No...........

We are hardly smashing records with Quins or Crusaders and despite the fact I support both these expansion clubs, I feel any further made up teams will work against the whole sport. The French have every chance of succeedng over a number of years, indeed perhaps a further club there may help there game overall. There is no way fans will support being asked to cough up vast sums, travelling to a country that is bankrupt and with no RL foothold in the Eire makes it an impossible dream.

We are not producing enough quality players now and the lower league clubs are not bringing as many into the game as they have done in the past due to lack of return on investment. We have to look at our game as it is and remember that the country in the middle of an economic downturn, now is not the time. Expanding the game can only be achieved at some cost to the heartland clubs or one or both of the developement clubs that are under some economic pressure are cut from the lifeboat. I am sorry, but I feel the Welsh experiment will end in expensive failure and we can not afford to lose the money we are pumping into it. The Quins have to be helped as they have put down roots, developing players and with some further marketing to find the correct ground they could still come up as a real asset to the whole sport.

Eire forget it, its a none starter and it would take more out of the game then it would ever put in.

Still waiting to find out what this 'Welsh experiment' is.

Monaco Monarchs

Lanzarote Lancers

Dublin Craic

to be fair, i do believe there is a market for pro Rugby League in Ireland. my dads side of the family are all nuts about rugby union,but also have often expressed the wish that attending pro rugby league games be a possibility, without crossing the irish sea. in my experience even the rugby union stalwarts of ireland can see the attraction of league, the lack of faffing around with scrums and lineouts, the greater fluency and speed is often talked about with envious tones.
many times have many Irish people expresssed these feelings to me.
not to mention that many of those GAA stalwarts are also attracted to league, precisely because of the qualities i have previously mentioned.
it wouldnt take much tapping into that potential to see halfway decent crowds watching a topflight Rugby League team in Ireland. assuming of course they could actually win a few games.
but i do feel the possibilities for succesful expansion in ireland dwarf those in specifically south wales and certainly wales in general. thats not a dig at expansion in wales btw.
do a half way decent job of promoting it and funding it PROPERLY to get things going and it could very well
be huge.
there is definately room in Ireland for another sport and certainly if there is only one pro team in the country playing that sport. any talk to the contrary is bullcrap. they already have a few sports alongside Rugby Union (which is huge in ireland) that are just as well if not better supported than rugby league in the UK. there is room for one more, and there is certainly the appetite for it.

I think RL in Ireland could work. The thing about Ireland is that RU is not as popular as everyone thinks is a small but passionate minority.

The Gaelic football fan base in Ireland is the one that could be the easiest to break into providing that care is made not to step on toes.

However with Ireland you have a very delicate situation RU terms the team has been united for a while (hence the ulster boys play in green) so location of a team the funding name and sponsors would have to be uber scrutinised to avoid any general nastiness.

worst idea EVER

Shouldnt we do what the NRL do and take a game to an area that has future plans for a pro franchise.

Take Wigan vs another big side to Ireland and see what reaction we get from fans and media. Yeah and be prepared for it to make a loss.

Lets see if the Irish population and media have an interest in Live Rugby league.

They won't.

Another constructive and inormative comment there....

Why won't they? I can't say I'm sold on any argument for it, but just saying "They won't" doesn't really explain much, does it?

RL in Ireland won't work. The RLI Make the RFL look like the executive board of Apple.

Most Irish people don't like RU, it's very much 5th after both codes of GAA, soccer and golf. Fishing is making a play for their 4th spot thoug, but the weather is too crap.

Talk to people about RL in Ireland and they look at you like your stupid and ask if you mean the Magners league.

The last international had about 600 in attendance, I was one of them. They only let VIPs into the bar! I would guess that more than 500 of the 600 were either British ex pats or family of the players.

IT WON'T WORK

Pretty dumb argument. I'm sure if you'd gone to Australia in 1906 and asked about RL they wouldn't have had a clue what you meant either. It's quite bizarre that some fans think it's not worth trying because the sport is not already somehow massively popular in places where it has either never been played or played at a low level for a relatively brief time. I'm not arguing for an Irish SL team within 5 years or anything like that BTW, just posts like this make me laugh. There's no reason RL 'won't work' anywhere. If RLI are ambitious about raising the profile of the game then good on them, hopefully they can go some way to fulfilling their ambitions.

I'd take stories like this more seriously if they explained where they're going to get the £5m+ (as a minimum) that they'd need to establish a club properly over 4-5 years.