Quote: Him "Yep. I just don't see the point of taking big games like these to Scotland. There's no following or interest in the sport there of any note. It'd be a waste in my opinion. I think we have that little money and media exposure we need to focus it where it can do the most good and provide the biggest or best outlay. In my opinion a 10-15k crowd at Huddersfield is preferable to a 3-4K crowd at a small ground in Scotland. We have nothing to build on in Scotland. I firmly believe we have to focus on Wales & France at international level. Of course Scotland are rightly in this years comp but I'd rather the sport take the money from a bigger crowd at a venue in the heartlands rather than take it to Scotland. '"
But that's very short-termist thinking isn't it?
There's a very small interest in RL in Scotland - yes, but there always will be if we stick to this attitude. We've seen (dare I say it) how Union have worked to get Italy & Argentina competitive over the years, building from a regular international calendar with fixtures played in those countries against the bigger nations.
There's a Scottish national RL team. Yes, they're mainly full of English heritage players, but they're still representing Scotland and have earned their place in the 4 Nations (and had a fairly decent WC too). We should use this to the sports advantage to take it to new audiences.
IMO, the easy route would be to play the Scotland vs Aus/NZ games in England's RL heartland, in front of a few thousand English RL fans who are there to see the other side.
Or, do we take the two games to Scotland, in the two biggest Scottish cities, in decent stadia (I'm not talking Murrayfield or Hampden, but certainly not a stadium like Netherdale), in front of Scottish people.
If only 4-6k turn up, so what? Those people will most likely be new RL fans watching their first live game, some of who might be inspired to play themselves, tune in to the Sky games, become a coach, take their mates next time etc.
