Looking forward to the Rugby League Commonwealth Championship 2014

Sheck’s Little Roosters Land In Glasgow

Players from Sydney Roosters, Gold Coast Titans, Warrington Wolves, Hull Kingston Rovers and London Broncos will be in international action this week. There may even be an Australia v England clash on Saturday. But you will have to be at Broadwood Stadium in North Lanarkshire or watching on Premier Sports next week to see it. The inaugural Rugby League Commonwealth Championship begins on Friday, with eight nations invited from all around the world, ensuring league gets Glasgow2014 off to a flier.

The emerging stars from our biggest clubs – it’s an Under-19 Nines tournament – will be joined by national team-mates from lesser known clubs such as Easterhouse Panthers, Ayrshire Storm, Lae Snax Tigers, Spanish Town Vikings and Liguanea Dragons. The favourites, Australia, are being represented by Sydney Roosters, the New South Wales Under-18 champions. Among them will be a Teuvasa-Sheck: Johnny, younger brother of Roger, who will be representing Australia, one of six New Zealand-born players in the Kangaroos delegation.

There are plenty of English clubs represented: the RFL side is drawn from the likes of York Acorn, East Hull, Egremont Rangers, Kells and Josh Charnley’s junior club, Chorley Panthers. Scotland have players from Guildford Giants, Ulverston, Accrington and Waterhead. They both have a lad from Thatto Heath.

Wales and Canada have followed Australia’s one-club approach. All the Welsh are from South Wales Scorpions or the South Wales Academy. The Canadians have American footballers, an ultimate frisbee international and a host of union converts among their British Columbia contingent, almost all of whom play for BC Bulldogs in Vancouver.

Apart from the baby Roosters, among the potential stars of the future are England half-back Joe Prior, who has spent a couple of years with Wigan and a spell at Tweed Heads Seagulls this summer but is one of two Wigan St Patricks’ lads in England’s squad; Papua New Guinea’s Stanton Albert, a professional with PNG Hunters, who are lighting up the old Queensland Cup; and the lone Gold Coast Titan, James Iodice, a Queensland Under-16s prop who converted from ice hockey to league when his Italian family moved from Montreal to Australia.

While you are unlikely to be familiar with any of the South Africans (mainly drawn from the TUKS club at the University of Pretoria), you may recognise some of the coaching staff. Papua New Guinea are bringing former international Philip Boge and former Kumuls coach Joe Tokam; Australia are managed by Gareth Holmes, Elite Programs Manager at the NRL; and Scotland will have Steve McCormack at the helm. Admission is free both days with the action going on all afternoon.

As well as flying a team of teenagers across the Atlantic to the RLCC2014, Canada are showing up most other countries. Last Saturday night, the national team under new coach – the former Leigh, Halifax, Huddersfield and Castleford winger Stuart Donlan – drew nearly 5,000 to Lamport Stadium in Toronto to see the Wolverines lose 18-40 to the RAF in an international friendly; they will take on the touring England Lionhearts at the same venue next week 3 July, in the build up to their annual home and away series with the USA, the Tomahawks coming to town on 9 August. Expect a large, boisterous crowd that night. Wish I was there.

Clubcall: Wakefield Trinity Wildcats

Last Sunday Wakefield pulled off one of the shocks of the season in beating Wigan at Belle Vue, nine days after squeezing past London Broncos in a monsoon, ensuring James Webster’s reign as head coach started with two straight wins. The attendance at Rapid Solicitors Stadium scraped over 4,000.

While they are by no means the only club to be suffering a mid-summer attendance slump, Trinity’s is the most noticeable. Last time I mentioned the missing 3,000 fans at Wakefield I was reminded that the stadium capacity was much reduced due to urgent maintenance work on crash barriers. That is nearly finished, with capacity now over 7,000.

Wakefield media and marketing manager Andy Morgan puts the dramatic fall in attendance down to several factors, including having a run of five home games in a row. “Results are one factor, although given the rebuilding that had to be carried out we’re in a strong position to achieve the primary aim of staying in Super League for 2015,” admitted Morgan.

“After the off season turmoil our season ticket numbers almost halved so you’re relying on a walk-up crowd and this run of home games means people simply can’t afford to go to every game. The fans have been through a lot since the back end of last season, all coming after the club had previously been in administration. Even though there has been a change in ownership there’s still a case of rebuilding faith in the club within the city as a whole. Hopefully that will translate into more people coming to watch games.” Morgan also explained that Trinity are counting actual spectators attending rather than including season ticket holders who may not even be there.

Foreign quota

Italy return to international action next week but it will be an unrecognisable Azzurri team. None of the Super League or NRL stars who entertained us at the RLWC2013 – such as Aiden Guerra, last seen fruitlessly trying to stop New South Wales in last Wednesday’s dogged Origin clash – will be on hand for their opening European Championship B game against Ukraine on 5 July in Gemona del Fruili, a new rugby league venue north of Udine, very near the Slovenian border.

Italy coach Paul Broadbent has included four RLWC2013 squad members but only Avignon hooker Ray Nasso, who shone for Azzurri last year, would be familiar. Nasso would be playing in Super League by now if only a series of unfortunate circumstances had not prevented him from getting an Italian passport.

Italy could have as many as six France-based professionals, including former West Bowling amateur Jonathon Marcinczak, now at Racing Club Albi – and three from the British league: Warrington Wolves youngster James Saltonstall, currently on dual-registration at York, Chris Vitalini of South Wales Scorpions and Matt Bradley (University of Gloucestershire All Golds).

With Euro B likely to be the first stage of qualification for RLWC2017, and Russia beating Serbia on Sunday to make it two from two, Italy will need to see off the plucky Ukrainians and Serbia to make the next round of qualifiers. The NRL stars are likely to be back if Italy play a proposed game in Papua New Guinea on 19 October.

Goal-line drop out

Predictably, Joel Tomkins’ return to Wigan got rather less media coverage than his original move to Saracens three years ago. It should have been big news. Tomkins Senior made an impressive impact in union, winning a title with Saracens and becoming a dual-code international. However, injury held him back last season and he was nowhere to be seen as Saracens lost in both English and European finals. At least this strange few weeks of Wigan playing without at least one Tomkins will soon be over.

It would not be a shock if Joel was followed by another league returnee after next year’s union World Cup. Kyle Eastmond did well for England in the opening Test of their series whitewash in New Zealand (one of three former league-playing half-backs alongside Owen Farrell and Stephen Myler) but might be tempted back if he doesn’t make the cut next year. The signing of union players – high profile or otherwise – remains almost non-existent. Compare that to the 1950s when, according to Harry Edgar’s magnificent Rugby League Journal tome Rugby League In the Fifties, 16 British union internationals turned “professional”. Either we don’t need them or our clubs have narrow scouting networks.

Fifth and last

The sudden departure of London Broncos’ brightest star of 2014, Mason Caton-Brown, to Salford on Monday night came as something of a shock. Most followers of the game expected him, Kieran Dixon and several others to depart The Hive at the end of the season so they could remain in Super League. Few thought it would happen with 10 games to go.

There are rumours that the winless Broncos could be gradually dismantled

between now and transfer deadline day, with Matt Cooke next to follow fellow

England international Scott Moore – a huge disappointment this season –

who is heading to Castleford Tigers next season, and Dixon having a choice of several

destinations.

With relegation all but guaranteed, it makes economic, if not sporting, sense. If Super League had a minimum salary cap as well as a maximum, the Broncos would be forced to field as strong as team as possible from now until September.

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Article source: http://www.express.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/483900/Weir-kicks-Scotland-to-victory

Looking forward to the Rugby League Commonwealth Championship 2014