Chris Saint wrote:
It was Barrow IIRC
Oh yes. Of course. My bad.
but I do agree today wasn't all one sided it was good to have at least 2/3 teams pushed, it is just a shame the rest of the scores are lopsided.
Inevitable, really, not least when considering some of them were Championship One sides. John Kear said in his post match piece that Doncaster pushed Wakey until the last 15 minutes when Doncaster expired and Wakey capitalised. It's always going to be tougher for part-time players to play at the pace of fulltime players, but some teams clearly gave it a real go. Hopefully, they won't all be as distressed as apparently the Batley players were: they were leading all the way through until the 51st minute when one of theirs was sent off for a high tackle (another ref would have put him on report). Hudds then scored four tries. I'd say Hudds were let off big time.
Having the cup 2 weeks after Easter when most of the Championship teams have played 3 games in a 9 days and worked full time in between too, its a miracle some teams can get 17 players.
And yet, it was ironic that Sheffield had more players available to play than we did!
Mark Aston said in the build up to our game that Saints get more training done in one day than they can get in a week, add in the improved fitness and general skill levels and SL players not having to work and it is easy to see why games tend to be this way.
The RFL seem to be taking a fingers in the ears type approach to the Challenge Cup, which I think is criminal given it's the one competition that has the potential to reach the whole country.
However, if it was left up to me to revamp the Challenge Cup - and it needs a revamp - then I would extract the amateur clubs completely, giving them their own competition and silverware. I would then run a series of rounds, starting with Championship One. The top four from Championship One would then join the Championship round. The top four from the Championship round would then join the Superleague round. That would give the best of the Championship sides a decent chance against Superleague opposition and would perhaps cut down or even eliminate ridiculous scorelines. Obviously how well any Championship side did against Superleague opposition would depend in part upon the standards of each side, but that's the case anyway. If or until the game as a whole has more money to throw around, something needs to be done to enable the Championship teams to have as good a chance as possible to pull off a giant killing. Obviously, more money, enabling fulltime professional Championship leagues, would be ideal. But as that is unlikely to happen in my lifetime, some other measures are needed to enable better competition.
, awww I was looking forward to it!
