Millions of people in England call [iThe Sun[/i a newspaper - whereas it's just a daily fun sheet. As others have pointed out, the people in the world who call it 'soccer' outnumber those who try to appropriate the term 'football' which also applies to several other ball sports, including rugby. Ever heard of our governing body, the Rugby [iFootball [/iLeague? You may also have come across the fact that many Aussies call RL '[ifooty[/i' - where do you think that comes from? You're the ones in the incorrect minority.

Wouldn't surprise me if he hasn't, with the way they market.

I get your view (not sure who you are referring to though as I don't frequent the NRL boards). But there's a certain irony that this thread accepts the sweeping generalisation that all public schoolboys are union-playing Illuminati out to impose Union on the people of Britain...

With League there is sort of a 'down-trodden exclusivity' which I think we actually all like. If the game was as popular as Soccer/Football or whatever you want to call it I'm not sure it would have the same appeal. Its like underground movements like Northern Soul, Mod, Rave, Punk (I wont go on), great when they have some exclusivity and then the real followers get swallowed up when it goes mainstream and appears on TOTP.

That's an interesting view. There does seem to be a bit of a fraternity. I'm always surprised that people will come up to me if I'm in my Wire shirt somewhere just to talk about RL (and oddly they mostly turn out to be Leythers).

I get that a lot too... Most of the time it's people wanting to talk RL but who don't follow any particular team themselves but do pay attention when they notice coverage on the TV and/or Radio.

The CEO and COO of my company were talking to me in the office kitchen yesterday (dress down day, wearing my wire "Johns" polo shirt), and were surprisingly knowledgable about RL and were also quite keen to talk about the '54 cup final replay and the crowd that day. Very bizarre conversation.

That's pretty good! I've got my Warrington 2009 Wembley scarf pinned above my desk and I'm surprised at how many people have spotted in and just wandered over (I work over in Calderdale, so there's no shortage of RL enthusiasts, which is good).

You're either doing missionary work, or we're a massive club



Can definitely see the point though. If I saw someone in a RL shirt on a train and especially on holiday etc then I certainly wouldn't hesitate in a passing comment about their team/RL in general. I remember the first time I went on a foreign holiday about 13-14 years ago and getting a load of comments about my Leigh shirt (funnily enough, a lot of those turned out to be Leythers as well!!). I've also lost count of the amount of times I've been in Wigan Asda when wearing a Leigh RL jacket and ending up being stopped by a random pie eater to have a chat about the sport.

edited

Haha! Always seems to be in the centre of Manchester as well!