UFO Info Week-End

From the semi-finals onwards the money has been doubled – pounds 40000 for each of the last four and another pounds

From the semi-finals onwards the money has been doubled – pounds 40,000 for each of the last four and another pounds 60,000 for the finalists.With each competing team also having the revenue to bank from one extra home match next season, they can look forward to a huge increase on their pool gate receipts.”We are looking forward to an even better competition this year. Prize money has increased from pounds 140,000 last season to pounds 400,000. Their opening game sees a repeat of last year’s pool match against Pontypridd in Sardis Road. Bath lost on that occasion and will realise the extent of their task this year.
The 20 top clubs, provinces and districts in Europe have been split into five pools for the third year of the competition, which will be televised by Sky TV. In the meantime, if they run short of candidates for international immortality, I understand there are some useful lads running around in Leeds’ A team.. Bath face a severe test of their credentials in the Heineken Europe Cup this season after being drawn in the same group as the holders, Brive, and the Welsh champions, Pontypridd.

The West Country men face a stiff task in their quest to seal a quarter- final berth in a new, expanded competition. Like him, David Young could have been in the Lions’ first Test team, and Scott Quinnell – on whom Wigan worked so hard and productively – surely would have been if fit.It adds up to a significant contribution from a rival code which cannot, on its recent showing, afford to be quite so generous. Apart from the loss of some worthwhile man-power, the union alternative makes it fiendishly difficult to impose a salary cap in league.But that is league’s problem, not rugby union’s. The evidence from South Africa, though, is that he might have bolstered battered team spirits.Allan Bateman proved his credentials as a league man by holding down a first-team place at Cronulla, now one of Australia’s more impressive sides in the WCC. He is still a contracted player with Halifax – although you would hardly know it – and merely on loan to Newcastle and the Lions.Halifax were glad enough to have the money in return for his services and it is a moot point whether his presence on the field in Australia, rather than prowling the touchline in Cape Town, would have made much difference to an embarrassing series of hammerings. As we saw on Saturday, when he slipped off Gary Teichmann, he has not lost that trait.John Bentley is a different case from either Tait or Gibbs. He must have learned such tricks – unknown in the 15-a-side game – “Up North”.I can assure you that he knew how to throw the occasional punch long before he ever pulled on a Saints jersey.

And, although he ran and tackled from the start of his league career like a small bull, he also knew how to miss the odd one through faulty positioning. “He had a toe injury and an operation and he struggled with his form,” he recalled. “Then in the back of his mind was the idea that his future lay elsewhere, so his commitment wasn’t quite there. He always had flair, though, and I’m delighted for the way it’s gone for him.”Then there is Scott Gibbs, that itchy-footed individual whose motto should surely be: “How green is the grass in the next valley?”St Helens would have loved to keep him, but they knew that they had no chance of doing so once he decided on a change of direction back to union. Significantly, they have retained his rugby league registration in case of another change of mind and there was even a serious suggestion that he might make a one-match return to Saints to play at Wembley.Gibbs’ suspension for throwing a punch has given even those who acknowledge the extra dimension that experience in league has given the Lions the chance for some counter-propaganda. Formerly ridden by Katie Meacham, the 11-year-old gelding lost confidence when falling at Burghley last year. He was entered for Badminton this year, but failed to have a good run in his preparatory events and was withdrawn.Get Sharpe, who finished fifth with Dixon at Le Lion d’Angers in France in 1994, sustained a tendon injury at Blenheim the following year and was off for the whole of 1996.