The thread wasn't about international RL and don't let the door hit you on the arris on the way out

To find the OP mentioned Union and it just carried on. Fact is all sports have players born and raised in other countries. It's only trolls on RL boards that have a problem with RL's.

No. Its an insecure thread based around an inaccurate claim that international union is as contrived as international league.

I understand that it's a different game and that it has many shared skills - I'm also pretty adept at sitting back; it's the 'enjoying it' part I have a problem with. I just find the game, on the whole, crashingly dull.

I do wish however that RL would learn something from how RU promotes itself - clearly we have no access to the type of funding or media exposure that RU has, but the RFL and many clubs do a poor job of promoting the sport; and that's not all about money - it's about expertise and application.

I don't believe I said all league fans should enjoy watching league but it is folly to make out one is better or inferior to the other. Both League and Union can provide both boring and brilliant rugby at different times but to make out Union is not good entertainment flies in the face of it's popularity around the world as this World Cup clearly proves

Well each to his own. To enjoy Union does require some understanding of the different rules, tactics and different skills. Many Union fans think League is dull because there is no competition for possession. I prefer League but still fully enjoy Union but perhaps it was because I was brought up with both forms of rugby. So I, like perhaps billions of others around the world, will be enjoying the next six week of rugby on TV.

Billions watching the Union WC Is such a funny claim.
It's only a major sport in a few tiny countries in he Pacific.
I live in what is technically the heartlands of Union in Australia, and I haven't seen an ad for it or heard anyone even mention it yet.
I assume it is on TV on one f the specialist back channels, but 3 men and a dog are watching it.
I'd be amazed if more than 100 million around the world bothered to watch a full match of the Union WC. They might sneak 20 second of highlights onto the news in a lot of countries though.

90000 attended the first round game between two tiny countries in the Pacific yesterday. Go on the WC website and see if you can get a ticket for the games, non of which are being played at small run down shacks in Cumbria/Yorkshire. The organisers have challenged themselves to fill the biggest stadiums in the country, some in areas where union isn't that big and it looks like they've succeeded.

Roopy the Wallabies haven't played yet. I'm sure when they play England in a couple of weeks time you will hear about it.

Even if we win, it will get half the air time as Jarryd Hayne is getting for playing a game no one watches.
Union is almost dead in Australia. It was a much bigger sport 10 or 15 years ago.
Most of the stories you see about I are all about Issy Folau, and the subtext to most of those stories is that he is a great League player who is wasting his talent.

Quote: roopy "Billions watching the Union WC Is such a funny claim. It's only a major sport in a few tiny countries in he Pacific. I live in what is technically the heartlands of Union in Australia, and I haven't seen an ad for it or heard anyone even mention it yet. I assume it is on TV on one f the specialist back channels, but 3 men and a dog are watching it. I'd be amazed if more than 100 million around the world bothered to watch a full match of the Union WC. They might sneak 20 second of highlights onto the news in a lot of countries though.'" In fact the total potential viewers could be 4Bn (see link to the report below) but of course potential is rarely achieved. However Union is played in 119 countries 95 of those were involved with this World Cup. 6.6 million play Union around the world and ticket sales for the WC are around 2.2 million so far with the Final tickets exchanging on the internet for £50K each. It is going to put about £2.2Bn in output into the UK economy I can understand that the reception in the outback is a bit snowy on your black and white 12" and last months newspapers haven't arrived yet so perhaps you missed the huge coverage the event is getting www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAsset ... report.pdf

Quote: roopy "Billions watching the Union WC Is such a funny claim. It's only a major sport in a few tiny countries in he Pacific. I live in what is technically the heartlands of Union in Australia, and I haven't seen an ad for it or heard anyone even mention it yet. I assume it is on TV on one f the specialist back channels, but 3 men and a dog are watching it. I'd be amazed if more than 100 million around the world bothered to watch a full match of the Union WC. They might sneak 20 second of highlights onto the news in a lot of countries though.'" In fact the total potential viewers could be 4Bn (see link to the report below) but of course potential is rarely achieved. However Union is played in 119 countries 95 of those were involved with this World Cup. 6.6 million play Union around the world and ticket sales for the WC are around 2.2 million so far with the Final tickets exchanging on the internet for £50K each. It is going to put about £2.2Bn in output into the UK economy I can understand that the reception in the outback is a bit snowy on your black and white 12" and last months newspapers haven't arrived yet so perhaps you missed the huge coverage the event is getting www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAsset ... report.pdf

Union was a much bigger sport in Australia 10 or 15 years ago. Most of the people who used to follow it - those that see themselves as too good for League - e now following soccer or AFL.

How many attend the NSW/ACT/Reds.... super 14 games on average?

You are seeming to suggest RU is a non event in Aus. ( I recognise it isn't as big as RL/AR)

ATTENDANCES
TOTAL AVG HIGH LOW
2003 393,000 24,563 35,612 16,577
2004 471,761 24,830 42,237 11,773
2005 440,457 25,909 39,363 10,482
2006 624,443 24,017 38,947 10,580
2007 530,818 21,233 31,149 12,500
2008 474,273 20,621 32,371 13,784
2009 504,198 19,392 32,469 14,021
2010 518,255 19,933 40,271 14,111
2011 867,954 20,666 52,113 10,122
2012 700,587 21,230 41,533 10,982
2013 724,462 17,670 38,404 10,194
2014 745,811 18,191 61,823 7,129
2015 610,414 16,956 36,358 7,531
7,606,433 20,503 61,823 7,129

ATTENDANCES
TOTAL AVG HIGH LOW
2003 3,132,046 16,228 81,166 4,125
2004 2,937,130 15,540 82,127 5,648
2005 3,278,426 17,346 82,453 6,053
2006 3,115,887 16,486 79,609 4,850
2007 3,332,638 16,580 81,392 4,168
2008 3,279,663 16,317 80,388 5,102
2009 3,434,233 17,086 82,538 6,232
2010 3,490,670 17,453 82,334 6,478
2011 3,464,120 17,234 81,988 5,703
2012 3,480,066 17,400 82,976 5,778
2013 3,345,062 16,725 81,491 5,288
2014 3,375,941 16,796 83,833 5,112
2015 3,082,734 15,569 50,388 3,978
42,748,616 16,679 83,833 3,978

Union top League bottom, nothing else to ad to this thread but was curious myself so found this.

Just an overview of the average attendances, can never be 100% as taken from the internet and the union is the super rugby comp

over 3.3million watched league in 2014 compared with 745k to union, but union had higher average attendances when compared to league 18k to 16k respectively

a word to the wise.
There is a faction of RL fans who for any number of reasons will never accept that Rugby Union is anything other than a grubby and nasty game that has for over a century stifled the growth of Rugby League.

A perfect example would be the OP, who felt the need to research the heritage players involved at this RUWC and then to cherry pick the results, in the forlorn hope that it would make the RUWC more contrived than the RLWC. Another example of such a poster is The Printer, who on being given the actual facts, cries loudly hoping the moderators will come along and make the facts go away.

The problem is we had an instance of this back in 2008-2009 on the NRL boards which in the end resulted in a number of bans and a fair few disgruntled okers or Aussie based fans branding this forum a union loving hole purely because they couldn't deal with the facts as they were presented to them or handle the concept that some RL fans might actually also watch Union.

Then there's the Aussies/Aussie based fans like Roopy who will tell you the game is "on its arris in 'stralia. They are not wholly wrong either, but the game as an international sport still stirs the patriot in most okers as was seen by the humongous crowds who turned out for the Lions in 2013. These fans are the ones who conveniently ignore the geography of the games in the region where Fiji, Samoa, Japan, Tonga, USA and Canada played a pre-tournament Pacific Nations cup in preparation for the RUWC.......he'll say that Fiji and Samoa are ripe for the picking, denying the fact that the domestic RL comps are almost non existent and combined, both teams in RL have over 80% Heritage players...Samoa had 2 Samoan born players in their 2014 4 Nations Squad!

These debates never end well because they turn into a "bitchfest' with the insecurity brigade out in force hunting "Union trolls" that don't exist because they don't like reality.

But all is not lost, because there are also a great many level headed fans of RL, who even though they don't like Union as a sport, fully appreciate what that sport has achieved over the last 20 years and pine for a management in RL that would learn from the "dark side".