ANYBODY else think that it is daft that one week after the big Super League launch Saints have a blank date?

The club are one of six top eight teams not playing this week and given the season now has two lots of Thursday-Monday double headers it makes the scheduling of a fallow weekend even more ridiculous.

We have had weeks of pre-season build up and Super League supplements and features coming out of our ears - and then after one week the fans of Saints, Widnes, Wakefield, Hull, Castleford and Catalans are reduced to the role of spectators; mere cheer leaders for the British sides in the diminishing World Series.

The bottom four clubs get to continue their league campaign this week as they will have to come into the Challenge Cup a round earlier.

For a planners' point of view that keeps it neat and means that once the season is in full flow all 12 clubs are playing every weekend, but it still contributes to a half-cocked start.

For the momentum of the competition would it not have been better if the six teams had all played this weekend and let the others make up the date over the second Bank Holiday?

I can see the first howls from that suggestion coming from the teams involved in the World Series — a term that seems misused now that it only involves a couple of matches.

And maybe they would have a point — after all Wigan and Warrington are the two teams that earned the qualification to the event and it would seem harsh to punish them with an extra double header that other top-eight clubs won’t experience.

But I am afraid that goes with the territory — it is the same with cup success.

Looking at the whole build up around the World Series and it is clear that it has, after just two years, fallen from its original goals and ambitions.

It seems like the Australian clubs need to be put in a half-nelson to get them to come here so you do have to ask yourself what is the point of the expanded competition.

We should have a close look at what happens in the Warrington v Brisbane series game, on and off the field, and then make a call on what to do with it going forward.

Personally, it was nice to try it but even last year at Saints there appeared little enthusiasm beyond the main World Club Challenge.

It may be best all round if we went back to having it just between the champions again, an event that was working and still has a strong appeal.

The add-on, if anything, takes away from the main event rather than enhancing it.