I started the embarrassing thread, but that was me being critical of the fact that a so called proffesional club put in such little effort in such an important game.

This thread is a huge knee jerk. I've said it before, the game is bigger today than it ever has been, in crowds and in the media. I listen to talk sport quite often, a few years ago there was hardly any mention of Rugby League on there. Now, whilst still a football dominated station, they have previews of all the games, comprehensive result round ups, guests from time to time, and several of the presenters talk very highly about the sport. The same can be said of Sky Sports News too.

People are interested in the game, and I think going back to P&R will help appeal to a new audience further, but now we just need to sit back for a while and let the game grow organically rather than rush it through. Instead the powers that be need to be channelling their efforts into spreading the word further. With a bit of luck the economy will start to come back over the next couple of years and make sponsorship easier, and we can negotiate a better tv deal too. Those are the things we need to grow the game now.

Jesus! He's escaped. I take it no one was responding to the merchant of doom on the Sin Bin then?

Money is tight at the moment and being a Wigan fan and ST holder, with a 99.9% chance that my team will be going to Wembley after getting a cricket score, I chose to stay at home and watch it on the box and put the money I would have spent going to the semi towards a cup final ticket.

I have gone to other cup ties where the opposition seemed a more credible challenge but this was always going to be a walkover.

Money is tight at the moment and being a Wigan fan and ST holder, with a 99.9% chance that my team will be going to Wembley after getting a cricket score, I chose to stay at home and watch it on the box and put the money I would have spent going to the semi towards a cup final ticket.

I have gone to other cup ties where the opposition seemed a more credible challenge but this was always going to be a walkover.

The game needs to have a national identity like Team GB at the Olympics and the British Lions.
In that way people will attach themselves to the sport more. Resurrect the GB v Oz games. It will take time to get close to them but we won't do it by not playing the games.
Ok, in the "old days" we did have imports but we weren't swamped with them like now - we have to be more selective and take risks with home grown players. Fans like to see "locals" make the grade giving them a feeling of belonging. Support your local sheriff!!!

I agree with the last two sentences. One way or another it will, but one prerequisite for that happening is a governing body with half a clue between them. Most of us would quite like to see us rise from the quagmire sooner rather than later.

The fear is that after constant tinkering Union might get its laws right and produce an entertining product backed by the sponsors and tv money.

Its unlikely though to be fair though. So we have the best sporting contest to work with and we need to maximise that.

Thrashings happen in this sport, even in the NRL teams get nilled and concede 40+. We're having a bad(ish) year after years of attendance increases but they are still way up on where they were pre-SL. At top club level at least.

The real reason we're having problems is lack of available money from sponsors/banks. Partly recession and partly due to the RFLs failings.

It's a shame we aren't going to hold our nerve a bit, maybe get some new management in at the RFL. But it looks like loads of massive knee jerk reactions are going to happen and the game's going to become a very complicated mess in a year's time.

Define competitive.

England thrashing the Aussies at cricket this year means cricket isn't a sport?

The top 4/5 of the Premier League means that football isn't a sport - how many teams can realistically win the premier league? Scottish football isn't a sport (

) and Spanish football is about as far away as you can get from competitive and therefore sport.

IMO it is when there can be some reasonable doubt as to the result.

Me vs Usain Bolt over 100m, isn't really a race in any meaningful sense.

Blow-outs happen in sport, it is when you know in advance that it becomes a big problem.

It is true to say that we know with something approaching absolute certainty that Manchester Utd will finish above Hull City in the PL this season. Over 90 minutes in either of the games between the 2, Hull City could get some sort of result, possibly, maybe.

One 'problem' is that it is rare for a team to nick a lucky result against the run of play in RL. If one team is much better and performs somewhere close to their best, they almost invariably win. Football actually gets away with a much greater disparity between clubs, because 'you never know', whereas in RL you kind of would.

3. Though probably 2.