A CONTINUING feature of summer rugby is that there are several pockets throughout the season when very little happens.
Clubs, players, coaches and administrators are regularly given the weekend off, at Bank Holidays especially.
Easter is a case – the first case each year in fact – in point.
The National Leagues and Regional Conferences had a break on Saturday, as did the Regional Leagues.
Happily that great occasion, the Oldham and District League’s Standard Cup final, took place on its traditional Good Friday slot and I’m delighted – thanks to Waterhead Warriors’ Simon Holland – to be able to provide full reports on the two matches (between Saddleworth Rangers and Waterhead in each instance).
Waterhead won both – the Standard Cup final by a comfortable margin and the Oldham Cup decider, which was between the clubs’ second teams, more narrowly.
I wonder whether the fact that Saddleworth opted to play only 16 men in the major game, but 17 in the secondary match, was a factor in that.
If so, it was an understandable ploy. Waterhead’s first team are much higher than are Saddleworth in the NCRL hierarchy and Saddleworth’s approach (if it was that) almost paid off in the Oldham Cup clash.
The Barrow and District League’s prestigious Barton Townley Cup also continued, and there was a result in the Cumbria Cup (I think so, anyway, I still get nothing directly from the RFL on games in Barrow and West Cumbria).
But otherwise there was just one Entry League match in the North West Men’s League, and a friendly in the Yorkshire Men’s League.
It’s so very different to what people like me were once used to. All teams, back in the day, played at Easter and Whitsuntide, and also on the May Day Bank Holiday, simply as a matter of course.
There was, for me anyway, an indication of changing attitudes around 15 years ago, when the captain of my club rang me to check whether we were in fact scheduled to play that Easter.
He was clearly surprised when I said “of course”, in fact I think he’d booked a holiday although being a great bloke he was there, leading from the front, when the match took place.
At least everyone knows where they are these days.
Meanwhile, will the 2026 season prove to be perhaps the most important in the history of the Southern Conference League?
It probably will.
The campaign, which launches this Saturday (to less than a fanfare from the Rugby Football League, it has to be said, at this stage anyway) is one which offers a great deal for the eventual champions, in fact more than ever before.
Whoever tops the table will head into the Cross-Conference play-offs with a place in the National League Division One potentially at stake.
My understanding is that if a qualifying side doesn’t meet the criteria needed (similar to that required for many years by the National League’s predecessor, the National Conference League, we’ve been told), they will be given every assistance by the Rugby Football League in hitting those minimum standards.
The proof of the pudding could be in the eating. The reality is that a number of Southern Conference League teams, with Hammersmith Hills Hoists and Wests Warriors springing to mind, are quite capable of beating any sides in the English amateur game.
What presumably led to them never applying to join the NCL in years gone by is the fact that they couldn’t meet the minimum standards criteria required, in particular the requirement that a strong youth and junior structure be in place.
Everything seems to be a tad vague right now (indeed there’s a rumour going the rounds that the National Leagues could be reduced from two divisions to a single section) but if the new pyramid blueprint means anything, it is that teams can rise to the very top through on-field achievements.
The veracity of that philosophy may well be established in the autumn.
I, and many others I’m sure, will therefore be paying extra attention to how the 2026 SCL season progresses.
Both Wests and Hammersmith are at home on Saturday and both will be targeting victory, with the Warriors entertaining ambitious Bristol All Golds and the Hoists hosting the long-established London Chargers. The visitors, in each case, will also of course harbour hopes of the title.
It’s invigorating to be able to talk about the football itself, because disgruntled chunterings continue on other issues.
Pete Tyson, for example, asked during the week what’s happened regarding the many league sponsors who seem to have been sidelined following the annexation of the grassroots through the RFL’s National Community Rugby League initiative.
At the time of going to press, the RFL hadn’t replied to my query.
There are also rumblings about the number of volunteers who have walked away from the sport through the impact of the NCRL. Certainly many good and able folk seem to have been lost as the shock waves continue to reverberate.
Back to the rugby though, and it was so pleasing to hear of the exploits – which will I’m sure provide lifelong memories – of the York and District Under 16s in Spain. Trips of this nature should be given every encouragement.
A clarification, meanwhile (if it’s actually needed) to a comment I made in last week’s column regarding the fact that, on dissolving itself in January, the National Conference League chose not to pass any funds to the RFL.
That was, indeed, the case. I understand that any monies were (or will be, when everything is sorted) passed back to member clubs, and to the charity Rugby League Cares.
Finally, today (Monday, April 6) is a special day for Trevor Hunt.
Trev has served Rugby League very well in a host of capacities (not least with the National Conference League) and it’s 40 years today since he first commented on a Rugby League game – Warrington versus Dewsbury – for BBC Radio Manchester.
How quickly the years can pass!