Eye on the Championship #1: Play Offs Week 1
Welcome to our first “Eye on the
Championship” blog, which will be posted weekly until after the promotion
finals. I say finals, because we will also be covering all matters in League 1.
The Championship play-offs this
year are almost certainly the most geographically spread in rugby league
history, with games taking place in Toronto, Toulouse and England.
The first of those games was on
Saturday when York, who have done fantastically well to finish third and thus
gain the coveted “second chance” in the play offs, travelled to Toulouse. York went
into the fixture as underdogs but a close game was expected, as per the sides
previous meetings in 2019, both of which were narrow Toulouse wins.
That failed to materialise with
Toulouse running out as comfortable winners by 44-6. Toulouse were at their
spellbinding best in this match, scoring a number of eye-catching tries. You
very rarely see this side score a close-range barge over try by a prop forward!
The win for Toulouse meant that
they were “rewarded” with a trip to Toronto. For reasons which I cannot fathom,
even if Toulouse win next week in Toronto and progress to the Grand Final at
the first time of asking, should Toronto make the Grand Final too, the game
will still be played in Canada. Confused? Me too!
The pragmatist may ask how
Toulouse should approach this game? If they win on Sunday, the likely outcome
is having to repeat the feat in Toronto in two weeks. If they lose, they will
have to face either York or Featherstone at home for the right to face Toronto
away again.
Which of the two is the
favourable route to Super League? When considering the travel involved, there
is a strong argument to say the latter. For integrity reasons, I anticipate
that Toulouse will go all out to beat Toronto next week, but they could hardly
be blamed for sending a weakened team, accepting a defeat and having their
first team fresh to play York or Featherstone in two weeks for a place in the
final. Toulouse’s squad announcement may be interesting.
As for York, their attention switched
to the elimination play off between Leigh and Featherstone on Sunday night,
with the winner due to travel to Bootham Crescent on Saturday to face York in
the first elimination match.
And after Featherstone’s
comprehensive win against Leigh on Sunday evening, York will not be under any illusions
as to the difficulty of their task. Featherstone’s 34 points to 18 win against Leigh
was thoroughly deserved and the margin of victory was thoroughly reflective of
Featherstone’s dominance.
Leigh’s team contained a lot more
high-profile names. Late season recruits such as Junior Sau and Kevin Brown
gave Leigh’s side a stronger look on paper compared to Featherstone’s, who were
bolstered by several current Leeds players on the edge of the first team or
players who have moved from Leeds on a more permanent basis.
But it was Featherstone who
attacked the game. In spite of the wet conditions, Featherstone scored some
well worked team tries and often found themselves in the position to score
through an aggressive (yet legal) defensive charge. Callum McLelland, one of
the Leeds contingent, described Featherstone’s performance as their best of the
year. Saturday’s elimination play off promises to be a fantastic occasion.
It would be remiss of us not to
mention Leigh’s departing stars, Micky Higham and whose careers ended with
yesterday’s defeat. Micky Higham has had a stellar career at a number of clubs,
won all of the domestic trophies and represented his country. But his emotion in
his post-match interview suggests that playing for his home time club is the
greatest honour of all. Luke Douglas’ career in England had been more brief,
but the Leigh fans have taken him to their hearts in his one-year loan spell.
On to the League 1 play offs and
we saw something quite rare this weekend in that both away teams won in the
same week, which is almost unheard of in the top 5 play off system. A couple of
weeks ago, Newcastle chairman Mick Hogan told Rugby League Back Chat
that he saw Doncaster as the greatest threat to stop his side achieving their
goal of promotion.
It seemed quite an unusual
comment considering that Oldham were the top-ranked side going into the play
offs, but Hogan’s caution proved to be well-placed. Doncaster were clinical,
defensively solid and ultimately comfortable victors on Sunday at Kingston
Park.
Doncaster now travel to Oldham
next Sunday with a place in the promotion final up for grabs. On the back of
yesterday’s performance, they will travel there full of confidence.
As for Newcastle, their reprieve
sees them face Workington at home next weekend. Workington have progressed to
this stage by defeating Hunslet. Maybe in a sign of our progression in recent
years, the Hunslet vs Workington match was the only play-off game this weekend
that was not either televised or live-streamed.
Workington’s regular season
campaign was slightly disappointing. Before the start of the season, there was
plenty of optimism for Leon Pryce’s men. That soon evaporated and Leon Pryce
left the club. They won exactly half of their regular season fixtures, but that
proved enough to secure the final play-off spot.
On Sunday, they repeated their
feat of a couple of weeks earlier, by travelling to Hunslet and winning. That
result eliminated Hunslet, leaving them to woe their achilles’ heel that is
their 2019 home form.
For Workington, they can now
start to look upwards. Their new head coach Chris Thorman has just signed a new
three-year contract and he takes his side to Newcastle in next week’s
elimination play off with little to lose. It will be quite the occasion for the
Newcastle-born Thorman who will seek to eliminate his hometown team from the
promotion race.
Remember to check back here next
week, for our next “Eye on Championship” blog, reflecting on week 2 of
the play offs!
Toronto vs Toulouse Sunday 22 September at 6:30PM (Sky Sports)
Oldham vs Doncaster Sunday 22 September at 2:00PM (OurLeague)
Championship - Play Offs - As it stands
League 1 - Play Offs - As it stands
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