It's certainly a better bet than Edinburgh or Dublin, but they're hardly bursting at the seems crowd figures-wise at the moment are they? It'd be nice for them to prove they can get more people through the gates over the next three years before throwing them into SL imo

Yes, it was, it just didn't have a pro team.

So you'd relegate actual real teams to make way for fictional ones?

I think you are confusing fantasy rugby league with reality.

Actually, Toulouse and South Wales have teams

Your dillusional



Why does expansion have to be at the cost of a club in the heartlands of RL, these clubs are still on the go after a hundred years and will more than likley be here in another 100 when the experiments with your suggestions will be a distant faded memory.

I have no objection to new teams from other areas coming into RL, but it should NEVER be at the expense of an established club, after all the criteria you set (the weakest, which might still be perfectly viable as a club) will mean eventually we will be looking at getting rid of strong, viable heartland clubs just for the sake of making room for a newer club.

Let these new clubs start off in the bottom division and build up, if this is not acceptable to them then do we really want them in the first place.

We should create a Super League of a Balanced Number of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Expansion Clubs, then expand the league.

You make a good point until your last sentence which deserves

far morethan anything I put.

quite right - the potential catchment area at Toulouse is pretty widespread - regarding the other options,Dublin etc - don't just plonk teams into a system just for the sake of saying 'we are trying to expand the game' etc etc go only to the places which have a realistic chance of making a fair fist of it IMO

One of the silliest things I've ever read. FTR I grew up and lived there before the Cowboys came along...

Regional Queensland, Townsville/North Queensland and Toowoomba/the Darling Downs especially, have always been incredibly strong heartlands of the game.

NRL style expansion? As in, sit around and wait for cities to organise bid teams, tell them they're not wanted and if the bid team doesn't get disheartened and improves the bid you add them?
I think you might mean ARL style expansion.

They're the ones who realised the need for more teams in QLD and how important expansion to new markets (Auckland & Perth) was. The NRL is far more conservative.

Also, didn't Richard Lewis/the RFL have a plan a few years ago to have a SL club in 11 regions of the UK or something? Is that still the long term plan for the game over there?

You're the one arguing that North Queensland wasn't a heartland of RL. Which area do you think has more people playing RL - North Queensland (population approaching half a million) or Northern England (population over 10 million)?

They do but Dublin and Edinburgh don't.