SIX TO GO - CAMPO, TOMKINS AND EASTER DERBY'S

Welcome to the latest edition of Six to Go, looking at some of the things that have caught my eye over the last week or so in the great world of Rugby League.

Lots of things have been going on this week at Leeds Rhinos and Hull Kingston Rovers this week amongst other things:

1.       Jamie Peacock to Hull KR

I covered this in my last article http://rugbyleaguelife.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/a-great-night-to-be-hull-kr-fan.html so won’t go in to great detail here just to say that this news came out of the blue and has come as a massive boost to the supporters of Hull Kingston Rovers. To attract a man with the reputation that Peacock has in the game to the newly created role of Football Manager is a great coup and it will be interesting to learn more about the responsibilities he will have within the organisation but there can be no doubt that if things are handled correctly, that roles are clearly defined and that Jamie is given the support and assistance he needs then he could greatly improve both the image and professionalism of Hull Kingston Rovers and make them a more attractive and successful proposition. Good luck Jamie.  You can see him here talking about his move. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0cvfu3J8ek

On a minor note but certainly not negative, Hull KR announced they had agreed to release former Rhinos prop Ryan Bailey from his 2 year contract in the week. Bailey has suffered an Achilles injury and has turned out just once in 44-24 defeat Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in round 2 – a match in which he scored a try. ‘Personal reasons’ have been given for him leaving the club. This means we are 2 props down from the start of the season following the retirement of the popular Michael Weyman and that there is a decent wedge of salary cap available to bring in a top quality prop forward – the  question is who and when?

Dane Tilse - new Hull KR signing

That question was answered on Tuesday night when it was announced that long serving Canberra Raiders prop Dane Tilse has signed a 2 ½ year contract and will move to the UK in the next few weeks once the necessary paperwork has gone through. Tilse is a big boy at 6’7’’ tall and over 17st and has made nearly 200 NRL appearances for the Raiders and at 30 years of age is coming into his prime as a prop forward. Other than that, I don’t know much about the player as he has certainly gone under my NRL radar (which is not that significant to be fair) but club skipper Terry Campese will know him very well from their time at Canberra and hopefully he will have given him a ringing endorsement – we certainly need him as quickly as possible.   

2.       Kevin Sinfield to RU

Even bigger news came out of Headingley on Tuesday lunchtime with the huge announcement that another Rhinos legend, club captain ‘Sir’ Kevin Sinfield, will retire from rugby league at the end of the year and join the Rhinos sister club Yorkshire Carnegie to play Rugby Union. Sinfield is 35 years old now and although he signed a 5 year contract in 2012 part of the agreement was that he could leave at the end of any season as long as he told the club at the start of that year. This he has done and he has decided to take up the challenge of trying to help Carnegie gain promotion to the top division of English Rugby Union. This is another massive loss for the Rhinos but if anyone has earned the right to decide on his own future it is Sinfield – he is the most successful captain in the clubs history, the Rhinos most successful goal kicker (1664) and the club’s record point scorer (3706) which includes 85 tries and 38 drop goals. During his near 18 seasons at the Rhinos he has won 6 Super League titles, 3 World Club Titles, 1 Challenge Cup, the Golden Boot award as the best player in the world, 1 Lance Todd Trophy for the man of the match in the 2005 Challenge Cup Final, 2 Harry Sunderland Trophys as the Grand Final man of the match in 2009 and 2012, has been awarded an MBE as well as earning 34 international caps (21 England 13 Great Britain) and he also captained England in the 2013 World Cup finals.

Legend - 'Sir' Kevin Sinfield

He is a much maligned figure and people are split in to two camps over his abilities – Leeds Rhinos supporters think he is God and all other RL fans think he is overrated and has been lucky to play alongside a special group of players at Leeds;)

Whilst the news came as a massive shock to Rhinos fans it will be interesting to see how he fares in Rugby Union where he will be playing fly half for Carnegie (there is nowhere else in a Union team he could play) and he will be 37 years of age at the end of his 2 year contract.

What must not happen is that we lose Sinfield to the game of rugby league long term – we need to keep people like him in the game – he is a hugely respected and intelligent individual and Leeds Rhinos Chief Executive Gary Hetherington must ensure that at the end of his 2 year stint in RU he is brought back to the Rhinos in some capacity or that there is some position within Rugby League that is suited to his abilities – we cannot have another stand out rugby league player lost to the game like Andy Farrell, Shaun Edwards, Joe Lydon, Billie Jon Mather and Mike Ford have been in the past few years.

Kevin Sinfield - England's General https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EFbltXURAc

3.       Terry Campese extends stay

Campo is happy in East Hull.

On the same day as the above announcements a big week got even bigger for Hull KR as it was announced that club captain Terry Campese had extended his contract to the end of 2017 with an option included to extend to the end of 2018. Campese has been brilliant both on and off the pitch for the club and seems to be really enjoying his rugby and his life off the pitch and with rumours flying about that Wigan Warriors, amongst others, where sniffing around Campo. It is absolutely fantastic that he has chosen to stay with the team that gave him an opportunity after he fell out of favour at Canberra Raiders. Campo is a great leader on the pitch and is a very intelligent player and has formed an outstanding half back partnership with former Titan Albert Kelly that will only get better with time. All we need to do is fight off the attention that Kelly is attracting from Manly Sea Eagles to ensure that, what could be the best half back combination we have had for a generation, stays intact and leads us up the Super League table. Things are starting to come together for the club off the pitch and now the players just need to add consistency and start winning away from home – starting with the Hull Derby at the KC Stadium this Thursday. Come on you Reds!!!!!

4.       Sam Tomkins on his way home?

Sam Tomkins

There are big and fairly solid rumours flying about that England and former Wigan Warriors full back Sam Tomkins is missing the meat pies of home and is looking for an early release from his 3 year contract with New Zealand Warriors. This has prompted a fair bit of social media interaction with various questions flying about and the main one seems to be – where will he go?? I think there’s a pretty obvious answer isn’t there?? Whilst Salford Red Devils owner Dr. Marwan Koukash would probably break the bank to sign Tomkins, I think the only Super League club he will ever play for is Wigan Warriors. Super League clubs are due this week to discuss, once again, the possibility of introducing a rule to allow one ‘marquee player’ signing per club whose salary is not included within the clubs salary cap and it looks more likely than ever that it could be approved – if this is the case then the Warriors will not allow themselves to be outbid by another Super League club and, anyway, as I mentioned above I don’t think Tomkins would sign for another Super League club just for more money – he would lose a huge amount of respect from Wigan fans if he did. It would be great to see a talent like Tomkins back in our competition and Wigan coach Shaun Wane could do to pull this one out of the bag as it may give him some breathing space as the Warriors form has been very patchy going in to the Easter Weekend fixtures against St. Helens on Good Friday and Salford Red Devils on Easter Monday. Two under par performances in these games will really put pressure on Wane whilst a win against Saints on Good Friday will give him a ringing endorsement to continue – such is the fickleness of top level sport. The only other viable option for Tomkins would be to take the riches of English or French Rugby Union as I have no doubt that there will be a few RU clubs keeping a close eye on this situation OR maybe he can just see out the very generous contract that he signed with the Warriors less than 18 months ago – wouldn’t that be something!!!!

5.       Marquee players.

Marwan Koukash has been calling for some time now for a Marquee Player ruling to be brought in to the game to prevent our best talent being lured to the riches of the NRL or, dare I say it, Rugby Yawnion and, after having his previous attempts de-railed by other clubs, the word is that Super League clubs are once again set to discuss this rule change. It appears that there has been a bit of a wind change and that there is a strong possibility that the rule could be brought in. The fans of clubs like Salford Red Devils, owned by billionaire Koukash, Leeds Rhinos, St. Helens, Wigan

Marwan Koukash
 

Warriors, Catalans Dragons, Hull FC and Warrington Wolves would probably welcome this kind of move as they have the financial clout to pay out big money for the top players in the world but what about the other clubs – Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, Castleford Tigers, Hull KR, Huddersfield Giants and Widnes Vikings would not be able to compete at the same wage levels as the other richer clubs. These clubs currently compete in the Super League competition without sometimes hitting the full salary cap anyway so it would be difficult to see where the additional big wedge of cash would come from without creating some kind of financial problems somewhere down the line. The obvious concern is that the rich clubs will grow richer and more successful and an even bigger gap will grow between clubs who can afford to pay out big wages and those that struggle to currently hit the salary cap. My other query would be who can the clubs spend this money on?? Will clubs target big name overseas players at the expense of giving opportunities to English youngsters?? That would be detrimental to the game further down the line or would they use it to keep the best of British in Super League (or away from Rugby Yawnion) – having said that, would the likes of Sam Burgess and his 3 brothers, James Graham, Sam Tomkins, Kyle Eastmond etc etc have stayed in Super League for the extra money rather than test themselves personally in a new environment in the best rugby league competition in the world or have tried to break into the more high profile world of Yawnion?? Maybe, maybe not – I think some players would stay for the extra cash but there will still be some players who think about personal pride and testing themselves to their limits rather than just how much money they are being paid. I’m not sure that the Marquee Player rule is best for the game in the long run – I think there should be a hike in the Salary Cap but at the minimum we need to keep the competition between the clubs on as even a keel as possible and not give a handful of clubs a massive advantage because of the size of their owners bank account. Super League is not the be all and end all and there are some players who think more about testing themselves rather than just cold hard cash – players will always come and go and we need to ensure that we have a fair and exciting competition without giving some clubs a bigger advantage than they already have.

6.       Easter Weekend

Hopefully Hull KR fans will be celebrating tonight!

Easter is here and that means the first big Derby’s of the year. St. Helens travel to Wigan Warriors on Good Friday on the back of their first defeat of the year at Hull KR last weekend and Hull KR travel over to the dark side on Thursday night to take on an under pressure Hull FC. Saints have had a good start to the year and are currently joint top of the table but they have not won on Good Friday since 2009 and go into this game with a number of high profile injuries. Travis Burns fractured his cheekbone at Hull KR last week, Atelea Vea damaged his shoulder and this week Jonny Lomax had his season ruined again as he has to go under the knife due to a knee injury. Add in the fact that Luke Walsh is still unavailable and it looks like there maybe a few tough weeks ahead for the Saints. Rovers go into the Hull Derby on a high after the defeat of Saints last week whilst FC lost at Castleford. Rovers have also been boosted this week by the signings of Jamie Peacock and Dane Tilse and the news that skipper Terry Campese has hung his flag to the mast of the Robins until the end of 2017 at least – so confidence is high in East Hull at the moment and I expect us to come away with the win. We have to back up the Saints performance and we need to start winning away games, which we have not done yet this year, if we are to be taken seriously as a top 8 or even top 6 contender (top 4 is wishful thinking – isn’t it?).

The Hull Derby - 'The Writing's on the Wall'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frp0WzbPN-w
 

 A bit of extra time thinking…

Talking of Easter and Saints skipper Jon Wilkin came out this week and said that the Wigan / St. Helens Derby was the biggest in the game. Well he would say that wouldn’t he – he is the Saints skipper for Gods sake. Some people may not realise that Jon is a Hull boy and played for Hull Kingston Rovers in their pre-Super League dark days and has not experienced a Hull Derby at it’s current magnitude as a player. If he had, he would not be making such ridiculous statements!!!! He talks about passion and intensity – he needs to be at the KC Stadium TONIGHT because believe me there will be no more passionate and intense sporting arena anywhere this weekend. Add in the fact that two teams from the SAME city are competing against each other and I think he would soon change his mind. The players who have not experienced this atmosphere before are in for a treat.

Widnes Vikings coach Denis Betts stated last week that we should kick Sunday rugby league in to touch. I can understand his comments coming on the back of a heavy defeat at Salford Red Devils last Thursday just 4 days after they beat Hull KR but I cannot agree with him. Thursday night rugby league has been thrust at us by Sky and it is playing rugby league on this night of the week that needs doing away with. Away fans struggle to get to games, people work nights and clubs should not be asked to play on a Thursday if they have played the previous Sunday. Most importantly it clashes with the Premier League darts – I want the best of both worlds and instead of binning Sunday Rugby League put the second Sky match to a Sunday night – that way you are only moving a fixture by a few hours rather than days – doesn’t that make more sense???

The tie of the Challenge Cup 5^th round, Leigh Centurions v. Salford Red Devils, will now be televised live on Sky  but it looks like it will be without star attraction Gareth Hock. Hock left the Red Devils earlier in the season after picking up a 6 match ban and signed for the Centurions shortly after. He is due to make his debut for Leigh on Easter Monday but it has now become public that Hock signed an agreement when he left Salford that stated he would not be able to play against them until the end of 2016. Leigh, and Hock, are now saying they knew nothing about this clause. I think that is rubbish and the clubs are now fighting a battle over whether Hock can play or not. I don’t understand why he was asked to sign this sort of agreement but the fact is that he did, apparently, or didn’t he????? Who knows?  Hock doesn’t seem to know what he has signed. He will have served his 6 match ban by the time the Cup tie comes around and that is punishment enough. This has got to be worked out so that Hock can play and a big game can be played fairly and neither side should have an excuse at the end of it because one player is or is not playing. Think about the game for once.