Quote: gutterfax "That old chestnut eh?
Post War, as in after the Vichy lovers have stripped RL of it's grounds, money etc, the French did OK...admittedly, they were on fire between 1936-1939 and weren't as dominant afterwards, but they did alright . They toured down under in 51 and then had enough money to buy a nice shiny new trophy 4 years later and managed to beat NZ and Australia on the way to losing in the Final. 14 years later they saw off the Kiwis and Great Britain before losing the final to Australia....chances are, most of the French Squad that day were children during the war....4 years later they beat the Aussies but missed out on the final by points difference alone...2 years later they were still better than the Kiwis...1975 was when they started to become pretty average, 30 years after the Vichy Government's despicable act. Since then they have still managed to turn over the other three founding RL nations now and then.....and do not get me wrong, I make no excuses for the travesty bestowed upon the game by the Nazis and their collaborator scum Vichy government, but RL in France is poop because it was badly managed through the 70's and 80's, not because of an act of barbarity some 70 years ago.....'"
OK, but the point I was making was that RL in France started small and grew, then regressed for whatever reason and is still here with us, weak or not. I was trying to make my point that fledgling international expansion is possible and that someday, a Serbia or Russia or really exciting to me, the USA, might just step up to become another bigger credible RL nation and that, to me, the fact that they are playing now, at whatever level, is good and not inconsequential as the poster suggested.
I don't know if there is a direct correlation or not but, it seems to me, that progress in expanding international RL, has rocketed since the RU ban was lifted and now both codes are professional a lot of the rugby apartheid which prevented us from expanding has been washed away and people worldwide are getting to see and play our game and liking what we are.
A successful world cup this year can only aid and abet this process via TV exposure or additional funding from any profits.
I think the title of this thread is not the whole truth. Yes, the power centres of the game are in two Australian states and the M62 but there is significant expansion in England and Wales and worldwide and we will see where it takes us going forward.
