Was there as well. I thought that Thunder stopped Rooney from using his kicking game and kept it tight, the Barrow wingers didn't get any service all night. Thunder's goal line defence was superb, especially in the second half and Broadbent should really have taken McAlpine's penalty that bounced twice before it went out as we scored after 3 sets coming from that.... Hadn't realised we manipulated the referree and to be fair none of the Barrow fans around us thought so either and thought we deserved to win.



That's really good, never heard that one before. Funny how the issue of the quota system rears it's ugly head at the business end of the season. Same as the issue of Toulouse being exempt from relegation. The rules are in place at the start of the season and we all play to them.

Not sure, probably based on their playing strength, would be a shame but I'd still rather they won there than lost badly in Championship 1

Just sick of people suggesting teams for promotion when they don't know the reality, it was widely suggested for Coventry even after they'd had to drop out of NL3.

But yes NCL would be more realistic

Apparently Leigh East are doing up their ground, but they'd presumably have to relax Championship 1 criteria a bit to expand the league to a manageable number (at that level many RU clubs have grounds like good NCL ones, so as long as there's criteria for the Championship itself that is better than that then it wouldn't be an issue).

But between the 5 NCL Hull clubs and Orchard Park there could easily be made a team of Championship 1 standard, or even two, just not sure where they'd be based

Ah that would explain why Gateshead have been totally unbeatable the last couple of months, but struggled at the start of the season.

Toulouse seem to have had a very bad start and end to the season, but a very good middle, not sure whether the heat in France in the summer helped them there

Depending on who finishes just above Donny I reckon we may see 1 down 2 up to balance things up.

I doubt it mate.
Although I dont follow the issue too closely I've heard a few times that Ch1 clubs are really struggling financially with the lack of fixtures, especially if im not wrong having no fixtures on NRC days, CC days and of course 2 less fixtures than the Ch.
Its probably short notice but imo I wouldnt be suprised if an announcement came to the effect that the Championships became one division again next year.
At the time the split into 2 was the right one, now i'm not too sure.

That would explain why Skolars are possibly getting dropped I imagine, although they'd probably have to drop a couple more to make it truly viable.

But yes they'd need to get a couple more Championship 1 sides to justify expanding the Championship to 12. Having said that I think the Championship could support 14 if they dropped Doncaster and added Dewsbury, Oldham, Keighley and York, but they'd have to find somewhere for the other teams to play

Although having said that the lower salary cap might make a 20 team Championship workable

hmm Whatever happened to the talk of an Irish team joining Ch1 in 2010?
Obviously not going to happen now.
The Ch could go to 20 NRL fixture style, Skolars being dropped for anything other than financial reasons would be a blow imo

Yeah though putting them in against teams like Widnes would be a bad idea also

The Irish team idea won't be happening I imagine, unless the RFL want to throw money at it for the geographical location, they also announced a 2nd division last year which never existed, so hard to believe anything from there

Although think the divisions won't merge next year, unless they can't get enough teams to run it, as they wouldn't be asking clubs like Leigh East to move up to a merged league, but they would to keep 2 divisions afloat

I think if we had one Championship then it would be incredibly difficult to get new sides to join the pro ranks. The gap between new semi-pro club and nearly fully-pro is immense.

Again, if it comes down to the Championship 1 sides not having enough fixtures, then why can't they play each other three times like they used to in SL? If you promoted one team to Championship to make it 12, that leaves you with nine Championship 1 sides. 9 x 3 = 24 games.

I've read that Championship sides need to make some kind of down-payment to the RFL. Is this like a deposit sort of thing in case they go bust? Or is it an entrance fee or what?