WELL the Yorkshire Cup has certainly come nicely to the boil with a final to look forward to tomorrow at the Fox’s Biscuit Stadium, Batley.

The Yorkshire Cup competition, which some Championship chairmen chose to re-introduce, has exceeded all my expectations and some very good rugby league judges have been complimentary of it.

All games have been keenly contested and last weekend the semi-finals showed how much determination and what value the clubs place in actually winning the Yorkshire Cup. I was privileged to attend both semi-finals and both were terrific spectacles in very different ways.

Bradford’s win over Dewsbury was only secured by a late penalty and could be best described as an arm wrestle throughout, with a little bit of 'biff' thrown in for good measure.

Dewsbury have been busy recruiting in the off season under new coach Lee Greenwood and, to be fair, they look like a side that will be a handful this year.

Sunday’s other semi-final match-up between Batley Bulldogs and York City Knights at Mount Pleasant (and isn’t that name ironic by the way) was a super contest, and scored 5/5 in the leading trade paper.

There was some free flowing rugby played by both sides and some great tries, with the infamous slope eventually undoing a very gallant York Knights side.

The Yorkshire Cup, I’m told, is one of the oldest and most historic trophies in the sport, first contested well back in the 19th century even before the sport split from rugby union in 1895.

Obviously, it hasn’t been contested for some time and I am not for a moment suggesting that this current modest version of the original deserves the same recognition. Not yet at least.

I do however think that the 2019 phoenix competition has represented a very agreeable dipping of the toe in the water, and you know what, it is very temperate – unlike I suspect tomorrow may be.

I also believe – although I am prepared for the sports historians to prove me wrong – that tomorrow will be the first time the Bulls and Batley have contested any final. So it appears it will be history in the making.

The 2019 competition has given this group of right leaning chairmen plenty to think about. I am pretty sure when we do the wash up, there will be a strong appetite to repeat it in 2020 and beyond.

Like any new concept, there are things to learn from it, for all of us, but there seems to be enough positivity around it to continue.

One feature in many of the cup ties, particularly in the second semi-final, was the amount of ball movement, with both teams doing their best to promote open rugby league, good passages of play and a couple of spectacular tries.

At the risk of being demonised again as being anti-Super League, I do think clubs playing at Championship level seem to be prepared to play more expansive football when in possession.

Perhaps in this post-apocalyptic, brave new 'Slexit' world, we in the Championship competition do have a terrific opportunity to differentiate ourselves a little by playing what could be best described as authentic rugby league.

Thinking back, in the 1990s when the Australasian Winfield Cup was the premier rugby league competition in the world, only the very poor sides played five drives and a kick. They were often mocked for the mediocrity of their threat options.

Now that appears to be entrenched in the NRL-centric boring coaching manual adopted by so many of our Super League coaches, with virtually every full-time club following this mantra, too scared to risk possession in the wrong part of the field.

As our esteemed RFL Board of Directors are now clearly relaxed about the prospect of different divisions playing to different rules, the unintended consequence of this precedent is that we Championship clubs will now discuss whether we can tweak the rules to provide the best possible spectacle for our supporters, given the types of players who play in our competition.

I am not suggesting anything sinister in this, but I believe our sport is crying out for rules that actually encourage risk-taking and creativity, reduce the impact of the wrestle and provide for contests for the ball.

We all recognise that the brute force athletic conditioning of the full-time athletes will always dominate, but we no longer have to slavishly follow rules that don’t suit our competition.

Also in regards to the semi-finals, it was pleasing to see the referees strong enough to wave 'play on' when a dropped ball did not go forward. In recent years, for some totally unfathomable reason, referees seemed intent on stopping the play with every dropped pass even when it clearly went backwards.

This is not what the rules say and why it became habit only the refereeing community can legitimately explain.

Maybe it was just autopilot, but please, we are in the entertainment industry with a capital 'E' and incessant stoppages are the antithesis of entertainment.

So hopefully this new approach is not just a flash in the pan by young inexperienced officials who have yet to have their unbridled enthusiasm knocked out of them.

Speaking of unbridled enthusiasm, it was a pleasure to see our old friend Wigan supremo Ian Lenagan wade into the Catalans Challenge Cup debacle, using this particular car crash to once again demonstrate his dismissive attitude towards the Championship clubs.

This is the man whose incendiary email to Super League in 2017 started the whole divisive and catastrophic unravelling of our sport. And when pushed during a presentation to clubs, he delivered a grand vision that amounted to nothing more than a restoration of the widely unpopular and ridiculous loopy fixtures and a thinly disguised attempt to rip funding from Championship rugby league clubs.

This is also the man who predicted that the changes would unlock the commercial potential of Super League so that new riches could “trickle down” to the rest of the league. In the words of the diva Diana Ross, “I’m still waiting.”

The man truly can’t seem to help himself and when referring to the RFL’s request for a bond from Catalan, Lenagan is quoted as saying “They may as well have said 'No championship side can enter without a bond – what is the difference?'.

Well Ian, let me help you, the difference is that those Championship clubs are actually members of the RFL and are compelled to play in the competition. The Catalans Dragons are not, as I think they will find out to their cost in 2021.

Further, the patronising of Championship clubs conveniently overlooks the very obvious fact, to anyone with a modicum of industry knowledge, that there are a number of current Super League clubs that would produce very sparse crowds for the final – little better, in fact, than a number of Championship clubs.

How many London Broncos, Salford, Huddersfield or Wakefield supporters do you think will flock to Wembley, and these are clubs with real and legitimate prospects of getting there, thanks to the central funding advantage they have over the Championship clubs.

I think I would back Widnes, Halifax, and Leigh and the like to match those clubs and I am absolutely certain that our own Bradford Bulls would take far more supporters to the great occasion, as we so often have in the recent past.

As I have suggested many times before, the whole issue of 'bondgate' is caused, of course, by the fundamental fault that Catalans are simply 'guesting' in the RFL competitions at the total cost of the English RFL member clubs.

I am told that little to zero contribution is received from French TV, unlike my experience in New Zealand, where the Warriors received a full NRL central distribution share but New Zealand’s Sky TV pays around NZD $30m annually for the TV rights. In other words it is a large significant profit centre to all the NRL clubs.

Only now that the Catalans’ inclusion is adversely affecting the RFL revenues, rather than the clubs, are the RFL bothering to react. So they’ve decided to have a look at it and come up with a match winner – not.

Hopefully, they will be able to reverse out and implement something more proportionate and sensible. Let’s see what the RFL CEO Ralph Rimmer can pull out of the hat.

The fact remains that the Catalans are treated preferentially to, say, Toronto who compete in the RFL’s competition at David Argyle’s significant expense; the RFL clearly learnt from the previous generosity.

Of course this whole position is totally and utterly unsustainable, with strong English clubs such as ours and as those listed above starved of central cash earned from the UK TV market, while millions of UK TV money flows in a one-way direction over the channel.

The only long term solution will be all overseas teams in any RFL and Super League competition having to compete at their own cost.

This issue needs addressing by the RFL and Super League. Someone, (anyone in charge) needs to pop their head out of the pit and show some leadership on such an important issue. Not bull and buzz words – real guidance, direction and unwavering leadership.

Anyway, on to more pleasant and uplifting thoughts, those of tomorrow’s Yorkshire Cup final.

Two teams hungry for the spoils of success, a meaningful prize, and undoubtedly a vocal crowd on one of the sport's original (sloping) rugby league grounds. Fresh air on a sunny January afternoon, authentic rugby league at its very best, and a flash new trophy courtesy of Berrys Jewellers.

See you this tomorrow at Fox’s Biscuits Stadium, Batley. Kick -off is 2pm. Get your tickets from the Bulls Club Shop or online at www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/tickets. #COYB