Huddersfield Giants coach Paul Anderson believes common sense needed to be applied to the rules that have landed dual-registration club Batley Bulldogs in hot water.
The Rugby Football League has confirmed Kingstone Press Championship clubs Batley and Doncaster have been charged with fielding ineligible players and could now be subject to points deductions.
Huddersfield back-row forward Jacob Fairbank (for Batley) and Hull FC centre Ben Crooks (Doncaster) are the men concerned.
The charges relate to breaches of the RFL’s dual-registration rule – the system which sees Super League clubs pair up with lower-division sides and loan players to them as and when they see fit.
But the rules state any player with a salary cap value of £20,000 or more must have played in three league fixtures for a loan club before July 25 in order to play for them after that date. The cap rule meant Dewsbury escaped a similar charge for fielding Bradford’s Sam Wood.
And it has been declared by the RFL that Fairbank and Crooks had not met that criteria before playing for the accused clubs on Sunday, July 27 against Sheffield and Keighley respectively. Fairbank’s only other game for Batley this season was against Keighley in April.
The two clubs will have their cases heard by an independent tribunal on August 14, with the RFL saying a guilty verdict could face a fine and/or points deductions.
Fairbank played a key role in helping Batley secure a vital 28-18 triumph at relegation rivals Sheffield, with Anderson admitting he was taken by surprise when the breach subsequently came to light.
“Unfortunately, there’s obviously been a failure in communication somewhere, because it’s not just us and Batley that have been caught out by the rule,” said Anderson.
“To be honest, I believe there needs to be some common sense applied when it comes to the current rules that are in place.
“If we’d sent Danny Brough to Batley and he’d won what would have been a season-defining game for them, then questions would clearly need to be asked.
“Instead, we sent a bloke who’s probably played more Championship rugby than Super League, and over the past couple of years has played a number of times for Batley.
“But now Bobby could potentially cost Batley points and their place in the Championship next season.
“Because Bobby has had his injury problems this year and needs to get gametime under his belt to help him push to win back a Super League spot, we did recently approach the Rugby League to see if we could send him to Batley on a month’s loan, which because of the Challenge Cup would have meant him missing just last week’s game at Wakefield and next weekend’s game against Widnes. At the moment, we could have afforded to do that because we’re not short of numbers.
“Unfortunately, the RFL told us that at this stage it would have to be a season-long loan, and we couldn’t afford to do that when we may need Bobby for our last few fixtures.
“So the Batley option seemed the ideal option all round. It’s just a shame the authorities don’t currently view it like that.
will be playing for Batley at Whitehaven this weekend, because he has played more than three games for them this season, and will clearly benefit from getting another game under his belt.
“But, ideally, I’d like to have given a couple more of our younger players a run-out this weekend.
“The fact we can’t makes me wonder what’s the point of having a dual-registration system in the first place!”
