I don't know what would be funnier.....England going out or England having to qualify for RWC 2019 in Japan

Rugby League supporters would, I suggest give Union 10/10 for the amount of money it attracts, marketing, hype and professional organisation. Only say 2/10 for what actually takes place on the pitch which, despite the things we'd give 10/10 for, is still amateurish at best. I'd expect that Sam Burgess thinks the same.

Did you come to that conclusion from watching BT Sport?

You've got to admit he's right though. Off field RL could learn a lot from RU. On field RL would learn very little from RU.

In the mid 20th century, two soft drink giants were pitted head to head with their leading brands - Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
For years, sales of Coke had out stripped Pepsi no matter what PepsiCo tried in terms of sales and marketing.

Then, one day, someone at Pepsi stumbled across something very interesting, something that should have (logically) forever changed the fortunes of Pepsi sales and the ultimate result of an Coke vs Pepsi battle. It turns out that, in a blindfolded taste test, the vast majority of people picked Pepsi as the cola they preferred against Coke. Thus the Pepsi taste challenge was born.

In the early 90s, Virgin cola tried the same marketing ploy, convinced that quality of taste would be an overriding factor in what cola people chose to drink.

Now, when was the last time you chose pepsi over coke?

Essentially, us feeling vindicated in the fact that we have a more entertaining game, one that a completely unbiased newcomer would prefer to union, serves only to make us feel better. The end product is the tip of the iceberg, the other 90% Union has League licked.

IMO League has to make headway in breaking down barriers between the two codes (player like SB and SBW starring in the WC will surely help). The majority of species at these world cup games are not club supporting species like we have. Whilst they exist, club RU is only at a scale to RL. RU however have the [ioccasionals[/i, the hundreds of thousands of people, mostly affiliated to an amateur RU club, who will enjoy the odd day out to watch an International game, no matter the quality of the actually rugby.
Amateur RU clubs have 3, 4 even 5 teams. This is because you can go on playing RU and having fun into your 40s, 50s, you'll even find the odd 60 year old doing it. That simply cannot be replicated in RL because of the physicality and pace of it,in fact you'll find plenty of ex rugby league players playing RU.

These guys are all potential rugby league fans. We need to break down the barriers, the idea that its one code or the other, the idea that because you play one, you can't enjoy the other. The RU, from their position of strength will try and convince the public other wise, but that's what we have to fight against to engage the wider public.

Good post. You make a lot of sense. However, because i'm a League fan in the Heartlands and to help ChangingGutterGalliant in their crusade against league, I have to disagree with everything and say Its all unions fault why we aren't as popular as them.

All Rugby League clubs should offer all registered playing members of amateur RL and RU clubs in their catchment area season tickets for a fiver.

I have always thought a similar thing.

I have never known Hull FC target the large University student potential in the City as well and offer them discount tickets for games and get flyers up around the campus - there will be plenty of people there from Union areas of the country who cannot get their Rugby fix

When you say 'they', do you mean Dave Hadfield and Nigel Wiskar?

A RL fan worrying about a sporting organisation that makes £150 million in a year and has a spanking 82,000 seater-stadium in London that is paid for is a bit like Granville in Open All Hours worrying about the finances of Harrods.

I've seen the £60 million quote too. It's not RU that will lose it, just the country in general, from beers on the semi final weekend to England flags to Betting at William Hill.
Same as when England football don't progress. The potential earnings lost is massive, but it isn't all income to the governing body.

I know that RL fans often diss RU fans, but what are these other species at the RUWC? Are they less advanced than humans?

There is only a finite amount of money in circulation. If it's not spent watching the yawnion it will be spent on something else. It is not lost to the economy. Anything lost to the RFU, however, is a bonus.

same thing wit us, we had a long standing partnerships with the university but to my knowledge apart from offer students/employees cheap match tickets never really targeted the large student population in Huddersfield, had we done that, then maybe, some of the students would still be avid fans after they'd graduated and maybe got their family and friends involved.

we need someone in RL with a vision to sell the game to the likes of O2 and NIKE and make them want to be a part of us.

Offside Monkey makes a really good point about the amateur game in the 2 sports.
It's a huge recruiter for the international and event games in Union. The reason it is is that the amateur game in Union has much stronger links to the sport itself but also its more inclusive. It allows people to keep playing and so keep involved in the sport.

If we want to do the same we have to make some big changes in our amateur game.
First and foremost we have to make it much less confrontational, much less about violence & intimidation and much more about enjoyment and inclusivity.
I don't play, partly due to lack of fitness, but mainly due to the fact I simply don't enjoy being around a bunch of violent, intimidating, swearing, aggressive people, many of whom have either been or are one step away from jail.
That's obviously a generalisation and doesn't apply to all, but it sadly applies to far too many of RL's open age amateur players.
We need a purge of these kind of people from our sport. And it's not just players. Coaches and club officials are too often the same.

Even if we do that, the nature of open age RL is still very physical so it will rule out a lot of people who don't fancy it. So we need Touch RL teams and leagues. Far, far more than currently. It can be our 5-a-side football. And it involves people in the sport.
On the same theme we need far more girls and women's teams. Am I right in saying that from Year 7 onwards girls can't play in the same team as boys?
Whilst we start to see a drop off from boys as well at this time I'm sure there must be plenty of girls who want to carry on playing RL but can't or don't because of the lack of girls teams.

We then need a much stronger link between the amateur clubs and both their local pro clubs and the governing body/national side.

The amateur game is a huge gateway to the sport for both young people and adults, and too often it's closed to far too many people.