Quote Psychedelic Casual="Psychedelic Casual"I don’t have an answer to that. Other than maybe - finances. Or maybe they are living so far in the past and not in the real world that they can’t see that those same amateur clubs in those same RL towns are not enough to keep the player pool going anymore. The RFU have spent millions and put this: www.englandrugby.com/about-the-r ... l-schools# into action and it’s got real legs. Wythenshawe (South Manchester, population 100000) have now got a RU amateur club off the back of it with all four local high schools providing players. Previous to this Wythenshawe had no RU links at all. RL has done nothing like this in high schools in South Manchester and a mate of mine works in a school in Liverpool and said RL aren’t in schools in his area neither. Manchester Rangers does have links to MMU but you’d imagine by that age they would already be RL players from RL areas. Plus they are a seventh division club (despite having money for five/six divisions higher if needed).'" And yet when the play Rugby at my sons RURAL Oxfordshire school, they play Rugby LEAGUE. Go figure that one out? Maybe the RL are trying to promote RFL in areas that are NOT in the heartlands, and RFU are trying to do the same thing.... You know JUST maybe?

Quote Psychedelic Casual="Psychedelic Casual"I don’t have an answer to that. Other than maybe - finances. Or maybe they are living so far in the past and not in the real world that they can’t see that those same amateur clubs in those same RL towns are not enough to keep the player pool going anymore. The RFU have spent millions and put this: www.englandrugby.com/about-the-r ... l-schools# into action and it’s got real legs. Wythenshawe (South Manchester, population 100000) have now got a RU amateur club off the back of it with all four local high schools providing players. Previous to this Wythenshawe had no RU links at all. RL has done nothing like this in high schools in South Manchester and a mate of mine works in a school in Liverpool and said RL aren’t in schools in his area neither. Manchester Rangers does have links to MMU but you’d imagine by that age they would already be RL players from RL areas. Plus they are a seventh division club (despite having money for five/six divisions higher if needed).'" And yet when the play Rugby at my sons RURAL Oxfordshire school, they play Rugby LEAGUE. Go figure that one out? Maybe the RL are trying to promote RFL in areas that are NOT in the heartlands, and RFU are trying to do the same thing.... You know JUST maybe?

Dubai really isn't a good example seeing as their coach was thrown into jail over there for trying to promote the code:

[urlhttps://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/mokdad-slams-rlif-over-englands-dubai-trip/[/url

You have missed my point entirely. My point is that RL in Dubai is never going to work if the powers that be are going to throw anyone trying to promote it in jail! Sol Mokdad might not have a bad word to say about the UAE or RU, but the facts remain that RL in Dubai is a really bad example for expansion lol

My bad.....

I already know about that and signed a petition to maybe influence those with more weight to get him released.
And I disagree, it's a very good example and you miss the point entirely!
It's about getting training to those at grass roots level, to those that have influence at local level, that being in schools in areas that we currently don't have a foothold. If union are able to do this in a far away land where there is no history of the sport then we should at least be capable of doing this in regions other than the areas that are already strongly invested in RL. They have 5 union leagues that compete regularly in UAE and are prepared to invest more time and money to get it to flourish.

Meanwhile the RFL have failed to fund people in the Southern regions at least to go into schools and try to recruit, engage and enhance the profile of the sport, there are hardly any development officers any more hence why schools that did start playing league and playing in the national comps (certainly in Hertfordshire) no longer play any league whatsoever, not even casually.

That Sol was put in jail is irrelevant to the point and you missed it by a Carlisle mile

I didn't miss your point at all. If you want grass roots investing in then we need to be starting here in the UK, not in a country where promoting it can get you jailed.

No, you banged on about someone being in prison, that was nothing to do with the point I was making, yes imprisoning someone (albeit briefly) on the back of dodgy circumstances is not good but the point you clearly missed is that to broaden the appeal of the game RL needs to be doing what RU are doing. You missed that entirely and then had the effrontary to tell someone else they missed the point.
Just typical really.

But in a country like UAE how can you promote grassroots if doing so, puts your liberty and freedom at risk. Any other country and I'd agree but Karen has made a valid point.

Thank you for understanding where I was coming from. Not sure how simply pointing out the difficulties RL has suffered over there is 'banging on' but hey ho.

I do agree that RU at grass roots level is far superior and after working at the U20s RUWC in 2016, it's clear to see that the RU supports all ages very well. We could definitely learn a lot from them.

By working within that country's rules and regulations. It makes no odds whether we agree with or morally object to the rules and regulations in a foreign nation, if we want to be there then we need to adhere to their laws.

And their rules and regulations state that RL is not a separate sport so you tell me how you'd promote it at grassroots level without the risk of a prison sentence?