Richard Lewis Interview to BBC

Quote: SmokeyTA "The franchise policy will never see legal scrutiny, a simple clause in bidding stating that by bidding you accept the RFLs/SLs decision as final would put a stop to that quite quickly'"

But can you deny a team a SL license and replace them with one using different criteria? That may see legal scrutiny.

Quote: SmokeyTA "besides it wasnt, never has been, and likely never will be, that clubs who dont play in the Championship or NRC need to win or get to a championship/NRC GF to be able to bid'"

So what you're saying is if you are in the Championship or the NRC and want to be in the SL but don't think you'll meet the stated criteria then the best idea is to just drop out of the league? I don't really think that is the message the RFL are trying to send here, do you?

Quote: SmokeyTA "

it doesnt, it argues against your own point,

if the in 1895 RL didnt exist, yet all the clubs who joined the NRFU were semi-pro, so 11 years later, when they were still semi-pro and they created a new sport RL, then they were never amateur RL sides were they? they were semi-pro RL sides who became pro RL sides but who were ultimately born of semi-pro RU sides who were a fair amount of time previously amateur RU sides

though again, this is irrellevant as what i actually said was there hasnt been one in more than 80 years, Castleford were the last ones to do it in 36 (i think) the last amateur side to be admitted to the semi-pro ranks was the skolars in 2002, and as far as i am aware there was no club in between those two'"

No, in 1895, the RFL didn't exist. We are an evolution from rugby union. We started off playing their laws. The clubs were amateur before they turned semi-pro playing the same identical sport, whether they were governed by the RFL/NRFU or the RFU is irrelevant. They were amateur before they went semi-pro, and semi-pro before they went fully pro.

As for irrelevant, your 80 year time line is pointless. Amateur rugby league was a dying breed prior to the 70s. And after 96, amateur rugby league was played in a different season. There are hindering factors as to why there has been slow progress and the system must be looked at.

I don't understand how you can argue that the top-down system is the best because there are no example of the bottom-up system working, when there are no examples of the top-down system working in this country, and 11 out of 14 SL clubs came from the bottom-up method.