I love my Rugby League so if yesterday is anything to go by my Saturdays and Sundays are sorted for the next few weeks. However with no scums and extra 6 tackles for infringements instead of penalties I watched yesterday’s matches with a little scepticism of how the sport would continue. The matches will all be played at selected neutral grounds for the time being, but the fitness of all 4 teams yesterday was quite astonishing. Nevertheless class usually tells in the end as it did in the first match between St Helens and Catalans, but the second match beat Saturday’s FA Cup Final to a tee and was a great idea to pitch together Huddersfield, the birth place of Rugby League, against Leeds Rhinos at the revamped Headingley Stadium.
I have no particular leaning to either club but was impressed how Huddersfield played as they were by far the better team for 65 minutes and deserved their 26-6 lead. But suddenly they tired as Leeds scored 4 tries in the last 10 minutes with the equalising converted try coming just as the hooter sounded. Now draws don’t count anymore in Rugby League, which I can’t say I’m in favour with, and extra time of 10 minutes each way is played unless one side scores a golden point. Luke Gale who played for Castleford in the 2017 playoff win against St Helens having just had his appendix removed 12 days previously and scored a last minute penalty to take that match to extra time and then scored a drop goal, did it again this time for Leeds. I suppose this is in football terms, a team coming from 4 goals down with only 10 minutes remaining scoring 4 times to force extra time then winning it in extra time. It brought back happy memories of what Gale did for Cas, and is almost as sensational as what Ben Stokes did for England last summer, and what Boro did in the EUFA Cup twice in 2006. No hang on, nothing could have been as exciting as that!
Nevertheless as an impartial viewer it beats any football match I’ve seen in the last 3 years or so, and with the English football season closed now for 5 weeks or so was a great advertisement for the sport of Rugby League and will hopefully attract more TV viewers in the coming weeks.
Watched all 5 Rugby League matches at Headingley these last 3 days, lovely weather there, but has anyone seen the sun in Redcar? Too tired to watch the PGA golf in San Francisco and it ain’t there either. Will record the highlights and watch tomorrow. Could be an English winner, first since 1919.
Goodnight Zebedee.
Today is the 125th anniversary of the formation of the Northern Union now of course known as Rugby League, at the George Hotel in Huddersfield in 1895. Starting proceedings will be Wigan Warriors v Castleford Tigers behind closed doors in Warrington.
Is it ok to say that I enjoyed the game and the result, Len?
Super League now becoming a farce with points ratio per match when there have only been 3 matches played by the top 4 clubs against each other out of 12 scheduled matches whilst after tomorrow Cas will have played 8 matches against the top 4 clubs.
No excuses for the exit of Cas from the Rugby League Challenge Cup yesterday. It’s all right bemoaning 3 days turnaround between matches, but 40 years ago all Rugby League and Football clubs were expected to play 3 matches in 4 days at both Christmas and Easter. In fact in 1947 all rugby league clubs played on 3 consecutive days-Christmas Day, Boxing Day and the following day which was a Saturday. What’s more 7 Cas players played in each of those 3 days. Don’t forget that there weren’t any interchanges in those days with every player having to play a full 80 minutes on quagmires at times. I’m also informed that often Cas players took their boots down the pits with them so that they could have a quick swill at the rugby ground before playing in the match. Tough as teak were some of those lads when players were only part time professionals.
@ken I briefly flicked through Channels whilst waiting for Mrs Red to provide her next set of instructions and saw the last ten minutes of the first half.
That "interception" just before half time killed any hope Cas had. I tutted and thought "Typical Boro" then in a split second realised it wasn't even the right shaped ball let alone Boro but I did feel your pain at that moment.
How will the North East and particularly Middlesbrough take to Rugby League especially after the World Cup? Of course when Gateshead Thunder entered Super League in its inaugural season the club despite finishing 6th made heavy losses and lasted only one season, but since Newcastle took over at Kingston Park they’ve never even been promoted to the Championship. However the Magic Weekend has always attracted more fans than Cardiff, Murrayfield, the Etihad Stadium or Anfield and Newcastle now have amb
I’d never been interested in RL before I crossed the Pennines in ‘88 but became a huge fan because we had a big connection with Wigan and a box at Central Park.
I’m not as invested in the Warriors emotionally as I am with the Boro but I still love the game and admire the physicality of the players.
We used to see the players out and about in Wigan most weekends but never saw a Latics player because very few of them seemed to live in Wigan.
I’m definitely thinking of coming over to Middlesbrough to watch a RL game at the Riverside.
How will the North East and particularly Middlesbrough take to Rugby League especially after the World Cup? Of course when Gateshead Thunder entered Super League in its inaugural season the club despite finishing 6th made heavy losses and lasted only one season, but since Newcastle took over at Kingston Park they’ve never even been promoted to the Championship. However the Magic Weekend has always attracted more fans at St James’s Park than Cardiff, Murrayfield, the Etihad Stadium or Anfield, and Newcastle now have ambitions to reach Super League within the next 10 years. As for Teesside the Steelers did quite well in the two years of their existence at the beginning of this century, but now only Yarm Wolves and Hartlepool Hurricanes are in existence, and I doubt if many Teessiders are aware of that.
However next year’s Rugby World Cup might spread the word that Rugby League does exist on Teesside as they have been allocated one match between Tonga and the Cook Islands, the latter to be based at Darlington. Already a year in advance of that match 13% of the ticket allocation has been sold, and it is hoped that a crowd of around 30,000 will attend the match despite like all the matches being televised live by the BBC. Of course realistically only Australia, England or New Zealand are likely to win the trophy but most South Sea Islanders are now playing for their country of birth instead of New Zealand so Tonga are potential Semifinalists. Maybe they will become our team much like North Korea in the 1966 football World Cup. But there is the hope that both Middlesbrough and Darlington will form teams to participate in the 3rd tier of the Rugby League pyramid system in the future. It all depends really how Teesside takes to the sport, but having lost Yorkshire County Cricket fixtures in this region, is it possible that Rugby League might become a major summer sport on Teesside in the future?
I think it would be remiss of me not to congratulate the England cricket team for their win against India in Chennai. I think it’s probably more difficult to win in India nowadays than in Australia. Superb from Burnley’s Jimmy Anderson, isn’t it time he received a knighthood? Also the King of playing spin Joe Root is probably in the form of his life both as a batsman and a captain. Well done, lads!
Purely by chance I found my recollections of every Rugby League season that Castleford Tigers were involved in from 1926 up to 2017, much like I did for the Boro from 1899 onwards.
I realise that this is of no interest to Boro fans so have posted this blog under the Rugby League sub-section on Diasboro. What amazes me is how I was able to collect all this information and the hours of research it took to record it.
That information also included the history of Rugby League and I started that project in July 2019 when I was in far better health than I am today. Those recollections were very well received and most Castleford fans enjoyed being reminded of the GOOD and BAD seasons of the past.
I had intended to do a similar project about Yorkshire County Cricket Club, but unable to even start that because of my commitments to not only Cas and Boro, but also my historical data of the World’s most famous classical and modern musical composers.
I have many interests in both sport and music, and whilst enjoying sharing my input to all and sundry, ‘anno domini’ has finally caught up with me and thwarted my intentions.
Good health to all Boro and Cas supporters, but I never envisaged that bowel incontinence would be something that I ever would have to suffer. Although we all come into this world with incontinence, it would seem that for some of us we also endure our final years with the same unfortunate problem, except that there is more of it in later years.
At least the Boro have won some silverware this season. It may not be the football club, but the Rugby Union fifteen have just won the Yorkshire Cup by beating the cup holders Sandal 30-24, their first Cup Final win since beating Roundhay in 1976.
Congratulations to all the lads!