In the opening game of RLWC 2000, England played host to the Kangaroos Twickenham, Rugby Union HQ. The game was affected by the worst weather in several hundred years, and severe problems with the train line prevented thousands of northern based fans attending, but it still attracted 33,000 spectators mostly from the south. Negative events in RL do attract significant coverage, but people think positive won't do the same.



Firstly, people in the south or other parts of England won't suddenly switch on to northern based clubs or new professional entities that are suddenly placed there. International success has been shown

Your analogy with Australia doesn't strictly work due to differences in history, culture and population density. However, sports have gained significant exposure here through international success. Soccer here had national domestic competitions here, the sport had a large grassroots base but was distinctly fourth choice at the elite level. Yet the sport only started to be taken seriously within the last decade once the national team, the Socceroos, qualified for the World Cup. That gave the sport huge exposure. As I said above, England Rugby's World Cup win inspired significantly larger growth at grass roots level. Incremental growth of the RU Premiership, and success in the club European Cup, did not drive that publicity or grassroots development.

In answer to your question, a lower profile sport achieving international success (in a major tournament) would gain the sport more publicity than any domestic club competition. Some people in the England RL community think that because the media has ignored them, it will always ignore them. That is used as a reason to maintain the status quo. English RL has got to adopt a more positive attitude to attempting to help the test team succeed.

Heard some people talking on the Tube this morning about the Twenty20 Cricket thats going on right now.

For anyone thats not following it England are looking good for a spot in the final and there is a very realistic chance they might become world champions. (if Australia have a bad day )

One bloke was saying to the other that he didnt have any interest in cricket whatsoever but because England were going so well he would be watching them in their semi final... and his mate agreed (even though he had never heard of Twenty20 cricket)

So there are 2 new converts to that sport... plus I'm sure there will be many more if England carry on doing well.


If the national Rugby league side could do a similar thing ... who knows.

All countries like their national sides to be world champions...whatever the sport.

But why can't SL clubs be big enough? Championship football this season had an average gate of 17k, that's 2nd tier football. And there's a number of clubs in that league who've averaged LESS than 10k
rlStats taken from hererl

But no-one seems to be able to answer me WHY can't SL clubs be this high? There's enough people in the areas that RL clubs inhabit. So really, IMO, there needs to be a massive push in terms of marketing of the game in these areas as people may not know the game, as strange as this may sound, so they need to be introduced to the game and work has to be done to get them coming back.

Personally, I think a major part in the lack of appeal of the sport is that so many of SL clubs play in old, decrepit stadia. Now, I know that new stadiums are the responsibility of the clubs involved. However, surely the RFL can try and help these clubs get the planning permission by lobbying or otherwise pushing local councils and help find funding for these stadia. New stadiums always help boost attendances, look at Hull FC and Warrington, both had increases in attendance thanks in part to their new stadiums and that's and increase from both home AND away followers.

I agree that internationals should be more important, but right now they're not. England does not have the quality or depth that Aus/NZ have in terms of players. If you look at the Aus national side they have at least 3 world class players per position in the team. England have maybe 3 world class players in the team. Without major investment into bringing the playing numbers up to speed we can't ever hope to compete on the international stage.

As for the RU WC win, did it REALLY have any major impact either on media coverage or people playing/watching the game? It had a bit of a spike in interest up to the final and for a few weeks after but then that died back down to the level it was prior to the WC.

RU has had a spike in interest over the last 2 or 3 years with the fantastic marketing they've been doing.
I say fantastic because its a miracle people pay to watch that garbage

Well said mate

It's true though.
Their marketing lot at the RFU are gods, the RFL should go hell for leather to recruit the lot imho, even if they do scoff at the words run, pass or try.

League is obviously a better sport than union but I dont mind a bit of the 15 man code sometimes.

Why are you people all so anti union?

Union fans arent anti league... they just treat it the same way as an Aussie treats a kiwi

Like that sort of annoying slightly odd half cousin who you only have to have something to do with because you are sort of related.


Grow up guys!!!

Union doesnt give a pinch about league!!

Be the same towards them!!

That is possibly the most sensible post you've ever posted. EVER.
It's true, some people just need to spend their lives worrying about something else.
Me: I don't have a care in the world, never mind worrying about flippin union

football is in the mind of millions,i think the championship is the fourth largest league in europe.

not critisising here,but if you can work out why only 6thou[guessing] home supporters watch huddersfield you might have the answer.
they are a big town with a fantastic stadium,a fantastic owner,a top team & they've had the best part of 15 years at the top table.salford will be the same when they get there stadium.now salford v barca might just bring the mancs out. the way SL is at the moment i dont think any amount of advertising is going to increase the average attendence over 7 games by 6/8 thou.

the coverage of RU,football & cricket compared to RL in both written & tv media is massive,or at least thats how it seem when im watching tv or reading papers.
i might be wrong here but hasnt a RU team played in front of 2 gates of 40thou & one of 60 thou this season with its average gate of about 10thou.imo that has been built on the back of a very vibrant international scene.

football,RU,cricket all southern based,national media southern based,RL northern based.who's the black sheep?

As I said, I think it's a question of marketing not only the clubs but the game itself. How many people in Huddersfield actually know the difference between union and league. I've talked to people who don't really know either code, some who don't even know there ARE two codes. And they always ask the same question "what's the difference". This is a question the RFL should be answering. A real push to people in the areas where you already have a club. Say a slick video package to be shown as some kind of national ad campaign that shows off the best aspects of rugby league, a fast paced, skilful game that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

I don't really believe the whole excuse that the media is full of union loving ex-public school boys with an anti-league agenda. I've met a few red top sports journos and not to sound rude to them, but give them a free lunch and an open bar and they'll pretty much write what you want them to. So if we get them on side, we can get the extra column inches in the national papers which helps boost knowledge of the game around the country which then gives an advantage to future expansion clubs as if there is already a willing fan base waiting in the area you're expanding to then that club is likely to thrive. And the expansion of the game round the country means an expansion of people playing the game, which means we may be able to build up an England (and even a Wales and Scotland team) capable of competing on an international level