Time to put an end to Easter jamboree as fatigue sets in

While the rest of the team sports calendar comes to a standstill to welcome in our latest Royal darling, the decidedly lovely Kate (Catherine today), Super League ploughs on its own merry little way with a tea-time fixture between Castleford Tigers and Leeds Rhinos.

Granted, neither group of supporters may consist of too many ardent royalists but you would think the RFL would have given the whole game a decent day off, like the rest of the country, to decide themselves if they want to partake in the celebrations.

This is not the view of an aggrieved reporter, bitter that he will have to miss a street party full of bonhomie to instead venture down Wheldon Road – there is not a jamboree in sight of my road and I have always liked taking in Castleford’s own unique atmosphere any time of year.

But it just seems all a little excessive given the bountiful, some would say gluttonous, supply of football we have feasted on during the Easter weekend.

Starting with Bradford v Leeds on Maundy Thursday, there was a full programme completed Good Friday – two enthralling games televised live by Sky – and likewise on Easter Monday, followed by a bizarrely solitary game at Huddersfield on Tuesday.

Even with the weekend itself to take breath, it completed a marathon run which would have tested even the most avaricious of viewers. Certainly, the mood pre-match among the press corps at a subdued Galpharm for the last hurdle was not one of much excitement of any kind.

The football itself did not then alleviate the depression in any way, Huddersfield’s subsequent nine-try performance saying more about the absurdity of the intense and tiring Easter programming on lesser lights than the Giants’ title potential.

All in all, it leaves very little appetite for the 80 minutes ahead this evening. But then again the prospect of seeing rugby league’s own answer to royalty – Jamie Peacock – back on the field is reason for cheer.

The England captain will be the first to admit he does not have the dashing good looks of a prince, but his return from injury will be a welcome sight for everyone in the game.

There were some fears that the serious knee injury he suffered at Castleford last August might spell the end of the career of one of the modern greats but he has battled back with customary determination and cussedness to resume where he left off and hopefully prove there is plenty left in his wearing legs.

Questions remain about whether there really should be so much action over Easter, especially as the sort of damaging injury Peacock endured is seemingly on the increase as the game becomes quicker, harder and more arduous.

Sacrificing one of the two Easter money-spinning holiday fixtures would be hard, not least for the chief executives of the 14 Super League clubs, but it has been done before in 1998 when Leeds faced only Bradford on Easter Sunday.

It was short-lived and so the only solution would be to pull the contentious Magic Weekend, another unlikely event.

So, it seems this rugby-mad period is here to stay and anyone who has not had their fill by Sunday should not forget that our friends at Sky will provide us with another treat by staging Hull FC v St Helens on Monday.

By then, I might even be preferring to watch a re-run of those wedding highlights from Westminster Abbey.

Actually, a little more research shows there is another sporting classic today – Torquay v Chesterfield in League Two.

However, that is well on the way to France so maybe they are not too enamoured by Prince William’s nuptials either.