The Catalan side's win at Bradford appears ominous while home-grown players are set to thrive
1) Year of the Dragons?
It's not how you start, it's how you finish. That is the case in the Super League as much as the Super Bowl, as Leeds proved emphatically last season by becoming the first team to reach the Grand Final ? and then to win it ? from outside the top four in the final table. So there is obviously a danger in reading too much into the opening?round fixtures at the weekend.
Having said that, notable away wins for the Catalan Dragons and Huddersfield Giants suggest that those who confidently described the competition as a four-horse race between Leeds, St Helens, Warrington and Wigan may have spoken a little too soon.
The Dragons were seriously impressive in beating Bradford 34-12 at Odsal, especially considering they began the season without Leon Pryce, Eloi Pelissier, Damien Blanch and the club captain, Gregory Mounis. A freezing February day in Yorkshire, with the main terrace snowbound and therefore closed to spectators, must have been a culture shock for a team who do much of their pre-season training on the beach in Perpignan.
But their attitude was spot on, most obviously in defence where they were formidably organised, and desperate when they had to be, to soak up whatever the Bulls could offer until the 63rd minute, by which time they already had the game safe with a 30-0 lead. The Dragons conceded 626 points last season at an average of more than 23 per match, significantly worse than any of the five teams who finished above them, and also leakier than the eighth-placed Hull. Their coach, Trent Robinson, confirmed afterwards that improving that record has been a priority through the winter.
I wouldn't entirely rule out the possibility that, given a decent run with injuries, the Catalans could even finish top of the pile this season. We'll have a better idea this time next month, when they've played Hull and Castleford at home, and St Helens and Wigan away, in their next four fixtures. But they have always been a pretty formidable proposition at the Stade Gilbert Brutus, where the atmosphere should be even more intimidating this season after the expansion of the capacity to around 13,000.
2) Giants still in business
Huddersfield's opening win at Wigan was probably even more impressive, and certainly more unexpected. All the pre-match talk of the players the Giants were missing ? Mason, O'Donnell, Fa'alogo, Faiumu, Ferguson and Kevin Brown ? must have stirred some uneasy memories in the more pessimistic Wigan supporters of a home opener against a similarly below-strength Wakefield a few years ago, when the Warriors were stunned in the snow.
It also overshadowed the quality players Huddersfield were still able to field ? McGillvary and Cudjoe in the backs, Patrick and Chan in the pack, and a four-pronged midfield threat of Grix, Brough, Robinson and Lunt.
After their late-season slump last autumn, the Giants know better than anyone that bright February form counts for little. They've had impressive opening wins against Warrington in Cardiff and Bradford at the Galpharm in the past couple of years, suggesting that Nathan Brown is a master at getting his team ready for the kick-off. But already, the widespread assumption that Huddersfield's best Super League years may be behind them is being challenged. There should be a cracking atmosphere for their home opener against Widnes next Sunday afternoon.
3) Young, gifted and British
Having been at Bradford rather than Wigan this Sunday, it's obviously impossible to make any informed comment about the Warriors performance. That's your job down below. But it certainly sets up their televised game against Leeds this Saturday ? the first blockbuster of the season, and a chance to see the exciting Rhinos back-line of Lee Smith, Zak Hardaker, Ryan Hall and Kallum Watkins, who opened up with a hat-trick against Hull KR last Friday, when Brian McDermott couldn't even find room for Ben Jones-Bishop.
Incidentally, of the teams mentioned so far, Leeds fielded only two overseas players (Brent Webb and Brett Delaney) in their starting 13, Huddersfield only one in their 17 (Jason Chan), and it was a similarly refreshing homegrown story at Salford on Saturday night, when the City Reds had only three imports in their starting side, and Castleford fielded 16 Brits (if you included Rangi Chase) with Ryan McGoldrick the only Aussie.
Warrington were also down to two overseas players in Michael Monaghan and Trent Waterhouse in their draw at Hull, and might have made Super League history by starting the season with two Welsh wings called Rhys ? Evans and Williams. Another talented young Welshman, Ben Flower, made his debut for Wigan, Elliot Kear impressed on the wing for Bradford, and Lloyd White came off the bench for Widnes. In these aspects as in many others, it's easy to overlook that the Super League is slowly heading in the right direction.
4) Ice, ice baby
What about the weather? Kicking off a so-called summer season on the first weekend in February has always been an invitation for cheap gags and embarrassment, and so it proved again as the admirable players of Salford and Castleford slithered through the snow on Saturday night. But there's no point getting too worked up about it, because it's unavoidable, as long as the clubs demand a minimum of 13 home games. Anyway, as I've already typed with shivering fingers for Sunday's Observer, "braving the winter cold stirs nostalgia of how rugby league in this country used to be before the 1996 revolution, as well as whetting the appetite for spring and summer evenings to come".
It was cruel on Salford to have their big night at a smart new venue clashing not only with a televised Manchester City fixture, but also the vilest weather of a mostly mild winter. However the stadium is smart enough to attract plenty of new supporters as the season develops, provided they can record a few wins. Hull are the next visitors, then London Broncos on the first Friday in March, but before then the Reds have short trips to St Helens and Widnes ? the latter shaping as an especially crucial game for two clubs who will almost certainly still be striving for their first wins.
At the risk of damning Widnes with faint praise, they weren't as bad as I'd feared in their opening fixture at home to Wakefield on Friday night. Maybe it's just bad luck, but it doesn't seem a great endorsement of the licensing system that having had three years to prepare for their return to the Super League, the Vikings should start the season still waiting for visas for two of their overseas players. Still, it was good to see Danny Craven, one of a crop of local lads around whom the club are determined to build their future, scoring their first try back in the big time.
5) Best of the rest
Right, which Super League clubs haven't we mentioned so far? Wakefield: pretty impressive, especially the extra smooth half-back pairing of John and Smith, although the loss of Kyle Amor with a broken hand is a blow. London Broncos: encouraging, by all accounts, in a 34-24 defeat by St Helens in front of a crowd of almost 5,000 at the Stoop. Saints: did the business, but their big night is this Friday for the grand opening of Langtree Park. Hull KR: sounds like a very decent effort, making their game at Wakefield this Sunday fascinating. The same would go for Cas-Bradford, after which we'll obviously have a better idea of the respective strengths of Ian Millward and Mick Potter's reshaped teams.
Hull seem to have been pretty encouraging in a 20-20 draw with Warrington, especially considering the absence of Brett Seymour and Aaron Heremaia, two of their major winter recruits ? that was the game I'd wanted to see on Sunday actually, before deciding to stay closer to home at Odsal because of the snow. As ever, it would be grand to hear some first-hand accounts and impressions in the comments below. Other talking points might include the artificial Widnes iPitch ? made unusually scratchy for its opening night by the salt that froze in the surface, I'm told ? and the winter discovery, courtesy of a couple of golf writers in Abu Dhabi last weekend, that the former Wigan full-back Chris Ashton is now represented in rugby union by Andi Peters, whose first high-profile client was Edd the Duck.
6) Still a Premier Sports Virgin
But we'll continue to look beyond the Super League this year. The Northern Rail Cup kicks off next weekend, with some intriguing new faces such as Paul Cooke at Doncaster ? who open up at Gateshead Thunder ? Jamie Rooney with the South Wales Scorpions, and Jason Demetriou's Wakefield reunion at Keighley. For those of us who had dozed off, it's a surprise to see Toulouse still in the fixture list, with an opener against London Skolars at the New River, after they asked to stay in the Northern Rail competition while withdrawing from the Championship.
It's still a while until the big kick-off in Australia, but it sounds like the All Stars game on the Gold Coast on Saturday provided the usual tantalising appetite-whetter for those lucky enough to have access to the game on Premier Sports. For those of us on a Virgin platform ? and the same goes for Talktalk, I'm told ? time is getting tight if we're going to be able to watch Premier's coverage of the Championship on Thursday nights.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/feb/06/super-league-set-six-catalans
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