THE 2025 Wheelchair Celtic Cup, which is taking place in Cardiff on Saturday when hosts Wales will entertain Ireland and Scotland in what promises to be an entertaining tri-series, has been making positive headlines before it has started.
History will be made, because two people, both former Wheelchair internationals, will be refereeing a Wheelchair international match from a wheelchair, something no one has done before.
As a firm believer in the adage that those who have experienced playing the game can bring extra understanding to the role (which is not to say that folk who haven’t ever run a ball in or made a tackle cannot become top officials), it’s good to see.
I’m sure Adam Rigby and Harry Jones will do very well – not just this weekend, but well beyond – while it’s also gratifying that Brogan Evans will break new ground by adding a Wales Wheelchair cap to her Women’s cap.
These are great developments, perhaps made possible by the fact that giants England are naturally not included in the Celtic Cup, which helps further pave the way for exceptional achievements by the Irish, Scottish and Welsh.
There’s plenty going on at the moment, in fact, at representative level, not least in the President’s Cup, which will reach a thrilling climax in mid-June when holders England Universities meet UK Armed Forces in Hull (exactly where has yet to be divulged – I hadn’t known, until after last Wednesday’s game between UKAF and Great Britain Teachers, that London was no longer the venue for the last game of the competition).
At least that’s a fairly minor matter, given that it’s a month until the fixture. It was hardly minor, though, when the Teachers and the Forces turned up five days ago at Orrell St James expecting different kick-off times, so I understand.
It seems no one from the Rugby Football League was present (why, I have to ask?) to sort out a bit of a wrangle, the match officials and UKAF believing that the game was to start at 7.00pm, while the Teachers expected 8.00pm.
That confusion doesn’t augur well regarding whether an answer will be forthcoming to a question I immediately raised on hearing that the Forces had won 22-12.
Given that the clearly competitive Teachers had lost by the same ten-point margin when they played the Students two or three weeks earlier, someone needs to clarify who will top the final table if England Universities and UK Armed Forces draw the closing match, as in that event they will be level on both points and points difference.
I’m fairly certain that in such a circumstance the team who have scored the most points on the field of play take the higher spot. But the decision is not, of course, mine to make, even if I’ve written my match report that way in the absence, to date, of any feedback. I’m sure the answer will be forthcoming before kick-off, on Wednesday, June 11. My hard-learned personal experience is that it’s much better to settle such issues beforehand, rather than debate them afterwards.
As far as I’m aware, there were no issues with the pitch at Orrell but, given the growing number of weeks with little or no rain, we could be hitting a spell in which the fitness or otherwise of pitches becomes a major question.
Orrell’s not far from Wigan, of course, and the following day, St Pats announced that their ground was “like concrete” and called off their National Conference League Division One fixture with promotion chasers Heworth.
I suspect Saints, who will have been keen to ‘get back on the bike’ after the previous week’s slugging at Stanningley, were mortified to postpone, but more call-offs could well follow if forecasts of more hot weather are correct, although not perhaps this Saturday when, in this bizarre era when Bank Holiday weekends almost wipe out the NCL programme, only one fixture is scheduled.
Meanwhile I was pleased to hear from the RFL that, following their strong warning that the abuse of referees at all levels, including youth and junior, has to stop, “clubs have taken on board the messaging from last week. Unfortunately, there were a couple of incidents over the weekend. However the clubs involved responded positively and had already addressed the issues before we made contact”.
It’s gratifying that clubs themselves appear to be determined to take the necessary action. Hopefully the promising early response to our governing body’s entirely justified initiative will be maintained, although it has to be said that more pressure seems to be consequently being placed on volunteers.
I received the following, indirectly, from a very long-serving grassroots stalwart late last week: “This was a post on the community-game forum: ‘As a club volunteer you are required to register every year if you have one or more of the following roles: chairperson, club welfare officer, secretary club/youth, fixture secretary, team manager, Game Day manager, first aider, web and social-media officer, treasurer, groundsman, Covid-19 officer’.”
The correspondent, who has decades of service behind him, reflected: “Just about every one of these roles was covered without the paperwork that now goes with it. To be honest, why would you need to register a groundsman. And I’ve just registered as the Covid-19 officer. Why do they need to know my gender, sexuality, religion and age?
“Then there are all the age groups – two coaches, first aider, touchline marshal, treasurer.”
I can see, very easily, where this particular veteran is coming from. However, the RFL have to deal with the world as it is in the present day, and they would certainly be open to criticism if they failed to insist on such a lengthy list of checks being made.
These are very different days to when my correspondent first came into Rugby League, which was probably about the same time as I did.
For some reason his email evoked my memory of catching the public bus from the centre of Leeds, in kit and booted, with the rest of the Market District Under 17 team ahead of playing home games on Soldiers’ Field, Roundhay, and coming back on the same route muddied and bloodied, came to mind. You wouldn’t have that now, would you?
As I say, these are very different days in so many ways. I’ll leave readers to reflect on whether things are better now, or whether they were better in the late 1960s.
Former Super League referee Ben Thaler, who was the guest speaker at a pie and pea supper at Hunslet last Thursday, touched on some of these subjects in his own inimitable style.
I reflected afterwards (and this is a compliment) that Thaler’s speaking style can be likened to the playing style of an accomplished jazz musician – nothing is stilted, he’s always relevant and entertainingly to the point and takes everyone with him to interesting, illuminating and very relevant conclusions.
He was as good as any speaker I’ve ever come across and, without question, better than most. Ben can come back to Hunslet any time he wants, in fact many supporters came close (although not quite) to forgetting about when he famously – and rightly – called off the Boxing Day game with York some two decades ago. That, I think, says everything about the positive impression he made four days ago.
Finally, news came through from Wales RL public relations officer Ian Golden on Saturday that Huw Bennett, who was an assistant coach to the Wales national rugby union side, has joined the staff at Swansea Rams Under 11 Rugby League team.
That’s an astonishing development and I’m sure that the Rams youngsters will only benefit from Bennett’s expertise and experience.
And, on another Welsh-related (sort of) junior matter, Bristol All Golds played Swindon St George at Under 14 level. That’s good, obviously although what’s disconcerting is that the sides are operating in the Wales League, which begs the question as to why there is no English League in place for them. Strange, and one for the RFL perhaps.
