Starting on Wednesday and the joint appointment of Chris Chester and John Duffy as head coaches of Scotland. Now, this sounds like the sort of thing you might do if you can’t decide between two strong candidates. When the Powerpoint presentations at the interview are of inseparable quality and the CV’s both say ‘won far more often than not at club level but ultimately potless’.
Both Chester and Duffy are fine coaches but who is going to have final say? Who decides what toppings to have on the pizza after a win? Actually, this being Scotland that might not be too much of a problem. But there will be other dilemmas that a game of paper, scissors, stone isn’t going to adequately settle. It’s great to see two high profile coaches step into the breach left by Steve McCormack but you fear that trouble lies ahead with this arrangement.
Michael Maguire’s appointment to the head coach’s role with New Zealand is likely to be more successful but less interesting. The former Wigan coach is single-handedly responsible for all of the wrestling matches you have seen at every play-the-ball in every Super League game since 2010, but if results are your bag he will get the job done. He led Wigan to victory in the 2010 Super League Grand Final at a time when Saints turned losing at Old Trafford into an art form. Maguire will no doubt pick up the performance of a currently ragged New Zealand outfit which couldn’t even muster an appearance in the last four at the 2017 World Cup. A World Cup that started to the general consensus that only three teams could possibly win it. But the improvement that Maguire brings won’t be pretty. Anyone who has tickets for the mid-season test match in Denver between New Zealand and England might want to plan a bit more sightseeing in Colorado.
Thursday also brought with it the first match of the last 16 of the Challenge Cup between Featherstone Rovers and Hull FC. Both sides disgrace themselves in equal measure, with the black and whites finishing the game with nine men. Six players are sin-binned across both sides and FC winger Bureta Fairamo receives his second red card of the season for an agricultural swing at the head of Anthony Thackeray with the game’s final act. All which chaos could maybe have been avoided if Misi Taulapapa had received a card of any colour for wiping out Jamie Shaul several days before the Hull fullback had even considered catching the ball as it spiralled towards him out of the sky.
By this point Hull had already built a handy 18-0 lead and although Rovers held their own for the remainder of the game (when the two sides weren’t swinging handbags at each other every other tackle) they never looked like overhauling the deficit.
Back to the international game and on Friday Craig Kopczak announces his retirement from international rugby league to concentrate fully on mid-table mediocrity with Salford Red Devils.
“Unfortunately the time has come where I am to retire from international rugby league to concentrate on my club rugby with Salford, allowing the new generation of Wales youngsters to take the mantle into the 2021 World Cup.” He Paul Scholesed, having won 22 caps, 13 as captain including at both the 2013 and 2017 World Cups.
Sunday saw Saints announce the signing of Joe Batchelor from York City Knights. The 23-year-old signs a three-year deal and will arrive for the start of the 2019 season.;
“Joe is a player we have had our eyes on this season.” Said Saints coach Justin Holbrook;
“He has been a real standout in a BetFred League 1 this year and has been very consistent for a competitive York side.”
Batchelor is a second row forward and joins James Bentley in the category of promising back rowers at Saints who might not play for a while, not that he’s worried about that prospect;
“I’m delighted to have signed with St Helens from next season and have the unbelievable opportunity to train in a full time environment with world class players and hopefully play Super League rugby.”
Ah, about that….
More senseless brawling mars the Challenge Cup tie between Toronto Wolfpack and Warrington Wolves. The Canadian side take a 10-0 lead early on against the Wire, and are well in the game until former Saint Andrew Dixon plants a right cross on to the noggin of Warrington starlet Harvey Livett a couple of minutes before half-time. Two more Toronto players are sin-binned early in the second half, including captain Josh McCrone whose attempts to debate decisions with referee Ben Thaler go on longer than your average House Of Commons debate. Next he’ll be doing filibusters. Playing with 10 men at one point the Wolfpack crumble against their more illustrious and savvy opposition and end up learning a harsh lesson to the tune of 66-10.
You can read about the quarter-final draw elsewhere on these pages so let’s fast forward to Monday when it is announced that Sam Tomkins will leave Wigan Warriors at the end of the season. It isn’t very long before Catalans Dragons own up to having signed the Sky Sports favourite on a three-year deal with an option for a fourth from 2019. With the worst kept secret in rugby league now out it is expected that Wigan will also confirm the signing of Zak Hardaker in due course. If not they really have wasted their time sending their entire staff to that hearing. If Wigan get Hardaker they will have an upgrade at fullback, but they still find a reason to be grumpy;
“It came as a surprise to us that another club had engaged with Sam so early in the year when the deadline for approaching a player under contract is at the end of April.” Said Wigan’s executive director Kris Radlinksi, a man so unscrupulously honest that he once played for his hometown club absolutely free of charge to save them from certain relegation. Stop giggling. Of course Wigan would never illegally approach another club’s player and are rightly outraged by the rampant bullying of the bottom of the table and utterly rubbish and powerless Dragons.
On which subject, somebody somewhere might have had a word to the Dragons hierarchy about their prospects of relegation to the Championship. It seems highly unlikely that Tomkins would agree a deal to play in the second tier. He certainly won’t want to be playing fullback if Misi Taulapapa is in the vicinity.
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