Remember Super League’s historic trip to Las Vegas? The hype, the excitement and the feeling that after years of trying, perhaps British rugby league could be set for a bright future? That all unfolded three weeks ago, but after what has happened since, it feels a lot longer.
Few sports do off-field issues quite like rugby league, but even by its own ridiculous standards these are unique times. It is perhaps pertinent to start with Salford Red Devils, given their very existence has appeared under threat of late. They have twice been placed in special measures by the Rugby Football League, the latest coming when their new owners failed to pay their players on time in February, days after a takeover of the club that had fuelled optimism.
Clarity is desperately needed from the club’s new owners. Their CEO, Chris Irwin – who has been left to front up to the media – insists March’s pay will not be an issue as vital funding trickles in from overseas. But those financial incidents could have an effect on their IMG grading, which determines the league a club are in, which in turn could leave them in danger of relegation.
But will the involvement in rugby league of IMG, the sports rights giant, even be a thing come the autumn? Staggeringly, the notion of one of the 12 elite clubs failing to pay their players on time is not the most outrageous thing that has happened in recent weeks. Another boardroom crisis engulfing the RFL is threatening to undo all of the good work done lately.
For the third time in less than a decade, there will a review of the professional game. In 2017, the clubs decided it was time for change and they paid the governing body’s CEO, Nigel Wood, more than £300,000 to leave early. They brought in Robert Elstone and went through a review of the game. By 2021, he had gone.
The following year, the clubs unanimously approved a 12-year strategic partnership with IMG, which included, naturally, a review of how rugby league was operating. IMG, which is paid about £400,000, may now be pushed out after the clubs – yes, them again – decided they wanted more change at the RFL.
Their plan? Oust the chair, Simon Johnson, and bring back Wood – now in control at Bradford – on an interim basis to lead … a strategic review.
Can you spot a theme? After eight years and seemingly endless reviews, the clubs, who now hold the power after giving themselves the right to bring back Wood, seem to be throwing the cards up in the air and seeing how they land.
The optics surrounding Wood’s return are terrible enough. You do not have to delve far to find a quote from an owner demanding it was time for change when he was on his way out, only to be lauding his return now as gamechanging. The St Helens owner, Eamonn McManus, said in 2018: “No one can credibly say that Super League and the game of rugby league in this country has in any way strengthened or improved over the last decade; quite the contrary I’m afraid.”
Now he says: “There could be no better qualified or motivated person than Nigel Wood to grab the game by the scruff of the neck.” It feels a move of pure regression. But the problems run much deeper than one man.
Along with Johnson, three more members of the RFL board quit, to leave just one man, the CEO, Tony Sutton. In a bid to remain quorate and comply with Sport England’s Code for Sports Governance, an interim board was appointed. Failure to adhere to that code could lead to huge financial ramifications. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, to which rugby league owes about £4m in Covid loans, is also watching closely.
“Given our investment and partnership with the RFL, we will work with its leadership to ensure public money continues to be used responsibly,” Sport England said.
The Leeds head coach, Brad Arthur, paid tribute to Ryan Hall after the 37-year-old marked his 500th career appearance with a bizarre intervention to help his side edge a 12-10 Super League win over Wigan at Headingley.
Hall was given a guard of honour by his team-mates at the end of a thrilling clash in which his accidental header from Jake Connor's kick paved the way for Jack Sinfield to flop over for what proved to be the decisive try. "It's very rare that the ball comes off a player's head but at the end of the day they're the rules and it's a try," said Arthur. "It doesn't look pretty but we'll take it."
Rugby league rules dictate that a headed pass can only be ruled a knock-on if it is deliberate, and Hall was clearly surprised as anyone by the incident, which was reviewed several times on video before the try was awarded.
Steve McNamara says there is a lot more to come from his team after his Catalans Dragons side made it back-to-back Super League wins with a 26-4 victory at Castleford. The team from Perpignan scored twice during a torrential downpour through Tevita Pangai Junior and Alrix Da Costa before two tries in the second period from Fouad Yaha and Sam Tomkins put them out of sight.
McNamara said: "There's a lot left in our team, probably in a lot of the other teams in the competition as well, and we're not quite where some of the teams are right now. But we're certainly on the right track and it's step by step. We don't need to get it all done in one big swing. This was a good victory for us away from home. Our first away win of the season." PA Media
This is a sport lurching from crisis to crisis, with the clubs holding too much power. British rugby league desperately needs strong, stern leadership – whether it is Wood or someone else.
The hope was that Australia’s National Rugby League would step forward. Its chief executive, Peter V’landys, has forged strong relationships with Wigan and Warrington – who both abstained on the Wood vote – and indeed with Johnson. That has united the two competitions closer than perhaps ever before, and talk was really beginning to brew of an NRL investment in Super League.
That may still happen. But key figures in Australia are deeply unimpressed with yet more drama at boardroom level when the focus should be on the product. It remains to be seen whether any deal will collapse, but you only have to look at International Rugby League’s recent statement over Johnson’s departure for a clue.
IRL’s chair, the Australian Troy Grant, said Johnson had been key to rebuilding the international board after “a telling period of selfish amateur administration, lack of vision and strategy and poor governance”. The previous chair of IRL? Nigel Wood.
Perhaps Wood will be the answer. The clubs seem to think he could be and at a time when they are reliant on wealthy owners more than ever they have a right to have a say. But if it feels like deja vu, then it probably is. At some point, someone beyond the clubs has to grip the game and show effective leadership or, in three years, we will be back here again.
