Are there any Loiners on this forum rather than [irah rah's[/i ?

Come on you loiners sort these buggers out !

You would not be getting this 'Yawnion' rubbish on the Wigan board.

A wonderful example of the sort of blind, foolish, chip-on-shoulder denialism that will see the death of professional rugby league within the next ten years.

A prime example in two sentences "You do know what spectators look like ? You know, something that 'Yawnion' does not get, apart from Internationals.", take a look at and compare some stats from Superleague and the Aviva Premiership, then come back and tell us what you find.

I think your in some sort of Life on Mars situation. Wake up man, the year is 2013.

I'd like to be that there are not that many miners or steelworkers watching RL full stop. Mainly because those industries have almost gone and, not by coincidence, so have most of the prejudices you seem to be carrying around.

Now, I'm no RU fan, in fact on the contrary but, you can't help but, be impressed by the organisation, crowds and sense of occassion they have managed to generate around their games. Furthermore, to suggest that there athletes are vastly inferior to RL players is rediculous. It is a very different game which requires different skill sets.

I forgot to mention, if you honestly think that Dave Heron was a poor player, you don't know a great deal about the game you profess to be defending with one eyed malice!

There is one very good reason why they manage to do this, and I agree with an earlier poster who mentioned Beatmax/VHS and it not always being the best format that gains the most publicity - the RFU achieve all fo this because they control every aspect of the game package, from England RU and owning their own international quality stadium, right down to the under-eights that play tag rugby at your local club, they administer at every level and they do the job bloody well by using professionals at each job function (and they aren't afraid to go shopping to find the best, as RL has seen all too well).

Now compare each of those levels to how it works in Rugby League...

I see your point and have to completely agree. In the time that I have been involved in RL, which is not an insignificant period, "the powers that be" have spent their time arguing amongst themselves, serving self interest and demonstrating the kind of myopia found only in subterranean species. That would be bad enough but, when they have managed to attempt to implement strategies for expandinmg the game, they have demonstrated a level of ineptitude normally only found in the most shambolic of state run organisations.

I think you may be right and that the professional game in this country is likely to disappear within the forseeable future. That would be tragedy but, one that I fear is unavoidable.

Whatever one thinks about the the merits of either game, the harsh fact is professional rugby league is a parochial game played mostly along the m62 corridor . The rugby league have failed in establishing the professional games n London on a sound footing. The Catalan set-up looks at first glance successful but only time will tell. Union is still the main game in France. What is a concern at the moment is the financial status of some of our clubs.
With the Aussie lift of the salary cap and the union brigade eying some of our star players things are not looking good.
I notice some of the Wigan support are nervous about Tompkins joining union, no smoke without fire springs to mind.

Correction, this is now the most ill-informed, innacurate post I've read on these boards in some time.

Leave the personal insults back on the Wigan board as well.

There should be no room on this board for anti-Heron sentiment and that includes Wayne.

That winning try at Naughton Park secures his legacy.

1) You think internationals are the only places RU is drawing a crowd? Other people have suggested comparing the numbers form the two leagues. But when you've done that, have a look at the stats and also some footage from the games Harlequins and Saracens have played at Twickenham and Wembley recently. You don't have to be a fan of RU to see that we might be able to learn something. I was working a lot in London for the last few years (thankfully it's a rare visit for me now) and you couldn't arrive at a station anywhere south of Watford without seeing glitzy marketing for thos games. 60-70k people for regular season league games tells you how successful it was. Compare and contrast with the Magic Weekend. I was also working in Manchester the week before last year's and you honestly wouldn't have known RL existed.

2) The fact that Gloucester's traditional industry is different doesn't make the fans upper class. What exactly do you think the working class people there watch? I go drinking around Hinckley from time to time, heart of Leicester Tigers country, and I promise the game is being watched by very non-upper class people.


I think RL is a hugely superior sport to RU (subjective opinion) but that doesn't mean I automatically think the code does everything better.

Off the field, we're lightyears behind at the moment. None of the Union fans I know (and living in the Midlands it's quite a lot, despite not moving in the polo set) are finding much to enjoy in the 5 minutes-a-pop IRB scrum lottery at the moment. Yet 74,000 people packed into that stadium, as well as drawing big crowds to relatively menaingless fixtures in Paris and Rome. If RL feels we have nothing to learn from that I give up.

We can all wander round with a collective chip on our shoulders and mutter about public school dominated media and "kick and clap", we may even have a point to a degree, but that isn't moving anybody forward. There's more to it than that and RL needs to stop feeling sorry for itself, get the chip off its shoulder and start competing better off the field. Starting with the fans, becasue frankly if we had the most innovative and brilliant marketing strategists in the world working in Red Hall a disturbing percentage of RL fans would turn their noses up at what they came up with because they don't like change.

Well said El D.

Exactly,you get banned on there for less than that if your not Wigan

Just another observation about Saturday. The RBS sponsored 6 nations was also sponsored by IMB and BMW.

Switch over to Super League and the man of the match stood proudly in front of an advertising board featuring Foxy Bingo, Irn Bru and Big Soup.

No, we have nothing to learn from Union........

Through my dealings with the RFL, they seem incompetant at almost every aspect of running the game. If RL was run by the RFU, the game would be massive.

In terms of the games, I really can't be that bothered with watching the thing. On Saturday I was watching it with the Outlaws boys, but actually preferred to wash up than sit through it. Having said that, at an amateur level its a good game, and I play most weekends over the winter.

I agree with ElDiablo, in that in the Midlands, RU is not an upper class game. If you've ever played at Melton or Ashfield you'd know that.

At Outlaws we are trying to build bridges between ourselves and the local RU clubs, as its a relationship that can work both ways, and most clubs have got a few lads who'd like to give RL a try. Unfortunately, we are not helped by the RFL, and much of this is done off our own backs, and when they struggle with creating balanced fixtures for a 6 team league, then you know you're in trouble.

If Shaun McRae invented the 'knock-on-athon' I think you can now be credited with the 'excuse-athon'




That I doubt.

Happy for RFL to be well run but I fear it will always be viewed as one of the minority sports in this country offering a minority commercial appeal. The game would be best served if they accepted that basic truth and concentrate on making the best of what we have got rather than wildly imagining it will ever be massive in this hemisphere.