Lew on League (An occasional RL blog by my dad)
By*NEWSFLASH* Lew on League is back!
After a prolonged absence brought on by the visit of two Belorussian 12-year-olds, his wife’s 60th birthday, Leeds Rhinos’ Challenge Cup defeat and a rush of unsuspecting massage clients, Lew on League is staging a comeback. I think he might have had one glass of wine too many before sitting down to tap out this missive, if you can keep up with his mind flow you are a better son than I…
THE RUGBY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
On Friday, Leeds 2nd in the league, meet St Helens 1st in the league. The winner goes straight through to the final at Old Trafford. The team which loses that game, will play the winner of the game at Odsal played on Saturday between Bradford and Hull.
The winner of that game played next week then goes on to play at Old Trafford. These four teams have shown themselves to be the four outstanding teams in the league and it is anyone’s guess as to which will win. For the first half of the season Leeds seemed impregnable. Then St Helens started to show their brilliance and eventually pulled ahead. Now in the last few games Hull, following their sensational victory in the Challenge Cup, has shown how dangerous their team can be in cup matches. At the same time, Bradford have revealed how vulnerable St Helens can be against a big pack, now that the Saints have paid for their victorious run by a series of injuries to their star players.
Hull were magnificent in their thrashing of Warrington who two weeks before that had beaten Leeds in a league game. Bradford defeated St Helens in their league game and showed some of their old power and pace.
With the softer grounds now being the norm, what is certain is that success is going to come to the teams which can produce the goods ‘up front’. Both Leeds and St Helens have looked to be weaker than Hull and Bradford. However this writer feels that one hopeful sign is that Chris Feather has now returned to Leeds. Chris is a young forward who is one of the heaviest in the league. He was loaned to Wakefield to gain experience in Super League. In the final game of the season he played against Leeds and although Wakefield lost, he looked to be the most powerful forward on the field.
Smith made a bad mistake in the Challenge Cup final in leaving out McDermott in a game where the Hull forward power needed taming. We need to use Bailey, Ward, McDermott and Feather if we are to retain the championship. Hopefully he will not make the same mistake again.
