Premier League v Super League

Match reports are something which annoy the hell out of me sometimes.

Looking at the BBC’s coverage of football and rugby league there is a clear gulf in interest in what they think people might want to read.

Taking two match reports, Sunday’s title decider between Manchester United and Wigan Athletic, in the Premier League, and Wigan Warriors verses Whitehaven Warriors in the Challenge Cup from Monday, it is quite clear what their reporters interests are.

Admittedly, Sunday’s Premier League match I have picked was the match which won United the title and the Challenge Cup game was a Round Five match between a Super League powerhouse and a National League 1 average side.

However, 638 words make up the footy report compared to 79 in the rugby report.

This annoys me beacause, as an avid rugby league fan, there are times when I want to read a detailed match report about a certain match, just like you can for ANY football match.

With the footy report there are video links to the after-match interviews with the managers, but just an archived picture stuck in the middle of the rugby report.

Don’t get me wrong, it certainly isn’t just the BBC who tend to prioritise.  A lot of other sports websites and newspapers would do well to not restrict “other” sports to half a column in the inside pages of the sports section.

A week of good fortunes for my favorite clubs!

CHAMPIONES, CHAMPIONES!!

Get in!

Another year, another title for Fergie.  Long may it continue.

I must not hide my delight in getting one over on Chelsea again (as if they thought they had a chance!!)

I think the difference has been Ronaldo.  31 goals in the league alone for someone who isn’t an out-and-out striker is phenomenal.  Add to it Tevez’s 14 and Rooney’s 12, that’s 57 goals from the Holy Trinity alone.

Chelea’s top scorer was Lampard with a measly 10, with Drogba only managing eight (forgive me for being critical, but after last season what has he been doing?).

Earlier in the week the mighty Barrow AFC clinched promotion to the top flight of non-league football for the first time this century!  They beat Stalybridge Celtic 1-0 in the playoff final at Burton Albion thanks to a Matt Henney goal.  That lengthened their unbeaten league run to 20 games, which, I am led to beleive, is an English record at all levels of the pyramid this season.

I was exteremely surprised to see their match live on television – albeit pay-per-view Setanta Sports.  But this made me think good on Setanta for being brave enough and gambling on showing non-league football.

Unlike Sky Sports who daren’t show anything other than mainstream Premier League, Football League or Internationals, thisk could be one move for Setanta that could break the mould and bring non-league football into the mainstream.

I found out that they already show Scottish, German, French and Dutch football and the re-vamped Conference Cup (now aptly named the Setanta Shield), so they really are branching out by the looks of things.

My other adopted team, Hull, are one step away from Wembley after beating Watford away 2-0 in the Championship playoffs semi-final first legs!  Hopefully they will no longer hold the accolade of the being the biggest city in Europe not to have played top flight football.

And also a mention to fellow Cumbrian’s Carlisle, who beat Dirty Leeds 2-1 in their first leg of the League 1 playoffs to take back to Brunton Park with them!

Well done all round boys!

The FA Cup v The Challenge Cup

When the Rugby League Challenge Cup returned to Wembley for last season’s final in August the BBC website’s report from the 28/03/2007 was admittedly not much shorter than a similar report posted the day before about the FA Cup final being back at Wembley.

Because of the much delayed opening to the new Wembley both articles focus on the fact that both the Football Association and the Rugby Football League (the governing bodies of the respective sports in this country) are extremely relieved to have their finals back at their spiritual homes.

Differences between the reports are just as clear.  The Challenge Cup report mentions the last final to be held at Wembley before moving between Murrayfield, Twickenham and the Millenium Stadium in the intervening years.

The FA Cup report mentions future finals which will be held there such as the FA Trophy and FA Vase finals and has more input from quotes from officials – they even have a quote from a Wembley Stadium managing director.

Maybe this shows the value and importance the BBC alone shows to rugby league compared to football?

Danielle Rooney Profile

Continuing the theme of profiling Preston’s up-and-coming stars, Christopher Park interviews another hopeful looking ahead to 2012. While other teenage girls look forward to hanging out with their friends at the weekend,  17 year-old Danielle Rooney she has her mind set on just one thing – the 2012 Olympics. Danielle has just been signed by Sale Harriers athletics club, and hopes one day to emulate stars like Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe by representing Great Britain at major international tournaments.  “Athletics is what I want to do – it’s in my heart”, she says.  Danielle trains five times a week with the Harriers, and admits that her busy schedule of sport, work and college makes it hard to fit in a social life.  She has no other hobbies, she tells me, simply because she doesn’t have time for them, and they could compromise her fitness. With all this time taken up with training and college I asked her what the people close to her think about it all: “My parents are fully supportive and they help me out a lot.  It’s harder when it comes to college work but the teachers are very understanding.  If I do the work as soon as I get it, it works out fine.”  She attended Priory Sports and Technology College before going to Preston College to study A-Levels.  With no immediate plans to go to university, Danielle definitely has a one track mind.  As well as competing, she aims to get a part time job after college and hopes her PE, Biology, Chemistry and Psychology A-Levels will help her get into sports coaching.  She currently lives with her parents in Much Hoole, Preston. Danielle seems to know what she is doing and is very committed to what she wants from her career.  She is already well on the way to London 2012.  She holds the England schools record for 75 meters hurdles (10.99 seconds), and her 80 meters personal best is a very impressive 11.29 seconds.  She has competed in a number of events already and won many medals and caps for her country. Danielle began doing gymnastics at the age of four, but when she was at high school her talent for athletics was spotted: “I was always beating everyone on sports days, including the boys. The teachers told parents that I should join a club because I had a lot of potential.” That was when she decided to turn away from gymnastics and joined Preston Harriers Athletics Club. Danielle’s will next compete in an open competition at Loughborough in June where she will take part in her first 100 meters hurdles event. She has high hopes for this tournament: “This competition will give me experience in hurdling.  If I do well here and at the North of England Competition and the England Athletic Championships I can hopefully push on and get my Great Britain kit.” At 17, she is one of the youngest in her under 20 age group, and often competes against athletes two years older than her.  Before the Olympics, Danielle looks forward to representing England at the Commonwealth Youth Games in October. 

If she does well in Pune, India, it will be another major step towards gaining that Great Britain kit. Danielle admits that she is looking forward to the Games for another reason.  Her training commitments mean that she doesn’t get away on holiday as much as she would like.  “They send you over a couple of weeks before the tournament to acclimatise, so I will be spending about three weeks over there, so it will be a bit of a holiday for me as well.” After meeting Danielle I definitely see a committed athlete, even at such a young age. She is certainly a future star and we will see her gracing the track at the London Olympic Games, if not earlier.

Grasshoppers 13-30 Darlington MP

After a win away to Morley, Grasshoppers’ National League Division 3 North campaign came crashing back to earth with a bang on Saturday.

 

Darlington Mowden Park were the visitors to Lightfoot Green and went away with a comfortable victory.  Five tries were enough to bury the Hoppers and put any hopes of at least a play-off place in serious doubt.

 

Darlington looked fast and well organised from the start and had scored within 60 seconds to make it 5-0.  The Hoppers seemed to struggle to keep the ball and a well organised Darlington pack was bullying the Hoppers all over the park.

 

Despite this early setback, Hoppers’ Russell Flynn scored a penalty to bring the score within two points and after Darlington went 12-3 up, Preston were 13-12 up themselves just before the interval.  A try from Cameron Berry and a conversion and penalty for Flynn them the lead.  However, a penalty two minutes later gave Darlington the half-time advantage.

 

With just a point in it, the tie was anybody’s in the second half, but three unanswered tries from Darlington won 30-13, securing all four points plus a bonus for scoring five tries.

 

After this defeat, the Hoppers have to travel to Hull to play the Ionians in a must win game for both sides.

Rugby League in the Press!

 Chris Park!

 Rugby League: A Brief History. 

On August 29th 1895, representatives of 22 northern rugby clubs met at the George Hotel in Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby Football Union.  The more working-class based northern clubs broke away from the amateur middle-class southern clubs in the Rugby Football Union who frowned upon professionalism.

Differences Between the two codes:

• Thirteen players per team
• The “play the ball” (heeling back the ball after a tackle) rather than rucking and mauling
• The elimination of the line out
• A slighly different scoring structure

Where is it in the press?

Apart from when a major final is played or an England or Great Britain international is played it very rarely gets more than a page in the nationals.

I think there should be more scope in terms of rugby league reports, especially from the BBC.

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