A cursory glance around any superleague fixture reveals quite a few English people wearing NRL club shirts.

North Queensland Cowboys, St George Illawarra and Brisbane Broncos seem the most popular from what I've seen.

I'd be interested to find out what makes your average bloke from Hull, St Helens or any other northern English town or city support a particular NRL club. Why would anyone from Hull support Melbourne Storm??? Why would anyone from Wigan support St George???


Interestingly enough I don't recall seeing any Aussie footy fans proudly sporting the latest Castleford, Wigan or St Helens jumper at an NRL match.


Do you think this is just because so many NRL jumpers are listed on ebay these days??? Are they better quality??? Is it because the colours are nicer??? Is it because you think the NRL is better than Superleague???

like any top quality sports league around the world it will attract fans from abroad who like to feel part of it. Look at the amount of NFL and NHL jerseys you see as well in the UK, quite a lot considering both are minority sports here.

Personally, i'm not from a heartlands town/city but once i found out about RL there was no turning back so i naturally started watching the SL and NRL (yes you have to find out about RL here, so little is the media coverage in NI) I support the Roosters for unknown reasons but like to see the competition as a whole do well.

Were the Roosters doing well when you first supported them? When did you start?

I follow the Warriors as my family live 20 minutes from Mount Smart.

During a shot of the crowd at the Wigan v Hull game yesterday I saw a guy in the Wigan section wearing a Penrith Panthers shirt.

Simple reason really, the NRL is the best rugby league in the world and its great to watch. So you gotta have a team to follow. Cant remember why i started liking the Roosters, but i have done for a long while, i got my first jersey back in 97. Now ive moved down here and lived in Bondi Junction for a while, so they where actually my local team for a while. As much as they are doing bad this year i still watch them. In fact i consider myself more of a Roosters fan than a Wigan fan now.

I think it's great and even better that out of those supporters, most also seem to take allegiance with either NSW or QLD come Origin time. I am surprised when they side with NSW though, as i've always imagined the "QLD legend" would carry more weight from afar.

I was quite suprised how much NSW felt like 'my team' last wednesday, Ive only lived here for 8 weeks!

I like Wests Tigers myself, always have a great looking kit.

Wasn't me but i'm a Wigan fan that supports Penrith.

Reason being it's the only ground in Australia i've been to(didn't get to watch a game as I was there for the Ashes cricket and it was the off season). I'd bought a Penrith jersey the day before and Shane Richardson spotted me and my mate who had a Wigan shirt on and came over for a chat with his missus. He seemed a cracking bloke.

They'd finished bottom of the league in the season that had just finished when i was there and after buying the shirt they won the grand final the year after I take full credit for that!

Seems that it's mainly the Sydney clubs & NSW 'origan' for the majority of UK fans.

However, I've been supporting 'Der Storm' since their first season. The reason is perhaps a bit obtuse, namely, it was the hometown of my late wife. However, expect that when Perth Reds join the NRL will move westward to support them. Again for personal reasons as my son & his family now live in the 'Sunshine' city of Perth!!

Still have very mixed views about the set-up of the NRL game i.e. a couple too many teams in and around Sydney. Believe it would be better if instead two teams were 'moved' to Adelaide & Perth soon which means that the NRL can finally start to be called the nations true national game.....

....still hopeful this will happen in my lifetime - but as I'm 77 it might well not, sad to say!!

there are many roosters fans that dont know why they support them either.

alot of the times selections of teams to follow are the players playing for them . i was born in kogarah its in my blood from my dragons family

I have followed the arl/nrl since 1982
I saw the aussie tourist at Hull and have been hooked ever since

I got videos of the games up too 1989
Then i got sky and they showed games
OK they were not live but a few days old and i watched the Balmain Tigers v Canberra Raiders grand final and i ve not seen a game to beat it yet

I follow the Parramatta Eels
But i collect all the club shirts They are so easy to get now with the internet etc