Here is the second edition of Six to Go, a discussion of some of the biggest issues in rugby league across the past week.
1.What a difference a win makes
Prior to Saturday night’s 32-28 win over Hull FC, I think it would be fair to say that the Salford Red Devils were suffering a bit of an early season crisis.
A heavy home defeat by champions St. Helens, the “I have had enough” tweet from Marwan Koukash immediately after the Saints game that set social media alight and Gareth Hocks being banned for six weeks and then fired for two separate kneeing offences.
There were also rumours surrounding injured star fullback Kevin Locke, coach Iestyn Harris’ position is under scrutiny and their depleted line-up ahead of the weekend’s match.
What happened next? Rangi Chase puts his hand up, creates four tries and produces a piece of sublime magic which has been called the best try assist ever, local youngsters Niall Evalds, Liam Hood and the Walne brothers have stand out games and the Red Devils have their first win of the year.
Australia coach Tim Sheens is over to help the club out and the smiles are back in place – but for how long?
Another coach in a slightly stronger position after the weekend results is Chris Chester at Hull KR. Two opening defeats in which they conceded over 80 points knocked down a lot of the early season expectations and after 41 minutes of the third round match against Wigan, which saw Hull KR 20-6 down, it looked like it was going to be a long hard year. But a great second half performance, inspired by skipper Terry Campese, saw them rattle the Warriors and take the game by the scruff of the neck to record a surprise 22-20 win.
2. The dates and venues for the England versus New Zealand Test Series have been announced
The first Test will take place at the KC Stadium in Hull, a town with a strong connection with New Zealand rugby league going back to the mid-80s, on Sunday first November.
The third Test will take place at the DW Stadium in Wigan on Saturday 14th November.
The first Test will have a very healthy crowd as will the third, as long as the series is competitive going into that final Test, but it is the second Test on Saturday seventh November that was the exciting part of the announcement.
Rugby league will make its debut at the Olympic Stadium in London and the RFL must do everything that they can to make sure the venue sells out.
The capacity of the stadium has been reduced down from 90,000 to 54,000 since the Olympics in 2012 and that is a stadium that we should be able to fill.
There were over 60,000 fans at Wembley Stadium for the last game in the UK between the two teams in the World Cup semi-final in 2013 and the RFL needs to have it’s marketing strategy spot on.
This Test Series starts the day after the Rugby Union World Cup final and the Olympic Stadium is hosting five group games with powerhouses New Zealand (twice), France, Ireland and South Africa all playing at the Stadium.
The third place play off match will take place there just seven days before the second Test. I am sure that the rugby union will ensure that all of the fixtures at the Olympic Stadium will be sell outs and even though three of the matches are against minnow nations – France versus Romania, New Zealand versus Namibia and South Africa versus USA – I am certain that the crowds will be very healthy.
Our game needs to project itself positively and ensure that this Test Series is not “drowned out” by the Rugby World Cup. The marketing campaign needs to start now and, even more importantly, the RFL need to make sure that the ticketing prices are right and that they promote the game in the South to attract rugby fans of all ages.
Particular attention needs to be given to junior teams and we need to get the star players from each side promoting the game as well. There is a lot of support for this Test in the northern heartlands and many will make the journey down to the venue, but it will be in the south that the marketing campaign should focus on.
If we can sell all three venues out for what should be an exciting Test Series on the back of a Rugby Union World Cup, then the marketing campaign will have been successful and the game will have projected itself in a very positive light.
All we need after that is to make sure England win the series.
3. Drugs scandals
The drugs scandal that has engulfed the Gold Coast Titans in the last week or so made its way over to our Super League competition. It was recently made public that Hull FC’s Australian centre Steve Michaels, signed from the Titans in the off season on a one-year deal, has had a warrant issued for his arrest by the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission.
The warrant was issued in relation to his alleged involvement with a cocaine smuggling syndicate that has already implicated a number of current and former players.
The warrant issued cannot be acted upon until Michaels sets foot on Australian soil. If reports coming out of the side are true, this will not be anytime soon as he appears set to be named in the FC team to play Leeds Rhinos on Thursday night.
Michaels has not made any comment and I am all for “innocent until proven guilty” but it just does not seem right to me that he is being selected when he is under suspicion of being involved with a cocaine smuggling syndicate.
The club themselves do not need something like this hanging over them for the rest of the year, the player will not be fully focused and, more importantly, I believe there is a moral responsibility that all clubs have to their younger supporters.
They must ensure that the clubs, and the players themselves, are seen to be doing the right thing. If Michaels is innocent, then he should have no fear in returning home to speak to the Commission in the hope that this can be sorted out relatively quickly rather than sitting it out overseas like a fugitive until the end of the year.
4. Jarryd Hayne signs with San Francisco
You have to give big kudos to former Parramatta Eels superstar Jarryd Hayne who has announced he has signed an NFL futures contract with the San Francisco 49ers.
Hayne had his contract terminated by the Eels to give him the opportunity to pursue a career in the mega-wealthy NFL and you have to give him credit for walking away from guaranteed contracts, endorsements and legend status in rugby league to try to break into another major sport.
Obviously, it helps that he is a great athlete and if he is retained and makes it to the start of the NFL season as part of the 53-man 49ers squad, then hopefully he can help to raise the profile of rugby league in a nation that it has proved very difficult to get any foothold in.
He still has a lot of work to put in – he will be part of a 90-man squad when they start training next month – and he will have to prove himself all over again to ensure that he gets the call in the final 53 man squad.
Good luck Jarryd.
5. Referees
Most fans like to have a dig at referees, don’t they? Am I any different? I like to think I am.
Every time my 11-year-old son screams at a referee from our seat in the stand, I have to tell him that it wasn’t the ref who ripped the ball out of the tackle or went too high. It still amazes me the number of fans that place the reasons for their teams loss solely at the door of the man in the middle.
I guess it is all about perceptions and interpretations. We perceive all referees to be useless and the rules are interpreted differently each week by whatever referee is in charge of the game.
Being a ref is no easy job and they should be applauded for putting their heads above the parapet and allowing themselves to be shot at each week by the snipers in the stands and in the media.
I was at the Hull KR versus Wigan game on Sunday and I thought Robert Childs did OK – it was a tense, scrappy and niggling affair.
Other people had a different idea and thought that players from both sides should have been dealt with harsher than they were.
Like I said, the game was tense and I don’t want to see players penalised or sin binned for playing the game at the toughest and rawest edge of the rules.
If they go over the top, then they should be punished but let’s not forget that this is a tough sport for tough men and we, the fans, like it to be played tough.
The one thing we don’t like is inconsistency. Patrick Ah Van was dismissed in Round 1 for a swinging arm on Josh Charnley. In the very next round, the same referee did not send off or sin-bin Castleford Tigers Justin Carney for a very similar but slightly worse challenge on a Catalans Dragons player.
Warrington’s Ben Westwood was sin binned for a horrendous challenge on one of Walne twins in Round 1 against Salford and should have been sent off. However, St. George Illawarra winger Eto Nabuli was not even spoken to by Ben Thaler for a serious attack on the head of Kevin Penny in the first game of the World Club Series last week.
He should have been sent off as well and Benji Marshall should have been sin binned for his high tackle in the same game. We are talking about consistency and player welfare.
Does a player need to be seriously hurt this year before we have some consistency in the on-field punishment for a high tackle?
6. NRL season 2015
The new NRL season gets underway this weekend with three big superstar names missing from last year.
Sam Burgess and Sony Bill Williams have left for rugger and dreams of winning the World Cup and Jarryd Hayne has flown off to America.
Most competitions would be desperate if they lost players of this calibre all in one go but I have a feeling that the NRL will find ways to copes.
I’d like to congratulate former Hull KR hooker and captain Josh Hodgson on his selection in the starting line up for Canberra against Cronulla. His old club is really missing him but I hope he rips the NRL up and shows how good he is.
A bit of extra time thinking
I hope Leigh don’t regret signing Gareth Hock. He needs to keep his head down and work hard to be fit for when his suspension is up.
Before Sunday, part of my six would have been a quick high five to James Webster about what a good job he is doing at Wakefield after two wins out of two. They then go to Widnes and get smashed and leave Webster exasperated and shocked at their performance. One bad performance does not make a coach rubbish and I believe that Webster will rebound.
Leeds CEO Gary Hetherington has hit out at Sky’s coverage of the recent World Club Series – in particular the commentary teams referring to the matches as ‘trials’.
He feels this denigrated the two matches, and I tend to agree. The players certainly didn’t think the games were only trials – they played hard and fast – but there could be some tinkering in future. Specifically, I think that each team should earn their place in the World Club Series, not get there on the basis of their notoriety.
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