By BEN JAYCOCK
Staffordshire head coach Andy Appleyard believes the RFU are ‘stealing opportunities away from quality players’ due to the opening round of the County Championship being played on the same day as the Papa Johns final.
Divisions 2 and 3 of the county competition get underway on Saturday but due to yesterday’s Papa Johns semi-finals, which Staffordshire sides Leek and Stoke competed in, Appleyard, below, will be without both those side’s players after they progressed into next weekend’s Twickenham final.
Both Staffordshire and their opponents on Saturday, Cumbria, whose top dome...