WHY are some teams more enjoyable to watch than others if you are a neutral?
I’m not too sure, but it’s true to say that not all teams give us the same degree of pleasure if we are not emotionally committed to one team or the other.
On Friday night I thoroughly enjoyed watching Castleford Tigers.
It wasn’t that I wanted them to heat Hull FC. On that point I’m strictly neutral, and I find these days that Hull are also an enjoyable team to watch. Their victory against Wigan a week earlier was a tremendous match for the neutral to witness.
It’s just that Castleford seem to attack their opponents with such a great sense of adventure.
It strikes me that they are the Rugby League equivalent of some of the old hell raisers who used to be such a feature of old Hollywood films.
You get the feeling that if that great swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn had played Rugby League, he would definitely have played for Castleford, probably alongside Luke Gale.
It doesn’t surprise me at all that Rangi Chase, who is such a unique talent, feels more at home at Castleford than anywhere else.
The try he created for Ryan Hampshire early in the second half was out at the top drawer, and it effectively sunk the hopes of the Airlie Birds.
It was also interesting to see how well Andre Savelio played after his recent loan move from St Helens. Andre was the Albert Goldthorpe Rookie of the Year last year, but has been unable to break through regularly into the St Helens team in 2016. As he explains on page 7 of this issue, he is already feeling the benefit of.
The Tiger’s players, masterminded by Gale, seem to have the confidence to express themselves in an uninhibited way.
I suppose that must be down to the coaching of Daryl Powell and his fellow backroom staff, with Danny Orr also having a significant influence.
Gale won the Albert Goldthorpe Medal last year, and he is now six points ahead of the competition with only six games to go. He will now take some catching, and his success both last year and this in accumulating Albert Goldthorpe Medal points suggests that he is the most skillful player in the game. That is certainly what the Albert Goldthorpe Medal is supposed to measure.
The question that nags at the back of my mind, however, is why the Tigers can’t play like they did on Friday night every week.
If they did, then they would undoubtedly be in the top four of Super League.
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Unfortunately for their supporters, they may be exciting to watch, but they are also inconsistent.
They are seven points outside the top four with six games to play, so the task of making the four is probably beyond them.
But I will still enjoy watching them, wherever they finish.
WELCOME BACK, JARRYD
Another player who likes to express himself is the Australian superstar Jarryd Hayne. who signed for the Gold Coast Titans last week and made his debut for his new club on Sunday.
Hayne is the man of played several NFL games last year for the San Francrsco 49ers, confounding many pundits’ expert opinion that to get into an NFL squad without prior college experience was an impossible task.
He proved the pundits wrong, even though he was later released by the 49ers. He made the grade and achieved an ambition.
It was an extraordinary thing to do, and he took a massive risk to his own reputation in trying to do it.
His odyssey into American Football was a matter of great fascination for the Australian media, and his return to the NRL was followed with equal intensity, as my colleague Malcolm Andrews makes clear in his news report on page 2.
Hayne had a fine game for the Titans, even it he couldn’t get them over the line to defeat the Warriors.
But he will surely ensure that the Gold Coast attendances are boosted for the rest of the season.
As an international game we can’t afford to lose our star players to other sports.
AMERICAN ADVENTURE
I would he very surprised if hosting rights for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup were awarded to the United States, despite our story on page 3.
Recently the government pledged £15 million to support a bid by the RFL to stage the tournament, and that surely gives the Rugby League International Federation the opportunity to host the best World Cup there has ever been, with 16 countries participating.
But the good thing about the American bid is that it is slowly getting our sport noticed in the USA, the biggest and most professional sporting nation in the world.
Together with the recent decision to admit the Toronto Wolfpack into League I next season, the signs are that Rugby League is at last being noticed beyond England, Australia and New Zealand.
That is surely to he welcomed by all of us.
For too long our sport has been the poor relation of other football codes, despite some of us describing Rugby League as the Greatest Game of All.
If it really is, then it shouldn’t be too difficult to make it much more successful.
All it requires is somebody who knows how to market it effectively.
