Salford crisis deepens with Wakefield match cancelled over welfare concerns

  • Red Devils have only two senior players available

  • COO Claire Bradbury accused ownership of misogyny

The crisis at Salford Red Devils has deepened on and off the field in the past 24 hours. On Thursday, their chief operating officer claimed she had resigned after the club’s ­ownership suggested she “sleep with someone at the RFL” to ­alleviate their financial issues and on Friday the club’s Super League game against Wakefield on Sunday was cancelled.

The Red Devils have been embroiled in controversy for most of 2025, following a takeover by a consortium led by Dario Berta. Players and staff have repeatedly been paid late, most of their first-team squad have left and the club is in court next month over an unpaid tax bill of almost £700,000.

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Expanding Super League to 14 teams is unpopular. But it might just work

No one seems to want a bigger league – other than the clubs that will benefit – but it’s not an entirely bad idea

By No Helmets Required

Do you know anyone who thinks expanding Super League to 14 clubs next season is a good idea, beyond the people who voted for it and the Championship clubs with hopes of promotion? Me neither. When almost no one thinks something is the right thing to do, it almost certainly isn’t. But why have nine successful businessmen made such a controversial decision? Let’s analyse the widespread objections to the idea and play devil’s advocate to see if there are valid reasons for making a change.

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Sport England to meet RFL over concerns with rugby league funding at stake

  • RFL under scrutiny after controversial appointment

  • Funding is critical to future of the sport

Sport England will meet the Rugby Football League in the coming weeks to air their concerns over developments at the governing body. It is a move that could affect the sport’s financial outlook.

Rugby league is one of several sports in receipt of millions of pounds worth of funding from Sport England every year. That is critical to the existence of the sport and is particularly important for the RFL, with continued adherence to the code for sports governance essential to maintain it.

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What happened to the rugby league Lions – and could they be revived?

While Andy Farrell’s team are winning matches and fans in Australia, the league Lions remain in hibernation

By No Helmets Required

If the British & Irish Lions complete a clean sweep against the Wallabies on Saturday in Sydney, there will be more talk of Australia no longer being a sufficiently challenging destination for a Lions tour. It’s a mirror image of what has happened to the rugby league Lions over the past 15 years, with Australia deciding that neither Great Britain nor England brought the jeopardy, ticket sales or eyeballs required to justify an incoming tour. Instead, the Kangaroos will visit London, Liverpool and Leeds later this year to play England.

It has been 33 years since Great Britain toured Australia. Martin Offiah lit up that series in 1992, scoring seven tries in six Tests against Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. Offiah, who won 33 caps for Great Britain, as well as five for England, cannot believe the Rugby Football League and Australian Rugby League have allowed these showcase events to fade from view. “As a nation we’ve got to have regular fixtures against Australia,” says Offiah. “Not playing them since the World Cup final in 2017 is crazy. When you’re trying to get across that bridge and match them, that’s a massive gap. And we should have been Great Britain for this series – then gone back to England for the World Cup.”

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Super League votes to add two clubs and return to 14-team competition for 2026

  • Top-flight clubs agree to expansion for next season

  • Bradford Bulls and London Broncos could go up

Super League will become a 14-team competition again in 2026 after rugby league’s elite clubs opted to expand by two teams for the start of next season.

The league has operated with 12 teams for the last decade but clubs agreed to the expansion on Monday at a meeting in Leeds which opens the door for at least two Championship teams to join the elite ranks for 2026.

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Ray French, former BBC rugby league commentator, dies aged 85

  • Played internationally in union and league

  • Led BBC coverage for 38 years

Ray French, the former rugby league commentator, has died at the age of 85. He had been living with dementia.

He played internationally in union, winning four caps in the second row for England in 1961, before moving to league and joining his home town club, St Helens, that year and helped them win the Challenge Cup in 1966. He appeared four times for Great Britain, in 1968.

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Judge criticises solicitor acting on behalf of players with brain injury lawsuits

  • More than 1,000 players from both codes taking action

  • Solicitor under ‘misapprehension’ about responsibilities

The judge presiding over the two brain injury lawsuits in rugby league and union has issued an extraordinary criticism of the solicitor acting on behalf of the injured players, saying that he had been under a “misapprehension” about his responsibilities and that “he seems to have a problem with the English language”.

Senior master Jeremy Cook said that Richard Boardman, whose firm Rylands Garth is representing more than 1,000 players across both codes, had failed to disclose material to the defendants, World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby Union, and Rugby Football League.

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Embattled Salford players out to avoid tag of Super League’s worst ever team

The Red Devils are showing spirit and improving on the field, but they may still finish the season on zero points

By No Helmets Required

For much of last Friday’s game at Leeds, no one could possibly think they were watching one of the worst teams in rugby league history. Salford eventually sank to a 40-6 defeat, a harsh scoreline given they were the better side in the first half and conceded 18 points in the 10 minutes they had a man sin-binned. Despite a week of huge upheaval – players threatening a strike, crisis meetings with the Rugby Football League and a squad stripped by injuries of another three senior players – Salford competed heroically.

It was another spirited display after their victory over Castleford – just their second win of the season – but coach Paul Rowley is not expecting things to keep getting better over the remaining eight rounds of the season. Wages are due next week, with some players extremely concerned that, once they play the final game of the campaign at home to Wakefield on 19 September, they may not receive the final two paychecks of their contracts. Threats of a strike were quashed after a meeting with the RFL, but the players know they face an uncertain future.

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The greatest year in sports history? Why it has to be 1985

Four decades have passed and we’re still reminiscing about Taylor v Davis, Boris Becker, Sandy Lyle … and a lot more

By That 1980s Sports Blog

I’ve been putting this off for years, but the recent Live Aid nostalgia has pushed me over the edge. We’ve all had the debate in the pub about the greatest sporting year – no, just me then? – so I’m here to argue the case for 1985. After 40 years, it is time to tell 1985 that I’m crazy for you.

There are, of course, many factors involved when it comes to picking your favourite sporting year. Allegiance matters. Therefore, Manchester United winning a treble, Europe collapsing in the Ryder Cup and Australia winning two World Cups means I don’t want to party like it’s 1999. Yet pushing all this irrational stuff to one side, there can be no doubting the credentials of 1985.

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Joe Ofahengaue stars in Leigh’s statement victory over St Helens

  • St Helens 4-16 Leigh Leopards

  • Ofahengaue scores two tries as Leigh close on top two

Leigh Leopards further underlined their position as bona fide Super League title contenders with another statement victory, this time winning at fourth-placed St Helens to close the gap further on the competition’s top two.

A month ago, Leigh conceded 50 points at Leeds and with fixtures against the league leaders Hull KR, second-placed Wigan and the Saints on the horizon, it was not inconceivable to consider whether the Leopards could find themselves in a scramble just to make the play-offs in the final two months of the season.

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Andy Farrell knows what it takes to play for the Lions against Australia

Long before he was a rugby union coach, Farrell captained Great Britain’s rugby league team against Australia

By No Helmets Required

Andy Farrell knows more about playing for the Lions against Australia than anyone in his squad. He faced Australia 15 times for Great Britain’s rugby league team, winning just four of those matches. Farrell only played in Australia twice for the Lions, captaining the team in Brisbane in 1999 and Sydney in 2002. Both matches were a nightmare, his team humiliated by an aggregate score of 106-16.

Farrell’s introduction to the team was more enjoyable. He made the first of his 34 appearances for Great Britain at Headingley against New Zealand in 1993. He was only 18 years old and he scored on his debut. Let’s hope he savoured that moment. His third Great Britain international, in 1994, was an epic. Farrell started in the second row against Australia at Wembley in an arm-wrestle for the ages. This wasn’t a run-of-the-mill Australia side. This was one of the all-time greats.

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State of Origin 2025 Game 3: Qld Maroons beat NSW Blues 24-12 – as it happened

Now it’s Billy Slater’s turn in front of the mic.

It’s going to take our best that’s for sure. I think both teams have been working towards a better performance, so I’m expecting something pretty special from the opposition and hopefully we can deliver as well.

It’s a courageous and brave effort isn’t it? And we all admire him for that. It goes to show you how much this footy team, this state means to him, and this game means to him. So I know his dad would be pretty proud of him.

I think our preparation has been first class. I can’t fault it. Boys are pretty dialled in. Obviously they know what’s at stake tonight and I reckon we’ll give our best performance of the three game series.

The plan with Payne [Haas] was always to get ready for tonight, rather than getting ready for a training session on a on a Monday or a Tuesday. So look, he’s ready to go. And Brian [To’o] probably surprised us with what he did on the on the Monday night. So no no concerns at all.

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Queensland captain Cameron Munster plans to play in State of Origin decider after father’s death

  • Munster given time to grieve with his family after death of his father

  • But he still plans to lead Maroons in Origin III to honour his dad

The death of Cameron Munster’s father Steven has come as devastating news just days out from the State of Origin series decider.

The Queensland captain, in a brave decision to honour his dad, plans to still lead the Maroons on Wednesday night after taking time away to grieve with his family.

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