Rugby League: Sculthorpe calls for season to be restructured

Oct 19 2007 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

PAUL SCULTHORPE is calling for an upheaval to the Super League schedule after watching his St Helens side lose their first Grand final Saturday.

The injured Saints skipper wants to see a return to all clubs playing each other twice, once home and once away, in the regular season to ease the current punishing fixture list.

Sculthorpe feels St Helens, who lost 33-6 to Leeds Rhinos in the Old Trafford final, were ultimately victims of their own success.

They had to start the league season a week before their rivals because of their World Club Challenge victory and their successful run to a second successive Challenge Cup triumph meant they played eight months without a break.

"It’s ludicrous," said Sculthorpe, who made only nine starts in 2007 and missed both domestic finals with an Achilles injury. "With the World Cup next year it’s going to be another long season and the games are getting so much tougher each year.

"So they really have to sort these fixtures out and really start thinking about the players. We need to get back to the home and away, just playing each time twice, because the way it is at the moment isn’t fair.

"Some teams you could play in the cup, the play-offs, the Grand Final – you can play a team seven times but in the regular season it’s not fair that other teams don’t play the same teams as much.

"We need to simplify it. You have to play games for the financial benefits of the club but consider the players as well.

"When we get to the internationals at the end of the year we never have our best selection so if we want to improve on that level we have to look after the players."

Sculthorpe is back running and hopes to start training with his team-mates in early November before making his comeback for Saints at the start of next season.

Playing regularly for his club again is currently his main ambition, putting on hold any hopes of regaining the Great Britain captaincy or even making the England squad for the World Cup.

"My priority is get back to the form I was in before for Saints and until you do that I don’t think you can think of anything else," said Sculthorpe who signed a new one-year contract earlier this month.

"I was Great Britain skipper for two years and never really played so it’s not fair on players who are in now and puts more pressure on me as well.

"So whether I play for GB as well I don’t know. It’s a case of getting back on to the field regularly."