I think the Crusaders are going OK, but there is obviously still a lot of work to do before we can claim a success.



I met two lads from Bridgend in Valencia this weekend, when I brought up the Crusaders they were of the of the opinion that "no-one really cares about Rugby League there" and, despite being rugby (union) fans they'd only been to one game, the Wigan one, I asked if they'd be back after that win but they said only if it's against Wigan or St Helens - so clearly there's a lot of entrenched attitudes that need changing in the town.

I concur.



Hopefully they'll follow a similar route to Catalans and gradually improve year after year.

As far as parameters go in respect of Ground, Away Support, Performance and Future Stability Widnes would have been the better option.



The game with Saints on Friday was all about keeping the score down, couldn't think of any period in the match when they showed any effort in trying to win the game.



I think next season will probably be the best time to cast judgement.

You forgot to mention keeping the game within the M62

to be honest i've been disappointed.

I probably expected too much but considering both you and Salford came up at the same time I think they've fared far better.

I've seen a few of your games and been really disappointed by the standard and okay you haven't been hammered much but most of the games you were never really in them. I was hoping you'd sign a couple more 'marquee' players too.

On the positive side i'm confident if you get it right on the pitch the fans will come, you've had a couple of good attendances (and some bad ones)and the club setup impresses me from what i've read. JD seems a good coach too but comparing you to catalans would be pointless, different kettle completely, it's an experiment, one which for me is just about floating above the expectation line.



Out of ten i'd give you a 6 thus far.

I'm looking forward to reading about your progress over the next 2 years.



One last thing I hope the rumours of the clubs financial problems are just tosh but with a couple of attendances you have to wonder.

Its been a failure.





Their player recruitment has been terrible. I mean, they have a bloke from Queensland coaching the side who has gone out and filled the team with imports that would struggle to get a run on the very fringes of our reserve grades over here.



They have signed guys who would have probably gone back to being brick layers and laborers if not for this club!

Disappointed. Your recruitment has been poor and makes me wonder if you have close to the amount of income to spend near the salary cap. Your crowds have been poor and your ground is a dump. I was really hoping that the RFL would only put new teams in that were ready and had the infrastructure but clearly they haven't. That was after all the whole point of licensing wasn't it?



Having said all that I am a massive supporter of getting a SL club in Wales and you are it so good luck and I hope you can build a strong club quicker than the London attempts.

To be fair to Celtic, I imagine recruitment from Australia was always going to be a bit tough given they had no track record at all. Having said that, a lot of their signings smack of 'no money'. They need to start replacing some of the average players with much better ones in key posiitons. I'm not a huge fan of it, but a marquee player wouldn't go amiss either.

Awwwwww, poor Celtic. Still didn't stop them breaking the bank whilst in the 3rd division for Josh Hannay





I suppose signing as many Aussies as you want is always going to be 'tough'.

this thread was always going to get traditionalists upset, they wanted celtic to get hammered every game to prove their point, but it hasn't happened. If we want our great game to survive we need to expand and Celtic is a great opportunity with a fantastic fanbase that can be grown very quickly.

What do you base that on?

in 10 years time when france and wales are strong internationally people will all agree that les cats, toulose and celtic all should be in SL.



if the ESL can develop a credible international tournament then the game will make millions from it



if RL can make massive inroads against union in NZ it can do the same in wales.



competing with RU is easy when you have a product like RL.