Cornwall prepare for rugby league’s longest-ever road trip to Workington Town

This weekend a rugby league record will be broken as Cornwall make the 926-mile round-trip to Workington Town for a clash in League One.

“Being from Newcastle it is a bit out of the way, but I knew Cornwall was the next level for that,” says new Cornwall signing David Weetman.

A former Workington Town player he knows Cornwall’s destination of Derwent Park well, but his second away trip with the Choughs will be the longest anyone has done at around 11 or 12 hours in a bus.

Cornwall entered the league last season and are one of four sides from outside rugby league’s Yorkshire and Lancashire heartlands in the division alongside London Skolars, Midlands Hurricanes and North Wales Crusaders.

“For rugby league in general we need to start getting used to having a few more further places to travel to because it’s no good just having the sport in one area and keeping it there,” Weetman tells BBC Sport.

“For me expansion is only going to work if you start going out of your comfort zone and we go to other places where rugby league isn’t traditionally played.”

The effects of a long bus journey

But growing out of the heartlands – all of Super League’s sides are within a couple of hours of each other along the M62 – means new frontiers and long journeys, especially to clubs like Cornwall, which are 105 miles from the end of the nearest motorway.

So how do you get yourself ready to play a game of professional sport after hours sat on a bus?

“You have to make sure you’re hydrated, because you can get dehydrated on there, and try and relieve some of the boredom of the journey,” says Plymouth Argyle’s physio Gareth Law.

The Pilgrims have the longest set of away trips in English football and Law, who has also been physio at Devon clubs Exeter City and Torquay United, is no stranger to hours on a bus every other week.

“If you’re ready for an eight-hour journey then bizarrely if you’re on time it actually goes quite quickly,” he explains.

“But if you’re prepared for a four-hour journey and it takes eight hours then you can get a bit stressed and you can’t wait to get off.”

So what about the physical risks associated with long trips before matches?

“We find we do get a few piriformis or neural hamstring pains, that tightening up in the glutes,” says Law.

“You can often get tight hip flexors from being sat in a seated position and they shorten, so we do a lot of stretching of the hip flexors when we get there.

“You also get a lot of upper back pain, so you can imagine that arms reaching around or playing on video games or cards and they’re stretching the upper back for six hours or so, so they’re going to get upper back pain as well.

“We also tend to find that we get general mental fatigue because the body’s always engaged because the coach is swaying and you’re turning corners and you’re always on the move, so the body has to stay engaged to keep your posture upright.”

Comfortable seats and Xbox

Keeping entertained is also key – an eight-hour journey can feel twice as long if you are bored – and it is something the Cornwall players have got down to a fine art.

“You can have a couple of hours doing something and a couple of hours doing whatever else,” says Weetman.

“The bus we’ve got is great, it’s got the tables and charging cables and comfortable seats and all the lads are great.

“We managed to bring on a TV with an Xbox set up to it, so we had a bit if a Fifa tournament going. I’m not sure if we’ll be doing round two of that on the way to Workington.”

Cornwall’s head of communications Gareth Davies is the only person to have been on all the club’s away trips since they began playing in the third tier in 2022.

“I now know my service stations like the back of my hand,” he jokes after countless hours on the M5 and M6 in particular.

“But it is very beneficial. Some people might say it’s detrimental, but it’s not because players get to know each other, they get to bond, they get to talk about tactics and things like that, so it’s a chance for preparation.

“Yes, we’d rather not do it, we’d rather be playing teams on our doorstep, but we make best use of the situation and the hand we’re dealt with.”

Every Cornwall away game this season will involve an overnight stay – the club have previously done team runs at places such as Leeds Rhinos. The logistics of getting a team and all their support staff and associated kit up and down the country safely are an ongoing challenge.

“There’s things like what we eat when we’re there – for 13:00 kicks offs the players have their breakfast but won’t want any lunch – for a 15:00 game we have to factor in a pre-match meal and things like that.

“There’s many pieces to the jigsaw that we all have to fit together nicely to make sure these things work, and touch wood so far it’s been alright, I think the bus has only broken down once.”

So, a 926-mile round trip for this season, but next season there might well be a trip that is even longer with Newcastle Thunder (a 952-mile round-trip) bottom of the Championship, while Barrow Raiders (950 miles) are third from bottom… best brush up on your Xbox skills or buy a good book.