Rugby League Weekender: 4,281 at York, Newcastle’s wasted trip to Wales & all the results

James Gordon

Our new Sunday night feature which looks back at all the action over the weekend and tells you all you need to know in a bitesize fashion.

The Good

A bumper crowd of 4,281 took in the opening game of the League One season as Bradford scored a penalty after the hooter to snatch a 22-20 win at York.

London Broncos are top of the Championship with three wins from three after dispatching of Featherstone 44-24 on Sunday afternoon. Could the capital club earn their place back in Super League on the pitch?

In our featured match, Batley defeated Swinton 48-28 at the AJ Bell Stadium in our live audio commentary game. You can listen again here. We’re back tomorrow night for Rochdale v Dewsbury.

Championship RL Live – Swinton Lions RLFC v Batley Bulldogs from AJ Bell Stadium

Posted by Love Rugby League on Sunday, 18 February 2018

There was live coverage of York v Bradford on Facebook and you could also watch Halifax v Toronto on Premier Sports. That, as well as five live games on Sky Sports over the weekend, has made for a pretty good weekend of coverage if you ask us!

The Bad

Newcastle made a 720 mile round trip to face West Wales Raiders – and never played a minute. There was initially a delay to kick-off under mysterious circumstances before 40 minutes later, it was called off completely due to an issue with the medical support on site. Not a great start to the season.

Hesitant to say this, as the three Super League clubs are operating at a clear disadvantage due to the respective salary caps, but it was 3-0 to the NRL in the three games over the weekend.

The Ugly

This could have appeared in any of the above, but referee Phil Bentham took a hit that ended his involvement in the Widnes v Warrington game on Friday night.

Catalans have got to get their act together. They were drab in their defeat to Hull KR, their third straight defeat. Given all the expansion talk around Super League at the moment, it can ill afford arguably its only expansion success story to start failing.

Weekend results

World Club Challenge
Melbourne 38-4 Leeds – Report | Match Stats

Super League
Hull KR 23-4 Catalans – Report | Match Stats
Widnes 10-18 Warrington – Report | Match Stats

Championship – Round-up
Barrow 24-20 Leigh – Match Stats
Halifax 6-20 Toronto – Match Stats
London 44-24 Featherstone – Match Stats
Swinton 28-48 Batley – Report | Match Stats
Toulouse 50-6 Sheffield – Match Stats
Rochdale v Dewsbury (Monday, 7.45pm)

League One
Hemel 14-28 Hunslet – Match Stats
North Wales 24-24 London S – Match Stats
Doncaster 70-10 Coventry – Match Stats
Keighley 44-34 Workington – Match Stats
West Wales P-P Newcastle
Whitehaven 0-14 Oldham – Match Stats
York 20-22 Bradford – Match Stats

Exhibition Games
South Sydney 18-8 Wigan – Report | Match Stats
St George 24-18 Hull – Report | Match Stats

Result of the Week

It has to be Barrow, doesn’t it? After an 8-all draw with Toronto Wolfpack last week, they proved it was no flash in the pan by defeating Leigh, the Centurions second defeat in three games.

The newly-promoted Raiders may be re-evaluating their ambitions after the past fortnight. They have now arguably played the three best teams in the division and have three points to show for their efforts. It will be interesting to see how they fare now in the coming weeks. It’s a bit early for a Cumbria to Super League bandwagon to start, but wouldn’t that be good…

Features Barrow Raiders