With the current MPG format we still don't have a system that reliably puts the bottom of twelve down after 30 games. It did this time but may not next season.
P&R is a must for me but I'd rather go with 14 team SL, tops 8 playoffs. Bottom SL straight down, top Champ straight up. OR, bottom team is SL play top team in Champ twice (home and away) to decide.
Living in Canada I see how a closed shop League makes way to many games meaningless, especially for the lower end teams toward the end of the season, hence I strongly support P&R.
I do think also that there may be an argument to make it a first season pass for a promoted team if they finish bottom. (ie have the second to bottom be the jeopardy).

Yes, we finished 12th after 30 games. Catalans finished 13th and stayed up!

that might be the best solution - 5th in the eights goes down without the gladiatorial MPG where Emperor Nigel lords it over two tearful sets of honest professional men.

Crikey Jack are you ok?

Ahah fine thanks but I can't think of any other sport where you fight to the death and one team loses their livelihoods - it's demeaning and the mental health issues are appalling including 'survivor syndrome' for members of the winning team.

Jukes and Anderson signed up for next season to

FFS

That's just silly. So the promoted team could lose every game, be the whipping boys, and the team that finishes many, many games ahead could go down in their place so that promoted team could gain stability. Whereas the team that is so much better loses its stability?

It shows the difficulty of promotion and relegation. One up, one down is still the simplest way. I'd be fine going down if I knew I had an equal chance of coming up again. The current system isn't too bad, because the reality is that the Championship winners will be less battered and more confident. That's how you got up, and how KR got up. The SL teams who ends up in the MPG will be low on confidence or bodies, which probably evens out the advantage of playing four lower league teams.

Your difficulty in coming up was maybe recruitment. Your pack is good but old. Your backs are good but young. Where was the old head to lead the young backs? Where was the young grunt to take some of the work away from the old guys?

Good luck next year anyway. I enjoy coming to the village. A good ground and good fans.

What pack would that be?

Was it silly for Catalans when they first came in?

Agree on your point about old pack and young backline. Sadly the younger forwards (Green and dare I say Hopkins) didn't step up as much as hoped, while Acton got banned for 4 months! The biggest mistakes came in the backs, where there was too much reliance on Tonga, and sending Ridyard out on loan.

We did not finish 12th

We

How old was our pack on Saturday?

Only one of our starting pack on Saturday was under 30.

Maria (30), Higham (37), Tickle (34); Paterson (30), Stewart (33), Burr (24)

Which admittedly was also the case for Catalans. But how many of them have been expected to play 80 mins for successive weeks like Tickle, Paterson and Stewart have done at times this year?

Which could well account for the number of half time fade outs we have witnessed. All the 30+ brigade are/have been good players at SL, but there have been too many of them to keep up the momentum over the season.