Really? That's fantastic.


Yep. I hate public schools with a passion (sorry Urmston Wire ) and I wish they didn't exist, but sadly they do and the more influential people in the country appear to be ex-public schoolboys. The biggest factor in favour of Union and the biggest factor responsible for it's reasonable spread around the world is/has been the public school system. Even if we don't get a Prime Minister who likes League we might get a few business leaders and media owners/editors who do if we get RL played throughout the public schools.

whilst we're at it....how does everyone here pronounce TOMATO

I call it soccer to wind up soccer fans.....but it is most commonly known as Football in the UK AND Europe. The USA, and South Americans (gradually...but they do follow the USA) and pretty much everyone else calls it soccer as there are other codes of football in these countries that are larger.
League is bigger in Aaustralia
Union is bigger in New Zealand
Gridiron (dally messengers favourite sport) in the USA

........I say TO-MAR-TO by the way ...

Clinging on for dear life eh..... This your professional opinion or just something you read somewhere

I have no love of Union, but the figures so far from superdooper 15 games played in Australia thus far would dispute your rhetoric.
11 games so far, 211,653 fans...average gates 19,241....with the mighty NRL averaging 19,651 for 16 games so far...so unless the expression "clinging on for dear life" means something else, I would suggest that Union isn't in as bad a nick as dally messenger and the other idiots would have you believe.....
...as for the demographic of the fans at Union games...I take it this is again just more knee jerk b0ll0x and not actually based on any concrete research or facts.

Fot too long people in the UK have taken as gospel the myth that everyone in Sydney wears an NRL shirt to work and they pack out their stadiums. Fact is, the NRL rules TV figures in Australia when the tennis or neighbours isn't on, but more people go and watch AFL, which has a bigger TV deal and it would seem that Union gets pretty much the same number of fans at their games......hardly knocking at deaths door IMO

Quote: Poyser11 "Why are English people calling football, soccer?'" 'soccer' is a phrase that has been used to describe a[isoc[/iiation football, soccer is to association, as rugger is to rugby. Read this: www.RL1908.com/History/football.htm

Quote: Poyser11 "Why are English people calling football, soccer?'" 'soccer' is a phrase that has been used to describe a[isoc[/iiation football, soccer is to association, as rugger is to rugby. Read this: www.RL1908.com/History/football.htm

Intersted to hear what you think is the % of the crowds that are sith ifrican? Then tell me what difference it makes? None I would suggest...but let me know anyway.


Correct.....but using your logic, I could say that English RL is "hanging on by a thread" when comparing it to Union which is by far the bigger game as far as the Media are concerned.

I was shown the asking price and supporting documentation for naming rights to the last 4 nations in the UK........Gillette didn't pay the asking price and I reckon some Salford players are on more per year than was paid.....that's where RL sits in the scheme of things with the UK media, public and sponsorship/advertising people.


Super 15 is no doubt propped up by both SA rugby, NZ Rugby with ARU being the small player, but don't forget who controls the game globally....and I have shown on other boards the massive differences at every level of game management where the IRB are masters of manipulation. They get paid by host nations for giving that nation the right to host their world cup........can you ever see the day when League can compete with that?


I am all for reasoned debate about the Media Status of the game in Australia and England.....where League and Union rule respectively, but don't come out with sweeping comments as to the Ethnicity (sic) of the fans as a way of explaining the average gates at Australian S15 games.......it makes you sound like a certain poster on the NRL boards and the one-eyed journalists articles he continuously takes as gospel and links to.

This thread started off about media and Their stance regarding RL.....fact is that League suffers in the UK and competes with AFL/Union in australia fro press inches. Gets good wedge in Australia for TV, fair wedge in the UK and SFA internationally.

Millions of people in England call [iThe Sun[/i a newspaper - whereas it's just a daily fun sheet. As others have pointed out, the people in the world who call it 'soccer' outnumber those who try to appropriate the term 'football' which also applies to several other ball sports, including rugby. Ever heard of our governing body, the Rugby [iFootball [/iLeague? You may also have come across the fact that many Aussies call RL '[ifooty[/i' - where do you think that comes from? You're the ones in the incorrect minority.

Wouldn't surprise me if he hasn't, with the way they market.

I get your view (not sure who you are referring to though as I don't frequent the NRL boards). But there's a certain irony that this thread accepts the sweeping generalisation that all public schoolboys are union-playing Illuminati out to impose Union on the people of Britain...

With League there is sort of a 'down-trodden exclusivity' which I think we actually all like. If the game was as popular as Soccer/Football or whatever you want to call it I'm not sure it would have the same appeal. Its like underground movements like Northern Soul, Mod, Rave, Punk (I wont go on), great when they have some exclusivity and then the real followers get swallowed up when it goes mainstream and appears on TOTP.

That's an interesting view. There does seem to be a bit of a fraternity. I'm always surprised that people will come up to me if I'm in my Wire shirt somewhere just to talk about RL (and oddly they mostly turn out to be Leythers).

I get that a lot too... Most of the time it's people wanting to talk RL but who don't follow any particular team themselves but do pay attention when they notice coverage on the TV and/or Radio.

The CEO and COO of my company were talking to me in the office kitchen yesterday (dress down day, wearing my wire "Johns" polo shirt), and were surprisingly knowledgable about RL and were also quite keen to talk about the '54 cup final replay and the crowd that day. Very bizarre conversation.

That's pretty good! I've got my Warrington 2009 Wembley scarf pinned above my desk and I'm surprised at how many people have spotted in and just wandered over (I work over in Calderdale, so there's no shortage of RL enthusiasts, which is good).

You're either doing missionary work, or we're a massive club

Can definitely see the point though. If I saw someone in a RL shirt on a train and especially on holiday etc then I certainly wouldn't hesitate in a passing comment about their team/RL in general. I remember the first time I went on a foreign holiday about 13-14 years ago and getting a load of comments about my Leigh shirt (funnily enough, a lot of those turned out to be Leythers as well!!). I've also lost count of the amount of times I've been in Wigan Asda when wearing a Leigh RL jacket and ending up being stopped by a random pie eater to have a chat about the sport.