THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE RFL | ISSUE 57 PPPPAAARRRTTT O OOFFF T TTHHHEEE CCCCOOOMMMMMMUUUNNNNIITITTYYYY BACK ON THE PROWL YOU CAN B ANK ON IT! RUGBY LEAGUE BULLETIN February 2009 CONTENTS Masters Money 4 Growing The Game 6 Part Of The Community Pg 8 & 9 Old Rivals 10 Sharing Best Practice 14 A Grand Prize 18 Safe & Sound 20 Back On The Prowl Pg 12 & 13 A New Era 22 Top Of The League 26 Tickets For A Tenner 27 One Hell Of A The Final Straight 28 WeekendRhinos Aim Pg 16Pg & 1617 & 17 Published by the Rugby League Services Department of the RFL. The RFL, The Zone, St Andrews Road, Huddersfield, HD1 6PT. CubsYou To Can Lions Bank On It! Tel - 01484 448000 | Fax - 01484 545582, Pg 24 & 25 Email - [email protected] | Internet - www.rfl.uk.com Pg 26 & 27 The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the RFL Board of Directors. Contributors - Tom Hoyle, Craig Spence, Andrew Whitelam, Dean Hardman, Neil Barraclough, swpix.com, Dave Williams, Phil Hodgson, If you are interested in advertising in the Rugby League Bulletin, please contact - [email protected] Main Cover Photograph - Kevin Sinfield, (swpix.com) © The Rugby Football League Ltd 2009 Designed by - Tom Hoyle Printed by - Redwood Print Ltd Tel - 01484 711111 Rugby League Fancy Taking Up The Whistle? ue to the success of both Tag and Touch Rugby the search News Dis now on for match officials to take charge of proceedings. The coming year will see more and more people take to the field in these versions of the game and the RFL are looking to recruit match officials. “There’s been a huge interest from people wanting to play both Tag and Touch Rugby,” said Tony Miller, RFL League For All Officer. “This now means that we’re looking to recruit as many match officials as possible for the coming year. The short course lasts Newcomers Flock To The Saints just two hours, is free of charge and would interest anyone, whether their a current player, ex-player, coach, parent, anchester St Peter’s RLFC are the latest Rugby League club to emerge teacher or spectator.” Mfrom Manchester. Join The Swarm ! So far courses are planned for - The new outfit, based in Belle Vue, follow fast on the heels of North West nternational Rugby League is coming to Counties team Manchester Storm. The club are targeting boys and girls Wednesday 11th March, Eastmoor Dragons ARLFC, 18.00 aged 7-10 with a view to entering teams into the North West Counties Rochdale! I – 20.00 League in September 2009. Wednesday 8th April, Hull University, 18.00 – 20.00 Saturday 30th May will see the Rochdale Swarm Wednesday 15th April, Castleford Lock Lane, 18.00 – 20.00 host an International Mixed Tag RL Festival, with Masters Money The club has been working closely with St Peter’s RC High School and Salford City Reds to provide children from the local community with teams coming from as far away as Ireland to take For more information or to book your place on a course contact ight Fraser Eagle National Conference League clubs are celebrating a £1,000 wind fall. opportunities to take part in Rugby League. part. E Tony on 0759 5520172 or via e-mail at [email protected] The festival will also see the Celtic Barbarians – a The eight clubs – Bradford Dudley Hill, East Leeds, Eccles & Salford Juniors, Leigh East Over 50 children attended the first training session, and this indicates the team made up of Celtic Crusaders supporters – a Leigh Miners Rangers, Rochdale Mayfield, Saddleworth Rangers and Siddal – were all level of interest for the sport in Manchester. Seb Rowe, Manchester Rugby Fijian side drawn from the local Fijian Association presented with a “four figure” cheque at this week’s league meeting after successfully League Development Officer said, “The clubs first training session was a and hopefully a side from South Asia Bulls. hosting Masters Rugby League events over the last year. fantastic occasion. The international feel of the day is completed After the huge success of the Masters concept within the eight clubs it is now envisaged The high number of participants goes to show that Rugby League is a sport with home sides coming from the likes of that all other NCL clubs will embrace the concept this coming year. that people will enjoy being involved in, given the opportunity. With such Oldham, Coventry and the hosts themselves. a good start, Manchester St Peter’s has every chance of being a success, Thanks to the support of the National Sports Foundation there are currently over 800 years into the future.” The rules for the seven a-side festival include registered players in the UK at present, and last summer saw the first ever Australian each team having a mixed squad of no more than Masters Tourists fly over to the UK. A return trip “down under” is played for autumn this James Caldwell, Director of Rugby at Manchester St Peter’s added, “I’m 12 players, whilst all participants must be aged year. very confident that the foundations of this team, with the support of 16 or over. the RFL and Salford Reds, will provide a real future for Rugby League in For more information on Masters Rugby League visit www.tryit.co.uk or www. Manchester, whilst also giving Gorton and Longsight a great sports club for “The event is very much a social affair with the nationalconferenceleague.co.uk for the latest news, fixtures and results on the Fraser Eagle the community.” emphasis very much on fun and participation,” National Conference League. said Tom Allen, RFL League for All Officer Manchester St Peter’s training sessions run in conjunction with the Salford City Reds Streetlights Urban Rugby Project. Sessions take place on “As well as the action on the field they’ll be Tuesdays, 5-7pm and Belle Vue Leisure Centre. entertainment taking place throughout the day Hard Work Pays Off and afterwards a presentation, live band and For more information contact Seb 07921 078 103 or [email protected] disco.” For The Raiders The festival feel is further emphasised by many ulton Raiders ARLFC is celebrating after of the teams camping over for the weekend and Oscooping £600,000 worth of funding. they’ll also be a “welcome party” for the teams arriving on the Friday night. The huge financial boost has come via Leeds City Council, the RFL (via Sport England) and The cost for entering a team is £60, whilst The Football Foundation and is set to pay for individual players can pay £5 and be placed into a the refurbishment and expansion of the clubs team on arrival. Places for the festival are limited facilities. and filling up fast so organisers are urging people to sign up as soon as possible. The clubs Woodlesford Sports Club base is used by five different sports including cricket For more information or to enter the festival and football teams and the work will see the contact Tom Allen on 07515 753928 or via addition of four new changing rooms, referee e-mail at [email protected] or Mark Wynn rooms, first aid rooms and the construction of (Rochdale Swarm) at [email protected] new toilets and kitchen. Additional car parking and storage are also set to be included. “It’s been very hard work but we’ve got there!” said Raiders Chairman Stephen Stableford. David Gent, regional director of Sport England Yorkshire said, “Sport England is delighted to have supported the work at Oulton with Woodlesford Sports Club, working in partnership with the Rugby Football League.” - 4 - RUGBY LEAGUE BULLETIN RUGBY LEAGUE BULLETIN - 5 - ore participants then ever Mbefore and over a wider geographical area are just two of the benefits people can expect to see over the next four years in Rugby League after the RFL was awarded nearly £30 million by Sport England following the submission of its Whole Sport Plan .... The aim is to use the money to help Sport England deliver its objectives of “We believe that our partnership approach with national governing bodies, more grassroots sporting opportunities and a lasting Olympic legacy of one and other parts of the sporting landscape, will capitalise on London 2012 and million people playing more sport by 2013. leave the first ever grassroots sporting legacy from an Olympic and Paralympic Games. In total 46 sports submitted plans mid way through last year, and in December Sport England made awards on the basis of a sport’s ability to increase the “Together, we are building the firm foundations of a world-leading community number of people playing and enjoying sport, and to create development sport system.” pathways for those with talent. Nearly half a billion pounds was available from Sport England and thanks to its “The RFL is looking forward with great comprehensive and robust plan, the RFL was awarded the third biggest grant of any sport - £29.4 million - a significant interest on previous awards. enthusiasm to working with all sections of the game to sustain and increase the Some of the ways the RFL aims to use the funding over the next four years (April 2009-March 2013) to increase participation in Rugby League is by growth in participation” developing alternative forms of the game to ensure lifelong participation in the sport. This includes investment in League for All, which encompasses Also commenting the RFL’s national community development manager, different derivatives of the sport such as touch and tag rugby, as well as Julia Lee, added, “The RFL is looking forward with great enthusiasm to Masters rugby for over 35’s.