Sonics' spirit transmits optimistic signal about the game's grass roots
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Your support makes all the difference.On the weekend the Challenge Cup went to Cardiff, rugby league at grass-roots level was busier than it has ever been, not just in Wales but across the Seven Bridge.
On the weekend the Challenge Cup went to Cardiff, rugby league at grass-roots level was busier than it has ever been, not just in Wales but across the Seven Bridge.
The showpiece at the Millennium Stadium was the tip of a pyramid of activity which included new clubs at Swansea and Aberavon playing opposition from the army and navy respectively, the Welsh Under-16 side meeting their French counterparts and the Cardiff Demons hosting the Conference Cup final between Rotherham and North London.
Throw in the Champion Schools Finals at the Arms Park and it added up to more rugby league than you could shake a leek at, and yesterday it was the turn of the new club across the water in Bristol to make their debut. "This," said a couple from Bradford, "is the eighth game we've seen this weekend.''
Unfortunately, it was a game too far for the Bristol Sonics, who found themselves overwhelmed by the more experienced Demons, standard bearers in the Rugby League Conference for Wales, which will have six new teams, including Swansea and Aberavon, in a new division this summer. But, compared to the Sonics, set up this year by local enthusiasts, these clubs are veterans.
The Sonics' chairman, Phil Cole, was educated at private schools in Bristol. "I grew indoctrinated into thinking of rugby league as an inferior game,'' he said. "Then I saw Wigan play Bath in the Cross Code game and was blown away by it. I've been obsessed ever since.''
The Sonics, wearing borrowed shirts because their own had not yet arrived, went down 74-8, with the Demons' centre, Gary Holton, leading the way with five tries.
Bristol's tries came from their hooker and captain, Ben Morris, and from Nathan Clark, whilst the number of players experiencing a game for the first time were convinced that they had learned a lot, with the start of the Conference itself looming next weekend. "It was bloody hard,'' said their second-row forward, Ed Hogg. "But we improved so much over 80 minutes.''
So, over rather longer than that, have the prospects for rugby league on some of its more neglected frontiers.
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