Super League 2012

Round 1
Friday February 3: Widnes v Wakefield (8.00pm)
Saturday February 4: Salford v Castleford (6.00pm)

Hardly an enthralling start to the season for Sky

Widnes are the new boys, and Salford have a new stadium. Saints 1st home game at new stadium is also on sky the week after.

Re Widnes v Wakey - granted not a fixture blessed with a raft of internationals but effectively 2 new teams and I find that intriguing.

It will be.

The cynic in me is worried that SKY selected these in the hope of broadcasting Salford and Widnes in their modern stadiums turn the old-school likes of us and Wakey over.

While I strongly suspect they hope that I doubt it's the reason for the selection which is probably the fixtures' novelty value.

I said the same thing myself when I saw the opening fixtures; I can imagine the Sky idiots salivating over the SL new boys and sneering at WTW, "saved by the implosion of Crusaders" etc etc; for that reason, I hope that we go to Widnes and smash them all over their iGrass.

Similarly, if reports in the LE are anything to go by, the malaise over at Salford has resulted in them selling less than 1000 ST's so far - Cas could go to their shiny new stadium and outnumber them.

If these fixtures have been selected in the hope that they'll affirm the RFL's love of all things new and shiny, let's hope that both clubs do their best to spoil the party.

Have to agree with you Bren. I think that the RFL have selected the two clubs in the hope that Salford have a winning start at their new stadium and Widnes start with a win on their return to SL.

I hope we both go over the Pennines and spoil the planned party at the RFL.

Have to agree with you Bren. I think that the RFL have selected the two clubs in the hope that Salford have a winning start at their new stadium and Widnes start with a win on their return to SL.

I hope we both go over the Pennines and spoil the planned party at the RFL.

More games for the fans than the casual spectator. Could be decent games, but can't help thinking a bigger explosion would have been better to kick off the season.

I think these could be very competitive matches, just because they are not likely to win the league does not mean they should not be shown on SKY.

As for the big kickoff to the season the RFL dumped that when they dumped MM. So that's not really SKY's fault.

If they wanted the new boys and Salford then it should have been.

Widnes v Leeds - New boys v Champions

Salford v Wigan - First game in new stadium against the challenge cup winners.

Maybe they also wanted the best chance of competitive matches.

I think he's misunderstood the cynicism, in that the general view is that the RFL would like Salford and Widnes to post wins in their first outings of 2012.

I like these fixtures, if only for the outpourings of arrogant spew they've caused on the VT from the fans of 'bigger' clubs, who seem to think that the only interesting RL is played between the teams they perceive to be the top six.