I do agree with you, despite my posts criticising the decision. I’m by no means against Leigh in SL, my point is that opportunities have been missed and I also believe that come June/July Leigh will be on the end of some good hidings as well - all 6 would have been because they come up hamstrung with finances and little time to build a competitive SL squad.

Good luck to them. Especially to the Thornley brothers and John Duffy, I hope they enjoy their time in SL.

=#FF0000It makes you silly harping on about expansion when it has just failed us big time.

=#0000BFPlease elaborate how/why?

=#00FF00It was a unanimous decision from the panel. You obviously disagree - your opinion of course. Go check out the criteria for this decision, and what Leigh submitted pal.

You haven't touched a nerve at all, It was the right decision,and i'm confident we will justify it.

It failed us because we had no confidence whatsoever to back ourselves. Just like War of The Roses, just like the Exiles, just like licensing. The only thing we’ve backed when it seemed it was failing was Magic Weekend and look how that’s turned out, one of the most looked forward to weekends in the calendar (if not the most looked forward to).

I’m not naive enough to believe every club will survive. Celtic, PSG were real half hearted attempts. But you only have to look to Catalans to see the true potential of expansion if it’s given a chance.

I’m not at all against Leigh in SL. Genuinely I’m not. But when you have Toronto’s fate decided by the clubs, and the 12th SL by an independent panel, there’s something wrong. Just my opinion.

I always favoured Toulouse but there are the unknowns of Brexit and Covid.
Should TO top the Championship in 2021 then maybe those problems will have been resolved.
Leigh is the RFL/SL choice so fair enough.
Let's just welcome Leigh and their supporters to the DW

With the world as it is and after yet another failed attempt at expansion, now is the time for a solid option and Leigh are pretty much that.

They are almost on a hiding to nothing but their relegation won't set them back too much.

London will get their chance again and if it is with franchising will get a few years go at it.

The club won’t be too annoyed to see Leigh back in. They’ll bring 3,000+ to Wigan (if allowed) and that’s a good few bob in to the coffers. It may be short sighted to think this but they’ll be good news in the short term for other clubs, especially Wigan, Saints, Wire etc.

Why?

Agreed,and the most important thing is to have a great game of rugby league.

Given the lack of time Leigh will struggle to put a competitive squad together. On the other hand we have an opportunity to offload some fringe players or to set up a couple of loans.

There is a simple answer for Rugby League expansion. Extend the league to 14 teams and get rid of the stupid loop fixtures. Teams like Leigh, London and Tolouse can then compete. If promotion and relegation is confined to 1 team then at least 2 of those sides will stay in super league for 2 seasons and one of them for 3 seasons at least. Sides like York and Fev then have the opportunity for promotion and the game grows. It's easy really. Just need to expand the league. I don't really see a downside unless I am missing something. I could be.

The downsides would be:

- The existing SL sides would get 1/14 of the TV money instead of 1/12
- The talent pool would be spread thinner, potentially lowering the overall quality
- More uncompetitive games (i.e you're giving up a third Wigan v Saints fixture for a new Wigan v York or whoever)
- Less gate money for the existing SL sides (same theory as above)
- You significantly weaken the Championship as they lose their three best sides
- Less gate money for the remaining Championship sides as presumably the sides getting promoted were drawing higher crowds than whoever comes up from League 1
- There is also the question of what you do with the play offs. If you expand then to 7 or 8 teams then a lot of the regular season will be meaningless for the top sides once they know they are in the play offs. If you have 5 or 6 teams then the season will be meaningless for many of the bottom sides once they know they are safe from relegation.

I'm not saying we shouldn't do it eventually, but those would be the drawbacks.

Yes, but apart from that; what have the Romans ever done for us?