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Super League Week - September 1997

NOBODY at Odsal will need reminding of the last time Bradford Bulls set foot on New Zealand soil. Auckland 64, Bradford 14. The scoreline speaks for itself. The fourth leg of the World Club Championship and the European Super League leaders, still smarting after three succesive home defeats in the competition, were out to silence the doubters and finally make an impact on the world stage. Except it didn't quite turn out that way.

The Bulls were put to the sword, with Auckland's half-back pairing of Gene Ngamu and Stacey Jones in particularily frightening form. Time and again domestic Super League's most impregnable defence was ripped apart by the wing-heeled Kiwi wizards, as points rained in from all four corners of the Ericcson Stadium. Bradford couldn't get a look in.

One man who might have had something to say about that, but instead spent eighty frustrating minutes nursing a broken thumb on the sidelines, was the Bulls' superstar skipper - and ex-Auckland junior - Robbie Paul. But now, with his injury problems and a substitute's appearance in last Friday's impressive New Zealand victory over the Aussies behind him, the most famous number one in the European Super League is out to show the Warriors just what they missed when they allowed him to leave the land of the long cloud. And patriotic Paul is still buzzing from his most recent moment of glory.

"I enjoyed the Test Match enormously," he says. "It was one of the best moments of my Rugby League career. I was only on for fifteen minutes, but they were the best fifteen minutes of my life."

There was a theory that the Auckland players, coming back into the World Club Championship after an eight week lay-off, would be ring rusty and that match-fit Bradford would be in prime position to take advantage. Would that be the same ring rusty Auckland players who gave it to the old enemy in such spectacular style last weekend? Ah well, back to the drawing board. "The Test was an awesome experience," says Paul, "I know I had a try disallowed but I can't think of the match in individual terms at all.  It was a great team effort, and most of those guys will be facing us on Friday."

And no doubt Paul's recently gained inside knowledge will be put to good effect by the Bradford coaching staff? "I'm sure I can give Matthew (Elliott) and the boys a few insights into the blokes I was playing with," he says. "But you can't really teach people about other players until they experience coming up against their talents for themselves."

And in the battle for midfield, Paul knows he is going to have his hands full. "Stacey Jones is going to be a freak, if he isn't one already," he says. "He's got great skills, is lightning off the mark, and can beat anybody in a short sprint. Stacey is a sensational player. It's not just at scrum-half, though, the Warriors have talent coming at you from all sides. But we haven't come out here looking for more of the same, we're going to compete this time. The finish to our season was a bit of a damp squib, and we're looking to put that right. I feel good, the lads feel good. We know we've got a tough job to do, but we're up for it. We are European Super League champions after all, and nobody can ever take that away from us."

Last time out, Bulls coach Elliott was in equally defiant mood at the final whistle. "I fully expected to win today," he said, "but I know how these players react to adversity. They have been hurt but they will bounce back." Now is the time.

Super League Week - May 1997

MIKE FORSHAW is back. And how! The 27 year old second row forward who cut his professional teeth with Wigan, Wakefield and Leeds, before being lured away to try his hand with union giants Saracens, was back making his Odsal debut last Sunday night in Bradford Bulls' magnificent six try demolition of champions St Helens.

Odsal's largest crowd for a League game since 1954 witnessed an awesome display of ferocious attacking and defensive firepower, a breath-taking performance which opened up a four point gap in the Super League title race in the process.  And two try Forshaw was at the heart of it. Poor Saints just didn't know what hit them.

But what about Bradford's newest Bull? To find yourself in the hot-house atmosphere that is currently the Odsal cauldron, after the relatively lack-lustre surroundings of the "Sarries" second team, must have been something of a culture shock to say the least. "Yes, the crowd atmosphere in union is a lot different to League," says the relieved returnee. "Last week reminded me a lot of when I played for Wigan in the Premiership Final at Old Trafford. Here, it's like playing at Old Trafford every week. The atmosphere's great."

And how about Forshaw himself? He certainly seemed to get back into the swing of things quickly enough from where I was sitting. First bursting through on a short pass from Glen Tomlinson in the 21st minute and then juggling his way through a bemused Saints defence to notch up his gamebreaking second just after half time. But didn't the pace of the game, after his union sojourn, begin to get to him?

"You do need to be a heap fitter to play League," he admits, "but I felt very good on Sunday because I've looked after myself. In fact, I've probably trained a lot harder recently than I have for ages. Even though I was playing union I was always itching to come back into Rugby League so I kept myself fit, did extra work on the weights and on the track. To be honest I don't feel that I've been out of the game for that long, it's only been eight games. I've just tried to look at it as though I've had a bit of an injury and it was my first match back. I once came back from an injury against Wigan when I was with Wakefield and I ended up having a great game, so I just approached things that way."

Was he surprised to be given the chance to get back into League so soon? Not really, it seems. In fact, when the call from the Bulls came, you get the impression he couldn't get back up the M1 quick enough. "I was desperate to get back, really," he reveals. "As soon as I saw Super League come back on TV I decided that was where I wanted to be. Union just wasn't for me. Plus I didn't really enjoy living in London. My wife and new born baby were back over in Wigan and when the Bulls came in it was the ideal opportunity. I leapt at it and would like to thank Matthew Elliott for bringing me here."

How about League's public image down south? Did Forshaw see the game making any in-roads? "Well, at Saracens people like Michael Lynagh and Keiron Bracken used to go along to watch London Broncos for example, and I know they enjoyed it," he says. "A lot of the people down there do still see the game as just a northern sport, though. It's an attitude we've got to break down "But, either way, union's nowhere near as good as Rugby League as far as I'm concerned. I'm League through and through, always have been."

Surely, though, he can't have been expecting to push his way into the Bulls' red hot first team so soon? "Well, I wasn't just coming here to make the numbers up!" he affirms. "I want to go from strength to strength. I can't wait to have a go at the Aussies and am just looking to keep my place in the Bradford squad."

Ex-Wiganer as he is, though, Forshaw has played alongside some illustrious names in his time, and has a word of warning for his new team-mates. "I think the Bulls can win Super League, sure," he says. "There are a lot of teams who would like to be in our position at the moment, but we haven't got to get complacent. I was at Wigan in the early nineties and we had such a strong side. The best thing about that team, though, was that they showed no mercy. They went out every week and just blew teams off the park from the start. That's what we've got to start doing. We can't go to Warrington this week and relax, we've just got to get at them from the first minute."

And beyond Super League? Does he see the Bulls making a meaningful impact in the World Club Championship? "We need to keep winning our games now up until we play the Aussies, and then we can have a real good crack at them," he states confidently. "The squad we've got here is certainly capable of doing them some damage." He can say that again, and In Forshaw the Bulls have added yet more dynamite to their already impressive arsenal.

Super League programmes column - April 2000

PARDON me for mentioning another magazine in these august pages (it isn't August, it's April - ed), but in the course of the week's weft I happened across the latest Big Issue.

The Big Issue, for those who are socially unaware, is the magazine/newspaper sold by homeless people on the streets of our towns and cities, with a view to them "helping themselves" as Carol's Victorian dad Samuel Smilies might have put it. Anyroad, in the latest edition there is a magnificent profile of a poet by somebody called Ally Fogg. And not just any poet either. Step forward Wakefield Trinity Wildcats' latest signing Louis Kasatkin.

Now Louis, for those of you who know about fanzines and stuff, used to edit Castleford's Rebel Yell, but these days he can be found wandering lonely as a Lancashire Lynx supporter at Belle Vue. He is, in short, Wakefield's poet-in-residence. Whether that mean he lives permanently in the East Stand is anybody's guess, but what is certain is that he is now officially in charge of putting together the odd quatrain or two on behalf of the Wakey faithful. Or, as Louis himself puts it, to "apply semiotics to the cultural struggle of northern England."

Just what an inedible milk pudding has to do with anything I don't know, but what I do know is that this a very entertaining piece and well worth a look if you can grab a copy. My regular readers in the Wildcats programme will already know of Louis's writings, given that he has a regular column - Umberto Eco's Ashtray - a bit nearer the front of The Wildcat than mine. And as we speak he is probably ambling gaily over yonder scoreboard end, gazing at an open canto, hand on forehead, pondering the futility of man's existence and whether the refs have got it in for Andy Kelly's men or not.

"(Rugby League) is not the most obvious arena to exercise the most ethereal and effete literary form," writes Fogg. "But then think of The Iliad or The Charge of the Light Brigade - an epic rendering of heroic battles - and it begins to make some kind of sense. Or as much sense as anything makes in the company of Kasatkin."

Louis, I'm happy to report, is ever so slightly potty. Once upon a time he wrote as Rugby League correspondent for Leeds' Other Paper - which I also had a cartoon or two in myself - his pieces packed with classical allusions and surreal jokes. How about this? "Heroes and warrior princes, deeds fabled in inexhaustible eidolon, their countenances resplendent with mythic grandeur, return to the Casus Belli." Eh? Now I'm not thick. I can do the Sun crossword. But something just went flying over my head and it wasn't a Steve McNamara penalty attempt.

If Louis serves any purpose at all though, it is that he vigorously splatters those old Rugby League stereotypes on the wall of, er, life. We are not all whippet rearing, pigeon fancying, flat cap wearing, dour, miserable sods, are we?

"Poetry and rugby are both part of the continuing fabric of cultural expression...," he opines. "They give meaning. Whether the fans or the audience are enthralled by it is neither here nor there. The point is it has been performed. It has been internalised, consumed, made sense of, and something is gained by it. That's all it ever is."

Quite.

Super League Week - March 1998

NOBODY knows more about Grand Finals than London Broncos' Australian International Mark Carroll. A veteran of the last three Down Under, the giant Ex-Manly star has experienced all the highs and lows of this greatest of Rugby League occasions and reckons us Brits are in for a treat come October 24th.

A dwindling few still cling to the comfortable tradition of the old style first past the post system. Forget it, says Carroll. For sheer excitment, we ain't seen nothin' yet! "The Grand Final is great concept for the English," confirms the big man known to friend and foe alike as Spud. "The English game is getting better every year, and the new Australian set-up is going to change a lot of peoples' ideas. The crowds are going to love it. The Top 5 play-offs are a great five weeks, they really are. It's so tense. Especially the sudden death games, such as fourth versus fifth. The winners go through, the losers are out and on the drink on Monday. If you're number one past the post, you've got a week to recover, and then if you're good enough you can go straight through to the Grand Final."

So enamoured is Carroll with the play-offs that he still carries a treasured memento of his Grand Final exploits which he looks at every day of his life. "In Australia, they introduced the idea of giving the winners a gold ring in 1995," he says, showing it off proudly. "Before that you used to get a medal, which would just lie around gathering dust on the shelf. The ring, though, is really well made with the year you won it engraved on the side. It is something I treasure. I love it and wear it everyday."

One sure sign that the Grand Final concept is truly about to capture the sporting imagination of the British public, is the presence of last year's Newcastle v Manly spectacular - a match many describe as the best of all time - at the top of the London Sportspages best-selling video hit list. Carroll was in the thick of it.

"That game was awesome," he recalls, "although the result wasn't the one I wanted. To lose in the Final is always very disheartening, but it was a great game for the fans. There's nothing like a Grand Final for atmosphere."

But to get there, the hard work starts here. Can the Broncos overcome their Challenge Cup disappointment? "Aw, mate," sighs their new bear of a prop, "it was my first Challenge Cup and I didn't realise how much passion was involved. But back home in Australia we class those games as strolls. The real comp starts this weekend." With a Saturday night spectacular under the Old Trafford Theatre of Dreams floodlights to look forward to at the end of it, who wouldn't be drooling at the prospect?

League Express - October 1999

I'VE always felt at home in Castleford. And not just because, in "Penguin" Bradley's immortal words, I am "follically challenged" like just about everybody seems to be at Wheldon Road these days. Shiny pate camaraderie - while most welcome - is not even half the appeal.

No, my affection stems from the place's character. It's just so down to earth, friendly and unpretentious. No matter what has been thrown at them, Castleford folk have historically dusted themselves down and got on with life. And, best of all, the town's Rugby League club is now showing that the possession of those qualities doesn't have to preclude ambition and forward thinking. With an initial reluctance to embrace the concept of summer Super League now well and truly behind them, the people of Cas are buzzing. There's a palpable feeling that good times could be just around the corner.

Much of the credit for that must, of course, go to two men; marketing manager Michael McDonald (bald), and head coach Stuart Raper (not bald, but getting there). Both have masterminded a complete reversal of fortunes for this famous old club, which culminated this summer in two high profile defeats with big days out at Wembley and Old Trafford tantalisingly within reach.

Sitting on the Wheldon Road terraces - bathed in autumnal sunshine believe it or not - the latter of those two gents reflects on a domestic season so successful that he was nominated for "Coach of the Year" at the end of it. "I'll never forget the way our supporters were just going berserk in the play-offs at Wigan and Leeds," Stuart Raper smiles, while recuperating from the effects of the club's end of season ‘Mad Monday’ a couple of days earlier. "I just kept getting pulled up by everyone as I walked down the street on the Sunday before the Saints game by people wishing me all the best. It's been good for the town and hopefully we can build on that."

‘Mad Monday’, by the way, is a concept Stuart introduced to the club from Australia at the end of Super League III. If I say that it's main aim is to forge team spirit, that attendance is compulsory, and that the Wheldon Road cleaners were kept extra busy on "Mother of all Hangovers Tuesday", I'm sure you'll get the drift. "Togetherness breeds solidarity" could be the Raper creed, as I discovered when we first met back in July 1997 at Manchester Airport of all places. He had just arrived at the club from Cronulla and was already in the process of turning a relegation haunted season around, as his new Tigers prepared to fly to Paris for a crunch battle at the Charlety Stadium.

As he collected documentation from his large party gathered at the check-in desk, an in control but quietly harassed Stuart glanced over the mountain of luggage and spotted your reporter and the travelling match officials stuck away at the back. "Here, give us your passports lads," he said, "then we can all go through together." And that group mentality - perhaps even siege mentality at the time - was to serve an anxious group of players well. Largely as a result of the discipline and focus their young coach had instilled in his squad, Castleford picked up a 20-8 win over Andy Goodway's side (with then under-rated centre Adrian Vowles my League Express man of the match, by the way - smug TH). The die was cast. The Tigers were on the way up.

"That was probably the most nervous I've ever been for a game, I'll never forget that," he admits, his memory jogged. "We've come a long way since then, a bit quicker than expected too. But there are a lot of people working hard here, which is why we're doing so well." Other than having a year's playing experience with Oldham, the delights of this part of the world were largely hidden at first. Even allowing for the sun kissed nirvana that is Castleford on a sunny October morning, Stuart admits to having early doubts.

"After the first couple of months I thought I'd made a mistake. I wasn't too sure what was going to happen," he remembers. "When my wife Cathy followed me out and got off the plane she said, 'how is it?'. I told her she might be better off getting straight back on, but she said, 'no we're not! But then we avoided relegation and I thought, 'I'm going to have a make a good dig of this'. Since then we've improved the marketing too, and just got better and better on and off the field.

"I'm probably most pleased for the players that were here in that first year. I would have loved to have seen Adrian (Vowles) running around Old Trafford this week because he was here in the hard times and he copped a lot of flak. Now he's the 'Man of Steel'. Blokes like Dean Sampson, Richard Gay, Jason Flowers, Nathan Sykes and the rest, they all went through those tough times and you've got to go through the tough times to really appreciate the good ones."

Did he always see himself coaching? Coming from a family headed by the legendary Johnny Raper, and with brother Aaron later to pull up Aussie first grade trees before joining his big brother in Tigertown, the pressure to succeed as a player must have been immense. "I played with Cronulla, St George and Wests, played a few first grade games here and there but never really achieved anything. It was the era when we had the five metre rule and I was just wasn't big enough really. I fell into coaching a bit. I went down to country level, had some success and got the job with Cronulla when John Lang joined. My teams played in four or five Grand Finals in a row, and it all kicked off from there.

"Me and the wife were struggling financially at first. I'd lost a bit of money when I went to the country for different reasons and we had to sell our flat to pay for a milk run so that I could earn enough money to give me the time to coach at Cronulla. She gave me two years to make it in coaching otherwise I would have to get a 'serious' job. Thankfully, I had a bit of success and then this came up."

Whoah, just hold on there. Hot revelation! Stuart Raper was a milkman? "Yeah," he laughs. "I was a milkman for three years. It was a tough job. I started at three in the morning and finished about eight. I'd have some breakfast, an hour's sleep, and then it would be straight down to the training field to help John out with the first grade side, before coaching at night with the reserve grade. It was pretty tough times. I didn't see much of my kids at first, we'd just started the family, but it was all worth it. You work hard, you get the rewards."

That's another philosophy which is currently serving Cas well. Hardly in the same financial league as the so-called "big four", Raper accepts that the Tigers are more than likely going to have to do it tough just about every season. Money is hardly rolling in from all sides, and a sense of realism is paramount. That's why raising the club profile is so important. No matter how well they perform, under the present unequal situation Castleford and smaller clubs like them are always going to be starting from behind the eight ball. That is what makes this season's achievements so impressive and, after the relegation of Danny Orr to non-travelling reserve, the complete absence of any Cas player in the Great Britain and Ireland Tri-nations squad that flew off yesterday so sadly predictable.

Not that Raper is sulking over the issue. "I'm a bit disappointed for Danny," he sighs, "and picking him would have been good for the game. There aren't a lot of home grown stand offs in this country, and the experience he would have gained would have been invaluable. But I do think that Danny will eventually become an international player. He comes out of the mould of a Millward or a Hardisty, great players like that. The signs were there throughout the year that Dean wasn't going to make it, and Jason Flowers has probably been unlucky too, but Bradford really haven't got that many players in either and having so many Aussies in the squad does cut your odds down.

"I strongly believe that you need selectors. This is no disrespect to Andy Goodway, but one man alone can't do the job when he's seeing the same side every week. Karle Hammond, for example, is probably the best stand off in the country and hasn't been seen down in London."

But back to Stuart Raper and what of his future? As we amble back over the terraces, birds singing, and the neighbouring Hickson chemical works belching silver lined clouds of goodness knows what into the crisp, blue West Yorkshire sky, Raper admits that his first priority will be getting most of the current squad to sign contracts for next season. And he reveals that there are imminent new signings in the pipeline too.

"I guess I'm a Yorkshire lad now," he grins. "Both of my children are Pommies. They're Yorkshire, they've got the accent. We're settled now up in Pontefract, we've got a really nice house and the kids are happy in school. It was hard initially but now we're enjoying it. I'm not going to be here for the rest of my life. Someday I will go back home, and hopefully that will be Cronulla, where I grew up. But the short term plan is to build on what we've created in Cas and maybe get that Premiership. After losing the Challenge Cup semi-final against the Broncos at Headingley earlier this year, we came back strong when we beat Halifax here at Wheldon Road.

"Everybody points to Wigan and Leeds away as being the season's big matches but I think that one was. We had to beat Halifax, if we hadn't then we wouldn't have had the chance to take part in those play-offs later. It's been a good season but we need to come back stronger again." And with that, Stuart Raper is off for a meeting with his staff. There's work to be done.

League Express - March 1998

WITH the dawn of any new season, someone can usually be relied on to tip Leeds for one of the big prizes. And yet, among the game's highest profile clubs, Leeds' reputation has only been matched in recent times by the size of their under-achievement.

This summer, if the amount of hard work and inspiration currently going on behind the scenes is anything to go by, that ought to be about to change. With a widely-respected new coach - Australian Graham Murray - at the helm, a handful of talented new signings on the pitch, and a vibrantly keen marketing department just itching to lure the fans back in greater numbers than ever, things have never looked brighter for the long-suffering Headingley public.

The man behind most of the activity, of course, is the Rhinos dynamic, and often controversial, figure Gary Hetherington. Only two seasons ago Leeds were a club that had just undergone an unseemly Centenary season battle against relegation, with a board who were, at best, ambivalent towards any benefits the concept of summer Super League might bring. Then in stepped Hetherington as Chief Executive, arriving in a blaze of publicity from the club he had created almost single-handedly from scratch, Sheffield Eagles. It wasn't long before millionare property developer Paul Caddick was on board as chairman - with Ronnie the Rhino not far behind - and last year a gradual improvement all round was epitomised by a healthy 28% increase in attendances.

Hetherington has always had something of a reputation as an innivator. Ideas are undoubtedly his chief currency. But if he can often be relied upon to upset some of the more traditionalist among us, he can also be relied upon to tell it like it is. "We said right at the outset that to achieve lasting success you've got to build," he affirms. "That's exactly what we've been doing for the last 18 months. We've got a very competent squad in place, we've got an excellent coaching staff, and we've got all the ingredients to be successful, both in the short term and the long term. You are quite right in pointing out that it is 20 years since Leeds last won a major trophy. In one sense, of course, they were unlucky to be competing against Wigan during the period in which they were so dominant. Nobody won anything during that time. Yet, despite having a lot of top class players, and spending a lot of money, Leeds have under-achieved historically."

Hetherington is confident that the appointment of Murray will be the piece in the jigsaw that helps solve that particular puzzle. He also knows that whilst success on the pitch will go a long way to attracting people back through the turnstiles, the efforts of his commercial and marketing staff will be no less important.

"Last year our average attendance went up to just over 11,000 which we were very pleased with," he says. "That was achieved through a) an improved team performance and b) fairly aggressive marketing and ticketing promotions. The emphasis this year will be on attracting people to Headingley and making sure that they become regular followers. There is no point in bringing people to the game and then the next week targeting another section to come to the game. It's important to develop customer loyalty, and keep peoples' interest. Danny Ruben heads up our marketing department, and he and his team are working hard at targetting the youngsters. Our key marketeers, in that regard, are our players. We'll be getting them out into the local schools, and launching ticket incentive schemes on the back of that for the schools and local amateur clubs. We have a whole range of other marketing activities planned, too, including pushing our popular Junior Rhino supporters club."

Leeds also announced last week that they are entering into a marketing partnership with Virgin, through their city centre store. "We've got very healthy replica shirt sales. The Rhinos, and our supplier Asics have introduced a new shirt design and are looking at expanding the areas of where people can buy them. Virgin's shops enjoys a very big market, especially with young people, the sort of market we are out to attract to Headingley. It's very much a joint venture with Asics, an interesting development and one that is only going to heighten the profile of the club."

Ah, that new shirt. It doesn't seem to have gone down too well with some of the Headingley faithful, fearful at reports that the club is about to ditch its traditional colours. Hetherington plays down the criticism. "I never said we were going to change the club colours at all," he insists, "that was a complete fabrication. In fact, I said quite the opposite. I don't know why it should be controversial at all, because every club in the League has an alternative kit design. There's nothing more traditional than Wigan's red and white, for example, but they play in blue when they have to. It's a Rugby League requirement that kits don't clash. Clubs must have an alternative colour. Indeed, until recent years, Leeds' alternative colour was always green. The Leeds colours of blue and amber - our home strip - remains identical to last season. Our change strip will be an attractive white, with red and black on it."

Another area of great controversy, too, is the Rhinos ever-growing links with rugby union. Hetherington, and the Leeds board, have attracted criticism from some Headingley regulars upset that their hallowed turf is now also home to a code which they will never see as anything other than "the enemy". Hetherington, unsurprisingly, is more pragmatic.

"It's not a fair criticism to say that Leeds Rhinos are not 100% behind Rugby League. It is our primary business. I believe that both can help the other, but both will stand alone. They can share resources, facilities and so on, and each can consolidate the other. That's clearly the case here at Headingley. But union is expanding. There will be enormous benefits for everybody involved if rugby union was to become popular in the winter, here in Leeds. I think that this sort of thing will actually become a trend. Out of Rugby League clubs, you may well get new rugby union clubs, and vice versa."

But, for now, it is Super League which tops the Hetherington agenda, and the man who is largely behind the competition's "summer roadshow" is looking forward to taking the Rhinos out to a wider audience. Leeds, it seems, will be first on the national stage, playing Salford in Gateshead on the first Friday night. If that fixture is confirmed the Leeds boss concedes that his club could reap the dividends but says his main aims are more philanthropic.

"We have supporters from the North East already," he reveals. "Our season ticket holders are from as far away as Newcastle, and we are the most northerly Super League club. Yes, in the short term we could well attract some new support, but in the longer term I would be very keen to see a franchise in the North East for its own sake. The idea is that Gateshead themselves will become a Super League club. By playing a Super League game at their venue, we will be assisting in their development. We at Leeds are very keen to do whatever we can."

All the old doubts are banished. Leeds are a club now totally committed to the Super League dream. Home or away, Rhinos fans are in for a season to remember.

Super League Week - February 1998

IN the fast-changing world of television sport, at least one thing appears constant. The BBC will continue - for the foreseeable future - to show the Rugby League Challenge Cup.

With BSkyB enjoying an undeniable stranglehold on sport at the moment, the Beeb knows that it will have to work harder to protect the few events it still has a hand on. League's Wembley showcase falls firmly into that category. As a result coverage for this season has been upped to nine matches from the fourth round onwards. There will be a Saturday and Sunday match for four weeks, including the two semi-finals, and the Final in its usual slot on May 3rd. Ray French will continue to call the shots on the Saturday games, but highly-rated soccer commentator Jon Champion has been drafted in on Sundays to give the BBC's coverage further clout.

Given BSkyB's strong position, the national broadcaster cannot afford any repeat of the complacency which resulted in their universally derided 1995 World Cup coverage - or lack of it. But the BBC are now bullish about Rugby League, and the part they see themselves playing in its future. Questions about their commitment to the sport are met with an abrupt response.

"I think you should know we are committed by now," snaps BBC Executive Producer of Sport Malcolm Kemp. "It wasn't our idea not to do the Regal Trophy, and it certainly wasn't our idea not to do the Test matches. I get a bit annoyed with some of the things that get said. Asking me if we're committed to Rugby League is not a fair question. We're a damn sight more committed than some of the press give us credit for. We get a bit het up about that because we want to do Rugby League."

That unsolicited reference to the Regal Trophy perhaps indicates a consistent tendency on the BBC's part to take its view of Rugby League - and therefore the image it projects to its audience - from the past. So presumably the Challenge Cup, one of the oldest and most revered knock-out events in world sport, will be found nestling safely in the BBC's trophy cabinet for years to come?

"The Challenge Cup is traditionally the most famous and historic competition in Rugby League," affirms the BBC boss. "We'd certainly like to think it is synonymous with us, but things change over time, don't they? We'd never be big headed enough to say that it will be ours forever. Nothing is forever. But we would certainly want to keep it going."

That despite, the fact that viewing figures on last season's Final were slightly down on previous years. In a recently published list of 1997's Top 20 televised sporting events, the Challenge Cup Final was nowhere to be seen, having attracted less than three million viewers. Top of the pile was the Grand National, which picked up 15.16 million. Then it was football all the way until the BBC Sports Review of the Year crept into 17th spot with a viewing figure of 8.23. In last place was the meaningless Barcelona v Newcastle Champions League match which attracted 7.95m viewers. Even the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, an event taken less than seriously by many League fans attracted a published audience of 6.2m.

At a time when the list of sporting events protected from exclusive sale to satellite is under review by Culture Minister Chris Smith, it is equally interesting to note the absence on the list of national "treasures" like golf's Open, Wimbledon's tennis final and rugby union's Five Nations championship. But perhaps the most glaring omission of all, is the fact that not a single event broadcast on satellite TV  - and there were some big ones - has made it into the nation's Top 20. What, if anything, do these facts tell us about League's decision to rely exclusively on BSkyB for its television coverage?

"You do get quantity with satellite in terms of on-air time," admits Kemp. "When they can devote three channels to sport how can you beat it? It's brilliant. But, if you want people, terrestrial television is still reasonably important. I would certainly think it was in Rugby League's interest to have terrestrial coverage. The people who buy a sports channel generally do so because they are already fans to a high degree. But the mass audience who watch if it's easy to watch, but don't bother if they've got to buy something - what I call the fringe viewer - won't. The fringe viewer is very, very important. The real fan will spend the money. But when it comes to broadening the appeal and catching the fringe viewers it's a different story."

But what about those Cup Final viewing figures? A full house at Wembley last May clearly showed that there is still enormous interest in the competition. Why, as in previous years, didn't that interest carry over to the national TV audience?

"The figures were down slightly for last year's Challenge Cup," agrees Kemp, "primarily, I think, because of the lack of awareness and build up. The Regal Trophy was always a good early season lead in to the winter Christmas period, and helped deliver an audience for the game. Last year we didn't have that. It was disappointing that the ratings were down, but it's not just because the final is now at the beginning of the season. When Rugby League was a winter game we always had the Trophy as a Challenge Cup build-up and we got good figures for it. There is no longer any build up. We were very disappointed to lose the Trophy, we really were. It was a damn good tournament and kept the momentum and awareness going. Last year, instead of having fifteen games of Rugby League, we had six."

It is an open secret that the BBC would have liked to have shown the recent Great Britain v Australia Test Series live too, instead of just the ten minute highlights packages they finally had to settle for. Does Kemp think the sport lost out by not having that Saturday afternoon coverage? "We certainly wanted those Test matches," admits the one-time Head of Sport for Television New Zealand. "If we'd done them live, we would have got four to five million viewers, maybe more. As it was Sky got about 400,000."

But if they had got the nod, would they have done the game justice? Complaints about BBC coverage of League have been legion. There have been countless notorious occasions over the years, when our game appears to have been given second class status. "We try and please everybody all of the time," says Kemp in the BBC's defence, "which, of course, is a thing you can never do. If you've got horse racing and golf on at the same time, for example, at some stage the horse racing people are going to be upset. Or the golf people are going to be upset. That's the problem with a programme like Grandstand, we have to cram so much in."

The advent of digital TV, and the subsequent airtime space that will create should help alleviate that problem of course. Will that be to Rugby League's benefit? "The future of TV in the digital age will be very interesting," agrees Kemp. "Here at the BBC we sincerely hope digital television and sport are closely linked. That's in terms of all sport. The digital opportunity will hopefully mean more televised sport, but at this stage the development of digital TV is in its infancy. There are all sorts of policies being made that are still in the pot. The BBC are aware of digital, and we are getting our hands on it next year. There is no reason why Rugby League couldn't feature. At this stage, there is potentially good reason for it."

Time for League to forgive and forget? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But certainly plenty of reason for the game not to rush into another tightly binding five year contract with any broadcaster, terrestrial or satellite. In an uncertain future, with broadcasters ever more hungry for sports to fill their widening schedules with, room for manoeuvre ought be paramount.

Rugby League World - February 1999

Gateshead Thunder star DEON BIRD has had a more varied career than most, taking in Brisbane, Paris, Adelaide, an aborted stay in London, and now Rugby League's latest outpost the North East of England.

Highs

THE highlight of my career came early on, when I played for the Australian under 19's against the BARLA Young Lions on their 1994 tour. I was playing reserve grade at Brisbane Broncos at the time, and we flogged them by over fifty points in both Tests if I remember rightly.

I played all right. We had a pretty good side then, with players like Anthony Mundine and Robbie Ross in it. I played half a game in the first match, and the last twenty in the second, so that was pretty memorable. Playing at the top level of the Aussie competition for Adelaide last season was pretty special too.

I couldn't go back to Paris for obvious reasons, and the contract I'd agreed with London Broncos fell through, so I'd ended up playing for Redcliffe in the Queensland Cup. My manager kept pestering everybody, though, and he eventually got me fixed up with the Rams.

It went well. I played 14 games and scored six tries, and generally did well enough to interest Shane Richardson when he was looking for players to come to Gateshead. It's a high point being here too, of course, and the way Shane spoke when he was selling the club convinced me that we'd go alright. The calibre of player at Gateshead gives me the impression that we're capable of a top five place.

I'm really keen to play in a Grand Final, and I also want to hang about long enough to play at Wembley in the Challenge Cup Final.

Lows

1996 at Brisbane was a low point. With the political upheaval of the ARL - Super League split, players like Paul Hauff, Scott Blacker and Robbie Ross found their way there, and I was pretty much pushed to the outer. Halfway through the season I was back playing in the Queensland Cup. That wasn't a very happy time.

But then I got the opportunity to play for Paris, and despite the problems that came up it's something I've never regretted. Many people might expect that to be a low point, but I don't see it that way. It was a great learning experience, and whatever happened happened.

The one thing it did do, though, was help provide another low with the situation in London. I'd signed a contract to play for the Broncos on 1998, but it turned out we'd been playing on the wrong visas in France and I couldn't get a work permit. The Paris players had all been paid from the UK, so we were all on tourist visas, and as a result I didn't have the necessary 12 games to qualify. That meant I had to start my career all over again back home.

Still, it all turned out alright in the end, and if it hadn't happened that way I probably wouldn't have ended up here in Gateshead, would I?

Super League Week - January 1998

IF asked to name a talented teenage Wolf most Warrington fans, with good reason, would reply, "Lee Briers". This year that could be about to change.

Not that Briers is going anywhere, no doubt he'll be as eye-catching as last season, but another young half-back star is itching to join him on the centre-stage at Wilderspool. Look out Rugby League world - 17 year old John Duffy's comin' thru!

Anybody who watched Warrington's savaging at Shark Park in the World Club Championships last year would know plenty about him already. "Duffy is shining light" ran the League Express headline as the Wolves went down 44-0 to Cronulla. Of all the Warrington players only the impressive young substitute Duffy merited the attentions of the massed ranks of hardened Aussie TV men as the teams trudged off at the end. "...we're talking to the sensational young kid who came off the bench," hollered the pitchside commentator.  "John Duffy is his name - remember that, you're going to hear a lot of this bloke."

And all this in his first full season with the Wolves after arriving from Conference side Wigan St Pats. Duffy himself, was understandably upbeat too. "I like playing alongside Lee Briers and I hope we can become a partnership next year," was his final whistle comment. That was then, of course. But with the arrival of top Aussie stand-off Adam Doyle from Wests, the talented young scrum half has had to reset his sights a bit.

In the Cronulla match, Briers had moved out to stand-off to accomodate Duffy. But with the classy and more experienced Doyle now in the picture, three into two won't go. "I'm working hard pre-season," says the teenage Wolves star with an air of resignation, "and am doing my best to force my way in. Realistically, though, I am just out to get as many first team games as possible. If I'm not in the first team I'll drop back to the Academy side, I've still got two years to go there yet. But if I do get in I'll be doing my best to stay there."

And what does Duffy consider to be his greatest strength? "I'm a good talker," he says. "I like to boss people around." The talk around Wilderspool is that, in Duffy, they have a player who will keep them talking for many years to come.