Rams and Bulls confirm their interest in RFL tournament
DEWSBURY RAMS and Bradford Bulls have stated their “interest” in taking part in the autumn RFL tournament – while expressing disappointment there will now be no further league games in 2020.
Following the governing body’s decision on Monday to cancel both the Championship and League 1 campaigns, its clubs have instead been invited to feature in a new-fangled competition. Withathemeofcelebrating the sport’s 125th anniversary, and a prize pot of £250,000 – thanks in part to financial support from the Super League clubs – it is seen as a way of ensuring lower league clubs can play some games and earn some income after the coronavirus pandemic.
The plan is to start the competition in October when grounds could be open to fans once more and have two regional divisions of up to eight clubs each, all playing seven games before semi-finals and a final. Admittedly, there is no promotion at the end of it all but it will offer players, fans and clubs the chance to profit from some competitive rugby league for the first time since March.
Dewsbury chairman Sawyer – who is also, bizarrely, chief executive at Championship rivals Bradford – said: “We’re certainly interested in it. We need some more meat on the bone to make sure we can tick off all the boxes.
“But we also need to know what other clubs are doing to make sure there’s plenty interested in the tournament.
“Both Bradford and Dewsbury were more than happy to take part in further league matches and were hoping there’d be a tournament where we’d play each other once ahead of some playoffs with potentially somebody being promoted to Super League.
“Even if there wasn’t promotion, there’d be some meaningful fixtures to determine where you finished in the league for next year’s (central) distribution.
“Both teams were disappointed that that didn’t happen but we will now look into this.”
Further details will follow in the coming days to help clubs aid their decision and Sawyer continued: “In Bradford’s case, (head coach) John Kear has consulted his players and they 100 per cent want to play in it; they’re just desperate for some matches.
“At Dewsbury, I’ve spoken to (head coach) Lee Greenwood and he’s disappointed we couldn’t play more league games.
“The problem we’re facing is we were bottom of the list last year and our distribution was based on that. Everyone put a lot of hard work in and we were playing a lot better this year, winning three of our four Championship games including beating Halifax and Widnes. We wanted to keep proving we’d improved.”