Possibly, but he isn't bleating in public about the running of the game.

Why do you assume those assessments weren’t rigorous? The fact those clubs had those problems doesn’t mean that either A) the assessment didn’t highlight these possible risks, or B) those bids weren’t the best 14.



Remember the clubs voted to move to 14, they voted to keep it at 14 the RFL just picked the best 14. Even with their failure there is little reason to suppose Halifax’s bid was better than Bradfords.

Clubs had financial troubles before Lewis, during Lewis and will do after Lewis. Who was blamed in 1964 for Bradford Northern?

As the executive keep council in the dark and do not seek their advice the attendance of meetings would be pointless. RFL council nor SLE clubs were asked for permission to pump hundreds of thousands of pounds into Crusaders and the Bulls. Nige and Dicky just did it.



so Hudgell sent a letter that went SL clubs and it was published. maybe in his judgement this was a way of shaking the executive out of its torpor. it has.

Give over with that context stuff!

it is not that clubs have had difficulty. It is that Wood and lewis have unilaterally chosen to secretly support some clubs with hundreds of thousands of pounds while leaving others.

I would say that the RFL is the most intrusive body in team sport, by that I mean they have to save the clubs from themselves. For as long as I've been watching the game clubs have had to be helped from destroying themselves by spending what they don't have. Richard Lewis seemed to do this, and he did many other positive things for the game.



This will not be recieved well in the national media, in light of the Bradford situation, and my only hope is that we can get someone who is as equally forward thinking, not only for SL, but the international game. Remember we could get a Chief Exec who kills our game and leaves us with a part-time Northern Hemisphere sport, a very real possibility when he took over and a possibility if we chose the wrong candidate the next time round.

You think Lewis’ leaving for the all-england club has anything to do with Hudgell’s letter? Really?



And the investment of RFL funds isn’t a matter for the SL executive, nor for the RFL council (You still haven’t addressed why championship clubs should have 6 times the decision making power on RFL funds as the amateur clubs in our game btw) it is a matter for the RFL BoD who spent it as the RFL BoD are entitled.

The fact that the LTA (with their record of improving sponsorship and their enormous budget) have chosen to take him on board says more about the man than any of the posters on here. Like him or loathe him he is obviously a well regarded professional and I think his departure is bad news for rugby league. Lets see who we can replace him with.

even more worried about the running of the world cup next year now

You can add to that Lewis allegedly going out on a limb to ensure that London Broncos were allowed to re-form without penalty in 2005 (?) when the other clubs were minded to apply a points deduction.



As for financial prudence it wasn't exactly difficult to improve on the performance of the previous administration, one which thought it a good idea to kick off a World Cup with a bunch of Englishmen pretending to be Irish taking on the Easter Islands on a ploughed field in County Fermanagh.

There's good and bad in this.



It's time for a change, but let's hope we get someone appointed with some real savvy and business acumen.



Let's not have any of this 'he's not a RL man' to cloud the next appointment.



Overall I'd put Lewis's tenure at 6.5 / 10