CONGRATULATIONS to England on retaining the Student Rugby League’s Four Nations Trophy.
Head coach Adam Houston’s side have added the prestigious silverware to the President’s Cup (just as they did last year) having beaten Ireland, Scotland and Wales in the Four Nations, and Great Britain Teachers and UK Armed Forces in the earlier event.
Both competitions have – again – been won with 100 percent records, which is quite remarkable given (as I recently remarked) the high turnover of players in the student game.
Last week’s success was notable, in my view anyway, for having been achieved, to all intents and purposes, regardless of how things went on Saturday, when Scotland were the final obstacle.
England backed up their opening win (a hard-earned 40-18 verdict over 13-man Ireland) with what I felt was a surprisingly comfortable 42-0 triumph over Wales, who I expected to mount a strong challenge for the title under the returning (and legendary) coach Clive Griffiths.
Wales were the only team without a full international in their side. Incidentally, Griffiths celebrated his 71st birthday by steering his side to a 32-0 victory against Ireland on Saturday in what, by amazing coincidence, was his 71st outing as an international coach. You couldn’t make it up.
Nor could you have made up what was required to prevent England from topping the final table.
By my calculations, Scotland would have had to prevail by at least 36 points to head the standings at the Sassenachs’ expense.
That was never likely, not in anyone’s wildest dreams, and the mathematics required for Wales to top the table were, frankly, beyond me given the many possible permutations. Perhaps the sage David Butler, England’s indefatigable and long-serving manager, summed it up perfectly when he told me, in the build-up: “I think the simple way of looking at it is that if England draw or win, they are champions and any other result in that game could lead to the calculator coming out.”
Exactly. You can overcomplicate things (I can anyway).
Although the Student Four Nations wasn’t perhaps as closely fought as some of us would have liked, it created some special memories.
Those included one for Scotland, who were in with at least a theoretical shout on the last day, and also for Ireland, who had only 13 players against England but really impressed, 14 against Scotland, and 13 versus Wales, always making light of being short-numbered, although they fielded 22 men in total during the event.
A reason for them having fewer players than they’d like, by the way, could be the cost for each lad to participate. It’s not cheap, but those who turned out in the green deserve high praise.
Shortage of numbers brings me to a cancelled game that occupied a fair amount of my time over the last week.
It was disappointing to learn that Wath Brow Hornets (of all clubs) had been unable to raise a team for the E Lamb & Son Cumberland Amateur Cup Final against Maryport ten days ago.
There are different versions of when exactly, and how, Hornets told Cumberland League officials that they wouldn’t be showing up at the Distington decider. It certainly seems to have been during the afternoon though (the fixture was scheduled for the Friday evening), and one reason I’m reflecting on the episode is, partly, to illustrate for readers beyond Cumbria how the Amateur Cup is different to any other competition I know of, possibly unique in fact.
Many readers might assume that this was a case of Wath Brow’s second team conceding. It wasn’t – not quite, anyway. What distinguishes the Cumberland Amateur Cup from anything else is that only players who have never been professional, in any sense, can turn out. So, in theory at least, a ‘proper’ first team could play, even if that option would be unlikely.
It’s an intriguing notion and one I tried several times to introduce at the Castleford & Featherstone League (without success) when I was chairman, purely because it absolutely isn’t a ‘second-team’ competition.
Maybe the fact that pretty much the only professional clubs most lads in West Cumbria could reasonably join are Whitehaven and Workington (and, to a degree, Barrow) makes it easier for clubs to monitor.
That was, I think, our main stumbling block at Castleford & Featherstone, where there are so many Championship and League One clubs on the doorstep.
Another possible factor in Hornets having to concede is that, as I’m given to understand, a few players were ineligible as they hadn’t played enough games to qualify for a semi-final or final.
Whether that was actually the case I don’t know, although my understanding is that part of the problem could be that the Cumberland League have, in terms of their rules, been obliged to emulate the RFL-run North West Men’s League.
I would personally prefer Cumberland to step back from being run, even loosely, by the RFL, although in this regard I vividly recall my old club Methley being hit by the same regulation, nearly two decades ago, and that was in the old CMS Yorkshire League.
Much the same can be said of the winter-based Women’s Amateur League, which seems to be coming under the kind of pressure previously endured by several men’s competitions by the RFL’s expansionary instincts (if I can put it that way).
The WARL hope to be up and running again in 2025-26 and so do the Barrow League (in 2026 anyway as it’s a summer competition these days).
This Wednesday it’s the last round of league fixtures which is another indication, I think, of how things are in the far north-west (and elsewhere, to be blunt).
Meanwhile, the Youth Four Nations reaches a climax on Saturday, at Halton Farnworth and in Dublin.
England and Wales are vying for the Under 18 and Under 16 titles at Halton, so it will be well worth getting along to that double-header (or for the games in Dublin for that matter).
Finally, the RAF TriSeries will soon be up and flying (sorry). Australia and New Zealand will meet at Wests Warriors’ base at Wasps RUFC on Sunday, and I’ll be reporting on this keenly-awaited series in forthcoming issues of League Express. It should be a cracker.