A HECTIC few weeks of international Rugby League activity reaches an exciting conclusion on Saturday with action in Scotland and Wales.

The Four Nations competitions at Student and Under 16 levels are coming to a head while, for good measure, there’s an Under 17 friendly between Wales and England.

That last match is being played at The Gnoll, Neath, between the closing Under 16 and Student matches involving the same two nations.

It will be a heady atmosphere, for sure. Organisers couldn’t have been entirely sure of this (although I suspect that they’ll have had a good idea) but there will be silverware lifted at the end of the first and last of the three games.

The Under 16 match, at 11.00am, is being played for the title and Wales will be seeking to continue their recent ascendancy.

That’s followed at 2.30pm by what should be an enthralling affair – there’s no such thing as a friendly between Wales and England, after all – at Under 17s.

And the day reaches a climax when, at 6.00pm, the legendary Clive Griffiths takes charge of a Wales team for the 75th and final time when his charges meet England in the last fixture of the 2026 Student Four Nations. 

Whoever wins will secure the championship. It’s as simple as that. A draw, though, will mean that England will head the final standings through their superior points difference (a position which also pertains in the Under 16 Four Nations). 

Meanwhile, at Hawick (I had to blink when typing that – there’s no way, I imagine, that Rugby League games could once have been played at that citadel of rugby union) Scotland and Ireland will be seeking to avoid the wooden spoon in both competitions.

The Under 16s kick off at 12.30pm, and the Students at 2.30pm (there’s no third match at Hawick) and although I doubt that anyone will have an actual spoon to present, neither team will want to finish at the foot of the pile. 

That, though, will be the fate of the loser, in each instance. And what if either match finishes all-square? Well, Scotland have the better points difference in the Student league, while Ireland have the upper hand, in that regard, at Under 16.

Tension will be palpable at Neath and Hawick, I’m sure, and I’m also certain that Scotland will be delighted to have no fewer than half-a-dozen Scottish-based lads in their squad, which certainly augurs well for the future.

Meanwhile, I’ve no doubt that many Rugby League fans will enjoy soccer’s World Cup.

One thing I envy about soccer’s bash is that the various groups tend to be much more evenly-contested than do ours, in fact I’m looking forward to one or two outsiders making an impact. 

A relevant factor is that in association football a team well on top is faced with a compressed defence (it’s only possible to score through a fairly narrow gap, after all) while in rugby the entire width of the pitch can be targeted. 

For that reason, so called ‘lesser’ teams have a better chance of making decent progress in the round-ball code than in League (or in union for that matter). I’ve no idea what can be done about that, though.

If anyone could come up with a solution I suspect it would be Alan Parker, a man who has done so much over very many years for amateur, and professional, Rugby League.

Parker was named in Saturday’s King’s Honours List as the forthcoming recipient of a British Empire Medal, for services to Rugby League.

He told me, on Saturday, that it’s 68 years since he refereed his first match. And he also mentioned that, this evening, he will be attending a match officials’ meeting in his native Hull.

That’s quite a record, and Alan is still doing so much for the sport he lives. Rarely, if ever, can an honour have been more deserved. Congratulations mate!

Finally, the decision to treat the National League Division One fixture between Leigh Miners Rangers and Oulton Raiders in early August as a four-pointer is an interesting one.

To be fair, that was the wish of both camps when their match in Leeds nine days ago was abandoned because of leg trouble sustained by whistler Peter Smith.

Nevertheless, I really do doubt that if the competition still operated under the auspices of the National Conference League such a decision would have been arrived at.

The NCL, always very conscious of the integrity of its competitions, would (I’m very sure, although I can’t prove it) have insisted on the game taking place again at Oulton.

Perhaps I’m arriving at a wrong conclusion, but the ruling chimes with my long-standing concerns over the Community Board, which oversees all grassroots Rugby League in England.

I have for many years, rightly or wrongly, pondered on the intentions of the board which, to my mind, was set up in the first place largely, or at least partly, to undermine the British Amateur Rugby League Association. 

I know that I might be shot down in flames for making that comment, but I reckon I’m far from alone in having that belief. 

An aspect of the Community Board is that its findings and decisions regarding grassroots Rugby League have, all too often, appeared to have been shrouded in secrecy, or have been murky at best.

Again, I’m very aware that a number of folk will be eager to send me plummeting to earth, with smoke billowing behind me, and I might well struggle to offer a defence. 

That defence though would centre, at least initially, on the fact that information regarding the machinations of the Community Board takes some digging out.

Minutes are issued from each meeting, I’m reliably informed, but they certainly don’t get forwarded to folk like me (which you’d think would happen as a matter of course and therefore begs the question ‘why not?’).

And it also seems to be the case that a number of people who have actually served on the Community Board seemed to have been caught by surprise by the moves, for example, to restructure/dismantle (take your own pick over the choice of words) the National Conference League late last year, while considerations regarding the future of BARLA’s National and County Cups (at open-age and/or youth levels) also seemed to have gone over people’s heads. 

It’s all very odd and makes me wish I could consult Winston Smith on the issue.