CONGRATULATIONS to West Hull.
The Green and Golds have, with Saturday’s victory at Wigan St Judes, sealed pole position in the inaugural season of the National League and will therefore have the League Leaders’ Shield in their care for the next year.
My hope now – as I wrote many, many times when the now-defunct National Conference League, which has been replaced (somewhat controversially it’s safe to say) by the National League in the Rugby Football League’s National Community Rugby League restructuring initiative reached the same stage – is that West Hull work their way through the forthcoming play-offs and lift the Championship Cup itself.
The reason I state that – and with absolutely no disrespect whatsoever to any of Hunslet ARLFC, Siddal, Waterhead Warriors, Thatto Heath Crusaders and Wath Brow Hornets, all of whom will also be involved in the play-offs – is that Wests, like all the rest, have played every other team in the section once at home and once away and have accumulated more points than anyone else.
There are no loop fixtures and they have therefore proved themselves, without question, to have been the best side in the competition during the entire 2026 campaign.
The survivors of the play-offs should (as was the case with the RFL’s Premiership finals which, back in the 1980s, closed with wonderful double-headers at Old Trafford) be hailed as winners of, yes, an important competition. But definitely not as champions.
That was a criticism I made annually of the National Conference League management. Indeed I’m sure I’ve written in favour, in the past, of most of this year’s play-off hopefuls in exactly the same way as I’m now publicly backing West Hull, and for the same reason. The sides had topped the table in the year in question and shouldn’t have had to go through the rigmarole of play-offs to ratify their status as top dogs.
I’m mystified as to why the RFL didn’t take the opportunity, when introducing their new format against much opposition, to correct an obvious wrong and simply laud the National League’s leaders as champions.
Sadly, though, that wasn’t the case, which is why I’ve been obliged to yet again repeat my theme of old.
Meanwhile, one of the most attractive competitions in the grassroots Rugby League calendar is getting going within days.
It’s the Military Services Cup and the 2026 affair will launch in Portsmouth, where the Royal Navy will entertain the Royal Air Force.
The Navy are the holders, having topped last year’s table on points difference from the RAF and the Army.
It couldn’t have been closer, with each side having won one game, and I expect this season’s affair to be similarly tight.
The RAF, in fact, edged the Royal Navy 18-16 in 2025, while the Navy toppled the Army 20-12 and the Army had the better of the RAF.
The action this Friday will be preceded by two enticing games, with the Navy and RAF Academy teams setting an early agenda and the Women’s sides due to battle it out for the Julia Lee Trophy.
Can any prize be more prestigious, given Lee’s wonderful contributions, over so many decades, to our sport?
Meanwhile, the men’s teams will be battling for the ‘Dog Watch’ Trophy. Navy Rugby League veteran Keith Humpleby explains: “The trophy is named after the time between 4pm and 6pm, and 6pm to 8pm, known in the Royal Navy shift pattern as the ‘dog watches’, which is traditionally when ships would conduct PT or sports.”
Fascinating stuff – I’ll be tracking the Military Services competitions throughout the early autumn.
Further north, amateur Rugby League fans could do a lot worse than pop along to Stanningley on Saturday afternoon.
The west Leeds outfit are at home to East Leeds in what is sure to be a keenly-fought National League Division One derby and that game, which will kick off at 2.30pm, will be followed by a match between a Stanningley Legends side and the Silverbacks Legends, at 4.00pm. An entertaining day is very much guaranteed.
What isn’t quite guaranteed, it seems, is action in the Cross-Conference Play-Offs and Shield fixtures.
The idea of the play-offs is to enable teams to gain elevation to National League One. I know for a fact that not all clubs that are in the frame actually want to achieve that, although all of Saturday’s group games seem to have gone ahead.
Not so, it appears, matches in the Shield competition, which I understand has been launched for sides who finished in the lower regions of the various regional Conferences.
An issue, methinks, that will be discussed when the RFL and member clubs conduct a review at the end of the inaugural season.
Finally, congratulations to Ireland Wolfhounds, who completed a double over Scotland Bravehearts with a victory in Dublin on Saturday.
Both matches were keenly fought, which augurs well for the grassroots game in both countries.
Ireland coach Sean Cody has firm plans for the future of the domestic game in the Emerald Isles. I hope his proposals are noted by those in the corridors of power.