The good, the bad & the ugly: Triple S, silly scheduling & Rochdale battered

Drew Darbyshire

We go through the highs and lows over the last seven days in rugby league.

The good

There were a number of fine performances across Super League, Championship and League 1 over the weekend but I’ve highlighted three in particular that I was impressed with.

St Helens were favourites going into the derby against Wigan and they came away with the two points as many people expected with a 32-10 win but it was the manner in which they did it which was remarkable. Saints’ backline shone through against the Warriors. Kevin Naiqama and Lachlan Coote should be up there with the buys of the season.

And for the second time this year, Salford came away from Warrington with the spoils following a 22-12 victory. Krisnan Inu has been a solid pick up for the Red Devils, he is having a wow of a campaign.

In the Championship, Swinton were unlucky not to claim the win against Bradford in a thriller at Heywood Road. It finished 34-34, and the Lions continuing to defy the odds this year in ninth.

The bad

The rant I had over the St Helens-Wigan derby exploded on social media last week and I opened a can of worms, so I’ll try not to mention it in this feature!

However, the match scheduling in Super League last week was an absolute joke. Hull FC played London in the televised Sky Sports match on Thursday, while there were five games on the Friday.

No games were played on Saturday or Sunday. How big of a joke is that? Last week’s Round 22 was finished by 10pm Friday night.

Leeds-Hull KR was the game on Friday night and if we want to maximise our viewership, why are we having five out of six games on the same night? There should be stand alone games on a Thursday and Friday, with games being played on a Sunday, possibly Saturday night, too.

New beginnings…

The ugly

Swinton’s Greater Manchester rivals, Rochdale, suffered a 68-0 hammering at home to the hands of full-time French outfit Toulouse Olympique on Saturday.

The Hornets are having a nightmare of a season, having won just one from 20 matches. They sacked Carl Forster earlier in the season but results haven’t improved under new boss Matt Calland.

Rochdale struggled in the Championship last season but survived by the skin of their teeth. The Hornets are a good club with good people there but they remind me a bit of Widnes last year – they probably need to go down a division to get some wins under their belt and get that feel-good factor back at the club.

They’ve got some pretty promising players at the club too in the likes of Dan Abram, Kyle Shelford and Izaac Farrell – but the step down might be what the club needs at this moment in time.

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