National Leagues 2006

[terracesider]

NL1: Round 15
Batley 44v16 Oldham
Halifax 40v24 Doncaster
HKR 26v6 Rochdale
Widnes 32v16 Leigh
York 28v18 Whitehaven


NL2:Round 19
Sheffield 21v20 Dewsbury
Barrow 36v14 Blackpool
Featherstone 11v10 Celtic
Gateshead 26v18 Hunslet
Swinton 58v12 London S.
Workington 50v18 Keighley


NL3:Round 15
Dudley Hill 34v36 Gateshead
St Albans 26v26 Dewsbury
Featherstone 20v8 Underbank
Hemel 12v38 Bramley

 

[terracesider]

NL1: Round 16
Doncaster 28v44 York
Leigh 28v10 Batley
Oldham 28v78 Widnes
Rochdale 24v14 Halifax
Whitehaven 48v12 HKR

NL2: Round 18
Blackpool v28 38Featherstone
Celtic 38v10 Workington
Dewsbury 20v12 Swinton
Hunslet 16v36 Barrow
Keighley 14v58 Sheffield
London S. 16v26 Gateshead

NL3: Round 16
Underbank 6v32 Dewsbury
St Albans 22v6 Hemel
Warrington 24v0 Gateshead Gateshead
Bramley 40v14 Dudley Hill

 

[terracesider]

It's now official: HKR, Widnes and Leigh are OK for Super League but Whitehaven are not.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/5264372.stm

If it has the same effect it had on Dewsbury, Keighley and Hunslet, Whitehaven should be arriving in NL2 in 2008. or 2009.

 

[bartman]

As long as they get their plans in place now Haven will be able to work up to it. Will be good to have a Cumbrian team with a chance of lasting from 2009 onwards...

 

[Evil Homer]

I was at York v Doncaster today,pretty good performance from York,they won 44-26 IIRC,although ironically I believe Rochdale won too so York now can't avoid the drop.

It's a shame that two teams are being relegated.

 

[terracesider]

It's a shame that two teams are being relegated.

It is. I never understood why they changed it.

In NL3, Gateshead failed to raise a team, yet again (from Milly on RLfans). At least a 24-0 award saves the RFL and the sponsors from more embarrassment.

 

[terracesider]

One re-arranged fixture this week on Friday.

NL2:
Round 11

London S. 16v30 Workington

 

[bowes]

It is. I never understood why they changed it.

In NL3, Gateshead failed to raise a team, yet again (from Milly on RLfans). At least a 24-0 award saves the RFL and the sponsors from more embarrassment.

They changed the promotion and relegation to two to try get Celtic Crusaders up, that's not the official reason, but there's absolutely no other possible justification since no promoted team to NL1 has ever stayed up. Although now it's looking fairly unlikely that Celtic Crusaders are going up, so York have been relegated for a weaker team.

On NL3 Bradford Dudley Hill also scratched at Bramley (with the 40-14 being a lie), and are unlikely to be in NL3 next year. It could be two teams leaving but 3 teams are considering applying for NL3 (all from Lancashire/Yorkshire).

 

[bartman]

I was at York v Doncaster today,pretty good performance from York,they won 44-26 IIRC,although ironically I believe Rochdale won too so York now can't avoid the drop.

It's a shame that two teams are being relegated.

Too little too late from York the last two weeks, with wins over Haven and Donny. The key matches for avoiding the drop were the losses in July to Doncaster and Halifax, that's when we lost control of our destiny. I've no complaints, because we all knew how it would work before the season was underway, and York just weren't up to it.

However it does seem a nice idea now to have that NL1 v NL2 playoff game for the second promotion spot, to ensure that the second promoted team (whoever it is) are less of a risk to go straight back down the following season. Seeing as the automatic promoted teams have generally found the NL1 going a bit tough, it seemed a short-sighted move to change it for this year.

 

[terracesider]

Just when it seemed they had turned the corner, Fax are in trouble again.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/national_league/5276584.stm

http://www.bluesox.co.uk/

 

[bartman]

Another ex-SL club in financial difficulty. That list is getting longer...

 

[terracesider]

On NL3 Bradford Dudley Hill also scratched at Bramley (with the 40-14 being a lie), and are unlikely to be in NL3 next year. It could be two teams leaving but 3 teams are considering applying for NL3 (all from Lancashire/Yorkshire).

Thanks Bowes. This weeks League Weekly was late, so I've only just picked up on that. Is DH focusing on next season's National Confrence?

 

[bowes]

Yeah BDH are playing in the NCL and I get the impression that the other clubs don't want them in NL3 next year even if they want to play as well as the NCL, which you shouldn't be allowed to do anyway.

The rumours are that 3 teams from the RLC Premier North (which almost certainly won't run next year due to lack of teams) are interested in applying to NL3 but it hasn't been confirmed if they are, and one has another possible promotion path.

 

[terracesider]

Two weeks to go.

NL1: Round 17
Batley 24v28 HKR
Doncaster 0v56 Widnes
Halifax 18v26 Whitehaven
Oldham 12v52 Leigh
York 24v18 Rochdale


NL2: Round 19
Sheffield 52v0 Blackpool
Barrow 26v28 Dewsbury
Featherstone 34v24 Hunslet
Gateshead 16v28 Celtic
Swinton 54v10 Keighley
Workington 28v18 London


NL3:Round 17
Dudley Hill 24v0 St Albans: Match awarded to DH after St Albans failed to raise a team.
Dewsbury 66v12 Featherstone
Warrington 22v14 Bramley
Hemel 58v16 Underbank

 

[terracesider]

Dudley Hill have gone, officially.

The time has surely come to admit the experiment has failed and quietly ditch NL3.

 

[bartman]

Ouch. Future doesn't look bright.

Seems you can only really sustain one - NL3 or the (winter) Conference? As long as all the teams/areas that are now playing summer are/can be included in the Conference, then perhaps it's best to consolidate before another season of withdrawals.

 

[bowes]

The problem is that the RLC only offers a short season for RU/BARLA players in the off-season, and thus couldn't work for clubs that are first choice to players (I believe South London are the only RLC club to fall properly into that category), as they'd all have to take RU/BARLA up to get more than 3/4 months game time.

The RLC Premier has packed in up north and all but packed in south, only Wales (with no regional set up below) and the midlands (with only 4 teams in the regional set up, 1 a 2nd team) being the only places it works.

This would suggest that the ideal solution would be north and south with an 18 game season, if this is at all possible, with the Northern Rail Cup an optional extra. If they tried to force some clubs into a 14 game season (as the RLC Premier has) they'd refuse and play National League Senior Academy, BARLA or pack in completely.

There is interest in NL3 from more clubs all up north, but if/when Hemel move up we'd have a NL3 North (plus possibly St Albans) and a RLC Premier (if it still exists) entirely based outside the north, which would suggest regionalisation as sensible.

There are plenty of NL3 standard clubs down south put off by the travelling involved, the issue is whether there's enough for a NL3 South and if they want a real season, not just a RU fill-in.

While NL3 can be made to work it would cause problems in the RLC where when the Premier Division folds the top clubs would be thrown in with weaker sides and there'd be huge mismatches.

 

[bowes]

St Albans forfeit at Bradford Dudley Hill. That may well be the death blow to a national NL3, if they were to pull out it would be regionalised anyway (with Hemel in North) with the RLC premier as the southern half.

 

[terracesider]

Hemel in the North? Reminds me of the old 2nd division when the fixture list was supposed to be based on Lancashire and Yorkshire groupings. There was never enough Lancs sides even with London in that group. Usually, Fartown drew the short straw to make up the numbers. Every year we were trailing down to London and, more or less every other week, over the M62, (including four trips to Cumbria) but we only got play local sides like Sheffield, Hunslet or York occasionally. Great days out though.

 

[terracesider]

York make it three in a row. Better late than...

One round remaining and in NL1 HKR definitely finish top; Widnes will be 2nd, barring freak results.

In NL2 Dewsbury (points difference 325) are top, two points in front of Sheffield (386).


NL Tables