We all know RL is a minority sport with small but hard core group of supporters. Its strength is in the club game - always has been always will be. The international game can only ever be a side show due to the lack of competitive countries.

If you look at RU its a bigger sport with a greater diversity of participating nations but for all that it is only dominant in four countries - three of which are tiny, NZ, Ireland and Wales. Everywhere it is a poor second/third to other sports. In the England/Scotland comparing its revenue streams to soccer is laughable, the same goes for France, Italy and Argentina. In Australia its a distant 4th to Rules, RL and Cricket.

The idea that RU is hugely powerful sport generating huge revenue streams simply doesn't stack up. Half the teams in the premiership are financially unstable same goes for the super 12s. Compared to other sports its a poor cousin with limited pulling power albeit significantly bigger than RL.

The difference in the two sports can be easily illustrated. The All Blacks are a brand a bit like the Harlem Globetrotters that transcend the sport - their interest is building the brand not enhancing the sport. Its like SOO - those guys must look at the All Blacks with envy - a global brand compared to made up local rivalry. Having been to both the atmosphere at a SOO game is muted and sterile the same can never be said of any All Blacks game.

guttersnipe loves to hijack good threads for the purpose of pursuing his own pathological obsessions, which are usually irrelevant to the original thread topic.

Fantastic series, unlike the pointless bickering, is there a sieve to filter out the onanistic point scoring?

Only a ban on the guttersnipe by the Mods.

Wish there was.
Back to the rugby...?The joy for me in Johnson's try (apologies if the spelling is wrong) was that he used the concept of "going around people" instead of just trying to steamroller his way over the opposition. This used to happen quite a lot, which gave our game a lot more variety and skill, I think.

Got any views on what happened on the pitch, gutters?

Thought the Kiwis were by far the better team, but failed to make their dominance count on the scoreboard, which nearly cost them. I think that on the showing over their 4 games they were by far the best team and I honestly think England AND Samoa were better than the Australians. Their lack of depth in the pack is a worry for them, but they now have 2 years and 6 "trial" matches to find some new bulk (not to mention the PI double headers they can scout from too )
Player of the tournament was SJ without a doubt. Although it's easier to look good behind a dominant pack, he coped with the late hits all game and punished the aussies in the best way. His kicking game throughout the tournament was spot on.
The Beast continues to impress me because often when he looks to have lost form he comes back and scores more tries. His decision to come in on that last play was what forced the "forward" pass.
Other stand out players were Proctor who had a great tournament and Jason Taumalolo is the best lose forward in the game at present.

I hope that the RLIF sort out the rules and the neutral referee scenario before 2016......whilst the aussie players were gracious in defeat and hung around after the game chatting with us fans, their "bosses" didn't do themselves or the game any favours.

Look at the sin bin - it used be a vibrant board with a breadth of differing views. That was until the mods allowed fellow mods to dominate every thread. In the end everyone got so hacked off they went elsewhere to get serious debate. As a result the board might as well be closed it gets one new thread a week!!

Some on here are concerned that you will do the same to the virtual terrace. We all know RU is a bigger better connected/represented sport the site doesn't need it rammed down its throat at every opportunity. London has always been doomed to failure again we don't need you tell us it could have been the next Melbourne - more chance of RL overtaking RU in NZ.

With some new material maybe you can have a positive impact on the debate.

Given that Gutterfax simply has to have the last word could I suggest that everyone lets him, ignores his last post and gets back to, what I thought was actually quite an interesting thread!

You're right, he's clearly as thick as pig ****

Best tournament in either code for many a year anyway and I really can't wait for next year's series. Venues are to be announced before Xmas apparently so that's 3 things i'll be asking santa for.
Hopefully they'll play a few warm ups against SL teams like the old days too but maybe that's asking for too much.