Return of the Rugby

Friday nights are back! Last night saw what, for me at least, was the unofficial start of the new Rugby League season.






With the change to summer rugby, with the season starting in February (Rugby League does unusual things like that), the pre-season campaigns are already underway.
Most clubs so far have run a few friendly games, but mainly involving the academy players. Last night however, Leeds' first team took on their Huddersfield counterparts at Headingley.

The game was a joint testimonial game (Rugby League does funny things like that) for Paul Reilly, who was celebrating 10 years service at Huddersfield, and Keith Senior, who wasn't celebrating 10 years service at Leeds.

Senior had instead been awarded a 'four month' testimonial (Rugby League does funny things like that) "for services to the game". To date he is the only player to have played in every year of Super League, is the Super League top appearance and try scorer and has been a Great Britain regular. His testimonial was fully deserved.

Over the testimonial period, the players essentially try and raise as much money as possible and a nice little kitty. Some donate the money to charity, others use it as a way of funding a career away from the game. They'll usually hold a dinner event, golf day, release a special edition shirt and hold their own benefit game - hence my attendance at Headingley yesterday.

In essence, a testimonial game is an opportunity for the marketing men to dress up a pre-season kick about as something much more important. Aside from the extra fanfare before and after, they're pretty run-of-the-mill.

Anyway, Leeds won 50-0. They scored some cracking tries (especially given it's pre-season) and on this form, will challenge anyone, expect it's Leeds we're talking about, so the form will probably last until the last two months of the season.

The Super League season kicks off proper next week, with Huddersfield playing St Helens in Round 3 (Rugby League does funny things like that). At least I'll have something to update The One Pointer with.