There have been many positive things about the start to the new season, with the arrival of Channel 4 perhaps being the most positive thing to happen so far this season, along with some promising crowd figures at several clubs that seem to be making an effort to promote themselves more effectively.
Channel 4 had an average audience of 468,000 viewers for Saturday’s game between Hull FC and St Helens, which peaked at 615,000, with a 6% audience share.
The thing that particularly pleased Channel 4 executives, however, was that the game was the most watched programme at that time of the day on any channel for 16-34 year olds, which is a key group for potential advertisers.
Given that the game was quite one-sided, compared to the clash between Leeds and Warrington a week earlier, those figures are very positive and they can certainly be built on.
The negative thing about the season so far is our insistence on launching the season in late January and early February, which guarantees that some fixture rounds will be played in appalling weather of the sort we had to contend with on the weekend, which was summed up by the Channel 4 presenter Adam Hills risking hypothermia and witnessing his first ever game played in snow on Saturday.
This season the Betfred League 1 competition kicks off on the same weekend that the clocks go forward for British Summer Time and I can’t understand why the whole game doesn’t follow that example.
The other negative so far is the disappointing entry to Super League of Toulouse Olympique.
As someone who has long championed the cause of French Rugby League, I was deeply disappointed to see their surrender to the Huddersfield Giants in round one. And although they appear to have improved slightly in defeat to Salford on Sunday, they look destined for a long, hard season unless they can get some new recruits of a decent standard in the very near future.
We feared the worst with their modest recruitment for the new season and unfortunately our worst fears are being realised.
They clearly need to shore up their team at halfback and in the forwards. But who is available at short notice to fulfil those roles?
Well, I’m not Toulouse’s recruitment adviser, but if I were I would focus on several players who it may be possible to sign at short notice.
To start with, I’d look towards former Wakefield Trinity fullback or halfback Ryan Hampshire, who left that club at the end of last season and doesn’t have a new contract with any other club, as far as I’m aware.
Rocky Hampshire is just the sort of experienced utility player who Toulouse’s current side could benefit from.
I would also look towards the NRL and in particular at the New Zealand Warriors, who seem to have an excess of halfbacks in the precocious Reece Walsh, the experience Shaun Johnson, the reliable Kodi Nikorima and Ash Taylor, the talented former Gold Coast Titans halfback who is on a train-and-trial deal with the club and could be open. Taylor may be an obvious target for a Super League club wanting to sign a creative halfback.
As far as the forwards are concerned, I noticed last week how well St Helens pack star Dan Norman played for Leigh Centurions in their televised Championship clash against Bradford Bulls when he came off the bench in that game.
Norman isn’t managing to get into the St Helens 21-man squads so far this season, which simply illustrates how strong St Helens are.
He is clearly a project for St Helens and I’m sure that, if asked, they may be open to a deal that would give him much more chance of playing in Super League than he appears to have if he plays out the full season at the Totally Wicked Stadium.
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