I don't buy the "big city clubs" thing at all. Not one bit. Manchester and Liverpool became footballing giants, but these days I am sure many fans living in Liverpool are Saints fans and certainly many Manchester people get on the train to Wigan on matchdays.

These are big clubs with a very wide attraction as are Warrington, Leeds, Hull and Bradford. Cas is a town of 35,000 people and a following of 7,000 fans, Do as many as one in five people in Castleford go to games? Cas pull from a very wide audience.....

Imagine if Cas had relocated to Sheffield to get at the potential 600,000 fans living in the steel city?...................

So who is the "big club" between big city Sheffield Eagles and Pit Village Featherstone Rovers? Worth a thought people as you can be sure that some people will be trying to tell us how big city Toulouse beating Featherstone Rovers and taking an SL place will massively improve the footprint of the game or some kind of mindless slogan.

2019 attendances Pit Village Fev 2,900 modern metropolis Toulouse 2,900

Forget "big cities" London has per head of population the least interest in Rugby League only one in 5,000 are bothered even when they are in SL......

But a London club is apparently "Important"

Whilst we worry about the depth of talent in the game, the other lot expand to 14 and insist on 15 English players in their match day squads...

Because whilst rugby league is on its last breath in this country, rugby union just goes from strength to strength.

Also interesting that RU seem to be letting nature take its course on who comes up, now that Saracens have returned there's no massive team waiting or new frontier to conquer. Based on league places over the last few years it'd likely be Ealing or Cornish Pirates both are well established, relatively small teams.

Really ??
Are they playing Union in schools again, yet (I know it's not rugby season) ?

Really? Is that the best you have? Schools?
Im pretty sure union is played in far more schools than league

Why not compare actual grass roots participation?
Or TV money?
Or number of amateur clubs?

League is dying. Union isn’t

10 team leagues are too small and soon become boring for spectators. The game would be better going semi-pro and reverting to one big division in the hope of reinvigorating some of the old rugby league teams by having visits from the bigger clubs.

Whether you believe union is thriving or not, you can't deny that it's possibly in A&E whilst we are in ICU!

In the last season prior to the Covid malarky, they averaged 14,500.
League averaged 8,440.
In 2018, Wales, Ireland, The Barbarians, South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia visited Twickenham...only the barbarians gate was sub 80,000 and was still over 50,000.
2018 was a busy year for England RL, with 5 tests. The 4 at home attracted 81,213....that's 62 fewer people that watched England play Australia at Twickenham in a friendly!
In the middle of a global pandemic, The English Premiership signed off on a deal worth £40,000,000 a year to them. This is an extension at the same rate as before
In the middle of a global pandemic, the European Superleague agreed to £25,000,000 a year. This is 37.5% reduction on the same rate as before.
Currently, The British and Irish touring side are in a covid rampant South Africa to potentially fulfil a fixture schedule in place since before the Pandemic.
Currently it is reported that the NRL clubs don't want to let their players got to the RLWC because they'd have to quarantine for a fortnight on their return!

As I say. Neither game is ripping up trees, but if you're looking for a prognosis, one looks like it's stable whist the other is on life support in a self induced coma!

Sorry, Orangeman, I was replying to our resident, name changing, troll.
Of course Union is in better shape than league, I'm not denying that.

However, if we dont get to a position quickly, where contact sports can be played in schools, it's going to be extremely difficult for ALL contact sports.
The private school close to us, which would be regarded as a Rugby Union school has removed all of their Rugby posts and are now playing football and whilst Union in the UK still has revenue to dwarf that of League, to suggest that Union is going "from strength to strength" is simply not true, unless of course, their business models are somehow exempt from the effects of covid and I would suggest that they are not.

100%
My boy (7) plays ripper Rugby here in NZ. This is his last season before he goes full contact and his Mother isn't so sure...I've tried to explain that the drinking I did after games of Union has probably done more damage to my noggin than any contact, but with each new report on concussion and dementia, the case against full contact grows stronger.

Yes there are some nasty trolls re-appearing ...Hey ho.

Union is of course in decline as their size as a national game across the British Isles continues to decline significantly in terms of playing numbers.

Same for us, both games have suffered exactly the same way. Union has always been in "better shape" but it's decline pro rata matches League.........

BTW how are Wakefield RUFC doing nowadays compared to Wakefield Trinity??

Ones a corpse in an outdated rat infested tomb, the other folded in 2004

I acknowledge your worries on the head contact thing. Neither soccer or either code of Rugby has been able to do much more than pay lip service to it.

I shudder a lot more now when I watch games and players are still going off with head knocks for "checks" from the medical team....