Gloucester univesrity All Golds to join championship 1

http://www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/25053/all-golds-to-join-championship

We dont see enough of these stories where people are quietly working away in the background,doing a lot of good,and sdly not getting enough recognition.

We dont have a University rugby league club in Auckland, but what we do have is one club trying to get all the university students to play for their club,much to the annoyance of a number of other Auckland clubs that have players (some who have been there since they were kids) who go to university and then get the word put on them to play for the P.........ponies.

Agreed with the Hemel inclusion, could see the reasons for the Northampton inclusion. But I'm really not sure about this one, and will wait and see if it's the right move. Will be intresting to see how much of an influence Gary Heathrington had in this decision.

So that leaves one more, Bristol & Chester were favorites, so be intresting to see who misses out.

Just on a side note, there's going to be alot of miles travelled by ordinary fans in championship 1 next year, with these side, and also a trip to Gateshead, 2 to Wales north & south, plus possably at least 1 to cumbria.

Tiger

Whats your definition of a"lot of miles travelled"?.

I know it's not the same as it could be in the NRL

This has been worked out by someone alot smarter than me, i think he based it on Doncaster, and it worked out over a 1000 extra miles a season. hemel 500rt, gloucester 500rt, northampton 300rt. (These are very rough estimates). Now while they have great loyal fans, in this division they tend not to travel away in big numbers, and this will decrease further with this amount, espically in the finical times were having. Plus with most if not all the divisions players being part time it could effect clubs that are struggling anyway.

aucklandlaurie wrote: We dont see enough of these stories where people are quietly working away in the background,doing a lot of good,and sdly not getting enough recognition.

We dont have a University rugby league club in Auckland, but what we do have is one club trying to get all the university students to play for their club,much to the annoyance of a number of other Auckland clubs that have players (some who have been there since they were kids) who go to university and then get the word put on them to play for the P.........ponies.

Laurie – Wellington’s last organic club was the University Hunters. They’ve been around about 10 years now and have been doing ok of late. They’re not all students but they have a fair proportion of students in there. Just shows what can be done when you put in a concerted effort to grow the game!

How is the scene in Auckland these days? My last season of NZ league was back in 99 which predated the failed country wide club comp (was it the Bartercard Cup?) so never got a chance to play any Auckland teams, apart from at age grade rep level and the odd visit to Te Atatu in juniors....though I never liked Northcote after 1991

Auckland League is going great, The Fox competition has been going for about a month now and at the moment the teams to show are Mt.Albert Lions,Point Chevalier Pirates, and the Glenora Bears (who up to a couple of seasons ago I had a minor role)

You are right the Bartercard competition was a disaster,I always felt it was a few dumb league people thinking that they could replicate the Rugby union Npc competition into league.All it did was see a lot of clubs go broke,and a few people wasting the tiny league domestic sponsoship funds pie.

When you played against Te Atatu Roosters (I dont know your age) you might have played against Shontayne Hape or Robbie or Henry Paul or even James O'Connor. At the moment Te Atatu are down in the sharman Cup competition.

Ha, not nearly as big a disaster as Graham Carden’s ‘visionary’ Lion Red Cup comp from 1994....I was ball boy for the Hutt Valley Firehawks that year, and although we had a great team (combined Wainui Randwick, Upper Hutt and Petone), we just never really performed. Same as the comp on the whole really! Carden was a bent muppet who got his comeuppance I believe. The damage he did to Club League was immeasurable.

I must have played against Shontayne against Te Atatu – though it was 20 years ago! I came up against him at rep tournaments at Hopuhopu a few times so if we’re the same age and he played for the Roosters our paths would have crossed way back in under 12’s! The Auckland age grade teams that I came up against were absolutely chock full of brilliant players but I’m surprised more didn’t cut the mustard at the top level....