Would you think the same would be true of union clubs in their heartlands (or more accurately non RL heartlands)?

If when making meeting small talk round the country I find I'm in conversation with RU folk its a pretty mixed response. Some watch a bit on Sky and have plenty of admiration for the game but there are also plenty who are at best dismissive.

The facts speak for themselves

Leeds Yawnions have now played 240 minutes of rugby

and scored 2 tries

In any mans book thats one try every 120 minutes,

Kick & clap rugby - period

Don't think Brian Moore is as bad as the others.
Stephen Jones would rather die than praise league.
Stuart Barnes on Sky is nearly as bad.Watch a game including an ex league player and even if he scored a 90 metre try he would still have a snide comment to make.I think it goes back to the days when he played in the Bath team that Wigan crucified.

I started coaching mini's this year at our local club as my boy plays, and the local rugby club is a great place for kids. It's safe, well managed and we keep it fun (but as I told the lads last week - "the Fruit Shoot tastes better after a win"icon_wink.gif. There are all sorts of people at the club, a complete cross section of society.
Wednseday night London Irish have invited all local coaches (they have a partnership with us and many other small clubs as part of their community commitments) for a free coaching session.
They work really hard on this and have at least one festival we will play in this year - it's good marketing - half the kids came back last year with London Irish shirts and their parents came back with tickets for the St Patricks day game.

I guess there will always be a cross section of any bunch of people who will dislike or like a sport. I can't blame anyone for not liking league (my wife can't watch it). It's personal preference. I played Union for a long time and I understand it, amybe that means I can appreciate scrummaging, contact skills, rucking technique etc. It always used to annoy me when people who knew nothing about league would stereotype the game, sometimes I feel the same about people who do the same with Union. And as for boring games? Well, I've seen enough League games to forget.

Alas, Barnes was not in the Bath team crucified by Wigan, more's the pity.

As for watching that bloody game - if it was on in my back garden I'd close the curtains.

I thought Stuart Barnes was in the studio with Eddie & Stevo then as he'd retired?

Memory must be playing tricks.
Maybe it goes back then to the fact he could not bear seeing his Bath team beaten.

Could be mine...but I thought I could remember he and Stevo having a thinly veilled debate before the game.

Barnes retired May '94 and the cross code challenge matches were May '96.

The RU are great at getting positive spin. The London double header and the Sarries game all let in people cheap and have boosted the attendance figures, the media can then say crowds are on the up without looking into the background.
Ignoring the three subsidised mathches the only big increase has been at Leicester for the opening of their new stand,and only three other matches of the eighteen matches so far played, have exceeded last years attendances.

So of the [inormal[/i games, there have been reductions in the attendances in eleven matches. out of eighteen. Not mentioned in the media.

And therein lies the skill of the RFU and the clubs themselves. Whilst us RL fans are screaming 'freebies' at the TV, the news media are talking of the huge strides the club game is making.
Yes, they're giving away freebies but, I suspect, by doing so they're attracting a proportion of those people to pay to attend games in the future and attracting sponsorship (a sponsor with a billboard in a stadium with 50k people in it won't care if they paid to be there or not I'd imagine).
We have by far and away the superior sport in terms of spectacle yet couldn't organise a you know what in a you know where!

And a couple of crates of Chardonnay I imagine.

Comfortably outscoring Leicester in the process.

As I recall, Stevo got stuck into Stuart Barnes about the previous 100 years history between the codes. Barnes was caught completely off guard, and his only response was to say "Don't blame me, I'm just a simple West Country boy !"