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Anderson's Merry men
15th October 2007, 15:00
The Rugby Football League are to bring forward the start of the next engage Super League season to give England more time to prepare for the 2008 World Cup.

Super League XIII will kick off on the weekend of February 2-3, a week earlier than this year, and finish with the Grand Final at Old Trafford on October 4.

That will give new national coach Tony Smith three weeks to spend with the England squad before they kick off the World Cup against Papua New Guinea in Townsville on October 25.

The news will also be a boost to Wales, Scotland and Ireland, who are hoping to book their places in the 10-team tournament in qualifying matches over the next five weeks.

Meanwhile, officials have also announced the fixtures for next May's Millennium Magic weekend which will see a full round of matches staged at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Promoted Castleford will kick off the weekend's action against local rivals Wakefield on Saturday May 3. That match will be followed by Huddersfield's clash with Warrington and the Leeds-Bradford derby.

Harlequins and Catalans meet in the opening fixture the following day, which also features the Hull derby and St Helens' clash with Wigan.

An aggregate crowd of 58,831 watched the inaugural event this year, which encouraged the Rugby Football League to stage a repeat.

saint finster
15th October 2007, 16:09
it will be a big ask next year for someone to do the double... the wembley final is on the 30th Aug next year .. technically a week later (altho not on a calender as bh is the weekend before) and the GF a week earlier then usual on the 4th .... which means the play offs will pretty much be straight after the CCF

a very tuff ask !!!! :eek: :(

dufc4
15th October 2007, 16:13
They get paid to do it they done it last year so why cant we do it next year?

Knight Shadow
15th October 2007, 16:17
so basickley because the CC is not moveing the busness end of the seasion will sought the men from the boys this coluld be verey intresting to see how far some clubs have come. mind you CCF will onley affect 2 clubs so who knows...i hope leeds get there and face us for the simple fact of i would like them to go throught the length of a seasion we have had this seasion and then face them agen in the GF and see how even the match is

saintly_1
15th October 2007, 18:53
If they keep bringing the start of super league forward we will soon be back to Boxing Day matches

sale_mike
16th October 2007, 00:20
Feb 3rd. Summer rugby, I love it.

dufc4
16th October 2007, 00:40
Feb 3rd. Summer rugby, I love it.
lol whats our first home game going to be this season snow or heavy gail ;)

Anderson's Merry men
16th October 2007, 21:49
WE can re-enact dancing on ice lol. who knows with climate change we may need our bermuda shorts yet!

paulscnthorpe
16th October 2007, 23:37
just a bit of trivia, the first game of super league one..

31st March!!

Saints-Crusaders
17th October 2007, 16:22
just a bit of trivia, the first game of super league one..

31st March!!



You're forgetting one thing though. Back then, the Challenge Cup was played much earlier than it is now, culminating in the final being played in late April.

Now that the CC is played later in the season, it's only logical to realise that SL would be brought forward

DD
17th October 2007, 16:56
You're forgetting one thing though. Back then, the Challenge Cup was played much earlier than it is now, culminating in the final being played in late April.

Now that the CC is played later in the season, it's only logical to realise that SL would be brought forward

However it also involved only 22 games and two weeks of play offs.

The whole league campaign lasted just five months.

gateaux
17th October 2007, 17:29
I read somewhere that it was only Leeds starting a week earlier for the WCC like last season, not sure how that fits in with the early finish unless we arent having an international week

Saints-Crusaders
17th October 2007, 17:33
I read somewhere that it was only Leeds starting a week earlier for the WCC like last season, not sure how that fits in with the early finish unless we arent having an international week


The whole of SL starts earlier but Leeds will start a week before the rest

gateaux
17th October 2007, 17:40
The whole of SL starts earlier but Leeds will start a week before the rest
I read the Leeds game will be the weekend of the the 2nd/3rd Feb - thats the same weekend as we started this season

Agent Mulder
17th October 2007, 18:50
I just hope that we are not playing leeds in the opening match of the SL. if they are playing the WCC in Feb. That means an earlier start to the season for us too.

Barbarian
21st October 2007, 13:31
The whole of SL starts earlier but Leeds will start a week before the rest


So Leeds will play a match in January! Why bother having an off season at all? Lets just start again the week after the last test!

Saints Alive
21st October 2007, 14:06
the season is getting far too long with the addition of international games at the end.
before we know were we are there will be no close season at all it is already taking its toll on the players and it aint helping us to beat the Auz & NZ teams.

are Leeds Playing the WCC in this country or will they be expected to go to Auz between two rounds of SL after starting their season a week early?

just a thought !!

gateaux
21st October 2007, 14:24
So Leeds will play a match in January! Why bother having an off season at all? Lets just start again the week after the last test!Leeds cant be starting in January, arent they playing a game in Florida at the end of January?