No movement
Another week, little improvement for the Salford Red Devils. Nene Macdonald is off to Oldham, the fourth player to depart Salford in the past few weeks. Sources tell us that a funding package was supposed to be signed off last week, which meant the club would get the money it needs by the end of April, but it did not happen. Deadlines missed once more, too many to keep count. Again, the RFL has remained silent on the issue.

Sign up?
We had an interesting new subscriber to Patreon last week. The name? Kurt Graver. While many might not be familiar with him, he is part of the new Salford ownership group. We’re told he’s the accountant of the consortium. Graver sets companies up and gets paid to act as a director, something that is commonplace in the UK corporate world.

Blast
Cornwall RLFC went bust last week, which wasn’t a huge surprise. But rugby league lawyer Richard Cramer had a spray about it. Linking to a BBC story with Cornwall coach Mike Abbott, Cramer posted on LinkedIn: “At a time when rugby league is trying to expand outside the M62 corridor and appeal to new and wide audiences this does not look good with the season just underway. Why has this happened during the season? Surely the RFL should have insured the club was on a sound financial footing, especially with livelihoods at stake. This together with the problems at Salford Reds does not make a pretty reading.”

Thanks, but no thanks
The gossip is flying thick and fast about the Nigel Wood-led review into UK rugby league. One source has suggested that Wood’s group invited both Ralph Rimmer and Karen Moorhouse to join their implementation group. According to our mole, both declined. There’s also been more chat about the growing anti-French sentiment in the English game. It seems as though the majority of the Championship clubs want Catalans and Toulouse out, while Super League is split over the Gauls. Sources suggest that Wigan, Warrington and the two Hull clubs want to keep the French in, but the likes of Leigh, St Helens, Cas, Wakey and Huddersfield do not. Both Catalans and Toulouse do not get votes on the RFL Council, which agreed to the Wood review.

Eire issues
The state of rugby league in Ireland continues to hot up – infighting, angry emails, threats, bans, attacks – you name it. This column is trying to work out fact from fiction, which is far from easy. We asked a respected former Ireland international for his take on he administration there, and he said: “It’s amateur. Lots of self-interest, lots of potential stakeholders either frozen out or won’t work with certain individuals who seem to benefit individually. The current domestic comp is in decline, the pathways on the face of it seems like there’s substance and improvement, but in my opinion they’re not not built on strong foundations which playing numbers would suggest.”

London baby
The relaunching of the London Broncos and of rugby league in the city will get off to its official start this month. A major event will be held at the Australian Embassy where the new Broncos, with NRL help, will be showcased. Considering the venue, and hopefully with both Australian and UK government support, this should be really positive and beneficial.