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Who can stop the Rhinos?
IT began with a whimper but expect engage Super League XIV to go out with a bang when the new-look competition climaxes with the grand final at Old Trafford on October 10.
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With the country in the grip of a big freeze, the denouement to the 14th season of summer rugby seems a long way away but the cold is doing little to diminish the sense of expectation as 14 clubs prepare to do battle this weekend.
The introduction of Salford City Reds and Celtic Crusaders has created the biggest-ever Super League which this year features a new eight-team play-off system and all 14 clubs will start confident they have what it takes to extend their year beyond the 27 regular rounds.
There is considerably less confidence among most clubs surrounding their ability to rein in the rampaging Rhinos with Leeds having started the season as 7-4 favourites to become the first club to complete what would be a unique hat-trick of Super League titles.
Leeds successfully defended the trophy for the first time in their history when they beat St Helens in the 2008 grand final and, ominously for their title rivals, they have strengthened considerably in the intervening three months.
The signing of Danny Buderus, a former Australia Test hooker, and Greg Eastwood, a member of the New Zealand team that won the World Cup final in Brisbane last November, adds considerable class to the already potent arsenal of talent stored at Headingley Carnegie.
It is going to take a special effort from a special team to deny Leeds but as the champions discovered last Friday, when they opened their defence with a scrappy victory over newcomers Celtic Crusaders, their journey to Old Trafford will be uncomfortable and fraught with danger.
The Welsh club are the biggest winners of the decision to embrace a licensing system in Super League, which has also embraced National League One champions Salford City Reds as well as the 12 clubs involved last year. The introduction of three-year licences affords the likes of Castleford, Wakefield, Salford and Celtic Crusaders the kind of security enjoyed by Catalans Dragons in the last three years, a period which has seen the French club grow from wooden spoonists to title challengers.
Licences – or franchises, as they effectively are – may rob Super League of the ghoulish circus that is relegation but for the first time in memory every club in the top two tiers of rugby league knows where it stands in both the short and the medium term. Clubs in the newly-renamed Championship now have three years in which to prepare their application for a Super League licence from 2012, a season which could see established top flight clubs drop down if they are perceived by the Rugby Football League to be failing.
Some Super League clubs have failed consistently down the years, be it in terms of the quality of the facilities they provide for their customers or the contribution they have made to the greater good.
Every Super League club has a responsibility to add to the well of talent from which the national team is drawn and too many have shunned that responsibility, as England's results from last year's World Cup testify.
However, developing world class players is a luxury clubs who have spent much of the last decade fighting for their survival can ill afford, a situation which has now been ended with the advent of licences.
The entire Super League XIV season will be framed by the memories of just how risibly England fared against Australia and New Zealand last autumn and the clubs have much lost ground to make up.
As entertaining as Super League certainly is, the World Cup gave some perspective to the quality of the rugby on show and the sport must make the most of opportunities afforded by a new start to increase standards both on and off the field.
It is not going to be easy, especially this year when domestic playing resources are spread very thinly across the 14 clubs, as evidenced by the findings in our story on Page Two of this supplement which reveal an unhealthy reliance on overseas talent.
Many of the players who have flown in from Down Under are little short of makeweights but there is no denying the fact that the quality of imports in Super League this year is higher than ever before.
As well as the aforementioned Buderus and Eastwood, Super League followers can expect to see a wealth of Australian, New Zealand and South Seas talent over the next seven months.
From Greg Bird and Steve Menzies at Bradford, through Sione Faumuina at Castleford, Jason Ryles at Catalans Dragons and Brett Hodgson at Huddersfield to Tony Puletua at St Helens and the Wigan pair of Mark Riddell and Amos Roberts, there will be special overseas players on show on a weekly basis.
There is also a wealth of exciting young home-grown talent in Super League, many of whom will hope to be involved in the England squad that seeks redemption in the end-of-season Four Nations Championship tournament involving Australia, New Zealand and France.
Before then Super League heads to Scotland for the Magic Weekend in Edinburgh, where Murrayfield hosts a round of seven matches on May 2 and 3.
There is also a mid-season international between England and France at a date and venue yet to be decided, Super League action in Spain for the first time when Catalans host Warrington in Barcelona in June and the novelty of the new play-offs.
Whether the new end-of-season system will work remains to be seen – giving a team the chance to select their opponents will inevitably create something of a slight in the eyes of the team chosen – but one thing is for certain: after four rugby-free months and three weeks of Arctic conditions, summer rugby and engage Super League XIV cannot start soon enough.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
