This is not a negative about our Wigan cousins but that was bloody awful. I have tried to be positive about the game in London and have been to most of the away games played in the capital. That was not a team it was a selection if individuals going through the motions. The club is finished, and before any idiot comes on saying at least they made it to the semi think about the sport in a holistic way.

I'm not sure the London club is finished. I think the team they have at present is utter garbage - it has been utter garbage for three different coaches now so it must be the team rather than the coaching staff at fault here. Whether the club lasts in Superleague beyond the end of 2014 will IMO depend on whether there is the right staff in place to fund the sacking of pretty much all their senior players, who are an embarrassment to the club's shirt, and with the ability to astutely recruit replacements. They also need the chairman to wisely select their new home as their time at the Stoop has been a disaster for their image in the capital.

I just don't see what London bring to super league. They are poor team and everything about the club is poor. It's not worked IMO.

The only competitive London team was when they didn't have to obey the overseas rule and had 90% of their squad from Australia.

At least they will soon have to earn the right to be in super league when promotin/relegation comes back in.

London know they are finished. The players have probably already been told the club is folding.

London being in super league 2 might be better for the game there, they'll win a lot more games, which will attract more support and then perhaps with a development of the team they can gain promotion back to sl1

im sure I heard somewhere they spend/use all available cap as well if that's true im shocked there must be some average at best players on outrageous money down there.

I think today proved that London aren't good enough and haven't got a stable future in Super League, especially if they serve up that rubbish on a weekly basis, spending up to the salary cap.

The game was a disgrace played in front of a half empty stadium that isn't even that big. It was an embarrassment to Rugby league and it was broadcast on national TV. The final apart the cup has lost all its magic and seems to be just wedged into the season these days. I believe the cups have a place in British RL but the RFL need to have a proper look at it. As for London , well that is doomed IMO, in its current format at least.

The London experiment failed miserably a good 10 years now. If a SL team in London was ever going to be anything other than a pathetic embarrassment (and it's difficult to imagine how it'll ever be anything but now) with any interest from a fanbase at all then it would have happened in the late '90s early '00s when they were at the top of the league and reaching finals. Time to try and save RL in one of it's core areas by giving the SL place they're stealing to a real RL club now.

I'd much rather a Cumbrian team

Problem with that is no one Cumbrian team has the fan base to support a SL team. And a merger is not possible due to distances and it'd be like us and Wigan merging!

Whilst it's doing the image of the game no good to have a struggling London team, losing a SL presence in the capital would, IMO, be a huge backward step for the wider development of the game.

I don't want my sport to just be a regional afterthought in the media, and I have massive disdain for the type of parochial thinking that seems to yearn for a return the M62 corridor mentality.

If we do hark back to days of flatcaps & simpleton accents, we'll never develop as a sport.

So would I, Barrow and Whitehaven probably have average gates of 1500 to 2000 at the moment, we would expect that to double once into Superleague., and bigger gates when the top sides come to town
To allow expansion into Cumbria, the RFL would have to provide subsidy to allow whichever club to get up to a decent salary cap expenditure level.
The grass roots are already there...................... its a question does the game have the vision to wake a potential sleeping giant.

Indeed. The London franchise is a key one, without it I fear the Sky deal would collapse. There really would be nothing for them to pay money for. No one else wants the rights, so they could offer whatever they liked.

What London needs is support and money. The NRL did it in Australia with Melbourne, in an area which was strong with other sports and didn't have any interest in league. They invested in it, I think the NRL still owns part of the club. London here should be funded by the RFL and should be exempt from all the caps rules and overseas player rules.

I'm not sure how much more money then need. They have a wealthy owner who has poured loads of money into the team.

There is just no appetite for a RL club in that location. I've always thought that naming them 'London' was a bad idea.