1st play 2,3,5,6 home- 4,7,8. away.
2nd play 3,4,6,7 home- 1,5,8. away.
3rd play 4,5,7,8 home-1,2,6 away.
4th play 5,6,8,1 home- 2,3,7 away.
5th play 6,7,2 home- 1,3,4,8 away
6th play 7,8,3 home-1,2,4,5 away
7th play 8,1,4 home- 2,3,5,6 away
8th play 1,2,5 home- 3,4,6,7 away.

Is this one of those sudoku puzzles?

House!

Gives 1st a good level of advantage without going too far, I like it.

Now, if only the extra game could be the magic weekend, it would of all fit perfectly!

Perversely, it's probably better to finish 8th than any position above bar 1st. If 8th, you have easy away games and your two difficult games are at home.

What I don't get is whether you keep your points during this spell? If it's a top 4 play off only, what happens to the 5-8 teams? They just finish? Yet the team that finishes bottom gets a lucrative play off game?

You play 23 rounds and finish in the top 8, You keep your points, and play a further 7 rounds to finish the regular season. Then 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd in a straight knockout winners to the gf.

I wouldn't say playing vs 1st is any more lucrative, but it is better than playing 1st away. Reading straight off the bat, there doesn't seem to be much advantage other than 1st, but I'm sure if there is any it will become clear in time.

The top 8 all carry their points over from the first 23 games into the 'play offs' with the top 4 placed teams after the next round of 7 games each qualifying for the semis to get to the grand final

6th spot is a killer. 1,2,4,5 away.

6th spot is a killer. 1,2,4,5 away.

It seems unfair that a team could finish eighth and even before the extra fixtures do not have enough points to reach the top four could have a say in who reaches the final.

Should have got more points during the regular season then, I think that's sort of the whole point of the system. Bringing the regular rounds back into relevance.

One of beauties of the original 5 team system is that you'd had to beat every team that finished above you to win the trophy.

If we use the current situation now, Widnes are 8th and 9 points adrift of a top 4 play off place, they would have to win a minimum of 5 games out of 7, and the 4th place team would have to lose every game in the 2nd phase.

And have widens shown anything to suggest they deserve to be in contention for the grandfinal? And aren't people currently complaining that it's silly a team can lose more than they win and still be in contention for the grandfinal? We can't have it both ways!

I think thats been eradicated now by giving the first phase some value by carrying points over into the next phase. Having a top 4 play off is much better quality wise, I have never liked the top 8 play off. The interesting bit is the bottom 4 of the first 8 playing the top 4 of the second 8 to battle for the existence into the following season superleague 12.