forget the guys name from rfl who was interviewed and questioned about "the magic weekend" he went onto the subject of cardiff and development of the and it seems to all intents and purposes that celtic were gettin a super league licence no matter what to the detriment of widnes. He further added about development in scotland and a possible move to dublin in a couple of years it seems to me they are planning to have a club in s/l from all over europe (within reason) bit like the ru what are your (sensible) thoughts???

They are intent on killing our game with that kind of nonsense.

RL belongs in the heartlands, if we are gonna expand what about trying cumbria first of all.

Edinburgh and Dublin have no RL heritage what so ever.

I agree, the RFL seem to have forgotten about Rugby League in Cumbria.

Would nt mind a weekend in dublin on the lash though...

How is a bank holiday weekend in one of Europe's most vibrant cities killing the game?

If Benidorm Bulldogs are accepted into SL, I'd be ecstatic.

Workington used to be in Super League, their average crowd was about 2,000. Seems like the people of Cumbria have forgotten about rugby league.

The only chance they've got is a merger of the clubs into one Cumbria side, and I doubt this will ever happen.

hahahaha, luvin that,

Yep let's watch our game stagnante with no development or forward-thinking at all. In fact we should go back to the winter game with one man and his dog watching on the sidelines

Rugbychick

on the plus side i suppose is that it's good publicity for the game

Cullen made no mention of Cumbria . though of course he does not wish Widnes to dip out on account of a side from there being admitted into SL.

When at Wire , he was always banging on about a Cumbrian side being in SL again.

i'm all for expansion, and it seems to be working really well in south of france and the celtic juniors seem to be coming through really well too...

but it seems a bit mad to me, when we struggle to get big attendances at our games even though most teams are a maximum of an hour apart, to start pushing more and more fixtures further afield...surely the rfl should first try and get 20k regularly into each of the superleague games between heartland clubs and then push for expansion?

So are les catalan dragons ruining our game? third in the league last year, an average attendance of 8,488 last season, which for a side with no "heritage" is a fair few. also, a beautiful, cosmopolitan place which again adds to the competition. they got to the cup final, something which numerous clubs with "heritage" haven't done, some for as long as 20 years. progress is a fact of life. without it, the game would stagnate. i agree that the derby games have that special edge, but perpignan for a few days is by and large a better trip than say, widnes....

What we need is a European Super League.

I mean that as an extra league. One league for the UK, one league for Europe. You can expand as much as you want then, aslong as nobody from outside the UK plays in the UK Super League.

Dublin Dynamoes
Catalans Dragons
Toulouse Olymique
Essen Munchers
Moscow Maulers

They'd all play in the European League

Warrington
Wigan
Saints
Leeds
Widnes

They'd all play in the UK league

If you really fancied it, you could have a 8/16 team play off system that involved both leagues and the Grand Final would decide the Champion of Europe. Sort of similar to the Lancashire and Yorkshire leagues back in the day, with the final at the end of the year.

Bit of an unfair comparison as RL heritage in that area of France dates back almost as far as in Warrington (well 1930's anyway). The obvious success of Les Cats does not mean that we will get similar success from Cardiff, Edinburgh or Dublin. We still have not succeeded in London yet after years of trying.

Moving on a good question to ask the fervent expansionist supporter is "Will you support continued expansion for the good of the game even if it means your team will have to drop out of SL to accomodate?". I'm pretty sure TW that you wouldn't want Wire on the fringes just to support the Bulgarian Buchaneers and the blue sky vision of the RFL?

Very true. Many forget about the history of the game in France (Mike Rylance's 'The Forbidden Game' tells the story brilliantly). We still seem to be flogging a dead horse in London though.