FIVE days to go . . . and Roughyeds are preparing to welcome back one of their old boys when West Wales Raiders come to the Vestacare Stadium on Sunday (3pm kick-off).
Welsh prop Joe Burke, who played for us in the Championship seasons of 2016 and 2017, is now back in South Wales and playing for the Llanelli-based Raiders, who have lost each of their two Betfred League One games so far this season, the first at Swinton Lions, the second at home to Rochdale Hornets.
Newport-born Burke, now aged 31 and with 11 Welsh international appearances behind him, played loose-forward for the Raiders at Swinton and prop in last week-end’s 52-12 home defeat by Rochdale.
These days a lot of loose-forwards play like props anyway, so we can safely assume that the big fella, standing 6ft4in and tipping the scales at 16 and a half stones, will be operating as a “middle” no matter which position he will command on the official team sheet.
It is worth noting that, despite Rochdale’s second-half dominance, the score at half-time was only 6-16 – a clear indication that this Raiders team can play a bit.
Indeed, Ian Golden wrote in League Express:
“For the home side, it was a massive improvement on their first two games (heavy defeats by Swinton in the Challenge Cup and then in the League) and they were arguably the better side for most of the first half.”
On the final hooter a fight broke out and two Welsh players, forwards Craig Lewis and Ieuan Badham, were both sent off by referee Matt Rossleigh – a further hint that these Raiders will be no easy-beats.
League Express gave our former prop Joe Burke as the Raiders best man, so what do we know about this proud Welshman, who numbers South Wales Scorpions, North Wales Crusaders, Super League Crusaders RL and the Welsh international side among his former teams ?
Well, he played for Wales in 2014 and 2015, both in the European Cup, and he again represented his country in 2016 (when he was at Oldham), playing in World Cup qualifiers.
In 2015, he played in all 30 games for North Wales Crusaders (28 starts) and he signed for us, when we were looking to strengthen the pack and add some front-row “grunt”, in the early days of the 2016 Championship campaign.
We were promoted from League One in 2015 and, with Joe’s assistance, we had two seasons in the Championship, 2016 and 2017, with the Welshman making a total of 47 appearances for the Roughyeds, 22 in his first season and 25 in his second.
In 2016, it is interesting to note that the top goalkicker in the Championship back then was Leigh’s Martyn Ridyard with 91 – four more than Halifax’s Steve Tyrer,
Now a Roughyed, Martyn is still kicking goals as easily as some of us shell peas, as he showed in our 22-22 draw at Hunslet last Sunday, when he landed three from four, including two off the touchline despite the fierce wind.
His one failure was also off the touchline, following Ben Holcroft’s opening try, and that was a close thing.
His first goal, to improve Owen Restall’s try, was the 1,000th of his career – and all the indications are that Ridyard The Boot still has lots more goals in him and that those goals will prove valuable to us over the course of this campaign.
His three-from-four at Hunslet compared with their marksman’s one-from-five – stats that show the value of a good, experienced goalkicker in a tight game.
Our own Lewis Palfrey was eighth in the list with 45 goals in 2016, while Scott Leatherbarrow was sixth with 61 in 2017.
Ridyard, for Roughyeds, and Burke, for Raiders, will be key men in Sunday’s game when a win at the Vestacare Stadium could lift us into the play-offs zone, depending on what Doncaster do at home to Swinton Lions and how Rochdale finish against Hunslet at the Crown Oil Arena.
