Sadly, the lack of international profile for the sport and the regularity and certainty of embarrassing defeat at that level has resulted in the WCC in this country taking on an over-inflated sense of importance and value. This is because it provides the only realistic format and one-off opportunity for us to beat an Australian team and earn a bit of credibility for the sport in the process.

I agree with you - the WCC is nothing more than an annual exhibition game which shouldn't be classed as more important than collecting 2 points in a regular SL round. However, given the uncompetitive nature of SL, the failure by a club like Leeds to gain 2 points isn't that crucial because of the absolute certainty that they'll still qualify for the play-offs no matter what.

Are you not privy to the plan this season ?

Challenge Cup ... And win the Grand Final from 8th !

So losing 2 points away against a likely top 4 team is a disaster from which you can't recover? I can't recall that ever being the case in SL or NRL.

As for Watkins I think people are writing him off too early. There are some injuries which tend to recur - shoulders being the most obvious (David Creasser, Gary Spencer anyone - hopefully not Sam Burgess). I can't remember a player constantly out due to wrist issues (ready to be corrected on that). Watkins has missed a lot of games, but there's no evidence that he has any particular ongoing issue as yet.

In any event we should all be hoping he gets a decent run and delivers on his obvious potential. He needs to work on his game, but he's big, fast and actually looks to get his winger away. The last point shouldn't even be worth mentioning, but far too many SL centres look like they've never been told what their winger is there for.