SCOTLAND will have more players performing at elite level than ever before when Super League kicks off tonight with 2014 champions St Helens taking on 2015 treble winners Leeds Rhinos.
Fresh from a successful Four Nations campaign in which they held world number one team New Zealand to a draw and led England for half an hour, and were watched by one in ten of all TV viewers, Scotland will end 2017 at the World Cup in Australia. Between now and then the majority of their squad will be in action in Super League or the NRL.
Scotland’s two starting props from the Four Nations have both signed for St Helens and will make their debuts tonight, live on Sky Sports.
Adam Walker, Dave Valentine Award-winner as Scotland Player of the Year for 2016, joined Saints from relegated Hull Kingston Rovers, while Luke Douglas will experienced Super League for the first time after a decade in the NRL with Cronulla Sharks and Gold Coast Titans.
On Friday night, Scotland skipper Danny Brough and half-back partner Ryan Brierley along with Bravehearts forward Dale Ferguson, who has returned to Huddersfield after a spell in the Championship with Bradford Bulls, head with the Giants to Widnes Vikings.
And on Saturday lunchtime, winger Lewis Tierney will hope to be in the starting line-up for champions Wigan at Salford, before Matty Russell will be vying for the full-back spot for Warrington at Catalans Dragons. Hooker Liam Hood has a tough challenge to get in the Leigh Centurions side, likewise young forward Sam Brookes at Widnes, and both may spend time out on loan at Championship clubs.
Likewise in Australia, where Scotland internationalists Kane Linnett and Lachlan Coote star at North Queensland Cowboys; Peter Wallace at Penrith Panthers, and centre Joe Wardle is starting his new life at Newcastle Knight having moved from Huddersfield this winter.
Scotland also have more full-time players than ever before with another seven at Championship clubs: teenage loose forward Brandan Wilkinson and full-back Oscar Thomas are playing for Bradford Bulls, Alex Walker and Ben Hellewell at London Broncos and Four Nations stars Danny Addy and Ben Kavanagh joining Kieran Moran at relegated Hull KR having left Bradford over the winter.
Meanwhile, one in every ten people watching television during the Four Nations were watching Scotland Rugby League. BBC TV have confirmed that Scotland’s three games garnered an average of 10% of all viewers, with over 11% watching the highlights of the opening defeat to Australia. The three games were watched by an average of one million viewers, peaking at 1.6million at 6pm on Bonfire Night as Scotland led England 8-0 at Coventry.
Sally Richardson, senior BBC TV Producer, confirmed that the figures for the England game “were very good on a Saturday night and better than the same slot on BBC2 the previous week”.
BBC are showing all of the Scotland’s games at 2021 World Cup live if they qualify, however they have confirmed this week that only extensive highlights of the 2017 World Cup games will be broadcast on BBC with the live rights going to Premier Sports.
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