I've heard so bull in my time and a fair amount of it from you and your other accounts, but there's so much to unpack there it might take a whileAcross the north where RL is strong[/code
Hmm....er, OK.
14,500 fans rocked up to watch Hull City football side at the weekend. This is at the lower tier of the 2nd tier of the football pyramid, with City recently bouncing up. Up the road (you mentioned union, not I), Newcastle hosted Harlequins watched by a measly 6,000 fans, whilst Sale managed 7,500 (apparently)......28k fans over 3 games in the north including a lower tier football game...that's more than day 2 of the Premiere RL Magic weekend this year.....2 tiy union clubs and a recently promoted soccer team draw bigger crowds than the likes of Wigan...yeah......

You dragged union into this, I didn't, but whilst we're here......They will play a shed load of internationals this autumn to do little more than generate revenue and future revenues......show me the TV deal for The France England RL game and I'll maybe listen to your whining.......Ireland are apparently playing in Las Vegas......I doubt a local there Knows what Rugby is, but they'll play in a full stadium with a few million watching on TV.......miniscule in terms of college football, but between them ad the all black a week later, 100,000 fans will have paid to watch a game of union in America.....


Back on thread. Maybe a few purist RL schools in the north eed to have ther games broadcast on youtube/ourleague? Kids games of union are shown here in little old NZ and there's still only one game in town...

I would ask for proof but I know you dont deal in proof for your wild claims.

Yet the players can't be paid which is nothing short of a disgrace.

I don't know what sort of proof you are looking for but I can give you a direct example of this happening. When we moved to Leeds I went to a large comprehensive in East Leeds, with solidly working class children. Everyone who liked Rugby was a league fan but the deputy head was involved in Roundhegians RUFC and insisted that the school only play Union, both in games lessons and against other schools. I directly asked him why in a school of Rugby League fans we weren't allowed to play League and he said "because Rugby League doesn't teach children the right skills". It still sounds a big unhinged to me after all these years, but he clearly had strong ideological objections to Rugby League and managed to use his position to stop it being played. It happens.

https://www.leedsrhinosfoundation.org/b ... -in-leeds/ 21 High schools in Leeds took part. So can someone name the "many" high schools that only play Union?

https://www.leedsrhinosfoundation.org/b ... -in-leeds/ 21 High schools in Leeds took part. So can someone name the "many" high schools that only play Union?

I'm not calling you or anyone else a liar, but it is more often than not that such claims are anecdotal.

From here. rlhttps://www.yourschoolgames.com/taking-part/our-sports/rugby-league/rl

These 40,000 kids who in some way have been in contact with and played a form of rugby league are the target audience.


At London we'd bemoan the fact that the Kids who would play the mins tournaments before KO at the stoop would invariably bugger off before the main game, either dragging or being dragged away by their parents......but the issue was ours. We had been delivered 100 + kids + Parents etc and we did absolutely nothing to encourage them to stay.
If the kids were playing a minis tournament, I'd have fed them as the main match was kicking off and had prize presentations (with a prize for very team) at half time, on the pitch. We had small gates but still, 4,000 people applauding you on a pitch in a stadium is a pretty big thing for a kid....but nope, we let them slope off

When the NZ warriors play a game down here in the Capital, they are out at local clubs for the days before hand and visiting schools.....I know that when they played wests here a few years back every school they visited got 100 tickets to the game.....Vodafone were handing out flags and scarfs and every seat had a vodafone folding cushion/beer holder thing.......22,500 rocked up and the boost to the game down here was great. In the following weeks, the head of Wellington RFL ran RL courses at 25 Primary schools across the region....volunteers managed hundreds of kids and we havd loads of warriors freebies for them to take home.....it's not easy, it's not cheap, but with a lot of hard work it can be done.

Instead, your average RL marketing department will stick posts in the ground, announce it's a "wear white day" to their existing fans and wonder why they still only get their normal gate figures. Any new fan they do attract receives no follow up and are expected to have fallen in love with the game immediately....it's insanity.

The game isn't flush with cash, but it has a core of supporters who would gladly volunteer for their clubs.....and some do. I still chuckle when i remember the switchboard messages at Saints recorded by Johnny Vegas........and it's not all bad marketing....The Tomkins one with wigins was a fantastic advert, but more often than not, RL is not very good at promoting itself......it reall does need someone from outside the game

Your being deliberately "wound up" here to put it mildly

Across North Leeds schools played Union and fed into local RU clubs like Roundhay, Roundhegians, Yarnbury, Moortown, Old leodiensians, Old Modernians to name a good number. They all still exist

It was and it remains quite a situation where a big Rugby League giant like Leeds draws most of it's fanbase from an area that hardly played and largely still don't play any Rugby League in the schools, or amateur. Some of these schools were working class ones as well.

It's the same today, many schools across North Leeds still play union, players feed into the RU clubs because there are the facilities of clubhouses and quality pitches. Rugby League only really gets going in the centre of Leeds like East Leeds and Milford, and the south - Hunslet Warriors and Hunslet Parkside.

Union dominance is not confined to Leeds. Bradford Bulls are on the south side of Bradford, and you can find Rugby League at schools and amateur clubs there like Wibsey which has a great set up, Go north and we are back to Rugby League having very little presence as you travel up towards places like Baildon and Shipley..

Attempts to rectify this have largely failed across the north of Leeds and Bradford and this is the fragility of the game. If our top RL clubs cannot expand in their own back yards, and can't convert schools to League by going in there with top players carrying armfuls of trophies, then what chance do the likes of Coventry RLFC have where Wasps and Coventry RUFC rule the roost. This is why Coventry will be easily dropped by the clubs when they go to 2x10........

This is why when overenthusiastic and unrealistic fans talk "expansion" it's worth looking at where RL was strong at the point of breakaway, and look where it is strong now, and it ain't in London, Coventry, Wales or even Newcastle......Nor could they make it work in Gloucester or Oxford......Nor does it work in London either where ££Millioins has had to be pumped in to simply survive at the lowest level.

Parky.....you norvun monkey......we've missed you.

The 9s competition, maybe as a season opener sounds like something we must be developing.

The match day experience needs to improve at a lot of grounds, at Hull we have a new set of draconian rules where you can only bring in sealed water now. And the budget for any pre match entertainment went years ago. So you trudge in with only the pre match warmup to watch and have to pay inflated prices for food and drink.

Of course not every club is on our situation with a football club running the ground. As much as it pains me to say it Rovers are onto a good idea with their Craven Streat, makes the game a proper afternoon or evening out.