Summer is nearly over.
St George and Souths are not "Top" NRL sides according to where they finished last year.

Souths and St George games were friendlies with plenty of youngsters given a run.
The Storms tearing a new bunger for Leeds was a more telling game.

But in a country like UAE how can you promote grassroots if doing so, puts your liberty and freedom at risk. Any other country and I'd agree but Karen has made a valid point.

Thank you for understanding where I was coming from. Not sure how simply pointing out the difficulties RL has suffered over there is 'banging on' but hey ho.

I do agree that RU at grass roots level is far superior and after working at the U20s RUWC in 2016, it's clear to see that the RU supports all ages very well. We could definitely learn a lot from them.

By working within that country's rules and regulations. It makes no odds whether we agree with or morally object to the rules and regulations in a foreign nation, if we want to be there then we need to adhere to their laws.

And their rules and regulations state that RL is not a separate sport so you tell me how you'd promote it at grassroots level without the risk of a prison sentence?

Easy. Firstly you establish a competition that doesn't 100% rely on Union players, Union Kit and Union pitches being used. You do this with the express written permission of the governing body, none of which the Mokdad competition did. He himself played Union nearly every week he was in the UEA........the flawed governance is something that can be "worked within" to start....once the game grows then the RLIF can begin discussions with the governing body to establish a separate body for governing RL.........just because we think it's unfair doesn't mean the UAE agree with us....things over there dance to their tune and not ours.
The fact that a mistranslated media piece caused this is a perfect example of the importance of dotting "i's" and crossing "t's" in that part of the world, where as Mokdad himself has said that he shared a cell with someone charged with breaking wind in an elevator.......There is a terrific Irony in that we slag off the vichy in South Africa but somehow want to do business with a nation that charges you for farting?