There was me expecting an announcement that next years Summer Bash was off, when I read that tomorrow at Midday the fixtures will be announced.
I wonder who we will up against? I would hope for a Saturday game and not first up. Not Featherstone either. Anyway it will be interesting to see what the attendance will be.

.... and not Blackpool

London Toronto?

Leigh v Toronto
London v To
Heavy woollen derby Batley v Dewsbury
Fax v Fev
Roch v Swinton
Sheff v Barrow

At Blackpool
Order of fixture 12 today

So that's the statement from the RFL for the expected top four positions then?
In fact the whole league could probably be summed up there, put the fax fixture above batley and you have prob 1 to 12 in reasonably right order, each pairing you could flip but don't think it will be far off

London v Toulouse. That will do.
It will be interesting see how they schedule these games
.

We are first on day 2 - Toronto have broken the noon emabargo on Twitter. They do like to ride rough shod over the RFL, and their fellow clubs.

I am not sure that I will bother to stay and watch the other games on the Sunday. Certainly I will not bother with going on the Saturday.
Not really making friends Toronto, are they?

To me it tells you how the RFL are thinking. They can’t surely believe Batley Dewsbury is a bigger game, but may have a bigger attendance

Certainly likely to draw more fans through the gate

None of the games will pull in the big numbers. If they get more than 10k over the weekend I will be surprised.
They need to work on the locals to try and get the numbers up. Last year on the way to the game I spoke to a guy on the tram, he had no idea that such an event was going on in his home town.
A few posters on the trams, which is all I saw, is not good enough.

Apart from some thunder fans, it would be interesting to see how many locals go to magic?
The bloke you spoke to in the tram, did he show any interest when you told him what it was about? Not sure there is any interest in getting locals in.

not sure there is any point full stop

Actually I don't like the whole concept of the extra game! No problem with them having a festival of rugby per se but think they should run something like the Auckland 9s rather than an extra round.
Think the fact cas and Leeds were meeting for I think the 5th time in the season was part of the reason the atmosphere and game was a bit flat

According to the League Express, Toulouse and Toronto will feature in the Magic Weekend, not Summer Bash.
Where does this leave us. One must assume that we will play Leigh, probably on the Saturday.
This would make the Sunday a bit light, having only two games.
Surely this will not be allowed to happen. Then again, this is the RFL!

Think you will find this is the Toronto v Toulouse fixture has been moved from a home game to being at the Magic Weekend. The fixtures for the Bash remain.

My understanding is the Toronto Toulouse game is as SR states it's a Toronto home game regular round fixture, Toronto have given up there home advantage. Strikes me as a money saving ploy means they don't have to fork out for flights and accom for toulouse and accom for there own squad in Toronto.

Hopefully it's that and not a sign there are concerns the stadium work may overrun. Their first home game is officially venue TBA still I think. This was due to be their third home game.

Only just spotted that one about the home ground. Does put a different light on things with some of our issues in the past. Oh by the way we are moving our home game over the Atlantic, excellent way to look after your fans.

Wonder if any Toulouse fans had flights booked already? Can they be trusted not to do the same with 9ther games during the season?

The timing of the work is beyond their control and home games venues for them are probably best considered TBC. We all know building projects can over run. Hopefully our game will be late enough not to be impacted but I'm not booking flights just yet.

Not really an excuse though is it? It's meant to be the great white hope of rugby league, looks awfully like it's all falling apart a little bit over there, great way to treat your home fans take your home games back to the UK, if we did this the fans few as they are would be up in arms!

Then again it's just a rich mans play thing to do with what he wishes really so should not be surprised.

We have done it, London v Warrington in Carcassonne being the most obvious example.

Price of a flight to carcassone a wee bit different from a price over the Atlantic. Not quite the same it's not as if it was in our second year and trying to build a new fan base, and to pre empt dog, it was our way of destroying our fan base