www.spectator.co.uk/australia/67 ... ruit.thtml To think that the BBC licence payers pay this idiots wages for writing such crap beggers belief.

www.spectator.co.uk/australia/67 ... ruit.thtml To think that the BBC licence payers pay this idiots wages for writing such crap beggers belief.

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters ... about.html He's a self confessed Union fan, so what do you expect? I mean the bloke studied at both Cambridge and Oxford universities.

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters ... about.html He's a self confessed Union fan, so what do you expect? I mean the bloke studied at both Cambridge and Oxford universities.

I'm sure there's a thread for this dudds.

RU "heartland" in australia is nsw and queensland

the problem is that with the expansion of AFL in these states AFL will surpass union to become the 2nd sport here

indeed the same private schools which draw most of the RU juniors are now also playing AFL

and the same suburbs in sydney where union draws its support are shared with AFL fans

so get this, Australia are apparently a major union nation, yet even in the heartlands here they are ranked 3rd or maybe 4th if you take in account the expansion of soccer

"This is the year that rugby league will be relegated to second place"

the NSWRL was formed in 1908

union was the established code and had tens of thousands of pounds in the bank, contracts for exclusive usage of stadiums and media friends

by 1909 the war was over and the evil empire defeated

and weve never looked back since ....

58% of australia are RL heartland ...

what a load of t0ss!
lol I'd like to know what reality he is living in, in the one the rest of us are in RU is on the bones of its ar5e and going nowhere fast!

He had a pop at the NRL at the beginning of 2009 on the beeb website, declaring it's death knell.

Maybe he's just having a laugh. If you've seen some of his stuff before he just loves to have the odd swipe at Australians .

The idiots married to an Aussie girl. its bad enough your daughter marrying a Pom and then to find out that the Pom don't like Australians must be your worst nightmare.

the comments below the article were more intelligent than the author

so much for oxford or cambridge i guess

its just a gee up dont take him seriously...

I know union fans are thick as pig 5h1t but this is unbelievable.

This has got to be a p155 take surely.

Of course it is.....he baited his hook and low and behold, not only did he get a few nibbles on the Spactator site, he's caugh a few here too



Huddersfield1895........As for ARU bankrupting the IRB.....

The IRB have more money than God. If ever you wanted to find a more corrupt, back-handed and self serving governing body you'd have a long search on your hands.......they make Goldman Sachs look both ethical and poor at the same time

Example> NZRU with the substantial backing of the Kiwi tax payer are underwritting the cost of the coming RUWC. The benefit to NZRU and the Kiwi tax payer for this $50,000,000 risk, is the potential residual revenue gained through a percentage of the ticket sales, merchandise and the associated tourism.......but everything else goes to Dublin. Now......like it or not, most Public Schoolboys do well in industry and the TV industry is loaded with these fops.

Here is another example of why the IRB will never run out of cash:

US$207 Million is what the RFU have to pay for the 2015 RUWC.....US$248 Million is the asking price for the 2019 one that the Japanese RFU met. This tournament fee comes on top of the host nation having to bear all the costs of the tournament, while the IRB, through Rugby World Cup Limited, will continue receiving from the tournament all commercial revenue, including broadcasting rights, sponsorship, corporate hospitality and travel packages.

So...just to do the maths on this....over 4 tournaments (192 games) the IRB will net in excess of AU$1 Billion dollars just from the nations wanting to host the competition. Add to that at least another AU$1 Billion in residual revenue and you'll see whey the ARU will never bankrupt them.

Like 'em or not....they now how to milk a cash cow.

From the article

[size"For my money, the Wallabies are Australia’s most entertaining national team in any sport right now, while the All Blacks are the most talent-packed outfit on the planet, again in any discipline."[/size


Can't really argue with that no matter how blinkered your views are