At the weekend I played a bit of this year's Grand Final for someone who's a big RU supporter and not from this country (has very little awareness of League). This was in the middle of watching about 6 Heineken Cup Games on the impressive Sky red button coverage. He was blown away by the crowd (I told him it was typical
), atmosphere, skill level, speed and strength of the players, esp in the context of the Union games where the ball was hardly ever in play. He'd never heard of Sam Tomkins, but after 10 mins said 'that kid's a star'.
It just really hit home that we have such an amazing product and it's criminal the way the RFL have failed to market it effectively since such a great start to the SL era.
The WC should be the first stepping stone to do just that, but unfortunately I don't see anyone in place at the RFL with the skills to do it.