Super League’s missed opportunity after going with safe option of Leigh Centurions – Peter Smith

The game has been shown in its best light over the past few weeks. Firstly, a compelling Betfred Super League Grand Final was decided on the last play of the whole season, then Leeds Rhinos director of rugby Kevin Sinfield raised more than £2.5m for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and his stricken former team-mate Rob Burrow by running seven marathons in seven days.

St Helens’ win over Wigan Warriors in the title decider highlighted the best of rugby league on the field; it was intense, relentless, tough and thrilling.

Sinfield’s astonishing feat of endurance captured national attention and illustrated what outstanding athletes - and people - rugby league players, past and present, are, but those steps forward were, inevitably, followed by a giant leap back.

Congratulations to Leigh Centurions on their promotion to Super League. Founder members 125 years ago, Leigh are a club steeped in the game and criticism of their elevation is not their fault, but it is more evidence of the sport’s insular nature. Leigh (population, 41,275) will replace Toronto (population 2,930,000) in the top flight next year. The majority of clubs last month turned their back on expansion when they voted not to readmit Toronto Wolfpack into the competition for 2021.

Some of that was Wolfpack’s own fault. The club faced incredibly difficult circumstances this year and didn’t handle them well enough but if, rugby league didn’t offer second chances, several of its top clubs would now be nothing more than a memory. Once Toronto had been shown the red card, there was no perfect solution but, of the six clubs who applied to replace them, Leigh are the ‘safe choice’.

A seven-strong panel - chaired by Lord Jonathan Caine and including three representatives each from Super League and the Rugby Football League (RFL) - felt Leigh were best-placed to meet the criteria for a place in the top flight: enhance the commercial value of the Super League to broadcast and sponsorship partners of Super League Europe, deliver value to other members of Super League, be competitive on the field of play, be sustainable for the 2021 season (and beyond) and, as a result of being in Super League, help deliver the broader ‘Goals of the Sport’ as set out in the RFL strategy reset.

A cynic might argue that some of the 11 sides who completed the 2020 campaign don’t meet all of those criteria. If ‘deliver value to other members of Super League’ means ‘bring away fans’, that is an indictment of the competition. It is not the job of an away side to fill the terraces; clubs need to make a better job of marketing themselves.

The panel could have been more ambitious. Toulouse Olympique would have kept the expansionists happy, London Broncos make Super League a national competition and York City Knights offer something different and new. Leigh are assembling a strong squad, have good facilities and are relatively well-supported.

On the other hand, it is another stop on the M62 corridor, this is their third crack at the ‘big time’ - after failing to survive as a promoted club in 2005 and 2017 - and only two years ago they, along with Featherstone Rovers, had to borrow Super League academy players to fulfil their final fixture.

Rovers were among the unsuccessful applicants and took their rejection on the chin, but could feel a little hard done by. The same caveats apply to Rovers as to Leigh, but they also have an excellent stadium, are putting together a good squad, were in impressive form before coronavirus shut down the Betfred Championship and haven’t yet played in Super League, so would bring something new.

Realistically, though, if Rovers were ever to gain promotion, it was always going to have to come through winning the second-tier competition.

Rejection this time may not be a bad thing in the long term. The 12th team will receive less funding next year - £1m to their rivals’ £1.8m - so the odds are stacked heavily against them from the start.

By being forced to compete on an uneven playing field, there’s a danger the promoted club are being set up to fail.

It would be poetic justice if they did manage to finish above at least one of the clubs who voted against Toronto.

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