There would be zero point in the govering bodies of RL investing cash in the USA.

I have always been of the opinion that investing in somewhere like Nigeria would have been the way to go - but probably missed the boat now. As a country it has a huge population, a big, athletic population and money in the past went a long long way.

Just because RL may never big a huge sport in the US doesn't mean it should be developed and made into a viable semi-pro/pro sport there. Too many people are eager to give up!

Rugby league in the US is like a fart in a thunderstorm. Always will be. This World Cup will have absolutely zero impact for a number of reasons.

Might aswell just give up then eh? Actually let's just cancel rugby league and join union instead

Not necessarily. All I am saying is let's not get hysterical as to what reaching the quarter-finals might do and whether the RFL need it to happen. There is a long list of more pressing issues that the rugby league world needs to worry about first, even if anybody had the untold millions to plough into the sport in the US for the next 2 decades.

As I keep saying on here, Canada is a far better bet - no petty squabbling, TV coverage, 8k crowds, sponsorship. Of course, it's not seen as glamorous as the US so never gets the credit it deserves.

Good shout that maple,canada seems to be growing nicely

They have a regular fixture with the yanks and didn't they play jamica recently???

Think what all this high lights is the need for regular international competitions at all levels and not just warrington verus bloody wigan being rammed down our throats

I suspect the aussies don't want to embrace regular international competition as it suit there agenda of raping the south sea islands for junior talent and giving them aussie passport

Now if the state of origin meant you did not need a aussie passport perhaps we could actually see the smaller islands grow internationally as the youngsters would not have to wait until austrailia as cast them aside to play for there country of birth

We're not talking about 'cracking' the US. A sport with 1% penetration in the US would dwarf RL in the UK.

I know what you mean. It's getting to the 1% that is the problem though.

1% penetration in China or India would be three times more than the US - same problem!

To be honest Jacksonville Axemen already get more than most Champ teams do in terms of supporters. It's just a shame that the team that got to the finals was axed for a load of Aussies.

As for TV coverage our friend from France keeps banging on about it. Its the media company that goes out selling them not RFL or IRLF

I'm not just talking about population, China and India don't have established sporting markets. USA is rife with great facilities and top athletes who aren't going anywhere. This is a country that regularly attracts crowds of over 100,000 to college football games. People have mentioned football being a minority sport, despite this the USA national side is currently ranked 13th in the world, ahead of the likes of France and Portugal. They were ranked ahead of England last month. This is a sport that has blanket coverage in most countries, but even a small fraction of the market share in the USA allows them to be competitive. The pool of athletes there is ridiculous and if we could harness even a tiny portion of that then they would already be up there with the strongest RL nations.

No it wouldn't.

Pakistan would be a good idea, plenty of them around to coach

France and Wales need to help themselves a bit. Particularly France. My god their national team is consistently bad.

It's a bit of a dilemma isn't it? If you go for the established sporting nations it takes an awful lot of money to make a dent, but you have the potential feed off the scraps of a fantastic infrastructure in sport; whereas if you aim for less developed nations it's probably easier to crack a decent number of the population - China, India, Indonesia all lack as much dedication to other sports than say... Brazil, Argentina or South Africa: especially when it comes to a contact sport. Add the likes of Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Egypt, Nigeria etc etc. If it turns out that a decent thirst for a contact sport in these nations over the next 50 years, if any sport dominates these giants they will dominate contact sport the world over (perhaps bar the USA), once infrastructure comes into play on the back of economic growth.