One thing I’m always willing to do is eat my words. As much as I can be stubborn and bull-headed, I love when a sport can prove me wrong. And now the dust has settled around Round 1 of the Betfred Super League, I’m ready to admit my previous doubts about an expanded league might just have been incorrect.

This is not me saying that it’s the best thing they ever could have done – I still think there’s a lot that isn’t quite right – but what I was wrong about was the talent brought up.

York and Toulouse both managed victories in round 1 – a feat that is even more impressive when you consider that they both receive half of the central funding that the rest of the league get.

Important aside here – I am trying desperately to be an unbiased fan and celebrate Toulouse coming back with a win, however I am also a Wakefield fan and we are sort of infamous for moaning about poor reffing (even if it is totally justified, in my opinion). But judgements about referees aside, the French side outplayed us and proved that they belong in the top flight.

I don’t think I have the capabilities to describe York’s round 1 victory. I’ve never seen RL Twitter so united in joy over victory, even if it did absolutely ruin my fantasy team and win me the forfeit for the week (I’m documenting each week on my Twitter, if you care). A round 1 result like this is absolutely huge, even if you’re fuming your team lost an easy game. The optics are just brilliant and I’m wondering if I was on something when I first wrote about the expanded league – or if I’ve just enjoyed it so much so far that my perception is clouded.

I believe – and I don’t think this is an uncommon opinion – that the reason we, as rugby league fans, get so cagey when the sport tries to change is because there’s an air of “we’ve seen this before”. And fair – we have seen the structure vary hugely in the thirty years Super League has existed, not always for the better.

But quite frankly, there’s been a lot of bad press about rugby recently and I think we should try to celebrate the joy in our sport when we can, because if there’s one thing to rely on, it’s that ..it’s that rugby league will always find a way to surprise you.

Just when you think you’ve mapped out the hierarchy and safely tucked the “underdogs” into their expected basement slots, the script gets shredded. Seeing York and Toulouse punch upward is a reminder that the soul of this game doesn’t reside in a spreadsheet of central funding or a boardroom’s five-year plan – it lives in the eighty minutes of grit on the pitch.

The “Expansion” Elephant in the Room

I’ll be the first to admit I was worried about the quality being diluted. I feared we’d see a series of 50-point blowouts that would make the league look amateurish and give the union-favouring press more ammunition. But York absolutely thrived, and the LNER Community Stadium looked professional and packed out. And Toulouse? They brought a flair that, as London Broncos loves to say, proves the sport isn’t just a northern thing.

If these teams can produce results like this while operating on a shoestring budget compared to the “Big Boys,” it begs the question: What is the actual ceiling for this sport if we stop treating growth like a chore and start treating it like an opportunity?

Moving Forward (With a Hint of Pessimism)

Don’t get me wrong – I haven’t suddenly become a wide-eyed optimist overnight. I’m still a Wakefield fan, after all; pessimism is practically in my DNA.

• The Funding Gap: We still need to talk about why York and Toulouse are expected to compete with one hand tied behind their backs financially.
• Consistency: One round does not a season make. The real test is whether this energy holds up come the rainy Friday nights in June.
• The Reffing: (I promised I wouldn’t moan, but let’s just say my Twitter drafts are currently working overtime).

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, I’d rather be wrong and entertained than right and bored. If this expanded league means more nights where the “safe bets” are blown out of the water and more mornings where RL Twitter is a chaotic mess of genuine shock, then I will happily keep eating my words.

Pass the salt. I think I’m going to be having seconds by Round 10.