‘Barren’ South Yorkshire deserves World Cup Sparkle

Silver service: Dons' Tony Miller

Sheffield steel: a delighted Mark Aston

Sheffield Eagles and Doncaster provided a major poke in the eye to the Rugby Football League with their respective play-off grand final victories in Warrington on Sunday.

On the Co-Operative Championship’s day in the sun, the South Yorkshire pair provided a stark reminder of their prowess to the game’s governing body when Mark Aston and Tony Miller’s sides won 20-16 and 16-13 respectively against the highly fancied pair of Featherstone Rovers and Barrow Raiders. 

While the suits at Red Hall insist on expanding the game beyond the heartland in to far flung places such as Gloucester and Oxford (both of whom will compete in the third tier next season), it has yet to make any further developments of the interest shown in this large and relatively untouched pocket of Yorkshire.

The souvenir matchday magazine from Sunday – which highlighted the impending World Cup, to be played on these shores within the next 12 months – showed a comprehensive list of all the venues to be used, from Limerick to Perpignan via Rochdale.

But what of Bramall Lane and the Keepmoat Stadium? In a nutshell, they have been ignored.

They are more than capable football facilities which can seat over 15,000 people but seem to be regarded as outposts when the ball changes shape and neither will see the arrival of the World’s best players in 2013.

When informed of the decision last year, Doncaster chief executive Carl Hall spoke at the time of his disappointment, “I think it’s a disgrace Doncaster has not got anything. South Yorkshire has got nothing and it feels like a kick in the teeth,” he said.

If the RFL fail to tap in to the potential of these former industry towns then perhaps it should be left to the good folk of the region to realise that they have not one, but two rugby league clubs worth supporting that perhaps deserve to see some stars.