Quote: af "IIRC most people had a problem with the derbies when they were one of four. Now each side only plays each other twice, surely the derbies would be more palatable.
The RFL should have seen the possibility of this fixture lit arising. The reaction across the boards is very predictable and it's not just coming from MM-haters. The lack of any big game is a real stumbling block for those wishing to justify the expense of the weekend. This is not quite a 'damned if they do...' situation. A 1st vs 2nd, 3rd vs 4th format would be much less likely to throw up such an unappealing set of games.'"
I think a better format would be to not announce any games and have 1v2 3v4 5v6 7v8 9v10 11v12 13v14 based on the league table from the week before. That would work even better if relegation was in place.
If they had gone with that last year we'd have got
St Helens v Hull KR
Leeds v Huddersfield
Castleford v Harlequins
Wakefield v Hull
Wigan v Catalans
Warrington v Bradford
Salford v Celtic
Then again some teams have played 10 and others 11 so maybe that would be unfair?
I still think it's a good idea though!
It guarantees your playing an important game.
