If a new team were joining the nrl and signing sbw and the other names being mentioned, it would have every rl fan excited.
It must be an English thing that people are finding negatives in this.

Rugby league forever staying insular where nothing outside the M62 matters.

Just watched on catch up

Good interview, just explaining how the deal came around. SBW came across really well. Real humble guy. Shame the interview Jim Whyte didn't do his research and realise SBW played rugby league before he became an All Black star.

Oh and Brian McDermott has allowed himself to believe them ridiculous numbers that world rugby put out when talking about viewers of rugby union.

Sonny Bill Williams is about to be interviewed in the Sports section of BBC World News. A potential audience of tens of millions.

Think he said the money they are paying me is fantastic to say i am over the hill and i am looking forward to playing with all the young Canadian talent

I don't believe it's a lack of excitement, more a pragmatic approach to it with a dash of "what's the point"? It's great for SBW, it's great for the fans in Toronto, but what is it going to deliver the game in Europe?

Will he increase TV viewing figures? He didn't when he returned to the NRL.
Will he increase bums on seats in Toronto? I've shown elsewhere they'd need 14,500 season ticket sales to cover his wages alone and they play out of a 9,600 seater stadium?
Will he get "more kids with rugby balls in their hands"? He will certainly appeal to the Union crowd, so maybe we will see a few new fans, which is always nice.
Will he attract the attention of the North American media in the same way Beckham did? Highly unlikely!

As I say, the creation of the wolfpack and the signing of SBW are all great stuff, but they're not actually doing anything for the game in Europe or North America other than give a wealthy RL fan a fix and a couple of features in newspapers which will be wrapping chips tomorrow.

The insane pose led by the rabid faithful over on JD's totalfascistrl.com and a few wingnuts on here would have you believe that 1 bloke flushing a few million down the toilet in Canada is the saviour of the game in Europe. It isn't.

They ran their search for a RL player show and came up empty handed. They promised player development and then jumped into bed with Union, the assured us of a megbux NA TV deal but ended up paying (eventually) to produce their own coverage which they then gave away, they promised flights and accommodation, forgetting to mention that some flights would be in/out of Glasgow and college dorms were the height of accommodation and they ran away with the 3rd and 2nd tier divisions whilst spending more than all the other teams collectively and still managed to choke on the big occasion against London
Now they'e made a splash with a huge signing, which may or may not attract some sponsors and eyeballs, but none of it is to the benefit of the EU game....but hey, setting up a new team was cheaper for Argyle than buying an NRL side

It is not a general English thing. It is a Little Englander thing, which is embraced by just over half the English population, the same insular English people who supported Nigel Farage and the catastrophic Brexit vote. Unfortunately the majority of rugby league fans in England live in small pit and mill towns, and are Little Englanders who supported the Leave vote. Those kind of people are a majority of posters on this forum, egged on by the weirdo expat from Wellington, New Zealand. That is why they are so negative about the exciting growth prospects offered by Toronto and Sonny Bill Williams.

If you want to be on a forum where the majority of Englishmen are excited about this, you have to go to totalrl.com, where the weirdo from Wellington (username "Allora"icon_wink.gif is in a minority.

1. Bet still stands. I don't post on totalfascisrl.com....as John Drake. If I'm correct, you leave this site and bring your forum bots with you.
2. Totalfascistrl.com is a joke of a site. The only people who buy league papers are league tragics, so yes, they'll cheerlead anything that takes their minds off the lies of Bradford going to the wall, stagnant crowds.
3. I'm not an English Ex-Pat. Being from a country where you get your culture from yogurt, it's probably a tough thing for you to grasp, but I am neither English, British or a 'LEAVE" voter.

Come on Bazza...take the bet. I'll email JD now if you like?

I never suggested that you post anywhere as John Drake. I suggested that you post as "Allora."

You are so sloppy.

Go back and read what I wrote.

I never wrote that you were an English or British expat, nor even a leave voter.

I know that you are an Irish expat. That is why I referred to you simply as "the weirdo expat from Wellington, New Zealand."

If anyone referred to you as the "weirdo", the post would be deleted, or a ban would be forthcoming. It's obvious the rules don't apply to you.

And what has this thread got to do with brexit?

2 infringements of the AUP here will go untouched.

He must have the Mod apparatus to manipulate any posts he wishes.

They started by saying that Money William Williams was the most famous signing in Rugby League since Wakefield Trinity signed the GREAT Wally Lewis, you probably won't have heard of him in the backwaters of Carcassonne, but if you browse through your usual source of information(Wiki) you'll find it all in there/their/they're/.

This posting shows the desperation of the fans of the failing English clubs, such as Wakefield, faced with the massive public relations success of the Canadian new boys in Super League, Toronto Wolfpack.

Just wait until Toronto starts smashing the old pit and mill town clubs on the pitch. I don't know how the fans of the failing clubs will handle it.