“A ROSE by any other name would smell as sweet.”
For whatever reason (well, okay then, I know very well what the reason was) one of William Shakespeare’s many famous quotations kept popping into my head late last week.
I spent a fair bit of time on Friday trying to establish exactly what the competition we once described as the Southern Conference is properly called these days, now that we are in the new era following the advent of the National Community Rugby League.
I touched on this in last week’s Talking Grassroots, when I stated that Lionel Hurst of Bristol All Golds had stressed that the competition is now known as National Conference Southern.
It’s since turned out that Hurst, although not very far off by any means, was also not quite on the button.
I’m possibly being pedantic but I believe it’s important that competitions are given their exact title and, with that in mind, I was obliged to email three different people late on Friday afternoon asking for a definitive answer after I’d been given three different responses.
Alongside Hurst’s National Conference Southern, another – in line with what is sent to me and others by the GameDay agency – was Southern Conference. And a third, from the person who perhaps has the final say, was National Conference South.
That’s very similar to Hurst’s belief and, given the source, it’s the one I’m going with.
In fact League Express will, from now on, be terming the NCRL’s competitions National Premier, National Division One, National Conference Cumbria, National Conference North West, National Conference South, National Conference Yorkshire A and National Conference Yorkshire B.
Phew, there are some mouthfuls there, don’t you think? One of Shakespeare’s many great plays ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ (appropriately a comedy) is now at the front of my mind.
Some observers may well be pondering on how successful the brave new world in the men’s amateur open-age game will actually be given that organisers have struggled to agree on such a simple thing as the name of a competition, although perhaps I’m being unfair.
It doesn’t augur too well, though, while there was also some chaos last week when GameDay didn’t include the Sunday game (in the National Conference South – I’m getting some practice in there) between Bristol All Golds and Bedford Tigers in its fixture release.
I’m given to understand that if clubs rearrange dates between themselves, central administrators may be unaware of any changes.
It all seems to be dangerously haphazard. Hopefully such teething problems (if that’s what they are) in the new structure will be rectified sooner rather than later.
In among the early-season problems facing the National Conference South it does seem, as I touched on last week, that one or two teams may be struggling to fulfil fixtures. Here’s hoping any such clubs will quickly find their feet.
And the same certainly applied in the National Division One on Saturday when Wigan St Patricks of all clubs were unable to raise a team to travel to Dewsbury Moor Maroons (a situation that corroborated my reflection in last week’s issue, in the light of a couple of heavy defeats after a winning start to the campaign, that Pats could be ‘in freefall’).
A few other sides seem to be regularly short-numbered, according to the teamsheets I see. Let’s hope that the men’s amateur game itself isn’t in freefall, although in fairness, concerns along those lines are the rationale behind the launch of the National Community Rugby League.
The various National and Conference Leagues are, as it happens, all taking a break this weekend (at least I think they are, but I’m getting used to being surprised these days), the official reason being that room has been found for the BARLA National Cup, which is certainly a very welcome change from previous years. It may have more to do, though, with it being a Bank Holiday, who knows?
It’s unfortunate that of the six scheduled preliminary-round games, one won’t be taking place.
The potentially titanic clash between Hunslet ARLFC and Wath Brow Hornets has been cancelled, with the former being awarded a walkover win, following the Cumbrians’ withdrawal.
Hornets have pulled out because (more confusion) their understanding, contrary to what the RFL tell me, was that the May Bank Holiday was a free weekend and was therefore selected by their club captain as the date for his stag do – Wath Brow’s stance is that the National Cup was subsequently slotted in for this Saturday.
It’s certainly a shame that a side who have featured in previous BARLA finals (who can forget the sight of so many Elvises in Blackpool) have backed out.
Hopefully there won’t be any more. The National Cup is a very important competition and it’s heartening that five (it could have been six) former finalists are involved this weekend.
Closer to that, the President’s Cup starts on Wednesday when the holders, England Universities, take on Great Britain Teachers at Lock Lane, Castleford. The match kicks off at 7.00 and I recommend that grassroots fans attend.
Although the Students won all their matches last year, they didn’t have things all their own way – far from it – and my memory is that the Teachers were ill-served by the ten-point losing margin, at the same venue, twelve months ago.
The Scotland League’s 2026 season, meanwhile, is due to kick off on Saturday with, as I revealed last week, six sides.
Unfortunately, despite a lot of chasing, I hadn’t been presented with opening fixtures at the time of going to press. I hope, though, to be able to report on three matches in next Monday’s issue.
Finally, last Wednesday’s Welsh Varsity Match between Cardiff and Swansea sounded like a memorable affair, not least for the inclusion by Swansea of a Thai player, Chachchayathorn Jampadang.
I hope Chachchayathorn (also known as ‘Mai’) enjoyed the experience.