’t understand is why it has taken nearly 14 seasons for Super League coaches to realise that to get the best out of Westie, he needs the ball in his hands dictating play.
I have watched Joe since he was eight years old with Castleford Panthers, Lock Lane and one year with Featherstone Lions, which was the best under-16s team I have ever seen.
When Joe was 14, I said he would be as good as Paul Sculthorpe. He was the best junior player I had seen since Shaun Irwin and to this day I haven’t seen any junior anywhere near his ability.
He signed for Castleford from the Lions along with Liam Watts, Richard Owen and Jamie Cording, making his debut under Terry Matterson, who for some reason thought he would make a wide running backrower, not the ball playing number 13 they had signed.
He played well for Castleford but was not playing the game he wanted to play.
When Richard Agar took him to Hull FC, I thought Agar had seen him as a junior so would allow Joe to play that role, but he was pushed out wide again.
His big move to Warrington, in my opinion, was a waste of time as he played the modern role of a 13, which is as a third prop. All he seemed to do was tackle and take the ball up, which was a total waste. A couple of bad injuries and a stupid move to Toronto, followed by a short stay back at Hull FC, did nothing for his career.
Eventually he went to Wakefield and Chris Chester, who seemed to let him have a free role and play what was in front of him. That resulted in him being their best player last season and now under Lee Radford he is calling the shots and has been Castleford’s best player so far this season, looking like the player I watched as a junior.
Westie is the perfect example of natural ability being coached out of kids to play the robotic and at times boring and predictable game we have today.
I know the game is totally different today and players are fitter and stronger, but the likes of Knocker Norton and Paul Sculthorpe and many more great loose forwards ARE sorely missed in the modern game full.
That is why it’s great to see Westerman playing as a 13 should play, not just as a battering ram.
Steve Watts, Airedale
NEVER THE SAME AGAIN
With reference to the World Cup in October and November, how much influence are the England officials and disciplinary committee going to have on the tournament, because the clampdown on players over the past six weeks, to prevent them getting seriously injured, has now achieved making the game a non-contact sport, with players now not allowed to be aggressive in contact?
I wonder how many players from different clubs may be suspended from the World Cup?
Rugby League is known as a contact sport, but if the new rules apply, the game may never be the same again.
John Barker, Mirfield
YOUTHFUL REFS
Who calls the tune? Interesting comments regarding the ready use of the yellow card by sight-impaired referees, both on and off field, have been predictable for any supporter. Watching the Aussie game plus a wider choice of UK games, as we can these days, makes me wonder just what ‘laws’ will apply during the World Cup?
Both games treat the ‘tackle and play the ball’ sequence so differently that I can see potentially explosive and interesting games reduced to a refereeing farce, which would be a pity.
Surely now, well in advance, is the time to share views and look again at what the laws of the game actually say and revert to those principles in both hemispheres. Whilst initially being doubtful about the ‘Captain’s Challenge’ down under, its results seem to regularly reveal wrong calls.
Still on refereeing, it is interesting that the Rugby Union games on TV always seem to employ referees who act a bit like martinet teachers (they often are!), whilst our game, for league games at least, employs lads who hardly look old enough to be in the sixth form!
Glyn Smith, Runcorn
GIVE OUR PLAYERS A CHANCE
I have had few letters published in Mailbag concerning the problem of importing players, and have just read a letter from Bryan Smith on the same subject; more specifically, at his own club, Leeds.
Bryan asks why clubs invest in bringing unproven players to our shores who, not knowing that the climate can be harsh may get homesick and basically `cannot’ hack it.
It is even worse in the Championship where there is no limit on overseas players, as can be seen by the playing roster at Leigh.
Imports may have won Grand Finals, Origins and whatever, at home, but I have been many times to Australia and that country is a’ million miles’ from GB in many more ways than just distance, culture and weather ways.
Yet these (so called) ‘Super Stars’ are taking up places that could (and should) be filled by the cream of our own, up-and-coming lads who, if not given a chance, could be lost to the game. And who could blame them?
Ian Haskey, Castleford
OFFICIALLY WRONG
In last week’s League Express, Doug Thomson wrote that the Wigan v Manly game in 1987 was the first official World Club Challenge game.
In fact, the first official World Club Challenge game was Widnes v Canberra at Old Trafford in 1989. That game is officially recognised and sanctioned as such by both the RFL and the Australian Rugby League.
The Wigan v Manly game was not officially sanctioned or recognised, certainly not by Australian Rugby League. It was effectively just a game organised by the two clubs.
So the Wigan v Manly game was the second unofficial World Club Challenge game; the first having taken place in Australia between the then ‘Eastern Suburbs’ (now Sydney Roosters) and St Helens.
Joseph Hamell, Widnes
RULE CHANGE NEEDED
Two games this season have interested me, but for the wrong reason.
They were Swinton’s Challenge Cup defeat of West Wales Raiders by 96 points to nil and the women’s game between Barrow and St Helens, when the first time Barrow had hold of the ball was after nine minutes and after the Saints had scored twice.
The rule in our game that the team that has scored a try almost inevitably restarts the game with possession is wrong.
If Barrow were playing St Helens Town at soccer and had scored first, then the game would be restarted by Town having possession on the half-way line. It is a rule that we should adopt to help reduce one sided affairs.
Geoff Lee, Grange over Sands
