1. england : soccer first, then daylight.

2. wales - they cut the number of clubs in half, crowds at club level arent the best. soccer does much better.

3. south africa - apparently soccer is much bigger. union is still a toffs sport.

sure union has areas where it is strong, but its not like they are many or indeed any bigger than RLs.

for example look at england, RL is strong in Leeds. union isnt strong in any major city in england in the same way.

yeah the get great crowds for internationals but at club level its just not there.

theyll go to an event but arent really fans

with Super LEague exapanding well into france with les cats and later toulose, and also to wales, and the NRL doing very well in New zealand and considering expansion into PNG, i can understand the union guys being paranoid.

at least with all the RL games theyll be watching theyll get a chance to watching proper running rugby instead of their game.

seriously, how anybody can watch it and think its good is beyond me.

(btw, this is getting close to Other Sports Forum, and lockage, territory.)

im not a union fan. im sat here listening to wigan-wakefield on the net rather than watch scotland-wales on the tv.
i agree that football is clearly no1 in england but it's biggest rival in terms of column inches is union (cricket during the ashes)
union is no1 in wales and a distant second in scotland.
leicester, bristol and london are quite big and they have top flight union teams.
to deny any of this seems a bit foolish to me. im with you in that icant understand how anyone can sit down, watch a game of union and a game of league then honestly say union is better.

regarding tb's recent (and correct) post, i feel celtic and rl in general must be left to fight for itself. if it's not meant to be then so be it.
i can see a bright future for league in wales, i just cant see it becoming the national sport any time soon.

The GP has higher average attendance than SL. I don't understand it, but it's a fact.

As for the original topic, I agree with the above post, it is something for CC to deal with. I like Iestyn Harris' comments in the article.

isn't that the air new zealand cup? not sure if it's fully professional though

anyone watching the wales game, half time analysis still think lee byrne is the best in the world because he can run a ball back at a broken field defence and make half breaks

(none of them seem to notice the fact that he's tackled people without the ball at least 4 times, thus taking himself out the game for no reason)

think i'll go back to listening to wigan

edit:
think williams has been watch kallum watkins

this is gonna get moved or locked

think iestyn harris got it right when he said
[i
"The Crusaders are riding the crest of a wave and will get a bit of sympathy from the Welsh public early on but that will waver if 12 months down the line, they are not competitive - the public will lose any interest as they can be fickle."[/i

in his interview with the bbc

Sounds more like a symbiotic approach than compettition. Sure, the best players will have to choose between international RL or international RU - but hopefully Crusaders will help develop the international League game.

Afaik, both the Currie Cup and NPC involve at best semi pro teams: I didn't count them for the same reason I didn't count Baryercard teams - but this really has strayed into other sports territory