So here we are a little over 2 days from the Challenge Cup Final, one of the oldest and most famous sporting competitions in the world, played at the countries National stadium, likely to be the highest attended sporting event in the Northern Hemisphere if not the world over this coming weekend and what have BBC Sport had as their headline story for Rugby League for the last 4 consecutive days! www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/ Richie Mathers Six Month Ban

So here we are a little over 2 days from the Challenge Cup Final, one of the oldest and most famous sporting competitions in the world, played at the countries National stadium, likely to be the highest attended sporting event in the Northern Hemisphere if not the world over this coming weekend and what have BBC Sport had as their headline story for Rugby League for the last 4 consecutive days! www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/ Richie Mathers Six Month Ban

Because the majority of people outside of Rugby League supporters couldn't care less about our game and the sooner the RFL realise this the better.

Apart from the millions of people that will probs tune in to watch. But nobody else cares. Yep, your right.

The vast majority couldn't care less about (say) women's football, but it doesn't stop it getting more and better coverage than league.

(Not that I'm knocking women's football which is certainly a Good Thing)

Yeah, the BBC hate RL so much that it pays out a lot of licence-payers money to show the Challenge Cup

Next you'll be saying the F.A hate RL even though it rents out it's national stadium to RL

So when the RFL "realise this", why does this make it better?

Explain...

RL fans in "paranoid as hell" shocker.

5 Live are running an hour special at 9pm tomorrow about the 120th anniversary of Rugby League, also with a preview of the CC Final. The game is being broadcast live on BBC, and on radio via 5 Live Sports Extra (5 Live have got commentary on those rentboys Chelsea).

Get the decent coverage & build up whilst you can folks, because in 2-3 years time, you'll have to listen to Eddie, Stevo, Stuart Cummings, Phil Clarke, Barry & Terry when Sky get the FULL rights to the Challenge Cup.

So the Mathers non story is a bigger news than the Challenge a Cup final is it?

If not then why run the Mathers story for 4 full days just ahead of the Wenbley final.

That's not paranoid fella that's a fact and it's not isolated is it?

I don't think it's a case of being 'paranoid as hell' at all.

Not too many people are complaining about the Beeb's coverage of, say, the CCF itself, which is fine, in my view (and certainly a big improvement on those clowns at Sky). It's the general importance with which the sport is treated, as evidenced by the BBC sport website concentrating on Mathers. Compare and contrast the attitude to, say, the last RLWC with the ridiculously over-hyped Six Nations, where taking an interest is virtually treated as a patriotic necessity for even the casual viewer.

All that said, I agree with you that the RFL would be crazy to allow the CC to go to Sky.

A player getting suspended over an alleged betting scandal isn't a 'non story'.

As to why it has been the lead story for four days, what has the sport done to generate newsworthy headlines? We've had a few press releases about ticket sales (and one could argue that a showpiece event should be sold out well before three days before a final) and we've had a press event for the final at Doncaster Racecourse (Doncaster, of course, being a renowned as a major national media hub) where players trot out the same platitudes and cliches year after year.

Believe it or not, the BBC is not Rugby League's PR agency. The fact that the Mathers story is still the lead article is a failure of all clubs (but particularly this week Hull KR and Leeds) and the RFL to actually provide the media with anything worth talking about.

They HAVE let the CC go to Sky. But that's the RFL for you. Sky probably just plucked a figure out of the air and the RFL have gone "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah".

Being back in the country since 5 years ago I was amazed the total lack of RL covg in the Nationals. It's literally one small paragraph most days. Not sure what the RL can do about it but geez it is pretty sad to see.

So a tournament played in 6 European countries in front of over a million spectators and being watched by upto 10 million viewers per game (check the BARB figures for Wales v England this year) is 'ridiculously over-hyped'? You are right, it's because the 6N is such a small tournament compared with the Challenge Cup A section of RL fans bleat continuously because RU gets more coverage, here's some news for you: it is a bigger sport geographically and financially so will get more coverage (including from the BBC), just as soccer gets more coverage than RU. The only difference is RU fans don't bellyache about it continuously.