I fully agree, I'm a Saints fan living and working down in the south east and when I've been to Quins this is what I see.Quins(and the teams that came before) have done a lot for grass roots RL down south and there are a fair few amature teams in London and in the south east,however,these people don't seem to go and watch Quins play. These are the attendances from the Quins site regarding their last home games against Salford-2,612,against Bradford- 3,112 and against Saints- 4,258 -not good enough after 30 odd years of rugby league in London.

And as for rugby league in Wales I do think "the powers that be" are just being bloody minded-why the did'nt leave Celtic in the first division and see if they could grow there own fanbase and bring on there own players? they had to force the issue and now they have blown the very slim chance they had of a settled club in Wales !

Fine. And maybe Widnes will get in next time around. That doesn't mean to say Celtic Crusaders will or should not be in Superleague. They have two more years at top flight. If they come through this debacle unscathed and if they recruit wisely (they certainly have more time than last time) then if they meet the criteria they shouldn't be ejected from Superleague just to let Widnes in.


I'm quite sure all clubs in the heartlands would consider themselves justified to take up a Superleague spot, if only because they've been around since the year dot. But that isn't feasible unless we go back to the old system of one league. So there has to be some distinguishing criteria and if there are heartlands clubs - well followed or not - who don't meet that criteria then they cannot be in Superleague.


Gateshead is still going. I could have sworn I sat watching Saints play them just a couple of months ago.


Return to me in two more years and let's see whether what you say is justified.

They have just been re-named

Now known as the North Queensland Thunder

Do you want to be stalked ?

Just perusing some of the club boards now that things have settled down on the VT and the Celtic boards

The issue with the use of these players is not what has happened in SL this year or wether they should remain in SL next year , the answers to those questions are

Not a lot and yes they should

The issue is that they have had a potential massive effect on clubs in the NL's

They have denied a club promotion to NL 1 in 2007 and they have also denied a NL1 club from qualifying to apply to SL in 2011

Just imagine how the fans of the club finishing 3 rd last year in NL 1 feel at this moment , They would have made the 2007 NL 1 GF which would have allowed them already to be preparing a SL application

The implications of that are huge

Gateshead is a re-formed club, the original Thunder were absorbed by Hull, read your SL history, same as Sheffield with Huddersfield.

Widnes do meet the Criteria, they were denied by their recent financial history and yet Richard Lewis had promised them that it would not go against them. He went back on his word, fact.

Also Celtic were promoted from NL2 to NL1 on false pretenses as they had some of those now deported/banned players in that side that came up in 2007 to play in NL1 in 2008.
In case you didn't know you had to be in NL1 to apply so by definition they should be kicked out the comp as they would not have been in a position in 2008 to even submit a SL licence application, let alone have it accepted.