Given that Leeds have also chosen to release Ratu and Gibson, it doesn't look like they're struggling to fill a shirt. They have a good young player in Watkins and (if I'm right) have imported a centre for next season?

offiah played for the dragons

This is only going to be a problem because of the mindset of pommy players.


For Poms, its about feeling important ahead of anything else.


Become good enough to go to a big club. Become good enough to be well known in the town you play for. Become good enough to be talked about in the paper.

Now, its about being important enough that you can go and play rugby union.

I think even Rugby Union in the UK gets these English League players and doesn't think much of them. I mean, your players are struggling to make the grade at club level....in rugby union....

So I don't think its about a challenge or going over and playing test matches, because the fact is the biggest test in English "Rugby" is trying to beat us in Rugby league.


Its about being important like Sean Long and Keith Senior and Andy Farrell and all of the players who were really important in their little towns in Northern England but who were nothing once they left.

..................and Jason Robinson of course - who withered into obscurity once he switched codes.

creamed

What about the rest of them?

2 of the biggest losses to union IMO are George Ford & Owen Farrell. There's no doubt IMO that both players would have been great League players, now they've turned to the dark side

Lets clear something up.....they are English....so no, they wouldn't have been great at League.

I really do think that Union in the UK is going to implode in the next 5 years… they have two massive hubs of support in Leicester and the West Country… Leeds and Bath (Leicester in particular getting 24k at home matches while they haven't scored a try all season!)

The rest are trying to run a £4.5 million salary cap on gates of 4 - 10k a week. Anybody running a business knows this is not sustainable and if the sugar daddies up and leave half the clubs would go under tomorrow

I know it isn't glamorous but let's keep running our sport prudently and keep spreading the word at the grass roots level and the strategy will pay off. Full marks to Richard Lewis for instilling this discipline

If we lose one or two Lee Smiths along the way, so be it

OK... I meant Gloucester not Leeds before it's mentioned (was thinking of Leeds as one of the unsustainable ones!)

Well said Dunbar

Considering it's arguably the second biggest sport in the country and let's not forget a global leviathan, some rugby union club attendances are awful at best.
The thing is that a lot of union clubs don't rely on gate receipts. A sizeable part of their income comes from sponsorship and corporate.

Really looking forward to post number 70.........I am sure it will be as much b0ll0x as this.
FFS......RU in the UK may well be unballanced, but to think that the RU establisment isn't worth 20+ times the RL one (financially) is just plain stupid
Get south, get watching and Get a grip!
Harlequins RU 12,750 sell outs every week (EXCEPT WHEN THE SOUTH STAND IS RUBBLE)
Saracens......40k at wembley, London Irish.......17k regulars....I could carry on, but what's the point....

Just to add to GutterFax

Didn't Quins have 50 - 60 000 at Xmas and something similar the other week at Twickers.

They have a big sponsor in Ethiad and even with Bloodgate have recently brought Samsung or similar on board. The average salary of the fans at Quins is 40k plus I think I read. 40-50 pound a ticket for the infamous Leinster game which was sold out.

Big contract with Sky-International rugby is huge

Im not sure they have that many problems