Every Super League club has now played 11 games, meaning we are at the halfway mark of the regular season. Here’s what we have learned so far:

Castleford remain the great entertainers

They may have lost a couple of times in the last fortnight but going down narrowly at St Helens and Hull is no disgrace. Just to put the Tigers’ season into context, they have scored 99 more points than the second-highest scorers in Super League (which is, surprisingly, the resurgent Leeds). Daryl Powell’s side may have been pulled back into the pack but it would be a great disappointment to most neutrals if they didn’t make the semi-finals in the autumn.

Wigan are consistent

They may have made hard work of putting 12-man St Helens away on Good Friday, but Wigan dispatched Catalans with aplomb on Sunday and are showing signs of being more than capable of retaining their crown. Most impressive has been the improvement in Morgan Escare in a matter of months; he looks a class act now rather than the entertaining circus act he was at Catalans.

Hull FC are weird

Having conceded just 100 points in their first seven games, Lee Radford’s side shipped 106 in the next two, both at home. Bizarre. They then reacted to those stunners by winning at Leigh and squeezing past the leaders, Cas, yesterday. The Airlie Birds should be serious contenders again.

Maybe Warrington 2017 are not the new Leeds 2016 after all

Following a dreadful start, Warrington have gone unbeaten for a month, although they showed a lack of confidence and cohesion in the first half against Wakefield on Saturday and trailed for 78 minutes before snatching victory at the death. A month ago Tony Smith’s team would have lost that game. They were so far adrift that they looked likely to be fighting in the Qualifiers in September rather than for a place at Old Trafford. If they win at Hull on Friday night, the Wire will be back in the mix.

There are some fabulous kids out there

For all the concern over losing players to the NRL and rugby union, our clubs are still producing some little gems. Two of them are 17-year-olds called Walker. On Friday night Widnes sent Danny Walker on against Saints on Sky and he revelled in it, while Leeds’ Jack Walker was scoring a hat-trick on his debut against Doncaster. Wigan keep throwing Academy kids into Super League and they play like they’ve done it all their lives. And any non-Wigan fans whose hearts did not leap a little when Regan Grace – a beanpole of a kid with a haircut the Fresh Prince would think twice about – skipped out of a couple of tackles on Good Friday and zig-zagged his way up field, must not love the game. The kid from Port Talbot must have earned a ticket to Wales’ World Cup adventure.

Widnes cannot be something they are not

A team of youngsters and low-profile veterans can only take you so far. Once Kevin Brown left and wasn’t replaced, Denis Betts must have sat before the priest in confessional and admitted: “If we can just stay up I’ll be thrilled, Father”. The effort his team gave last Friday to scrape a two-point victory over coach-less Saints suggests they will not go into the Qualifiers quietly. Mind you, Hull KR thrashed Castleford this time last year and look what happened to them.

Hull KR are too good for the Championship

The Robins have adjusted to the second division and are putting most teams away quite comfortably. While the huge scores are not coming (yet), they are better than everyone else, their only defeat when they sent a below-strength side to Toulouse at Easter, saving their stars for Saturday’s Challenge Cup tie at Leigh. That worked a treat. If the Super 8s was starting now, Rovers would fancy taking points off most of their seven opponents.

Toronto are a top Championship outfit

Running Salford close in the Challenge Cup on Sunday, the Wolfpack demonstrated once again that they are far too good for League One. I cannot have been alone in turning off their romp at Doncaster before half-time and just deleted the massacre in North Wales from Sky Planner. How does anyone score 60 points by half-time? See them in the flesh, on a dry track, as I did at the Broncos, and Toronto are just too fast in attack and defence. When the passes stick, they are unstoppable by part-time players. With Marquee Player signing Ryan Brierley in the halves they could nudge three figures against League One’s strugglers. Let’s just hope they give their North American recruits some game time in Toronto.

Rugby league fans moan about TV but 12 matches are broadcast live every week Read more

Clubcall: Siddal

Ever since North London Stags Under-18s were given an unpleasant reception at Siddal almost a decade ago, the Halifax club have had a negative image with me. That has been transformed over the last few weeks. First they gain universal praise for the way they hosted Toronto Wolfpack’s professional debut, then I read about them retaining young players when they are dropping out of the sport in pursuit of less healthy activities elsewhere by running Under-19 and Under-23 Saturday teams. Now an even more impressive feat: Siddal provided five players to the England Under-16 team that beat France over Easter. That takes some doing. Intriguingly, only one is with a local club (Leeds Rhinos) with another at Warrington and three at Wigan. Fine work Siddal.



Foreign quota

Never mind Toronto, Toulouse and Catalans playing in the British league, Italian club Saluzzo Roosters have just completed their first season in the French third tier with a heartening victory over Saint Martin. Born just three years ago as North West Roosters, Saluzzo is based just 40km from the French border in north-west Italy, above Turin. They struggled in the first few months but strengthened in the closing stages by recruiting two Italy internationals: loose forward Gioele Celerino returned to the club after spells with Coventry Bears and Newcastle Thunder, and Italian rugby legend Mirco Bergamasco.

Saluzzo have been rewarded with an international, hosting Italy v Spain on 10 June. Italy’s last game, the annihilation of Russia in the final World Cup qualifier, has been tainted by two Russians being found guilty of doping offences. Mikhail Burlutskiy tested positive for Methylhexaneamine and has been suspended by the RLIF for two years, while Vadim Fedchuk tested positive for just the four banned substances and is out for four years. Makes you wonder what else was going on in the Russian camp.

Goal-line drop-out

Rugby League Week's demise a sad sign of the times in NRL media Read more

This month has seen the sad passing of an Australian league institution: Rugby League Week magazine, killed off by German publishing giant Baeur after 47 years. It’s death should make British fans grateful we still have two weekly papers (and two monthly magazines) to devour. Brighouse-based League Express (launched in 1990) and Batley’s League Weekly (born 15 years ago from the ashes of Rugby Leaguer, which was merged with League Express) do not disclose their circulation figures but it is safe to assume they may not even be a tenth of RL Week’s 200,000 peak, but they sell enough print editions to survive.

Rugby league has managed to support two weeklies for most of our lifetimes and although both papers are mainly sold in the north, they can be found in some unlikely locations. League Express is no longer available in London’s major rail terminals but I found it once in a Hertfordshire petrol station and until recently it was usually stocked by a magnificent international newsagents near Warren Street tube. Try asking for League Express in there now and you are guaranteed quizzical looks and may end up with a portion of bibimbap: it’s been turned into a Korean food market.

Fifth and last

So what did you think of the Challenge Cup fifth round at the weekend? What do you mean, you didn’t know it was on? Having just written a piece about revitalising the Challenge Cup for Forty-20 magazine (out now folks) it was depressing to see that BBC TV ignored the last 32, and indeed were allowed to do so by the RFL.

There was no live TV game and the BBC severely under-promoted their streamed game - Whitehaven v Halifax (I couldn’t find it online) and only provided local radio commentary fromLeigh on Saturday, meaning most of us missed Hull KR’s victory over the Centurions. At the same time, Sky were showing two run-of-the-mill (albeit exciting) Super League fixtures. So much for the magic of the cup. Final word goes to Championship minnows Swinton Lions for their tremendous win on Sunday at hapless Huddersfield, who look anything but Giants right now.



Follow No Helmets Required on Twitter and Facebook