UTC / Catalans Dragons – What it Means to the Reds

The news this week of the imminent arrival of Perpignon / UTC into Super League has raised a few eyebrows of fans of teams currently skirting the lower half of the Super League ladder.

A majority vote to bring in the French team may be cause for celebration in some quarters, but the more vague statement that the method of bringing them into the competition was to be decided in the future has set alarm bells ringing.

Salford City Reds Online spoke to Reds’ CEO David Tarry to find out the implications for Salford of this Gallic addition to one of the world’s toughest competitions.

Tarry told us: “The events of this week stem from the original meeting in April. It was widely reported after this that the Salford club had voted against UTC’s admission into Super League, which is not actually the case. There was never a vote taken at that meeting as to whether or not UTC should join, because Salford and one or two other clubs pointed out that the business plan that was proposed, which we only received on that day was in French Francs, not even in Euros, so we needed some time to look at it and the information that accompanied it and digest it and see exactly what it was we were voting for!”

“Allied to that we asked for a decision on the actual mechanism for bringing UTC in and therefore which clubs were to go out to make way for them if it was to remain a 12 team competition. The Executive felt that they didn’t want to discuss that – they wanted to do a straight vote on whether UTC come in or not and then move onto the subject of how we bring them in, so what they did was put through a vote that at the next meeting (May 26) they would vote solely on whether UTC be allowed in” he continued.

This brings us to the meeting earlier this week. We asked David to tell us what Salford’s position was going into this second gathering of clubs.

“At this meeting we asked the Executive whether or not there was any intention to discuss first the mechanism for bringing UTC into the game. They made it clear at this point they were not going to discuss the method of bringing UTC in, so we advised the Executive at this point that unless we know what we were voting for and that we understand the actual mechanisms, we were not in a position to vote UTC in, as basically we do not know the full extent of the proposal we’re supposed to be voting on” he told us.

Tarry continued:” A number of other clubs made the same observation but the RFL Executive determined they would just go for a straight vote anyway – which they did resulting in seven clubs voting for UTC to join and five clubs voting against of which we were one of them. Two of the clubs voting against UTC had two reasons for doing so. In the view of these two clubs the business plan for UTC was seriously flawed and over-ambitious, and they felt they could not back the business plan and presentation as provided by UTC, and to allow them into the competition was tantamount to a disaster waiting to happen.”

Tarry agrees with a lot of that sentiment and believes himself that the business plan is certainly “very weak”, however, Salford City Reds, in advance, had decided that they were prepared to support the RFL if they were prepared to stand by the business plan. That as a club they should support the Executive as they are the people who have spent the last 18 months working with the French although he admitted the Reds have “grave concerns”.

We asked Tarry why, if the plan was perceived as flawed by so many Super League clubs, why seven others had decided it was right to bring them in. He told us: “Two of the clubs that voted to bring them in are not exactly performing the best at this moment in time, but I think they were really stuck in a bit of a clenched fist, because the only vote on the table was “are they in or are they out?”, so if enough clubs had voted for them out, UTC would not be coming in at all, so they were put in a difficult position. We at Salford took the view we had to vote with out conscience and vote for what we thought was right, for both the game and our club – contrary to others opinions.”

Many fans of clubs outside the noted giants of the game are now wary of how UTC will actually be admitted. The method of bringing them in will be decided at a further meeting and Tarry explained that while the details weren’t there, it had been decided that UTC will come into a 12 team competition and that the press statement says there will still be promotion and relegation. “If you look at that there doesn’t seem as though there are a lot of options available to us. In a lot of ways if you look at things from the games point of view, it seems that the whole thing has been ill-thought out.”

“The first division clubs who are promoted in the future are going to have an even more extremely difficult battle on their hands. David Waite made an interesting statement at the previous meeting that he believed promoted clubs needed between three and five years to stabilise and have any hope of becoming a force within Super League. And yet, what we’re now saying is that a team promoted from the first division will get three months to assemble a Superleague team capable of finishing, at worst, tenth, or they will be relegated, because if UTC finish bottom, the 11 th club will go down.”

With the current mish-mash in the fixture programme, many fans believe the best way to have introduced UTC would have been to expand the League to 14 teams and bring in one of the better Division One sides such as Leigh Centurions. We asked if David believed the decision to keep the head count at 12 was purely monetary: “I suspect so although I suspect the answer to that question from the RFL would be that there aren’t enough quality players to sustain 14 teams. However part of the presentation to clubs is that we now have access to thousands of marvellous French players.”

The advantages of a 14 team competition seem clear as far as the fixtures are concerned. Tarry believes the current system is contaminated and that the majority of fans would like to see a traditional competition where each team plays each other home and away a straight race with a clear winner and loser.

Tarry is clearly unhappy with recent events: “We are going to bring a team in that has immunity from relegation, possibly extra overseas player allowances, and no chance of meeting a Salary cap – that has an effect throughout the game – will they play with the same shaped ball? How will we resolve relegation if London, Castleford or Warrington finishes 11 th? Will Castleford or Warrington be relegated? Who comes in? Is that really strengthening the competition?

“Bringing in a new French team and Whitehaven and potentially sending out a Castleford and or Warrington? Does that really look like it’s going to do a job for us? People are making dangerous assumptions about who is going to be bottom of the pile next year, but they could well be wrong!”

As negative as all this sounds Tarry and Salford are actually all for the expansion of the game into the French heartland: “As far as I can see the benefits of bringing the French team into Super League are clear. A vibrant and effective French team in that region would be very useful and a great asset for the game. That is a benefit for the whole of the game and is of benefit and value for every team in Super League.

“I don’t understand why every team in Super League doesn’t want to subscribe to that point of view and put some input into bringing the French team in. Now if that’s going to cost us all money, let’s all put the investment into the team and all invest in the French? It appears the French team are valuable to the League and a number of clubs as long as they don’t have to pay the price of bringing them in. If they can pass that price down to two member clubs and say ‘well you two are out to make way for the French team’, then they perceive that as great value. For me, whether you go to 13 or 14 teams doesn’t matter, to just eject two member clubs carte blanch is a very grave mistake.”

Of even more pressing concern to Reds fans is whether UTC’s inclusion could affect the new stadium bid. Tarry tells us “Definitely not. As we’ve always said the stadium bid is a stand alone bid that finances itself. Whether we were to be in Super League or the First Division at that point, the stadium bid stands alone and has been designed to be that way. That gives us the security to move along with the bid; otherwise we’d be in an impossible situation where it would be on stop/start stop start.”

“Our job is to abide by whatever rule is decided at the end of the day by our fellow Super League clubs, we will go with that and we will adhere to it.

“If it is determined that two are going to be relegated, we will have to do our best to make sure that we don’t finish in there as will every other club, it could get very interesting next year!”

U21s Whitewash Cougars

Steve Blakeley’s Under 21 side continued their rich vein of form with a shut-out against bottom placed Keighley in the Academy Under 21 Championship.

Two tries from Mark Stevens along with one from winger Ian Stephonson, Chris Sharkey and Tim Hartley, plus three goals from Hartley, all added up to a successful trip over the Pennines for the Reds.

Steve Blakeley said after the match: “We played well the first half but slackened off in the second. I’m generally quite happy and it was obviously pleasing to keep them to nil.”

It also looks as though Blakeley’s luck may have changed with the injury situation as for once the team managed to get through the night with nothing more than a couple of bruises.

The Under 21s are back in action on June 3 away at Featherstone Rovers, while the Under 18s take on the Huddersfield Giants away on Saturday afternoon.

Website Launch – Part II

When we relaunched the website in April, we told you we weren’t going to just sit by and leave it. Our ambitious New Media programme involved bringing in professional staff and partners and now we bring you a new online community for Reds fans.

The first phase was to simply get the core website back up and running and give it a fresh makeover to push it out there with the best. This we did easily.

Parts two and three are now coming in quickly together. Tonight we launch Eve – our online community. This gives our fans an official forum where they can get questions answered, talk about the matches, get messages to players and so forth.

We also launch as part of Eve a sub-system called Chime. Chime is our live chat module when you can talk to fellow Reds, but more excitingly allows us to hold online interviews with players and coaching staff in the near future. Kind of like a Super League version of Question Time. Have a read and see what you think.

We do ask for your strongest co-operation with this though as children, players, staff and their families may well be reading. Abusive and derogatory posts will therefore not be allowed. We understand it can be frustrating sometimes, but this is not the place to let it out. Access Eve from any page via the link at the top left below the masthead

Aside from Eve we are virtually ready to launch our new retail section. We’ve teamed up with expert providers in the field of eCommerce to get our system to a standard we expect, and we’re currently stocking our online store and expect to open it’s electronic shutters over the next few days.

Also you may have noticed a new logo on the left for the Rollover Extra. This is Salford City Reds new large lottery prize and it will be coming online in our new lottery section, again over the next week or so.

It seems silly to say that’s all because there’s a lot of stuff here. Have a look and sign up for Eve. We hope you like our enhancements.

Hartley Makes Junior Origin Cut

Salford City Reds Academy star Tim Hartley has been selected for Lancashire Under 18s Junior Origin series.

Head Coach Karl Harrison was full of praise for the impressive youngster: “I had a chat with Tim this week, because me bringing in two centres such as McAvoy and McGuinness obviously doesn’t look good for his chances of making it into the first team.

If we were sat on ten or 12 points, now would be the perfect opportunity to play him, but I am not in the position at the moment where we can start blooding people.

Tim is not far off first team football, he is a quality young player and and I am really pleased he has got a little bit of recognition by playing in the Academy team.”

We would all like to congratulate Tim on his achievement.

GAME ONE: Match Report
Hartley scores as Lancs go down

Yorkshire drew first blood in the Junior Academy Origin Series with a 44-24 win over Lancashire at The Willows.

The two-game series is being played as a precursor to this summer’s England Academy Tour to Australia and New Zealand.

And a number of players laid claims to a place in the squad with good displays in Saturday’s clash, including two-try Yorkshire winger Danny Williams.

His second half tries took the Yorkshire side out of reach of Lancashire before Matt Cook sealed the victory late on.

Brett Ferres and Lee Smith had helped Yorkshire to open up a 12-2 interval lead after Andrew Ballard’s penalty opened the scoring.

Scott Murrell – who also kicked six goals – edged Yorkshire further ahead with a try before the home side hit back through Salford’s Tim Hartley, Ballard and Shaun Lunt.

James Endersby and Carl Ablett scored either side of the hour mark to restore Yorkshire’s cushion, meaning that Desi Williams’ try was only a consolation for Lancashire.

(source: www.superleague.co.uk)

Junior Academy Origin Squads:

Lancashire:
David Allen (Wigan Warriors), Chris Ashton (Wigan Warriors), Andrew Ballard (Wigan Warriors), Adam Bibey (Widnes Vikings), Matt Bottom (Bradford Bulls), Andrew Bracek (St Helens), Danny Cooper (St Helens), James Coyle (Wigan Warriors), Harrison Hansen (Wigan Warriors), Bryn Hargreaves (Wigan Warriors), Tim Hartley (Salford City Reds), Shaun Lunt (Castleford Tigers), Steve Pickersgill (Warrington Wolves), Paul Prescott (Wigan Warriors), James Roby (St Helens), Danny Speakman (Wigan Warriors), Gary Sykes (Wigan Warriors), Joel Tomkins (Wigan Warriors), John Walker (Wigan Warriors), Desi Williams (Wigan Warriors).

Coaches: Keiron Purtill (St Helens & David Banks (Wigan Warriors).
Manager: Phil Hynes (Warrington Wolves)

Yorkshire:
Carl Ablett (Leeds Rhinos), Paul Clarke (Bradford Bulls), Matthew Cook (Bradford Bulls), Brett Ferres (Bradford Bulls), John Gallagher (Leeds Rhinos), Jason Golden (Leeds Rhinos), Thomas Hemingway (Huddersfield Giants), Joe Hirst (Halifax) Charles I’Anson (Leeds Rhinos), Jamie I’Anson (Leeds Rhinos), Matthew James (Bradford Bulls), Andy Kain (Castleford Tigers), Scott Murrell (Leeds Rhinos), Karl Pryce (Bradford Bulls), Adam Robinson (Wakefield Trinity Wildcats), Lee Smith (Leeds Rhinos), Luke Stenchion (Leeds Rhinos), Danny Washbrook (Hull FC), Scott Wheeldon (Hull FC), Danny Williams (Leeds Rhinos).

Coaches: Brian McDermott (Leeds Rhinos) & Dean Sampson (Castleford Tigers)
Manager: Martin Gonzalez (Halifax).

Lancashire 24-44 Yorkshire
Sat 8 May,
The Willows, Salford

Yorkshire v Lancashire
Sat 5 June, ko 15:40
Odsal Stadium, Bradford

Big Macs Set for Reds’ Debuts

Salford new boys Kevin McGuinness and Nathan McAvoy will be thrown straight into action at The Willows.

Loose-forward Martin Moana is also named in a 19-strong squad as the Reds look to make amends for their crushing 82-6 defeat to Hull last time out

Salford must put the shackles on London try machine Dennis Moran if they are to halt a 10-match losing run in tonight’s Tetley’s Super League match against the Broncos at The Willows.

The 27-year-old former Parramatta scrum-half has topped the Super League tryscoring charts in each of the last two seasons and is London’s leading marksman so far this season with eight in 12 matches.

Moran touched down in the Broncos’ 24-8 Challenge Cup win over Salford at Griffin Park in February and a fortnight later grabbed another as the Reds went down 35-30 in a rearranged league game.

“Denis is a key figure for them, he can cause trouble from all over the park,” admitted Reds assistant coach Eddie McGuinness. “We have played them twice so we figure we know what they are about basically.

“The first game was a real tough one in the cup but in the second we felt we were probably the better side over the 80 minutes. We paid heavily for a couple of individual mistakes which hopefully we have eradicated.

“We are feeling confident. If we can cut the errors out, we can compete and come away with a real good result.”

McGuinness is tipping Nathan McAvoy to make an instant impact on his return to Super League. “He has played at the highest level in this competition, so I don’t think he’ll have any trouble slotting straight back in,” said McGuinness. “He’s done extra training with me this week and his fitness looks good.

“Nathan’s confidence has been low with the rugby union, but he’s gone real well and we’re happy with him.”

McAvoy Rejoins Reds

Local boy and former Salford player Nathan McAvoy returns to The Willows after spells with the Bradford Bulls and Rugby Union side Saracens.

McAvoy links with other new signing Kevin McGuinness as the Reds look to bolster their Super League fight.

McAvoy was part of the successful Salford side who were promoted to Super League under Andy Gregory and he forged a successful threequarter partnership with Scott Naylor before both were lured away by the Bradford Bulls.

McAvoy will add power and depth to the backs and strrengthen Salford’s attacking options and has signed until the end of 2005.

Football Director Steve Simms told us: “Nathan is a great athlete. He’s big and strong and he can break through the line. He’ll bring us a bit of solidarity to the backline.”

He continued: “Nathan’s trained today but obviously he’s not played for a while so it may take a while to get him up to speed, but if he doesn’t play this week I’d imagine he’ll definitely take part in the Cas game.”

McAvoy said: “Things have really changed at Salford, like the new training ground and everything but it’s great to be back. I’ve got a lot more experience from my time at Bradford and in Union so I hope I’ll be able to help Salford maintain their place in Super League.

“Obviously we’re not having the best of seasons so far but I aim to help them achieve stability this year and then push on to better things next season,” he continued.

“My biggest challenge will be to secure my place in the team. It’s never easy going to a new club but this is Super League so it’s especially tough. I’ve a bit of work to do to get to to the fitness standard but I hope to be at Super League level soon.”

McGuinness Touches Down In Manchester

Aussie flyer Kevin McGuinness has arrived at Manchester aiport today and begins the process of settling into life at the City Reds.

It was a wet and windy greeting for the former Manly star as Football Director Steve Simms met him at Manchester International.

McGuinness was then whisked to The Willows to be shown around his new surroundings for the first time and link up with his team-mates and some past acquaintances from the NRL.

We spoke to Simms after he had shown Kevin around the club and he told us: “Kevin’s here and excited for Saturday night. He’s a little tired from the flight right now but he’s in good shape and will definitely play some part against London.

“The weather’s been pretty terrible, we’ve had all the season’s in one day here today but he can’t wait to get into it. He’s living next door to one of our other players so hopefully he’ll settle in well.”

Kevin will train this week and is set to make his debut against the London Broncos on Saturday evening.

McGuinness has bagged the number 33 shirt for the season as “three is my lucky number.”

Watch this space for an exclusive interview with the City Reds’ new star soon.

Alker Ready For Miracle Comeback

It’s only been a few days since skipper Malcolm Alker was rushed to hospital to have his appendix removed, but already the hard tackling hooker is back on the training pitch aiming to get back to full fitness.

It was initially feared Alker could be out for six weeks but the City Reds captain is desperate to be back in first team action well in advance of that.

The Alker household have also been celebrating the recent birth of their baby Mason and all here at SCR Online would like to congratulate them on their new arrival.