Has there been anything else said about the planned Manchester C1 team? From a Broncos perspective it'd be nice for at least one Southern club to get promotion so we could loan players to a Championship team as well as C1.

they have an amateur team Mancunians RL who registered interest when the bidding first came about.. i assume either they or the RFL deemed them unfit at the current time to step up, which is fair enough as it's still early doors for them yet. Hopefully they can keep building and in a few years be ready. There was also some rumours of a Chester based bid with Warrington Wizards relocating. Would be nice to get another north west club up and running after Blackpool were lost.

I reckon Skolars will be in the end of season mix despite a bad start, kept much of last years squad together and have been improving year on year, the way expansion should be done. My moneys on Crusaders for the top spot, i just hope they don't get thrown in at the deep end too soon again though. They need to build their roots slowly because they have the potential to be one of the top semi-pro clubs

Coventry have a pretty tidy looking stadium too rlhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Butts_Park_Arena_-_stand%26park_27s06.jpgrl

Is the Northampton idea dead and buried then?

There were rumblings of a Manchester club (separate from Mancunians), Chester and a few others.

I'd love to see Bristol join. Great set up down there. Wonder if Scotland can ever get into a position to get a club involved.

Seems some good positive news on here. Don't tell me the RFL have actually done something right.

Yes. It was the football (Cobblers) club, and nothing to do with us at the amateur rugby league club, although we did offer advice and helped with contacts and networking. They realised it was going to take more time and effort and money than they thought it would.

That's a shame. Might they be interested in the future should situations change do you think? Or were they in it for SL ambitions only?

I don't think there was ever a real SL ambition. Just a hope to get some income from a stadium.

Far too early for any conclusions to be drawn yet

I wonder why it is that fans of RL constantly feel the need to offer comparisons to Union....especially when they are not accurate and ultimately end up making League fans look bitter and resentfull whilst being shown which code is the bigger game?




Neath are the 2nd string team/Feeder club to the OSPREYS who play in the Rabo 12 and they average 10,199 in that competition 2012-13 season. As for the rounding up of attendances.... I doubt very much the committee at Neath RFC give a toss as to how many watched....Union clubs (in the main) own their own grounds.........there in lies the problem. Scorpions got 456 paying fans, but then in turn, have to pay rent on the ground.

Ospreys v Scarlets (the bigger versions of Neath and Llanelli) drew 19,443 this season...........

Don't get me wrong. Club Union is in the main, just as much a basket case as club League at the lower levels, but they have the infastructure to plough cash into their game feeding downwards from 11 home internationals a year, with 900,000 people paying 50 notes a pop in ticketing revenue alone.

Well done scorpions for getting a decent fan-base together........they will slowly grow and may one day get to SL, but please god, stop comparing the 2 codes in an attempt to show league is better managed off the park

Why would we compare a lower league RL attendance to a top tier RU attendance?

I know since your move to NZ you have got a hard-on for the RU administration, but christ, what on earth are you thinking? why on earth would we compare Scorpions to Ospreys instead of Neath?

1. I haven't acquired an admiration for the IRB and their unions since I moved here....I was "outed" as a union troll here for suggesting that the RFL could learn alot from the IRB/RFU.........I stand by that claim based on the FACT that the IRFU, with 4 provinces and a handful of internationals a year turns over TWICE the revenue of the governing body of RL in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland....including the SKY TV deal. I use the same reversed comparison when telling the NZRU to get their headsout of their s and start playing hardball like the ARU/NRL!
2. Gansons eyedoctor was attempting to belittle what essentially are pub teams claiming "00" attendances......the best players from Neath and the surrounding areas are all contracted to Ospreys, who some weekends need to field 2 teams (Heineken/Amlin/Rabo12)....and as I said, the Neath RFC club don't need to worry about attendances that much as they have funsing from WRFU... oh...they also receive rent from Scorpions as well

As I say, it puzzles me why a RL fan would attemptto paint RL in a good light by comparing it to the bigger code......unless the discussion was about NSW or Queensland?

That’s all lovely, but it misses the point completely. Nobody was pretending that RL is bigger than RU in Wales. The comparison is used because traditionally RU in Wales is portrayed as some all-encompassing national obsession. The only relevance of RU is a benchmark to measure our progress against. Neath are a club with a long storied history, they have been at the very top of their game, they have a tradition and a long established place in local life. For the attendances of the Scorpions to be comparable is a good achievement and shows the potential of the game in the principality. The fact is that should the disparity in the games be what you are suggesting, or what is generally portrayed then the likes of Neath with its 100+year history, legends of Davies, Bateman, Williams should be blowing a 3 year old league club, in the lowest tier of semi-pro RL out of the water.

Don't think that comparisons with RU in Wales are very helpful, given that all 4 regions are in serious financial strife with their marquee players either going or rumoured to be going to England, France AND RL.

I may be wrong but the Scorpions and Neath are bankrolled by the same guy I think.