By Ray French BBC Sport rugby league commentator

At the risk of incurring the wrath of several figures in rugby league, let me say loud and clear that the game in this country needs another domestic cup competition.

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This is in contrast to the feelings of both St Helens' and Great Britain's coaches, Ian Millward and David Waite, who seek less club fixtures to allow for domestic and international demands on players.

On Saturday, Murrayfield will be packed for the Challenge Cup final between St Helens and Wigan in the code's most prestigious tournament - now one of only two pieces of silverware available to clubs in a long, nine-month season.

Not enough!

In soccer, rugby union and cricket there are four or five trophies in a season, which provide variety and maintain interest for the fans throughout the year.

In the fifties, sixties, and seventies, league supported as many as half a dozen tournaments in a season.

These included the Championship, the Challenge Cup, the County Leagues and Cups, the Western/Eastern trophy and the BBC TV Floodlit trophy.

All of which excited its supporters and attracted the media and the sponsors' interest.

Not so today.

Fans need more to look forward to

After an early exit from the Challenge Cup, the Super League season is effectively over for at least four sides left to fight relegation to the Northern Ford Premiership (NFP).

What is there left over the following six months to appeal to their fans?

Two trophies per season are not enough to satisfy the demands of our leading half dozen clubs and their coaches.

Meanwhile, the lesser clubs need to have their hopes recharged at regular intervals.

We should follow rugby union's lead and introduce another competition with a European dimension like the Heineken Cup - a tournament based on a mini league format before a knockout system.

Attendances tend to dip in July and August when the schools break up, so why not suspend the Super League for five weeks and introduce a European League Cup with a final in the opening week of August?

Let me suggest a formula.

To reward excellence in the opening rounds of the Super League and the NFP, I would dispense with a random draw to favour the progress of the leading teams and the cash flow of struggling clubs.

Using the latest available league tables (as at 21 April 2002) the clubs would be placed in four mini leagues as follows:-

League One:
Bradford, Warrington, Huddersfield, Villeneuve.

League Two:
Leeds, Whitehaven, Salford, Toulouse.

League Three:
St Helens, Hull, Wigan, Widnes.

League Four:
London, Castleford, Halifax, Wakefield.

Bradford and Leeds would, by virtue of leading Super League after round seven, be placed with the top two teams in the NFP and the two leading French clubs.

To attract crowds and develop the profile at the weaker clubs the two Super league outfits would be required to play two of their fixtures away from home.

The other mini league groupings would be strictly according to placings in the Super League and would provide for keen competition.

There should be more for players to aim for

After three successive weeks of competition the following two weekends would be given over to two semi-finals and a final involving the four leaders of the mini leagues.

Super League clubs could then put an end to the crazy system which demands that they play some clubs twice in a season while playing others three times.

And by having the league programme based on a fairer home and away format, the introduction of a new cup competition would mean that even the winners would play one less game than they do now.

Over to you, league bosses.

And messrs Millward and Waite!