After seeing 2 very evenly matched games today

Wakefield v Castleford, 11th and 12th in the table
FC v KR, 5th and 10th

and the complete mis-match

2nd and bottom


Should the RFL stick with the derby format or just go with a system that places evenly matched sides together?

I'd go with derbies except change it to Warrington v Huddersfield & Widnes v Salford instead of the current fixture. I understand why it's been done that way due to the rivalry, but Widnes are nowhere close to a match for Wire and you would imagine Wire v Hudds & Widnes v Salford would be more competitive games than the current fixtures.
If/when Widnes get closer in ability to Wire then by all means change it back, but right now it's just a simple 2 points for Wire.

The 1v2 format for me turns the game in to potential '4 pointers' surely the intensity would be raised and would give us more even games and maybe a bit of biff.

it's got to be 1st v 2nd, 3rd v 4th etc, if this is skys' and the RFL 3rd major weekend after the grand final and the challenge cup final then the fixtures need to be more of a level playing field, warrington v widnes was never going to be this today, one reason we missed this game and went out the stadium as it was nothing more than a training session for warrington!

That's still unfair though. Games shoudn't be handpicked.

I think the derby's are the best way of getting a good gate.

Last time we had the fixtures based on league positions Hull drew London, no disrespect to London but that is not the kind of fixutre that would make me attend the weekend, i'd have stayed at home and watched on TV.

You also have the problem that teams may be good one season and poor the next. So a fixture that is say 4th versus 5th on last seasons standings could still be a mis-match come the next season.

Based on what I'm watching right now wouldn't this have been better?

Warrington vs Catalans
Widnes vs London

For me it has to be 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4 etc....

I read it as meaning current league positions; so it would have been Wigan v Wire, Giants v Dragons, etc. Though personally I vote to scrap the whole thing.

Do you think Widnes would be a match for Wigan?

I say it every year. Royal Rumble draw. Find out who you are playing an hour before kick off. Excitings.

Either have it 1v2, 3v4 etc or scrap the whole thing and have an International weekend of England v Exiles, Wales v France and Ireland v Scotland

I'd stick with the current format except put Wire and Catalan together should be 7 even games then. The idea of drawing out a hat on the day would be good aswell. Could have a draw at the start of season to place teams in day 1 or day 2 so we know what day our team will be playing.

The only problem with 1st v 2nd and so on is the problem with fixtures being split over two days.

Potentially you could be top six (which would mean a Saturday game on current format) for months prior to the event and drop to seventh and your game would be moved to Sunday morning a week before the Magic Weekend.

I like the derby format, enjoyed yesterday at the Etihad after watching Scorpions beat Oldham and think that most games have been competitive. All we need is Widnes to pull their socks up. Let's be fair they'd probably get battered by most of Super League as that's what has happened up to this point in the league anyway.

Pipe down son.... You don't know what you are talking about.

The idea is that fixtures would be based on the previous season's final placings. Swapping Crusaders for Widnes, this year's Magic fixtures could have been

Saturday:
Wakefield v Widnes
Leeds v Catalans
Hull v Rovers

Sunday:
Salford v London
Cas v Bradford
Saints v Huddersfield
Wigan v Warrington

which looks much fairer.