An interesting debate is around the corner following the Rugby Football League's decision to give Perpignan the green light with their application to join Super League.

Their entry into the top tier will be accompanied by a National League team (providing the obvious criteria can be met by the winners) which means that, at the end of next year's Super League season, two teams face the prospect of relegation.

At the moment, teams play each other home and away plus an extra six fixtures. Your opponents in these 'extra' fixtures are dictated by your finish the previous year. If you finish in the top six, you play teams in the top six as your extra fixtures. Vice versa for the bottom six.

Due to that, there is an obvious dilemma now facing mid-table clubs such as Huddersfield, Warrington and Wakefield.

Basically, should you push for the top six, which is a great achievement for your club, but also leaves you facing a much tougher task the year after, when of course, two teams face relegation?

Huddersfield have made giant strides since their promotion, but it would also still be very fresh in the minds of their administrators the financial effect of relegation.

Could Huddersfield seriously sustain their position on the fringe of the six, if they had Saints, Leeds, Bradford, etc to play on extra time.

It's not just these one-off results, too, but also the impact these games could have on your squad in general.

Suggestions have been that the 'extras' be made up by playing 'odds and evens' ie you play the clubs who finished in positions one, three, five, seven, 11, etc to make your six games up.

Me, I'd just prefer home and away end of story. Some will argue 22 rounds is not enough and financially it may not be for the clubs concerned. However, the introduction of Super League was aimed at driving standards up and I feel if it could be sustained financially that the intensity of the games would increase.

There would also be more scope for a more serious representative calendar and fresher players come the end of the season for the Tri-Nations series.

But if 28 rounds is a must 'odds and evens' sounds a fairer format than the current one.

Clay pigeon shooting was order of the day on Sunday at a fundraising event organised by development officer Jason Ramshaw. It took a little while to get the hang of it, but proved an enjoyable day out.

Obviously we were novices and our lack of experience in handling the rifles, has left both Jason and myself looking like we have been on the wrong end of a couple of Adrian Morley head shots. Lee Jackson, the only one of us who had shot before, was woeful I might add.

Finally, while I cannot comment on the case, I would just like to mention Alex Godfrey.

I know the impact all this has had on Alex and his family. He is my friend and at times like this, he needs his friends more than ever. I hope we remain friends for many more years and we see his considerable talents back on a rugby field.

Updated: 09:18 Wednesday, July 21, 2004