France Elite Teams By Season : 2003-04

Saint-Gaudens is a strong RL town

For this season there was a new team included, Lyon Villeurbanne Rhône à XIII if you want the full title. This was the first year of the Elite 1 Championship. Paris Châtillon and RC Carpentras XIII were relegated, making one less team this season for the Elite 1.

League: UTC (St Estève XIII Catalan) took the title with 48 points, just pipping RC Saint-Gaudens to the winning post by two points. Toulouse Olympique XIII were third (42) with SM Pia and AS Carcassonne sharing 40 points.

Finals: Details are becoming harder to find. In one quarter final AS Carcassonne defeated Toulouse Olympique 40-20. In the other encounter, the Limoux Grizzlies were eliminated.

In the first semi final Saint-Gaudens overcame SM Pia and in the other UTC were too good for AS Carcassonne, winning 40-22. In the grand final, Saint-Gaudens upset UTC 14-10. It was held at Perpignan in front of 7,500 spectators.

Lord Derby Cup: In one match UTC comprehensively outplayed Palau 68-6. FC Lézignan and Villefranche XIII lost but the fourth team I am unable to confirm.

The first semi final featured UTC and Toulouse Olympique, the former running out the victors 34-12. In the other game AS Carcassonne defeated Pia.

The final was a high scoring affair, played at Carcassonne (strangely) with 10,500 in attendance. UTC took the silverware courtesy of a 39-24 victory against AS Carcassonne.

Summary: UTC were the best side this season, winning both the League and cup. That gave them 56 points in the system I use to rank teams. AS Carcassonne were next with 40 points due to a solid season but without taking any trophies. Saint-Gaudens got 38 points along with Pia, the former taking the finals series and Pia another consistent performance without silverware.

	Rk	Team	Rnd	Fls	LD	Tot
	1	St Estève Cat	20	16	20	56
	2	Carcassonne	12	12	16	40
	3	St Gaudens	18	20		38
	4	Pia	14	12	12	38
	5	Toulouse	16	6	12	34
	6	Limoux	11	6		17
	7	Lézignan	9		6	15
	8	Villefranche	7		6	13
	9	Villeneuve	10			10
	10	Lyon Villeurb	8			8
	11	Palau			6	6
		Total	125	72	66	263

For the 2004-05 season, simply click here.

UK Elite Teams By Season : 1997

The second year of the Super League competition was held in 1997. The Paris St Germain club had it second and final season. The Salford City Reds came in to replace Workington Town.

The League. The Bradford Bulls won with 40 points, seven more than the London Broncos. St Helens were next with 29 points and the Wigan Warriors on 28 points. The Leeds Rhinos were next with 27. All twelve sides went into the finals series.

The Challenge Cup. At the quarter finals stage, Oldhan lost out to Bradford 12-38, Warrington likewise against Salford 10-29, Keighley were defeated by Saints 0-14 and Leeds were victorious against Featherstone 32-12.

In the semi finals, St Helens easily won 50-20 in their match with Salford and Bradford prevailed against Leeds 24-10. The final attracted 78,000 fans to Wembley Stadium to witness Saints take the cup 32-22 at the expense of Bradford.

Cup semi final Saints v Salford. (Pic St Helens Star)

The Premiership Finals. The top four had a week off which the lower eight battled it out. The results were: Sheffield Eagles 26-16 Warrington Wolves, Halifax Blue Sox 18-23 Castleford Tigers, Salford 48-6 Paris St G, Leeds 42-16 Oldham Bears.

In came the top four to play the winners of the first round: Saints 26-12 Salford, Bradford 12-25 Castleford, London 16-58 Sheffield, Wigan 38-22 Leeds. So two of the top four lost.

The semi finals arrived. St Helens 32-18 Castleford and Wigan 22-10 Sheffield. Third and fourth from the league made the grand final, the two Lancashire arch rivals. Wigan took this one 33-20 and along with it the silverware. 33,000 were on hand at Old Trafford for the occasion. The crowds are much larger now.

Summary: St Helens took the Challenge Cup and being heavily involved in the other two competitions took 52 points and were the top team with my points system. Bradford were next with 42 points, with a league title and losing finalist in the cup. Wigan were the grand final winner but a poor cup run hurt their score 34 points.

	Rk	Team	Lge	CC	Fin	Total
	1	St Helens	16	20	16	52
	2	Bradford	20	16	6	42
	3	Wigan	14		20	34
	4	Leeds	12	12	6	30
	5	Salford	11	12	6	29
	6	London	18		6	24
	7	Sheffield	9		12	21
	8	Castleford	7		12	19
	9	Warrington	8	6		14
	10	Oldham	5	6		11
	11	Halifax	10			10
	12	Paris St Ger	6			6
	12	Featherstone		6		6
	12	Keighley		6		6
		Total	136	60	84	280

To see the 1996 season, simply click here.
To see the 1998 season, just click here.

Weird NZ Anti RL Stories : Part Three

My nephew went to a primary school in Auckland, New Zealand. This is the first school you go to and covers about the first six years of schooling. It was a smaller than average school for a city this size and it didn't have much going on with school sports teams. Normally all schools would have Rugby Union played and gradually some are allowing Rugby League in too, usually on the proviso that the RU team has first pick on any players it wants.

My nephew and some of the boys there all liked Rugby League so decided they wanted to form a RL team to play other schools. I don't think many games would have been played due to not that many schools offering it anyway. The teacher they approached agreed to coach them in RL but had to get the headmaster's approval first.

The boys were excited, but were dismayed when the teacher came back and said the answer was no. The reason the headmaster gave was if a sport was to played in the school it was to be RU. If they wanted to play that fine, but there would be no RL team. They all said they didn't want to play RU and that was the end of the matter, neither sport was played there.

The schooling system has been involved in some atrocious behaviour, some of which will come to light later in the series. It shows how bigoted NZ is when it comes to RL.

For Part Four in the series, simply click here.
Part Two is seen from here.