2018 Fixtures Delayed : Wed Nov 01, 2017 1:19 pm  

Taken from TotalRL.com

Fans of League 1 clubs will not find out who their team is playing and when next season for at least another fortnight.

The Super League and Championship fixtures were revealed on Wednesday morning, but the third-tier fixtures were conspicuous by their absence, leaving fans of clubs in that division querying the delay.

And TotalRL has learned that the fixtures for League 1 will not be published until later this month – with the 15th of November a date suggested by sources as a probable time for the announcement.

TotalRL understands that the hold-up in announcing the fixtures relates to the future of Gloucestershire All Golds and Oxford – who announced last week that they were merging and taking a year out from the sport ahead of a relaunch in Bristol in 2019.

With details of that not finalised until recently, it left the Rugby Football League behind in their plans for the League 1 fixtures. However, the delay will not be too long, with around a fortnight for fans to wait.

Only then will the likes of Bradford, York and Hunslet find out who they play on the opening weekend of the season and beyond

Re: 2018 Fixtures Delayed : Wed Nov 01, 2017 1:39 pm  

https://twitter.com/ThunderRugby/status/925653406747852800

https://twitter.com/ThunderRugby/status/925653406747852800

[Bulliac]

Re: 2018 Fixtures Delayed : Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:55 pm  

I thought we'd been told that the Gloucester/Oxford link up at Bristol was planned for 2019?

How can that possibly affect next season's fixtures? Do the RFL think we're as gullible as they are?

Re: 2018 Fixtures Delayed : Wed Nov 01, 2017 5:00 pm  

Well if they suddenly found out 2 of the teams in those fixtures are "taking a year out" then that's a fairly medium sized spanner isn't it?

Re: 2018 Fixtures Delayed : Wed Nov 01, 2017 9:11 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Well if they suddenly found out 2 of the teams in those fixtures are "taking a year out" then that's a fairly medium sized spanner isn't it?

It would be if it were sudden. But this was first mentioned months ago. They must have at least been prepared, even if they didn't know it was definitely happening, as I expect they probably did.

Re: 2018 Fixtures Delayed : Wed Nov 01, 2017 9:26 pm  

Any guesses for how the fixture list will pan out ?
I'm guessing we'll play Keighley as one of the Easter fixtures, Newcastle away the Fiday night of the magic weekend and London Skolars away the night before the challenge cup final.

Re: 2018 Fixtures Delayed : Wed Nov 01, 2017 10:02 pm  

Hopebull wrote:

Any guesses for how the fixture list will pan out ?
I'm guessing we'll play Keighley as one of the Easter fixtures, Newcastle away the Fiday night of the magic weekend and London Skolars away the night before the challenge cup final.

Good thinking

Re: 2018 Fixtures Delayed : Thu Nov 02, 2017 7:09 pm  

Surely if Oxford and Gloucester want to take part in 2019 they should be made to fulfil meaningless fixtures in 2018 so as not to disrupt the schedule. I believe there is a recent precedent.

[Bullseye]

Re: 2018 Fixtures Delayed : Fri Nov 03, 2017 9:52 am  

rugbyreddog wrote:

Surely if Oxford and Gloucester want to take part in 2019 they should be made to fulfil meaningless fixtures in 2018 so as not to disrupt the schedule. I believe there is a recent precedent.

Ralph?? RALPH??? RAAAAAAAAAALPH????? Oh! He's gone....

Re: 2018 Fixtures Delayed : Fri Nov 03, 2017 10:39 am  

Bang on. Rules is rules. Except when they're not. Maybe the RFL "had no choice" but to let them do whatever they like?