Good to see the RFL come down hard on blatant cheating. Also, the Wigan comparison is not that fair really. Wigan tried to stay under the cap by (as I understanding) asking players to defer salary until next year, whereas Barrow have just blatantly cheated and tried to cover it up. It's like the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion. Wigan were trying to work around the rules but keep it technically 'legal' and got done for being outside of the spirit of the cap, but didn't try to cover it all up which is what Barrow seem to have being doing. Whether we ever find out the true extent of Des's cheating up there I guess we'll have to wait and see. Whether the cap is live or not, if you are going to put the effort in to hide stuff, then it's pretty hard for the RFL to get the proof without a whistleblower or a cock up by the cheater. I'm sure if an SL club get done for something similar they will be on the end of a similar points deduction. RFL get a lot of stick but they've got this bang on for me. This is the first case of someone getting done for systemic and deliberate flouting of the cap and puts a good marker down for anything thinking of doing something similar.

The main thing for me is that Des is now out of the game which is good, but I really hope Barrow can recover from this and bounce back. Must be tough for their fans at the moment, but long term you are much better off without Des in charge as long as the club can survive this crisis.

Believe it or not, there is no system that will allow clubs to not cheat. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be a system in place to make it more difficult to.

The 'live' cap stops clubs from messing up the books, which was IIRC what all the SL offences have been on the past. The fact we haven't had a breach in the time it's been in place is a testament to that. That's the point.

Given that the Crusaders club has now been placed in liquidation, I'd imagine that that's been quietly dropped (to sighs of relief in some quarters!).

But would they get relegated to the Championship? Barrow got double punishment by losing 29 points and then relegation a SL club would not be relegated if they had a similar points punishment!!!!

There is no relegation in SL, so no.

However, the RFL could expel them if they wished, and it would work against them in their next license bid. Since this is a stand alone case in this country, there is nothing to compare it to. It cannot be compared to other breaches as they are nowhere near the same offence.

Yet