REgarding ticket sales thread. It was started in JUNE.

Of course it's going to have a lot of posts. Any thread about team selection in June would have been lost amidst the threads on SL matters.

There are 2 threads relating to the first match about aussie team selection and about the first try scorer. But in the end the real talking will start when the games kick off.

We can't really talk about team selection before seeing the team play. Only 4k saw the debarcle at the Italy game, and I think only 3 players got an honourable mention that day.

99% of people in this country aren't even aware that there is a RL World Cup going on... Now that's something we need to be worrying about.

I'm not looking forward to this tournament.... International RL is farcical... RL is my number one sport by a country mile, and if I can't buy into it... how on earth is the rest of the country going to.

With friends like these eh ?

Think of this when you think about rugby league: use it or lose it.

If the rah-rahs can turn out en-masse for meaningless internationals why can't we ? Get behind the cause and we can make the game stronger together.

I'd be willing to put a bet on that percentage.

So your saying less than seven hundred thousand people know that the WC is on?????


There is no way to prove it but given that it's been on lots of ads on the Beeb. I think a fair few million know about it.

Shooting yourself in both feet is a valid point. Firstly the embarrasing Italy defeat followed by news about Hock (which in my view would have been better dealt with privately) and then the soap opera of 6 clubs walking out of a RFL meeting. You couldn't make it up days before what should be a great opportunity to promote the sport positively in the UK. I hate to say it but this wouldn't happen in Rugby Union, especially before a World Cup..

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

There was plenty of scandal ahead of the Lions tour of Australia earlier in the year.

Listening to what Pearson said and reading in between the lines a bit I would assume the following:

The RFL want 3 leagues of 8 and the clubs are pretty much split 50/50 between that and 1 up 1 down. With 3 clubs not represented the RFL/ GH thought it would be a good moment to vote, thinking it would swing it in their favour (which tells me Saints and possibly Bradford are in favour of one up one down). The 6 clubs thought this was, in Pearsons words, "a bit naughty," hence the walkout.

I'm serious Wigg'n people need to stop being so self ed and think of the game as a whole rather than themselves, their own club or protecting their own reputations. RL people need to adopt a radical new approach of promoting the game first rather than thinking of number one all the time and trying to save face or gain one upmanship. For instance the reaction of some people on RL fans if a club is in financial difficulties or goes into admin is celebrated.

careful buddy...you'll have Speccy and the "vast majority" of posters asking the mods to ban you for posts like that....You're not allowed be critical of the sport...it's about hidden agendas and objectives apparently

But do you not think that's what the 6 clubs are trying to do?

We all wear rose tinted glasses when it comes to our clubs, but as someone who has listened to just about every Adam Pearson interview and press release since he bought Hull I genuinely believe that he has the game at heart and wants to do right by the game as a whole. At the forum tonight he talked very positively about the World Cup and the benefits it can bring to the sport, and he also spoke positively about the game as a whole and said how the trouble we are in is very easily rectifiable. However there needs to be some changes made and the clubs have to stick up for themselves and push for better tv deals, sponsorship deals etc.

Walking out might not be the best way around it but at least they have made their point and hopefully things will happen.

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Enjoy the WC.

My post wasn't directed solely at the representatives of those 6 clubs. I think it's a much wider problem in british RL and I believe it's existed for decades. It's just a real shame that it's come to this on the eve of the World Cup, creating a divide within british rugby league when our sport needs to show unity and solidarity.