Rugby League Betting: Too much too soon for McNamara

Internationals / Ralph Ellis / 14 July 2010 / Leave a Comment

"And sure enough Bulls have now released him ‘by mutual consent’ so he can put all his energies into England. At least that’s what the PR stuff says, together with lovely words about the great job he’s done. The grim reality is he’s effectively been sacked on the back of seven successive Super League defeats, with Bulls in severe danger of missing the play-offs for the second year in a row."

Ralph Ellis tells us why the similarities between England's rugby league coach Steve McNamara and Steve McClaren are all too many and why that's bad news for the national side....

At least, as far as I know, Steve McNamara has never stood on a Super League touchline underneath an umbrella. But the fear that he might be his sport's equivalent to Steve McClaren is beginning to be all too real.

You might remember it was back in April, just after he'd been named as Tony Smith's successor as England coach, that I pointed out the striking similarities in career path between the Bradford Bulls coach and football's "wally with a brolly". The big worry was that, just like McClaren, he could turn out to have been promoted to the top international job too soon.

It also didn't seem right that he was staying on at Odsal at the same time as trying to nail down his new job. And sure enough Bulls have now released him 'by mutual consent' so he can put all his energies into England.

At least that's what the PR stuff says, together with lovely words about the great job he's done. The grim reality is he's effectively been sacked on the back of seven successive Super League defeats, with Bulls in severe danger of missing the play-offs for the second year in a row.

In this morning's market you can't back them at more than [1.5] to qualify among the clubs bidding to make the Grand Final, but in reality they should be at least about [3.0] by now, so if you can get anything matched below that then lay them. Currently a point and two places below the cut off line, this weekend offers a gentle contest with struggling Salford to make up some ground. But the rest of the fixture list reads like a horror story right up until a final day trip to Wigan.

Caretaker Lee St Hilaire has been handed the poisoned chalice until the end of the season when St Helens' Mick Potter is widely tipped to take over. If it wasn't hard enough picking up a side after such a bad run, he's also got to do without star centre Paul Sykes for a couple of games. He's been banned for making a spear tackle on Oliver Wilkes during last week's hammering by his old club Harlequins.

McNamara claims: "The RFL wanted me to do the job full time when I was appointed in April." It's a pity then that they didn't insist on it at the time, because clearly it hasn't helped Bradford to have a head coach everybody knew was leaving, and it won't be much better for St Hilaire, either, trying to command respect in a dressing room when the players all know he won't be boss for much longer.

It's an embarrassing situation because you want a new England coach to be taking charge on a wave of optimism rather than making excuses about why he got the sack. Australia are justifiably the [1.14] favourites for the Four Nations in October with New Zealand [4.7]. England are as short as [6.0] but I wouldn't back them if they were the [100.0] available for Papua New Guinea!

Five things you might not know about Paul Sykes

Born in Dewsbury in August 1981, his middle name is Jeffrey

Spotted playing rugby at school, he came through Bradford Bulls' Academy and made his debut aged 18 as a full back, but failed to break into the first team and three years later moved to London Broncos

He suffered a serious kidney injury that was expected to keep him out for a full year in 2006, but defied doctors by playing again in August

He holds Harlequins Super League kicking record with 12 goals from 12 attempts in one match

He returned to Bradford in 2007, as he and his partner wanted to be closer to their families after the birth of their first child