There is no Four Nations this autumn given that the World Cup is heading to England and Wales in 2013. Australia and New Zealand have instead stayed at home and played each other in a one-off Townsville Test - the Aussies winning 18-10.

England, therefore, took their elite squad for a training camp in South Africa, before returning to play Wales and France.

France beat Wales 20-6 on Saturday, but, with every respect to those two sides, these autumn internationals are unlikely to do much to help England breach the gap between themselves and the southern hemisphere superpowers. However, they may at least offer an indication of how far they are away from the very best.

Kevin Sinfield has succeeded Leeds Rhinos team-mate Jamie Peacock as the new England captain. Photo: Getty

England will be expected to win both fixtures under the leadership of new captain Kevin Sinfield. The Leeds skipper succeeds club-mate Jamie Peacock after his international retirement and appears the outstanding choice.

The record-breaking Grand Final winner is the most inspirational leader I have ever watched in the British game, perhaps even across any sport. His back-to-back man-of-the-match performances at the end of the Super League play-offs were a major reason for Leeds's latest Old Trafford triumph.

However, Sinfield's place in the England side is often subject of much debate.

He has been accommodated out of position under previous coaches, but it appears England head coach Steve McNamara is ready to use him as a half-back for these games, with Melbourne's Gareth Widdop having shoulder surgery at home.

With Danny Brough left out and Danny McGuire and Rangi Chase not fit, that leaves Rob Burrow and Richie Myler competing for a place alongside the captain.

There are other notable absentees - Wigan's Man of Steel Sam Tomkins prominent among them - and McNamara is frustrated not to have an end-of-season look at some of his biggest names.

James Graham's moment of madness when biting Billy Slater in the Australian Grand Final has landed the fiery prop a whopping 12-game ban, in-form centre Ryan Atkins opted for an operation last week, while Sam Burgess stays down under with Widdop.

Giant Huddersfield prop Eorl Crabtree has also had surgery since the season's end, while the other two Man of Steel nominees are missing, with James Roby rested and Ben Westwood withdrawing.

The absence of Roby's St Helens team-mate Jon Wilkin provides a real rarity in that not a single Saints player makes the squad.

One man's misfortune is another man's gain and there's a remarkable return to prominence for Luke Burgess.

Known chiefly as Sam's brother prior to his move to Sydney, the man they call "Biffa" has transformed himself from Rhinos squad member to NRL first-teamer, capping a remarkable season with an international call.

No-one will be prouder than mother Julie, who has been raising Sam, Luke and younger brothers Tom and George on her own following the death of their father five years ago.

Tom and George have now joined Luke and Sam at South Sydney. Four British brothers playing for one NRL club is extraordinary, yet all four playing together for England before too long is not out of the question either.

Warrington prop Chris Hill also makes a huge leap up to the international stage less than a year after playing part-time in the Championship.

The squad may have some big gaps but it remains strong enough to beat both Wales and France. Ryan Hall can lay claim to being the world's best winger on present form, while Kallum Watkins and Super League Young Player of the Year Zak Hardaker will look to take their excellent club form on to the international stage.

Alongside Sinfield and Adrian Morley, Gareth Ellis will be another of the older heads and I expect a couple of big performances from him as he prepares to return to Super League with Hull FC next year after his own impressive stint in Australia.

The goal this autumn will be, as McNamara will always tell you, continued improvement. Yet that is particularly difficult to gauge in such a skeleton international schedule and the performances are unlikely to have any bearing on England's opening World Cup match against the Aussies in 12 months' time.

While the England squad is dominated by players from Leeds and Warrington, the France squad is made up almost entirely of Catalan Dragons. Fourteen of their 19-man squad play at the Stade Gilbert Brutus, which means England can expect the Dragons' trademark fire down the middle.

David Ferriol and Sebastien Raguin are playing their final games of league and the veterans will lead from the front. Ferriol will look to finish with a bang before he starts work full time on his own vineyard.

Wales will be desperate for a big performance ahead of the World Cup, not least when England head to Wrexham on Saturday.

Their coach Iestyn Harris is pinning a lot of hope on his more experienced heads to guide some talented youngsters in what could prove a baptism of fire. The retirement of Lee Briers leaves a massive void for Iestyn to fill and I do fear for his young team in this series.

England will expect to win both games and win them well.

It looks like a perfect final. Defending champions against Challenge Cup winners for the first time.

Warrington coach Tony Smith, a Grand Final winner with Leeds, is bidding to become the first coach to win it with two different teams. Brian McDermott, a former assistant of Smith at Leeds, has guided the Rhinos to every single League and Cup final achievable since he took over two years ago.

It seems astonishing to think that just over 12 months ago, before Leeds' historic run to the title from fifth in the table, McDermott was being booed by sections of the Headingley crowd who wanted him to be sacked.

Whereas that is often an August rugby league festival with fans of all teams creating a kaleidoscope of colour and a Wembley wall of noise, the Grand Final is often a brutal bloodbath of nerves.

I've been nervous all week and I'm not even playing in it. Driving into work daily down empty roads at 5am through Stretford, Trafford and Salford Quays, seeing the big electronic road signs reading "Rugby Match Saturday 6pm: Expect Delays" has given me butterflies.

Warrington have already beaten Leeds in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley this season. Photo: Getty

I used to feel the same the night before big exams, wishing my grades could have instead been determined by coursework throughout the year. It always seemed unfair to judge a whole year's work on a single performance over a couple of hours. But that mixture of sickening jitters and "game day" adrenaline brings the best out of some people when there is no alternative but to knuckle down and do it.

So how on earth do Leeds keep finding their best answers in the final exam when their attendance throughout the year is so unpredictable? "I've no idea," coach Brian McDermott tells me. "But this is an incredible group of people who I feel incredibly honoured to work with."

Leeds' playoff performances have been remarkable and the Rhinos are 80 minutes away from winning the title from fifth place for the second successive year. That they have made Old Trafford again is down in no small part to captain Kevin Sinfield, who produced one of the most flawless games of rugby in knocking out Wigan last week that I have ever seen.

Sinfield will lead the Rhinos at Old Trafford for a record seventh time and always diverts the attention and praise that comes his way. He instead points to McDermott being the best coach he has ever played under. Sinfield won the Grand Final twice under Smith, remember, so that is some praise.

As for Warrington, so often the bridesmaids, they are fast becoming regulars at the rugby league altar, and Smith's leadership has been key. The former England coach has transformed talented under-achievers into much feared rugby league heavyweights who appear ready to create their own dynasty.

With Sinfield conducting the Leeds orchestra, Lee Briers is Warrington's puppet-master. The old magician has the same passion and box of tricks that he has always had, yet has developed a more mature head both with both age and Smith's guidance.

The battle upfront will again be key, with another Wolves veteran Adrian Morley playing in the Grand Final with a third different team.

Having lost with Leeds and won with Bradford, Moz will, at the age of 35, become the oldest ever player to appear in the Grand Final.

His legs may have slowed slightly but he still has the fire in his belly so expect Morley to lead from the front against Kylie Leuluai and co.

Danny McGuire's return from suspension for Leeds is huge. He dived over to win Leeds their first ever Grand Final in 2004 and eight years later he is in the form of his life.

A key battle out wide will be between England centres Kallum Watkins and Ryan Atkins. Watkins is a match winner for Leeds, with frightening pace, dazzling toes and real power for a centre.

Atkins, meanwhile, has gone from strength to strength since being snubbed last year by England. A Leeds boy, the former Wakefield centre could have signed for the Rhinos when he left the Wildcats for Warrington but opted for primrose and blue over blue and amber. The pace and power have always been there but there is now a good rugby league brain inside that fearsome frame and he has developed into an outstanding try provider.

The Wolves are bidding to become the first team since St Helens in 2006 to do the double and will start as odds-on favourites. But having made Old Trafford a second home with five wins in seven visits, Leeds may feel they are inviting Warrington to their party.

Four teams are bidding for two places in the Super League Grand Final. And yet again it is the familiar faces fighting the business end of the rugby league year.

The final four comprises the two best sides over the regular season and last year's two Grand Finalists. We appear set for a fitting finale and potentially a dramatic denouement.

Wigan and St Helens are the sides with home advantage after a week off. And it is the Warriors who have chosen to play Leeds Rhinos, sending Warrington Wolves to Saints.

Wigan and Leeds have already squared off in the Challenge Cup semi-finals this season. Photo: Getty

Wigan remain favourites to go all the way having finished top of the pile after 27 weeks, a massive 10 points clear of Leeds. Challenge Cup winners Warrington saw their hopes diminish with a surprise opening-week loss at home to Saints and, after hammering Hull, must now win at Langtree Park to avoid falling just short again.

Shaun Wane's Wigan had this year's dubious Club Call honour. As highest-ranked qualifiers from week one, they chose to play Leeds, rather than the Wolves. It was the obvious call to make, but I'm sure few people at Wigan were keen to announce that they wanted to play the defending champions.

The Club Call element of the play-offs remains a somewhat derided gimmick. For those who are afforded the privilege, it can prove a double-edged sword, too, given the added incentive it provides their opponents to prove them wrong.

There will also be a bit more spice after Wane commented publicly on half-back Danny McGuire's high tackle at Catalan Dragons last week. McGuire was, as expected, suspended for this weekend's crucial fixture, but Leeds coach Brian McDermott and his captain, Kevin Sinfield, feel Wane was wrong to comment on the case before it had been heard.

McDermott feels the disciplinary system itself needs looking at anyway. He believes incidents where there is a perceived lack of malice need to be judged differently.

The performance in Perpignan has given McDermott's side the chance to rescue another disjointed season with an unexpected Old Trafford run. Leeds seem to thrive in the end-of-season adversity they create for themselves, while Saints, too, have the knack of knowing how to get to a Grand Final.

Wigan and Warrington, for all their regular-season dominance of the last two years, do not have that. And that is what makes this final four so appetising. If this was the middle of the season, I'd expect Wigan to wallop Leeds and Warrington to win at Saints.

In three fixtures between Saints and Warrington this year, the home side has never won. But it isn't the middle of the season. It is knockout football, the intensity and sudden-death nature of which produces all manner of unexpected plays, panics, adrenalin rushes and emotions for the 34 players on the pitch.

Next week also sees Super League's most influential player of the year crowned at the Man of Steel awards. After being controversially pipped by Rangi Chase last year, Sam Tomkins is again the frontrunner in a three-man shortlist.

The England full-back is up against two of his international team-mates in Saints hooker James Roby and Warrington forward Ben Westwood.

Roby is a hugely popular and respected figure amongst Super League players, while Westwood's tireless and fearless performances in a variety of positions for Warrington make this a shortlist that few would disagree with.

But his outstanding performances this season and his apparent increased maturity on and off the field make Tomkins a big favourite.

Finally this week, a few words for the family and friends of Terry Newton who would have loved to see two of his former clubs Wigan and Leeds go at it this weekend. Two years ago this week, we lost one of Britain's best rugby league players in tragic circumstances.

The sport has not forgotten Tez and programmes such as State of Mind have started work to improve the mental health of those involved within the game and alter perceptions and enhance understanding of mental illness.

Bradford prop Bryn Hargreaves' decision to pack in the game at 26 is dreadfully sad, and demonstrates that whatever fireworks the play-offs produce, the skies they briefly illuminate remain dark.

My love of rugby league allows me to get lost in its brutal brilliance for 80 minutes each match day. But off the pitch the battle is for mere survival, a reality explained so eloquently by Hargreaves in his damning assessment of the health of the game.

On the day Leeds Rhinos players checked in at Leeds-Bradford airport for their do-or-die play-off date at Catalan Dragons, a young lad down the road was turning his back on a sport he has fallen out of love with.

In simple terms, Hargreaves has found another job - a better job, a more reliable source of income, one that will allow him to provide for his family without worry. His reference to players being "treated like pieces of meat" at Bradford is borne more of the hopelessness of administration than the day-to-day existence of a rugby league player, but it is another wake-up call for the game.

Hargreaves won the Challenge Cup with St Helens in 2008. Photo: Getty

Last season I wrote an article highlighting what can happen to rugby league's top names once their playing days are over, without the financial cushion that Premier League football or rugby union can provide.

Worryingly, this season has seen a few players opting for different career paths before their best playing days are even over. Hargreaves' announcement comes just weeks after team-mate Ben Jeffries quit to become a coal-miner in Australia, while the Bulls' joint-captain Matt Diskin, having admitted his season has been "scary", has been working hard on a property business. Castleford winger Nick Youngquest, meanwhile, has quit at 28 to pursue a modelling career.

Dozens of players from other clubs are launching sports fitness and personal training businesses to supplement their earnings and afford themselves a safety net in uncertain times.

The obvious questions are always directed back at the Rugby Football League, who tend to get the blame for all of the game's hardships. Chief executive Nigel Wood remains defiant about the health of the sport, pointing out that it remains strong in terms of its crowd numbers and profit margins. And he remains committed to the controversial licensing system over promotion and relegation.

But the underlying feeling among journalists and fans is one of concern. Why are clubs struggling financially under a system designed to provide stability? Why are players like Hargreaves deciding enough is enough? Is the current 14-team Super League and eight-team play-off system still the way forward?

These are the most common questions I get asked by the sport's detractors, while in every rugby league programme we do on BBC Radio 5 live there is always an "is rugby league dying?" angle.

Rugby league is not dying. But that is not to say the sport could not do with a lift.
The RFL is often criticised for not maximising its marketing of the sport, yet this week has seen arguably the finest publicity work yet, with the "Rugby League of the Extraordinary" campaign.

Of course, the very fact there is a need to do something like this poses questions, but the hope is that such extravagant promotional efforts will attract new fans to a sport that seems to prefer criticising itself to celebrating what it is: a very popular minority sport with a loyal fan base and terrific athletes who provide breathtaking entertainment.

Next year's home 2013 Rugby League World Cup provides the best possible platform for a sport that must ensure its foundations are secure before it can expand.

As for the play-offs, a couple of one-sided opening-week fixtures again drew criticism of the top-eight structure, but that system has still produced the prospect of a gripping finale from here on in.

Champions Leeds came through as Warrington wobbled, and Wigan and St Helens both demonstrated their Old Trafford hunger. It means the Rhinos now go to France, having been outplayed there last month, where they must win or relinquish their title.

Wigan still look the pick for me, devouring the Dragons despite a quiet night from star man Sam Tomkins, and the Warriors join Saints with their feet up this weekend.

Warrington will need to dig deep against Hull FC to avoid collapsing in the play-offs for the second successive year.

The 27-round jostle for positions has seen Wigan clinch the League Leaders' Shield, champions Leeds finish down in fifth again and Wakefield seal an impressive play-off spot. But now the action really starts.

Like it or loathe it, the play-off system culminating in the Grand Final has become the way our champions are crowned. You cannot dispute the drama and theatre that it produces. The Grand Final is one huge occasion, 80 minutes of sporting brutality through a wall of noise at a sell-out Old Trafford, to find the season's heavyweight champion.

It may or may not be fair but I love it. Every team knows the season finishes in October. No squad will be thinking during their wintery pre-season hills runs that if they can perform well through 27 rounds, then it is job done.

Leeds came from fifth place in the regular season to clinch the 2011 Grand Final. Photo: Getty

The higher you finish, the bigger your play-off advantage, but becoming champions is about momentum and big-game mentality. And there is rarely an undeserving name lifting the trophy on that Saturday October evening in Manchester.

That said, there do remain elements to the system that are in my opinion unnecessary. In a system unique to any sport, the top-ranked winning team from week one are allowed to choose who they want to play in their qualifying semi-final.

I am still to see the benefit of this for either side. The team with the dubious advantage of this clubcall seldom wants to make such a decision. The selected opponents are understandably fired up even more.

In terms of this year's rivals, the two Ws are the two overwhelming favourites. Wigan and Warrington have been the two outstanding teams over the course of the season and, if all goes to plan, they will contest the Grand Final.

I can only see five teams with a shot of going all the way. Hull FC, sliding Huddersfield and surprise package Wakefield have done nothing to convince me they can extend their seasons by anything further than a week. I would give the Wildcats a shout at Leeds, though, just because of the jitters that playing such a huge underdog can give a home side in a big west Yorkshire derby.

St Helens and Leeds are the two sides who have proved they know how to reach Old Trafford on a regular basis, regardless of regular-season form. For that reason I would not write either of them off.

And Catalan Dragons have picked up some big scalps this year in proving they are now close to the real deal. I see no reason at all why they cannot shake up these play-offs with their fierce up-front combat and effervescent Scott Dureau-inspired backs play.

Week one's two qualifying play-offs will tell us a lot about the strength of the top four clubs' title credentials (the top four sides are have an "extra life" in the play-offs and can still recover if they lose in week one).

The Dragons' trip to Wigan will be as tough as it gets. Trent Robinson's side have beaten St Helens, Warrington and Leeds this year but not the Warriors, who have come out on top in both meetings. Robinson is a popular coach and I know the team are keen to send him out on a high before he heads back to Australia.

Their performance in this fixture will be key to their play-off hopes, likewise those of Wigan whose own feelings of dominance will be strengthened by a home win. An upset would really shake up the Grand Final hierarchy.

Likewise Warrington, dominant last year but surprisingly undone by in-form Leeds in the play-offs, desperately need a commanding start against a Saints side still desperate to end their own run of Grand Final defeats. Saints have appeared in, and lost, the last five Grand Finals. Their week one clash with Warrington could be an absolute stunner.

In one of these teams will be a Grand Final-winning star waiting to shine. It could be Sam Tomkins, Brett Hodgson, Dureau, James Roby, or Ryan Hall. The beauty of this competition is that right now we have absolutely no idea.

Whisper it quietly around Old Trafford in October, but it is the magic of Wembley that truly gets the juices flowing for the sport's elite players, fans and coaching staff.

This is the one week of the year we are not a minority sport. It is the one week of the year fans of all sports, the national, and international media, all want a piece of rugby league.

It is the one opportunity for our moderately-paid players to step out of posh London hotels in crisp, fitted suits, to be greeted by thousands of adoring fans at our national stadium.

Leeds have lost their last five Challenge Cup finals, including last year's against Wigan. Photo: Getty

The deafening roar of the crowd, the waves of emotion as your steely focus lowers only to seek out your family in the stands, the kaleidoscope of colour as every club's supporters descend on Wembley, and the vein-bursting pride triggered by marching out on to that famous turf amidst the rousing chorus of Abide With Me.

It is the day that every single rugby league player dreams of from the moment he first drives into a tackle as a schoolboy. It is a volatile cocktail of emotions that I'm constantly trying to do justice to in describing to friends and colleagues just how big a deal this is.

Challenge Cup final day is rugby league's chance to shine, every player's shot at becoming a legend, and everyone associated with the sport is desperate to be a part of it.

Players of Leeds and Warrington have been thinking about Saturday every day since winning their respective semi-finals. Speaking to Lee Briers the day after Warrington walloped Huddersfield in their semi the old magician was already plotting for the final.

I was there at the Rhinos' Kirkstall training base a couple of days later as the players sorted through a mountain of shoe boxes in conditioner Jason Davidson's office - their Cup final boots had already been delivered!

The match-up itself could not be more intriguing either, a repeat of the 2010 final won convincingly by Warrington who are creating a modern Wembley dynasty.

The Wolves can seal a third Cup win in four years and in doing so condemn Leeds to a third successive Cup final defeat, something that has not happened to any side since Hull lost three on the spin over a century ago.

It is a real anomaly that in dominating Super League with five Grand Final wins in the last eight years, Leeds have lost on each of their last five Challenge Cup final appearances since last winning it in 1999. The Rhinos are in danger of becoming to the Challenge Cup Final what St Helens have been to the Grand Final, modern-day bridesmaids.

And it is going to take a monumental effort for Brian McDermott's side to finally make it all the way to the altar. The Wolves go into the game as favourites, far superior over the league season to their rivals, but wary of the Rhinos' big-game mentality that saw Leeds knock out Warrington en route to a historic Grand Final win from fifth place last year.

I can't see Tony Smith's side wounding Leeds as badly as they did two years ago, while the Rhinos will have taken a lot of pride from their efforts in defeat to Wigan in last year's final. In terms of form, you can't read too much into it.

Warrington suffered a bizarre hammering at London Broncos last week, while I watched a disjointed Leeds display in the south of France, the Rhinos recovering too late in the game to deny the Dragons.

There are fascinating match-ups all over the park. I always love watching Briers dictate play on the big stage, while Richie Myler will have a huge point to prove for Warrington after being dropped from the 2010 final squad.

With Danny McGuire's Challenge Cup curse again denying him an elusive Wembley appearance, teenage half-back Stevie Ward is Leeds' secret weapon.

Rated at Headingley as the next Kevin Sinfield, the 18-year-old was in the crowd for Leeds' defeats in the last two finals and set himself two targets at the start of the year: to break into the Rhinos first team and to pass his A-levels.

Combining revision with training, Ward showed brains and brawn in picking up an A in PE and B's in English Language and Literature last week, before turning his attentions to pinning a Cup winners' medal to his parents' proud noticeboard.

Literary scholar Ward will know well that life's battles don't always go to the stronger and faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can.

There was more pressure on London - and Powell himself - than ever before this season. The club's bold decision to spend up to the salary cap with a host of new signings needed to be justified with an immediate upturn in form.

The hope was that the Broncos' ongoing battle with poor crowds would be boosted by a more successful on-field product - a winning team. Big-name arrivals Shane Rodney, Michael Robertson and Craig Gower have failed to lift the capital side's fortunes and, with just three wins to their name, the writing has been on Powell's wall for some time.

He is one of the good guys in the game, thrust into the spotlight as Super League's youngest coach, but struggling with the size of the task that is assembling a winning rugby league team in London.

Rea has a long affinity with the club and has maintained good dialogue with the Broncos. He says he was shocked to be asked to take over, but it is something Hughes had been considering.

Future St Helens coach Nathan Brown has departed Huddersfield Giants early. Photo: Getty Images

Given the financial outlay and the constant struggle to justify London as a viable Super League option, Powell has paid the inevitable price for failure.

I am not convinced Powell would have agreed with the club's hierarchy over its decision to take two home games on the road in May. London played Bradford at Leyton Orient's Brisbane Road ground and then Hull FC in Gillingham two weeks later... and lost both.

The Bulls had a shorter trip to the stadium from their hotel than the London players, who felt it had become an away game. The plan was to attract new fans of the team away from the Stoop, but I'm not sure the move proved a hit with coaching staff and players.

As for Brown, the decision to remove the St Helens-bound coach looks a no-brainer. After claiming he had succumbed to player power in his selection and strategy in Huddersfield's Challenge Cup semi-final defeat to Warrington, there was no way back.

It was clear all was not well when full-back Greg Eden arrived for an interview straight from training to ask if I still wanted to go ahead with filming as he had been dropped from the team.

Prop forward Eorl Crabtree was asked on Saturday whether the side's dreadful dip in form was the result of a departing coach taking his eye off the ball and that surely he was now focusing efforts on player recruitment for St Helens rather than building at Huddersfield?

Crabtree rubbished the suggestion, calling it an "easy answer" to the side's current woes.

The facts are stark, though. Huddersfield were top of Super League when Brown's departure was confirmed in April and absolutely flying on the pitch. The Giants went undefeated through April but have only beaten London since in dropping to seventh in just two months.

The players are adamant all is well in training, with things just not clicking on the pitch. Paul Anderson, who has stepped up to the top job after previously being the assistant, now has the big task to make sure that happens and salvage a place in the end-of-season play-offs that had previously seemed a certainty.

And St Helens must now decide whether to bring Brown in early or allow interim boss Mike Rush to finish the season.

That's partly because my idiotic mates often schedule their weddings for the weekend of the final itself, but largely because the dangling of the Wembley carrot to four clubs at two neutral venues triggers great sporting drama.

Yet this year more than ever, the magic takes place amid a backdrop of misery over the distinct possibility that one of the competition's most successful teams could soon cease to exist.

Bradford Bulls, five-time winners of the sport's most famous knockout competition, may have been handed another stay of execution in their desperate fight to stay alive. But hope and time are fading.

I am a hugely passionate supporter of the game but am not enjoying this season one bit. Amid the usual bluster and positive watchwords offered to the media from Bulls administrator Brendan Guilfoyle this week was the admission that investing in a rugby league club is not an attractive proposition.

Administrators have extended the deadline for when the club needs to have a new owner. Photo: Getty.

The consortium of local businessmen with whom talks are continuing is, according to Guilfoyle, the only interested party. Other suitors were put off because Bradford are a loss-making business and Guilfoyle admits he is "not in control" of the club's destiny.

The issue here is not finding a buyer who can afford Bradford, but getting one who is willing to cover their losses. Having bought the lease of Odsal, the Rugby Football League now has to agree to sell it back to any buyer, and pay the players' July wages through an advance of TV money.

My concern is that these are shallow kisses of life to resuscitate a potentially fatally wounded beast. The RFL does not have Premier League resources and the desperate demise of the Bulls is further draining the game's central funds at a time when other clubs endure worrying financial times too.

Despite £500,000 being raised by fans and players and the auctioning of treasured memorabilia from the club's glorious past, Bradford have still had to hold a massive stock clearance of £50,000 worth of club shop goods just to raise cash for day-to-day running costs like travel for a coaching staff already working for free. If clubs like Bradford are a loss-making business, why would anyone want to invest?

Thankfully the players are doing their bit and the on-field product remains hugely watchable. I cannot wait for this weekend. Both semi-finals, Leeds v Wigan on Saturday and Huddersfield-Warrington on Sunday, are live on BBC Television and on the BBC Sport website, while we will have the first match live in full on 5 live sport.

With the aforementioned dark clouds overhead, the presence of a Wembley weekend in August is a hugely exciting incentive and all the players I've spoken to this week are buzzing.

For a rugby league player there is quite simply nothing like a Challenge Cup final at Wembley. That one moment when you walk out to the strains of Abide with Me, with your family in the stands and the world watching, is what any player strives for.

And now four sets of team-mates are just 80 minutes away from experiencing it together. On that Saturday afternoon at Wembley, worries over club finances, the licensing system, administration, liquidation, promotion and relegation will be a million miles away from anyone's thoughts.

It is a hugely special day and one that makes semi-final weekend such a massive moment in the rugby league calendar. For a team like Huddersfield, inexplicably stuttering after a strong Super League start, Sunday could be do or die for their season.

I went down to the Galpharm on Wednesday to see Greg Eden and Luke George, both of whom admitted this was their big chance to save the season.

Eden emerged from the tunnel looking gutted after a training session and told me he feared he had been dropped. The look in his eye was of a man who could see his personal Wembley dream fading. "I hope I'm wrong but I have a bad feeling," he told me.

Opponents Warrington have momentum and the hunger of a side to win at Wembley two years out of three - and they want "their" trophy back from Wigan who beat Leeds last year. The Rhinos were wounded by that, but used the setback to trigger an incredible and unlikely play-off run that yielded a barely believable Old Trafford triumph.

For all their Super League dominance, Leeds fans want the Cup that has eluded them since 1999. The Warriors want to build a dynasty.

This weekend is a huge window for a game that has been fire-fighting negative headlines this season and two blood-and-thunder semi-finals live on terrestrial television, radio and online would provide a major shot in the rugby league arm.

Administration always looked the inevitable outcome, even when fans bent over backwards to keep the club going, even when the Bulls hierarchy stood firm amidst the financial mess over which it had presided.

And so despite the departure of chairman Peter Hood, the half million pounds of fans' cash, and the auctioning of treasured personal possessions from the club's glittering history, the four-time champions find themselves without any backroom staff and without, it seems, any guidance or reassurances from above that they can even carry on.

The same players who found out about the club's uncertain future via twitter on their way to training, this week turned up to a crunch meeting with administrator Brendan Guilfoyle having not been told he had cancelled it.

Bradford fans feel angry, misled and left in the dark. Photo: PA

When I posed this question to chief executive Nigel Wood six weeks ago the answer was emphatic. Is Rangers' rocky road the fault of the Scottish Premier League? Was Portsmouth's plight the Premier League's fault?

Wood told me the RFL's job is "to create the best possible environment for well-run clubs to flourish and establish themselves" adding "it is still down to local management at club level to make the best of the opportunity the sport presents." But this is an argument that has begun to wear thin with some observers.

I had an angry phonecall from Australian forward Clint Newton this week calling for Wood's resignation. A veteran of Super League rugby and now back in the NRL with Penrith after a 100-game career with Hull KR, Newton is a passionate rugby league man and ardent supporter of the British game, and is furious at the state of the game. "I'm embarrassed for Nigel Wood and the people who are supposedly controlling the game" he told me, pointing to the financial failings of Crusaders, Wakefield and now Bradford on the RFL's watch.

Wood insists otherwise, making it quite clear that the responsibility for any business's finances lies with its own board of directors. "They are in power and set ticket prices and season ticket prices and player contracts," he says pointedly in reference to Bradford's problems. This argument angers Newton, a former member of the Super League Dream Team.

"That is one of the biggest cop outs you will see in professional sport," he says. "Can you give a licence to Bradford based on projected revenue. If we were all living in Never Never land we could come up with all sorts of projected figures. I don't understand how the RFL can again get away with what they are doing."

The RFL argue Bradford's financial projections were strong and the licence was warranted, with the situation deterioriating rapidly after the withdrawal of support from RBS at a time when the club was still repaying Leeds over the Iestyn Harris transfer. But Newton wants accountability at the very top.

"Wood should have resigned a few years ago but he needs to fall on his sword now as do a couple of other people there," he claims.

Former Hull KR forward Clint Newton says he fears for the future of the game Photo: Getty

As predictable as administration may have been when Hood first sounded the alarm bell in his local newspaper at Easter, it was unthinkable that the Bulls would allow themselves to go down that route after cashing in on the supporters' goodwill.

Players and fans I have spoken to feel angry, misled and now in the dark. Fans are wondering why they bothered raising money to keep their club from administration when it has happened anyway, and perhaps was always likely to be thus.

With liabilities to cover a loan from RBS, Hood may have thought he had no option but to plead for the fans' cash to cover this, even if administration would follow.

I also understand that the initial £500,000 shortfall met ultimately by the fans, was largely down to a miscalculation in projections on the club's season ticket pledge scheme.

Again, these are questions we may never get answered. Yet there is a much bigger issue. Is this the strongest indication yet that the game in its current state, and under its current governing body, is unsustainable?

Newton say so. "Do I fear for the future of Super League? Definitely. The fans will be left asking what has happened to our game that was once very strong and viable. The competition cannot survive with 14 teams in the current economic crisis."

As for Bradford, they now have no money, no coaching staff, no administrative staff and vastly disappearing hope.

One hope is former title-winning boss Brian Noble returns with his midas touch until the darkest of the clouds has passed. The main hope is to find a buyer, immediately.

Adrian Morley is a modern rugby league great, and while McNamara insists the international door remains open for the 35-year-old prop, my fear would be that the door is creaking shut.

Morley could yet return to the squad for the second of two Exiles games later in the summer, but on form and fitness - criteria the England coach continues to point to in underlining his selections, his absence is no real surprise. Morley is only two games back from a neck injury and has yet to commit to playing into 2013.

I can't think there are many rugby league romantics who would not want to see 'Moz' given the opportunity to bow out at next year's home World Cup.

Warrington forward Adrian Morley has been left out of the England squad to face the Exiles. Photo: Getty

But realistically there are younger, hungrier props in better form than the great man, and although skipper Jamie Peacock will also be 35 later this year, I do doubt the prospects of seeing England's twin towers together at the World Cup.

The two other big stories are recalls for Morley's Warrington team-mate Ryan Atkins and Wigan forward Gareth Hock. Atkins has been left out in the cold by McNamara since opting out of international duty last year and hasn't played for his country now in two years.

The Wolves centre was privately seething at being left out of the last elite training squad when he was arguably Super League's in-form centre. Atkins maintains he pulled out of England duty for "personal reasons" and to nurse an injury.

I understand McNamara saw it differently and has questioned his commitment. The pair have since chatted, with the player being reminded of what his coach expects of an international player. Hock is in line for his first England cap since being banned for cocaine two years ago.

At the time of his drugs suspension he would have been one of the first forward names on the team sheet. It is testament to his immense talent and animal hunger for the game that he has forced his way back in, with McNamara impressed by his recent fiery displays for table-topping Wigan.

Even a two-match for fighting at the Magic Weekend couldn't dissuade McNamara from recalling Hock. "He is the real strike we have been missing," says McNamara, who called the recent brawl "part of Gareth's game, an aggressive streak that we don't want to lose". Hull's Danny Tickle is rewarded too, with a first call-up since 2009.

The selection of only one "plastic Brit" - Castleford's Maori half-back Rangi Chase - may go some way to appeasing critics of McNamara's policy of selecting his strongest eligible squad regardless of origin. I have spoken to a number of Super League players angered by the move to unearthing talent in Australia, and indeed uncovering Aussie talent in Super League, with British ancestry.

McNamara remains steadfast in his strategy, insisting competition can only make the squad stronger. His detractors claim his policy goes against one of the key reasons for implementing the controversial Super League licensing system - namely allowing the unpressured development of young British talent at clubs without the need to panic-buy foreigners to avoid relegation.

That said Danny Brough is in - a former Scotland international. In my opinion he is the most dangerous scrum-half in the game at the moment and his kicking game will be key against the Exiles.

Of the 12 names to be dropped from the Elite squad for these two games against the Exiles, the best overseas players in Super League, Leeds centre Zak Hardaker and St Helens scrum-half Jonny Lomax may count themselves unlucky. However two in-form Wigan Warriors, in hooker Michael McIlorum and Darrell Goulding, may have been waiting by the phone with a good deal more confidence.

Eyebrows were raised when England football boss Roy Hodgson reacted to Liverpool's woeful season by picking more of their players for Euro 2012 than from any other club.

There is a parallel here with Super League champions Leeds, with half a dozen Rhinos dominating the squad in the midst of one of the club's worst ever Super League seasons. Guaranteed inclusions were skipper Peacock and Ryan Hall as arguably the best winger in the game.

Rob Burrow may have got the nod over McIlorum for his match-winning spark and versatility. McNamara clearly likes the cover that Carl Ablett offers at centre and in the pack, while Wigan fans will have strong claims that Goulding should have taken his spot. Jamie-Jones Buchanan remains one of the game's most dangerous forwards while Kevin Sinfield gets another chance to forge a half-back pairing with Chase.

McNamara's mantra remains continued improvement ahead of the World Cup while he will want to see the team start winning games with style.

It remains a unique concept that thrills its fans and frustrates its critics. Fourteen teams, 14 sets of supporters, seven matches, two days, one stadium. It reads like an "all you can eat" menu for the die-hard rugby league fan.

But was the Magic Weekend a success in its first (and presumably not its last) year in Manchester? Is the concept sustainable? And if it is such a magnificent sporting innovation, then why is rugby league alone in doing it?

On attendances alone, the Rugby Football League's (RFL) decision to bring it closer to the heartlands worked. Crowds may have appeared sparse at times on television but the aggregate weekend gate of almost 64,000 was actually a record. Is it proof that attempts to take the game to Cardiff and Edinburgh were not worth it? I'm not convinced.

Sam Tomkins scored two tries to help Wigan beat St Helens 42-16 during an ill-tempered encounter at the Magic Weekend. Photo: Getty

Last year in Cardiff the overall gate was only 2,500 smaller. This was an event played further from the guaranteed areas of rugby league support and at the start of the season in dodgy weather.

This month's glorious burst of Mediterranean sun was a major leg-up for the RFL. You had to pinch yourself that you were in Manchester, not Madeira.

Even strangers to the sport were drawn into the Etihad carnival and the chance to immerse themselves in the kaleidoscope of colours around the impressive home of the Premier League champions.

However, while crowd numbers were at an all-time high for the event, they were still smaller than the RFL had anticipated and indeed hoped for. Had the heatwave faded into the more regular grey Manchester drizzle, I have no doubt the numbers would have been lower still.

But Nigel Wood, RFL's chief executive, seems happy enough. He told me: "I think Magic Weekend 2012 encapsulated all that is great about rugby league - superb athletes delivering skilful and exciting entertainment to enthusiastic crowds in a terrific stadium."

In terms of the product it was as good as anyone could have wished. There was everything: last-minute match-winning drama, sensational solo tries - Sam Tomkins' latest effort will live long in the memory - and three red cards in one match.

Yet in lauding this unique spectacle there is still much to consider. It remains a logistical nightmare.

A Manchester City-supporting BBC colleague wandered up to the club shop on Saturday unaware that rugby league had taken over her manor. "It looked great but how do they control all those different fans together?"

This is indeed why rugby league can put this event on - as a sport with family at its very heart. Indeed the City officials used to staffing Premier League football appeared perplexed that all these sets of supporters could mingle freely.

A couple of stewards near the media and players' area soon learned there was no need for their no-nonsense stewarding approach - the players were happy to be approached by fans for photos and autographs and the officials' attempted interventions were unnecessary.

But there were other issues that other sports would not have stood for. The roll-on, roll-off format means four changing rooms are needed. The two main dressing rooms are of a higher standard than the reserve rooms.

I had a long chat with Warrington's assistant coach Willie Poching during the opening match of the weekend as Wakefield beat Castleford. Warrington were straight on after that against Widnes and were thus given a smaller dressing room. Luck of the draw, perhaps, but Wolves weren't happy and opted to have their half-time team talk and treatments administered on the side of the pitch.

I can't imagine many Premier League football clubs accepting inferior facilities to their rivals, but this did not prevent Warrington walloping bottom club Widnes.

And therein lies the other big Magic weekend issue, namely getting the fixtures right. The move to May from the opening weekend was a guaranteed winner, as ferocious high-scoring contests replaced lacklustre early season affairs that prevailed in Cardiff.

But with this extra round of fixtures on top of the regular home and away calendar, is it right that Wigan and Saints, Bradford and Leeds, Wakefield and Castleford, Hull FC and Hull KR, fight out intense local derbies and Warrington get a chance to smash Widnes?

If I were one of Warrington's title rivals I'd be a little unhappy at the Wolves being virtually handed an extra two points - with all due respect to Widnes it always had the feel that it would go the way it did, with Warrington winning 68-4.

The Magic posters promised "seven of the biggest rivalries in rugby league over one weekend". Warrington v Widnes, Catalan v London and Huddersfield against Salford don't really fall under that banner.

So is it sustainable? I think so. The timing and scheduling are absolutely paramount but I think Manchester was a huge success overall and understand the RFL is keen to take it back there next year - talks are ongoing with Manchester City and Manchester City Council.

And the players like it too. Leeds' Danny McGuire said: "It is a fantastic concept and hopefully in the future we can get more numbers in."

And Warrington's Lee Briers likens it to a cup final: "It's a big occasion and a big stadium and we want to be involved in both of those things."

The minor creases in such an ambitious event can always be ironed out and my overwhelming feeling is that this event offers the sport a showcase to shine, and those Super League clubs who rarely make a final the chance to experience that big-match adrenalin rush.

A final thought this week for Adrian Purtell, the Bradford Bulls centre who was taken ill after suffering a heart attack on the team coach returning from their defeat to Leeds. I know everyone involved in the sport wishes Adrian a full and fast recovery.

With Bradford Bulls' financial plight prompting fresh concerns for the health of the sport and MP Andy Burnham leading calls for a return to promotion and relegation, Wood has issued a passionate defence of rugby league and its management by the governing body.

I sat down for an exclusive interview with Wood for a 5 live Sport rugby league special, which will be broadcast from 21:00 BST on Wednesday. He loves his rugby league and we spoke for 45 minutes before I'd even turned the microphone on.

The RFL agreed to the interview despite its initial wariness about the potential for another battering at the hands of the national media. My view was that any governing body is more likely to attract criticism for being silent than for anything it could say. But Wood is clearly hugely frustrated at having to do interviews like this.

 MP Andy Burnham has called for the return of promotion and relegation to top-flight rugby league. Photo: Getty

"I've been in this job since October 2007 and it does get frustrating having to fight fires but if it was too hot in the kitchen I'd need to get out," he says. "This is the best sport in the world and more people are starting to understand that. We do have to fight our corner in the media to make sure the sport is properly respected."

First on the agenda: Bradford. The Bulls clearly feel the RFL could have done more; the RFL is adamant it has bent over backwards for the club. How serious is their financial plight and who is to blame? Is their crisis symptomatic of a wider problem in the sport?
Wood labels Bradford's problems a "high-profile blip".

"It would be wrong to roll out the example of Bradford and say it is evidence of a widespread malaise in the sport," he says. "We have some excellent clubs in the Super League and Championship that are well-run. Club finances are first and foremost a matter for the people who run the clubs. I am satisfied that at the top end of our competition we have some very well-run clubs indeed."

Wood admits he would have expected more of the Bulls, saying: "Asking the fans for money to bail the club out is not a good position to be in and those who were managing Bradford at the time need to understand that."

So who is to blame? "The responsibility for any business's finances lies with the board of directors in situ. They are in power and set ticket prices and season ticket prices and player contracts."

Wood insists Bradford's financial situation was beyond the RFL's control and I suggest to him that the Bulls feel he could have done more to help them.

"I've heard this a number of times and I don't really know where we are supposed to go," he counters. "We don't run clubs - they are independent businesses owned by independent shareholders and those shareholders elect boards of directors to manage clubs.

"I don't see the [Scottish Football Association] being hauled over the coals for the financial mess Rangers are in. Or the Premier League when Portsmouth got into some difficulties. The RFL's job is to create the best possible environment for well-run clubs to flourish and establish themselves. It is still down to local management at club level to make the best of the opportunity the sport presents."

Wood calls the game's salary cap a "very definite and deliberate attempt to assist clubs to be able to develop on a sustainable basis" and says the RFL is heading for another year of profit.

I suggest attendances are more of a concern than how much the RFL has in the bank and point to a crowd of just 2,574 for a Challenge Cup quarter-final between Huddersfield and London.

"I agree with you that wasn't the best look," says Wood. "But that shouldn't detract from the overall health of the sport. I'd rather focus on gates being up 8% this year and we're on target to deliver 1.8 million spectators over the season."

Wood's PR is excellent and the stats do back up his faith in the job his team are doing.

So why the constant criticism of the RFL? Is the issue that it doesn't market the sport as well as, dare I say, rugby union?

"I get challenged on two issues more than any," says Wood. "That the game is no good at marketing and promoting itself, and that we need to win more internationally. These are the two hammers that keep getting landed on the sport. We haven't got the same public school network that rugby union has had or the same strength in the game in the Celtic nations, nor a strong South Africa like union has.

"But I'd argue in all other aspects league more than punches its weight."

5 live rugby league, with special guests Jon Wilkin, Jamie Peacock and Eorl Crabtree, will be broadcast from 21:00 BST on Wednesday

The game's unforgiving ferocity has been complemented this season by the Giants' psychological approach that has helped guide Nathan Brown's men towards the Super League summit.

In week one Huddersfield stunned Wigan at the DW. The pair are now joint top and the Yorkshiremen are confident of toppling the Challenge Cup holders again at the Galpharm this weekend.

There was one unfamiliar face in the away dressing room that day. Karl Morris is a leading sports psychologist known largely because of his work with golf professionals. He's worked with Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood to extinguish the mental fires that can burn the most talented of performers. He is now massaging the mental muscles of the Giants.

Huddersfield Giant's Keith Mason believes his side have a chance of winning some silverware this year. Photo: Getty

This, the club believe, can turn an already strong side into champions.

I met forwards Keith Mason and David Fa'alogo this week. Mason has been at Huddersfield for six years, playing in Challenge Cup finals and play-offs but never winning anything. He says something has changed this year.

"The belief and camaraderie is better. We've been close the last two seasons but this feels different and we can win comfortably against good teams now."

I ask Mason what exactly is different, and why? "We have had psychologists come in and given everyone a 'trademark' to work towards. We all have our individual score we have to hit each week. We feel we have the physical side sorted so are now working on the mental side, the stuff you don't see. "

You'd not argue with the physical stuff. Built around brilliant half-back Danny Brough, their go-forward has been scintillating. The Giants also boast the meanest defence in the league, conceding on average 15 points per game. But it was the continued reference to "belief" from both players that struck me.

I ask Mason how they can beat Wigan again: "Belief. We must believe in our systems and stick to them." I ask Fa'alogo how they turn a formidable side into a championship-winning one: "Belief. Believe we can be champions, believe in our game-plans, believe and achieve."

The psychological stuff intrigues me but the players aren't keen to divulge specifics so I do a bit more digging. Morris visits the club every couple of months to see the players. This is optional, but I'm told more than half of the senior players sit down with him.

The process focuses on confidence. Morris asks the players about their own game and teaches them how to analyse their own performances. This sounds simple but how often do you hear a sportsman come off the field after a defeat and promise: "We'll forget about that straight away and go again tomorrow?" The key focus here is on making every performance stick in the memory.

One player tells me the sessions with Morris serve as a "positive reinforcement of where we are". He is basically teaching the players how to analyse their own games - good and bad - so they don't just bury it after the hooter - as tempting as that is when you lose.

Prop Eorl Crabtree, who has been at the club since his debut in 2001, later tells me that he has seen a huge difference. "If we lack confidence we can quickly find out why by looking back over our past notes with the psychologist and compare it to our team trademarks. It's something I'd never heard of before."

So what are these "trademarks"? Here, another man, Gerard Murphy, plays a part. Murphy labels himself a "leadership coach" and has worked with both the England rugby union and league teams. The process of "trademarks" sets the players individual goals, and overall team goals, calculated statistically based on performance analysis by one of the Giants' coaches.

Murphy's website asks the question that many rugby league fans have asked of Huddersfield's perceived under-achievers of recent Super League seasons: "Why do teams with extraordinary ambition and talent fail? Because they can't move beyond the 'individual'. Because they haven't harnessed the power of a collective goal."

What Huddersfield, and indeed other clubs, have begun to employ, is such a system to work individually to a team goal. The "trademarks" for the team cover three areas of performance. Each player is rated individually per performance out of five in each area, and the team totals are totted up for the post-match analysis session.

If they have met the targets set, then more often than not the Giants will have won the game. It is simple, it is statistical and, combined with the psychology, I find it fascinating.

And, if the Giants' fine start is anything to go by, it seems to work.

I spoke to chief executive Ryan Duckett on Wednesday after the news of Hood's departure was made public. While he would not reveal details of potential investors - who or how many they were - he told me there was a "group of shareholders" who wanted to get involved in the club's future.

This group, Duckett revealed, had indicated that "there are certain people who they are not confident in".

In effect, Hood jumped before he was pushed, and would not have survived a vote of no confidence at the extraordinary general meeting called by the club's majority shareholder Chris Caisley - Bradford's former chairman.

Since reaching their initial survival target of £500,000 thanks to the remarkable efforts and generosity of their own fans, Bradford have gone quiet on progress. This has left fans frustrated, and Duckett would not reveal the current financial situation when I asked.

But spare a thought for the players while all this is going on. This is not just sport, it is life. These are not Premier League millionaires, these are relatively low-earning league players running into brick walls every week to support their families. What on earth are they going through?

"Like the fans, I thank the players for their support and patience," Duckett said.
"They have been brilliant with the last few weeks having been very difficult not knowing what's going on, but hopefully we will soon have momentum."

Odsal was sold to the RFL and then leased back by Bradford. Photo: Getty

Centre Keith Lulia is in his first season at Odsal after quitting Australia with his wife to try Super League. He was excited and optimistic about the move, citing the opportunity to join one of the biggest names in Super League as key to his decision to emigrate. He is only 24.

"Me and my wife moved over for a fresh start," he said. "We were just settling in and starting to love Bradford and now this. It's been stressful the whole time and I just want it to sort itself out. We have no option but to go with the flow.

"I think of Bradford as one of the top Super League teams with a great history and now I don't know if I'm getting paid."

Lulia only signed a two-year contract and admits it has been so unsettling he will not
sign a new deal until the club's future is decided.

"I will re-sign if they get someone to buy the club or find some money. Until then who knows what I'm going to do. If they fold I'll be at another club.

"I want to know where I stand with the club and what is going to happen. This is a big distraction".

Prop Nick Scruton agrees with the Australian.

"It's unsettling," he said. "We don't know from week to week if we're getting paid. We have to try and put it to the back of the head and the boys have been awesome, trying to do Bradford proud."

But Scruton, although sidelined himself after shoulder surgery, says he has seen the team bond through their shared adversity.

"It has definitely pulled us closer together," he said.

"When it happened, we got together and decided we can't break off in to little splinter groups, we all have to get through it together, so we are now as one, and hugely tight-knit."

Bradford's future remains unclear but Duckett is meeting investors over the next week and remains confident, even though he concedes "significant investment" is needed to keep the club alive.

But would it now be easier just to hold their hands up and go into administration? "Absolutely not," he said. "That is the last thing any of the investors want."

And after taking half a million pounds from the fans to stay afloat, it would indeed appear unthinkable for Bradford to go down that road now.

More likely is a return for Caisley, the man who oversaw the glory years of five successive Grand Finals at the start of the millennium. What chance Brian Noble, a Bulls hero for coaching those champion sides, returning too, with Mick Potter in the final year of his contract?

What is for sure is the immense credit the Bulls players should take for their efforts through this. The Good Friday derby win over Leeds on the day that could have proved their last conjured memories of those heady Caisley-Noble days.

Their subsequent against-the-odds efforts have the Bulls in a play-off spot and heading for their most successful season in years.

So at the risk of breaking new ground in quoting Dolly Parton in a rugby league blog, if you want the rainbow, you've got to put up with the rain.

It can also be pretty nerve-wracking, which is something I've only been able to appreciate this year, having been fortunate enough to host both the Challenge Cup fourth round and quarter-final draws.

Previously, I'd always been the jittery fan, sweating in front of the television on a Sunday afternoon, waiting for my team's number to come out. I am, of course, still a fan, but this week my only focus was on not messing it up.

Negative thoughts raced through my mind, knowing every player, coach and fan would be listening in nervous anticipation. I prayed there'd not be a spare ball left in the bag.

Other tweets said "what a ridiculous time to have the draw", "why is it at 8.20 on a Tuesday and not after the final match of the weekend? Joke", and, my personal favourite, "the BBC doing all they can to help promote the game: not".

It is impossible to address such comments in 140 characters, so allow me to try and offer some insight here into the decision-making process regarding the scheduling of the draw.

A very proud moment in my life as I stand beside the Challenge Cup.

There was no window for it to take place after the final fixture on Sunday as there was no televised game on that day. We looked at holding it on 5 live Sport in the same timeslot but a live football commentary made that impossible. For logistical reasons, Monday on Breakfast was a non-starter, which meant that the first available window for a massive national audience was on Tuesday.

The peak timeslot we landed meant an audience of between two and three million. I would wager this is one of the biggest, if not the biggest audience for a Challenge Cup draw, and, being scheduled on a non-rugby league show, it was also a terrific platform to attract new fans.

One point I can sympathise with is the frustration from both fans and players about not knowing when the draw is going to be. Ideally, there would be a set time after each round when the draw is done, on a set channel, so we all know where we stand.

But it is not that simple. The key thing for our sport that craves profile and exposure is to place the draw where we can maximise both of those. Here, having it at peak time, on the Sony Award-winning national Breakfast programme of the year, was a huge result.
The failure from many fans to appreciate this frustrated me. This is exactly the kind of window us league fans strive for, so a lot of the reaction was regrettable and disappointing.

On the day itself, Rugby Football League media boss John Ledger arrived at Media City at 0730. After a quick cup of coffee, out came the famous old trophy and the all-important velvet bag, with the eight numbered, oval balls.

John then met with our producer Tim to discuss how the item would fit into our show. It is a fast-paced news and sport programme, so keeping it snappy was crucial.

Before John arrived, presenter Rachel Burden had already admitted she was petrified of messing it up, while Nicky Campbell told me he was excited and privileged at being asked to conduct it. In more unhelpful criticism, the choice of Nicky and Rachel - two rugby union fans - was castigated by some fans, but both loved performing the draw and will be attending some of the quarter-final fixtures.

The trophy and balls entered the studio at 0815, the draw was made and Nicky was buzzing at the reaction it provoked from fans on text and Twitter. The programme team have already asked about hosting the semi-final draw, so enthused were they, but I can confirm this will indeed take place in the traditional Sunday evening timeslot after the final televised BBC game.

Leeds coach Brian McDermott texted in to "tell Campbell good job for drawing us at Leigh", while Lauren Dorn - the pregnant wife of London full-back Luke - was upset as she'd demanded a home tie in case she went in to labour. In giving the Broncos Huddersfield away, I've had to strike a deal to drive Luke back to London if Lauren has the baby that weekend.

I expected the RFL to be delighted with the draw, especially the Wigan-St Helens derby, but no sooner had we left the studio was Ledger on on the phone with a real scheduling headache, as Wigan Athletic are home that same weekend.

This debate was still going on with the BBC hierarchy - who have first choice on the main TV game - when I left the office on Thursday.