what a daft, argument inticing thread.................i dont care personally what colour, race, religion any player is as long as he's picked on his ability - thats the whole idea of sport isnt it ?

Are you kidding me? League is still a non-entity in London. There has been no plausible progress. The growth of league in london, or better described the lack of it, has been embarrassing

If RL has made inroads in London where are all the freak black athletes? Still playing football, still boxing, because nobody in london cares or even knows about rugby league

why does the number of black people playing the game become a yardstick for how popular it is in a certain area ? maybe , just maybe there are BETTER white players there ??

you've missed the point. Nobody is calling for anybody to be picked or played on anything other than ability. what i've said is that black people are inherently more athletic and better suited to a sport like league than white people

that's not opinion, that's fact. so it's a great shame that league in britain is still a predominately white sport, because it means that most of the better athletes in the country are not exposed to the game, that's a travesty

i can't believe how many insular people there are on this forum who are pretending this isn't problematic. The bulk of the best athletes in this country don't know our game exists. How is that not an issue for league in this country?

it's typical of Britain, lets just brush every race-related topic under the carpet and pretend it's not there.

obviously there are better white players, but only because british league is still a white sport. if, like in australia or new zealand, league was a sport played by all, then at least half the team would be African/Caribbean

I feel like i'm in the 1950's arguing with a bunch of people who think europeans are equal to west africans in the 100m track.

Are you all so stupid that you can't see what i'm getting at, or are you just insecure people who can't accept africans are superior athletes for a sport like league?

You're a fool, and how you can say the development of RL in London is embarrasing is foolish, what are you basing this on? Broncos attendences? As thousands are now playing RL in London, you are a fool for thinking otherwise.
This whole topic is stupid, of course most of the players are going to white, RL is mainly played in the north, where the majority race is White, it's only logical for the majority of players would be the race that is in the majority of where the sport is played.

i think your insinuating that RL should have more black players......that there is not enough black players in the game and that black players should be more widely recognised in the sport of RL because they are 'better athletes' than white men .
so if they are so superior as you put it and you dont think there is enough in the game what exactly is it your trying to make a point about ?

In the OP it was mentioned because of performance, but they are plenty of black players who can't make the England squad at the moment because there are better players in there place.

The reason black Americans are often so big and powerful is because they were bred that way by the slave owners. Not sure if the same applies with Blacks in the UK due to the British Empire outlawing slavery much earlier than in the USA. Don't quote me on this part though, I could be wrong.

Quite a frustrating thread but I don’t think the OP has made a particularly controversial point. In my time watching Rugby League, some of the best athletes and players have been black... Hanley, Offiah, Robinson etc

The other valid point is that in Australia and New Zealand, the best athletes are attracted to Rugby (both codes) whereas in England a talented athlete has many other (more lucrative) options, not least football and all the potential riches there

The NFL analogy is a fair one – the last decades have seen African Americans dominate the league and is completely unrecognisable from the 1950’s and earlier

All this does is answer the “would lack players be good at League” question though, it doesn’t address whether our sport in inclusive or not. I firmly believe that it is and we have proud history of leading the way in being so (first black national captain, first black national coach etc)

The unfortunate part about the whole thread is that calling it “is British league too white?” and setting up a poll, a reasonable discussion is immediately wrapped up in a antagonistic style

"Thousands"... in an area that holds 8 million, am I supposed to be impressed? I bet thousands of people in london play ice hockey, it's such a minor number and evidence of failure, not success

And no its not logical that if the majority of an area are white it follows that the majority of the players will be. That's not logical at all, that's only logical if you think every race has equal athleticism

30% of the NRL is Polynesian, is 30% of Australia polynesian? No.

Not "recognised", because "recognised" in that context would mean i think current black players better than they are, but I don't. We're picking teams based on the best available, and long may that continue.

But what i'm saying is that if RL in England wants to be taken seriously as a sport, and if English League wants to be as high quality as down under, we MUST make a conscious effort to move into non-white areas and grow the game

How will we ever compete with Australia fielding an all white team? How is SL ever going to be to the standard of the NRL with the 2nd tier athletes we have now? it's laughable. and it's going to get even more laughable down the line

its not my opinion that african britons are better athletically equipped for league, its an indisputable fact. so once we've established that why wouldn't we want to better the spectacle and try to improve the number of black participants?

I didn't mean to be antagonistic, though probably I am. But I think the question in itself isn't necessarily untoward or controversial. I tried to best explain what I meant, and even added a humorous poll option to not be that.

I can see why it would be seen that way, but if i meant to be antagonistic I could have made a racier thread title

And i better straighten it out. League IS an inclusive sport and as you mention we've led the way. It's a working class game and nobody gives a what colour you are. If you can play you can play. I'm very proud of the game in that regard, and for me it's a trademark of working class northerners to have that mentality. At the same time though i do think it a shame that many great black athletes aren't playing or aware of league

maybe i should have taken more time wording my posts

Have you seen the England squad? It's not all white. Then you have the likes of Ellis who's more than capable playing regulary down in Australia.

I think you are wrong. The whole African Americans being bred in such a way is another case of american exceptionalism in my opinion

African Americans aren't necessarily any bigger or stronger than black britons or black french or anyone else. They happen to have an extremely impressive athletic system, not to mention a monstrous population, that's about it though

i'm not a scientist, but i don't think that's right, even though i've heard it a lot