That’s the scary thing about professional RL in this country. It is the sports Pay Masters that will decide if or when RL will die on its ar[size=100s[/sizee. If they pull the plug then, although the sport will survive, it won’t have the cash to keep its best players and we’ll be back to those semi amateur days where your post match chats with the players will be more about negotiating the price of a new patio than how the game went.

Which is exactly what will happen, almost instantly, if we give up on the likes of Crusaders and Quins.

Quins may be a necessary evil to appease our Pay Masters by having a presence in our capital but Celtic was a total ‘none-starter’ from the offing.

It’s another failed experiment that will inevitably simply serve to embarrass our sport further.

Sponsorship cash = performing monkeys? Maybe a bit too far but would I rather watch top class RL that has to constantly suffer humiliation or semi-pro, parochial, low attendance RL?

Honestly…??? I’d have to think about it.

I don't even care anymore. We've fought this long enough. If we're going to continue trying ot expand and failing then it's probably time to merge the two games and play a hybrid version (which of course would ultimately be closer to RL).

It's a shame but I do think what you propose is inevitable. It will take longer thanks only to the NRL continued success.
It makes me laugh how much the media is raving about England's performance in th RU international last Saturday. It was pretty good for RU match but one try from a pass after being tackled to the ground and another we see all time in RL were hardly worth so much hysteria.
However RU has that greater dominance certainly at the prestigious international level and that won't change. The irony of the mediocre or more mature ex RL players making it "big" in the high profile England and NZ RU sides is not insignificant.
In another 100 years our descendents will be praising the sport's governing body for the bold and dramatic move of reducing the total number on the field to just 13 whilst increasing the difference in scoring for a try. The little provincial game played in the old working class regions of the Northern mill towns will be long forgotten.

This is what Sky has wanted all along.
Beware Greeks bearing gifts.

This talk of rugby outside the heartlands not being successful....what about the Scorpions and Crusaders and the number of players generated for the Wales team.....you know the team that are European champions two years on the bounce.

I understand that there are a fair share of conversions from other countries, but what about players who have come across from union? these can only boost the pool of players and go on to promote the game all over Wales. Again, I know some will say that they are the ones not good enough for big union careers, but that is not necessarily the case.

I would think that a creditable interntional game is important to League and the current set up of four nations in different hemispheres, the European cup and so on is a better way to promote internationals....isn't it?

I think people think that success will happen overnight. I think the Welsh experiment has been rushed, and the club didn't have the infrastructure in place to cope, but I think that the long term view should prevail, and we should persist with them.

You've done an awful lot of thinking on this. At least that's what I think, do you think I'm correct?

Seems to be producing results, both Wales and non-heartlands English www.midlandsrugbyleague.co.uk/ar ... gland.html Matt Meek, Harlequins U18 & U20 loose forward, and Wales player here, is a Northampton RL product.

Seems to be producing results, both Wales and non-heartlands English www.midlandsrugbyleague.co.uk/ar ... gland.html Matt Meek, Harlequins U18 & U20 loose forward, and Wales player here, is a Northampton RL product.

If we gave up trying to expand the game, then it's only a matter of time until Full Time Pro RL in the UK is dead. What we do need to do is take a mid to long term view (5-20 years) and plan accordingly.

The very fact that RL is played in South Wales and the Midlands now is testimony to the fact that we have a very exciting sport to both watch and play. It would be one hell of a shame to just pack up and go home....

I agree with both Richie & Batley. Rugby outside of the heartlands is in a very good state, with great setups in Coventry, Northampton, Birmingham and Nottingham. Ok, so none of these would be ready for SL in the next 5 years, but clubs putting out 3 mens teams on a weekend is a pretty decent state of affairs.

Having said that, some of the above clubs could do a hell of a lot with the amount of money undoubtedly spend on Crusaders