Has the cup lost it's magic?

The forth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup gets underway this weekend and to be honest, nobody seems that bothered.






In the past few years, the forth round of the competition has been seen as something of a joke amongst many. This week, as in previous years, sees a host of one-sided mismatches which are far from catching the public's imagination.

Despite various attempts to revive the competition, leading to the final being switched from May to August, it's still not until the latter stages when the crowds start to take an interest in the Challenge Cup. Wigan have sold the majority of their allocation for their trip to Widnes and so a good crowd will be expected at the Halton Stadium, as perhaps it will at Warrington but apart from that, the sight that will greet most spectators this weekend is that of empty seats and deserted terraces, despite the host of cut-price tickets on offer.

It's not hard to see why supporters are somewhat apathetic about the early stages of the cup. Fancy taking in the Cumbrian part-timers of Workington battling it out against an international filled Leeds side? How about Batley's trip to the world champions St Helens? If not, then how does Hull FC vs Hunslet float your boat?

Even if the lower rounds come in with something of a whimper, it is far from the end of the competition. The Challenge Cup Final has always been the "day out" event in the calendar and with Wembley now ready to host the showpiece event, the RFL should have little trouble in peddling the 90,000 tickets that the new venue offers.

The Challenge Cup is in many respects, an unfortunate problem borne from the success of the professional divisions. As the Super League players get fitter and more NL1 sides opt to go full-time, the minnows have to go through the mere formality of bowing out of the competition, but making a few quid in the process.

For the time being, we've just got to hurry up into the quarter finals and pretend to care whilst we try and get there.

Smith named new Great Britain coach

For those of you that have been living under a rock for the past week in RL land, Leeds Rhinos coach Tony Smith has been named as the new Great Britain chief.






The Aussie, who will see out the remaining six months of his contract at Leeds, will take part-time charge of the squad for June's friendly with France before taking on the role full-time.

Opinion appears to be divided on whether the 40-year old is the right man for the role. RFL Chief Exec Richard Lewis hopes that Smith's track record of success with a young, British squad at the Rhinos can be transferred to the Lions to break a 37-year duck without a test victory against Australia.

In his three and a half years at Leeds, Smith has walked out at two Grand Finals, winning one as well as a Challenge Cup Final. He also led the side to a World Club Challenge victory over Canterbury in which of all the points scorers, all bar Willie Poaching had come from the Leeds academy.

But there are some dissenting voices. Since his first season in which Smith brought home the Super League trophy, the side has progressively gone backwards. Runners-up in 2005 could be attributed to some bad luck but an early play-off defeat at home to Warrington had many at Headingley calling for Smith to be shown the door, as has the side's indifferent performances thus far in 2007.

But of all the possible appointments, this is probably the most logical choice. Smith has handled International players and has played a part in the development in much of what may well prove to be the GB side in November. I still don't think it's enough to beat the Australians, but in the current setup, I don't think any coach would achieve that feat.

Give to those less fortunate

With Comic Relief just passed, it's probably time to take advantage of the goodwill of the nation.







Please help this noble and worthwhile cause, to aid those less fortunate than ourselves. Those supporters who have little knowledge of the rules of Rugby League, who think that the referee hates them with a passion, those who think that referee decisions are influenced by Radio Leeds commentators and those who have the misfortune of supporting Wakefield.

Please sign this petition to make Belle Vue a safer place for our media. Just one lesson will help followers of the Wildcats understand that striking, persistent offsides, ball stealing and dissent are in fact, penalty offences. A small donation may even buy a Trinity fan an RFL rule book.

Thank-you for your support

Ashton switch reflects Wigan mis-management

After weeks of speculation, Wigan full-back Chris Ashton has confirmed that he will become a Rugby Union player at the end of the Super League season.




The 19-year old has been offered a £140,000 salary by bottom of the table Northampton Saints and looks almost certain to be plying his trade at Franklin's Gardens after his current deal at the JJB expires.

This, as you can imagine, has riled Wigan chief Maurice Lindsay - a man who evidently prefers to conduct salary negotiations in the national media. To anyone, it would seem unusual that such information would be freely disclosed until you start to bear in mind that Mr Lindsay is well known for being a strong opposer of the salary cap concept.

With club spending on salaries restricted to £1.8m per annum, Lindsay and his accountants have to constantly keep tapping away at the abacus in order to get each and every player under the limit and abide by the rules of the game and Mr Lindsay doesn't like that.

So when Ashton decides to leave Lancashire, the £140k figure gets banded about in yet another attempt to pester the RFL into ditching the cap so that he can then spend money in setting an impossible benchmark for the rest of the competition, making the sport as predictable as it was in the early 90's whilst running up huge debts in the process. The only difference is that this time, he can't sell the club's ground to a supermarket chain to get the club back in the black.

What Mr Lindsay and his comrade Brian Noble won't mention in their anti-salary cap campaign is the signings of ageing Antipodeans, big-name GB internationals and Aussie test stand-off's.

If properly managed, the salary cap is more than enough to ensure that our best talent remains in the 13-man code. If however, you spend a good chunk of your allowance on players such as Michael Withers, David Vaealiki, Pat Richards and Shane Millard, then you deserve no sympathy whatsoever.

The problem is not with a lack of talent in grass-roots Rugby League, nor does the problem lie with the salary cap. There are several Wigan academy graduates plying their trade in Super League away from the JJB Stadium.
Like all the clubs that answer to Red Hall, the Rugby Union clubs are bound by salary cap regulations laid down to them by the men at Rugby House. The numbers might look bigger but after you factor in the bigger Union squads and the compulsory employment of "specialist" players, the overall difference is minimal. Only the sponsorships and the International prestige make the numbers look bigger.

The problem therefore, lies with Wigan's reliance on overseas players to meet short-term success targets and for that, the buck stops with Lindsay.

The truth behind the Wigan salary cap (I think)

Like the Beast of Bodmin or a UFO landing, Wigan's salary cap is considered by many in RL land as just another urban myth.






After declaring last season that that Kris Radlinski was "playing for free" because the club "had no money", they then went and snapped up Great Britain forward Stuart Fielden. To say that a few eyebrows were raised is something of an understatement.

So when it gets announced on Tuesday that Aussie RU and former Brisbane winger Lote Tuquiri had recieved an offer from the JJB, questions were once again being asked.

But don't fret people, Maurice Lindsay has set the record straight by declaring that Brian Carney will not be returning to the club, even if Chris Aston leaves for Rugby Union.

So that's settled then, now we have to start taking new bets on which high-profile new signing will bail the club out of relegation trouble again.

Inside the mind of Terry Newton

Anyone with the slightest mediocum of knowledge of Rugby League will be unsurprised to hear that Terry Newton is no stranger to the Red Hall judiciary.



The Bradford Bulls hooker missed the start of his inaugural season at Odsal after receiving a suspension of 11 games, the biggest ban in Super League history, after incidents with Sean Long and Lee Gilmour whilst playing for Wigan and will now miss the next two games for the Bulls after being found guilty of striking St Helens forward Jon Wilkin.

It serves as another example of how the reputation of an extremely talented player can be tarnished by frequent moments of madness in the heat of the battle. Having been vilified by fans at Knowsley Road for his attacks on Long, Gilmour and Wilkin, the former Wigan St Judes amateur is hardly popular in Australia either following an incident with Craig Fitzgibbon in 2003.

Yet despite the misdemeanors, Newton is still held in high regard on the M62 corridor. He made his professional bow as a youngster at Leeds before moving to his hometown club Wigan in 2000. He soon established himself as a first-class hooker and in the eyes of many, was the most talented adopted of the number nine shirt in Super League.

His complicated transfer to Bradford last season despite the lengthy suspension hanging over his head typified the high regard in which he is held and having ousted Ian Henderson, it appears that he has now finally solved the Bulls problematic search for a hooker after the departure of James Lowes.

There are always two arguments when you talk about players with short fuses. One camp argue that "one-man penalty machines" such as this are nothing more than a liability whilst the others put the case forward that such attitudes make players what they are, and they are right.

James Lowes is a classic example. Referee's hated stepping onto the same field as the Bradford hooker. Every decision was met with derision and often he'd earn his side a 10m penalty for dissent. But despite that, he was the best hooker in Britain at the time.

Newton is far from the personality that Lowes was but it's a 'siege mentality' that perhaps brings out the worst, but more often the best in him.

Sharp's teams lacking cutting edge

With four rounds of the season gone, it's not been a good start for Super League's 'Sharp' duo, with Huddersfield Giants and last years Grand Finalists Hull FC propping up the table.





Peter Sharp's Hull side currently sit in eleventh place, with just a solitary point to their name courtesy of a 10-10 draw at home to the Dragons whilst Jon Sharp's Giants have found themselves cut down to size on all four outings in 2007.

For the Hull faithful, it's a situation made worse by the fact that their rivals from the East of the City are currently perched in second place, although how long that persists remains to be seen.

There have already been premature rumblings around both camps as to how long both coaches can last at their respective clubs. Hull fans point to the board's decision to rid themselves of John Kear shortly after the Challenge Cup success. With what appears to be one of the strongest squads in Super League, the season has started disasterously for the black and whites.

Jon Sharp may be on more shaky ground. Whilst he can take solace in the fact that his side have gone toe-to-toe with three of the pre-season favourites, the defeats need ceasing before they become a habit.

Sharp is now in his forth year at the Galpharm and despite guiding them to Twickenham last season, has yet to deliver that coveted top six place. The Giants hierarchy are not renowned for their impatience but at the same time, suspicions must be that Fartown are expected to be rubbing shoulders with the Super League giants come September.

Fellow strugglers Hull FC along with Salford and Catalans are next up for Huddersfield and they should be looking for a minimum of four points from the six avaliable. If the next few weeks prove to be fruitless, then the pressure will certainly mount.