Challenge Cup - Completely lost its magic? : Fri May 20, 2011 9:13 pm  

Us Eagles fans know how magic the Challenge Cup can (could?) be more than most, but has that magic been completely evaporated? I ask this question after seeing the result from the Halliwell Jones tonight, Warrington 112-0 Swinton.

The chance of an upset is virtually zero, let's face it we played basically as well as we could have against St Helens and still shipped fifty. Now as you all know one of my other passions as well as rugby league is football, and football's equivalent to the Challenge Cup is the FA Cup. I absolutely love the FA Cup. Every year there are big upsets, that no one predicts. Who would have thought non-league Crawley Town could have made it to the 5th round this season and nearly defeat Manchester United at Old Trafford? Who would have thought Leyton Orient could have taken Arsenal back to the Emirates? No-one, I only wish this unpredictability could be replicated in the Challenge Cup.

It has lost this unpredictability in my opinion, and with it has gone the Challenge Cup's novelty and to some extent its attraction. The Challenge Cup final is always something to look forward to, a cracking day out and the one day where the whole nation's eyes just about is turned to rugby league. Other than that I don't think anyone really gives a monkeys anymore, which is shown in the poor attendances tonight. It's an incredible shame but I honestly think the world's most famous rugby league competition is dying a slow death.

Re: Challenge Cup - Completely lost its magic? : Fri May 20, 2011 9:33 pm  

rugby and football are totally different games ie points wise,theres more chance of a upset in football as its harder to score a goal if you get what i mean,Tries happen every 5 -10 mins on average,your lucky to get 3 goals a game,which the equivalent would be with conversations 12-6 with 3 tries,The FA cup should be 90 mins,no replays and penalties thats exciting,I have no idea how you would make the challenge cup more exciting,You would have to penalise the better teams make them have 11 against 13 which wont happen,Its the way it is and has been for years,Unless you drop a handicap system in then nothing will change,The top teams wont have that as they may lose,Cant see anything changing as theres nothing that you can do really.

Re: Challenge Cup - Completely lost its magic? : Sat May 21, 2011 12:09 am  

It's hard to change the cup it's the gap in from SL to Championship that needs a big, big fix.

The only good thing about the draw is the money smaller clubs like Swinton, who played in front on nearly 4,500, paying people tonight. Will bring the club 15-20K and will help them greatly.

However with free tickets that has been taken away unless you win and get a good draw in the 5th round, like Swinton did. Imagine what playing at Wigan or someone would do for us!

In my opinion scrap the free tickets and have free entry for kids and £5 for concessions and £10 across the board at all clubs.

In terms of trying to cause upsets I think clubs should have the incentive of trying to lose by certain amount of points of less like the championship wit the reward being extra or a replay or something.. 20 minutes of extra time at St Helens could of got us back into it...

Re: Challenge Cup - Completely lost its magic? : Sat May 21, 2011 7:39 am  

In reply to the OP it's a yes from me. As has already been mentioned the gulf between the SL and the Championship is huge. As we saw last night the gulf between the SL and Championship 1 is a million times bigger. I don't envisage a handicap system being introduced but at least the SL teams should be playing under the same restraints as the rest of the teams in the Challenge Cup i.e they should only be allowed to field one overseas player in Challenge Cup matches against opposition for outside SL. Imagine the team Hull KR would have to put out if they had to play under those rules.

Re: Challenge Cup - Completely lost its magic? : Sat May 21, 2011 8:11 am  

So just how do we try and cut the gap between Super League and the Championships? Franchising certainly doesn't help things, it distances us from Super League even more. I also agree about the free tickets, it's absolutely ludicrous, but the RFL are doing that because they realise that the cup is losing some of its attraction and without letting people in for nowt attendances will be even worse.

Just what good was last night for Swinton? Losing 112-0, being absolutely destroyed and embarrassed by arguably the best team in the country and being the talk of the rugby league community for one of the biggest defeats in the sport's history. Before last night they were unbeaten in the league, what's a 112-0 loss going to do for their confidence? I know people will say they shouldn't let it affect them, they were always going to lose etc etc, but no matter who you're playing against shipping twenty tries is bound to be demoralising. I just don't see the point.

Re: Challenge Cup - Completely lost its magic? : Sat May 21, 2011 8:13 am  

Firstly lets not take anything away from Wire - the best side in the N Hemisphere right now.

The cup is losing it's magic, I don't think you can pin it on any single thing but the rift between SL and the rest is getting bigger and nothing will stop that.

The championship needs a cup - the NR is OK but lets revamp it.

Re: Challenge Cup - Completely lost its magic? : Sat May 21, 2011 8:46 am  

The only way I can see of bridging the gap is by trying to create more teams that can achieve the franchising criteria and get more full time teams. Unfortunately that would mean the size of the TV money pie would have to increase or the size of the current slices would have to be smaller. Neither of which is going to happen anytime soon.

Re: Challenge Cup - Completely lost its magic? : Sat May 21, 2011 5:05 pm  

Make it so that all $L sides are drawn against a non-$L side and make the $L side play away.

Equal pricing in all matches.

Make the BBC show an NL1/2 club so as to show there is life below $L.

Re: Challenge Cup - Completely lost its magic? : Sun May 22, 2011 5:57 pm  

A little bit of the magic was restored with the two televised games.

Re: Challenge Cup - Completely lost its magic? : Sun May 22, 2011 6:37 pm  

deluded pom? wrote:

A little bit of the magic was restored with the two televised games.

Wakey v Cas I agree. But where are the NL clubs?