Magic Weekend set for venue change

The concept of staging an entire round of League fixtures "on the road", which began in Cardiff in 2007, was the main topic of discussion at the mid-season meeting of the 14 Super League club representatives at Hull's KC Stadium.

A decision will be made next month but a change of venue looks likely after the attendance for this year's two-day event in Edinburgh dropped to 52,043.

Clubs are thought to be considering a return to the Millennium Stadium, although experimenting with a new venue has not been ruled out.

Clubs are also considering a change of date from the May Day weekend in a bid to boost crowds. A move to the Spring Bank Holiday weekend is favourite but consideration may be given to England captain Jamie Peacock's call to use the event as a blockbusting start to the season.

One decision made at yesterday's meeting was to maintain the Super League salary cap at 1.65m for a third consecutive season.

Batley go into tonight's first semi-final of the Northern Rail Cup at Leigh Sports Village buoyed by a recent 32-12 league win over Ian Millward's Leigh at Mount Pleasant and coach Karl Harrison admits they will be smarting.

"That result will count for nothing on Thursday night, I'm sure they'll be going all out to get revenge," said Harrison, who guided Salford to victory over Leigh in the 2003 final.