I can vouch for that

And what, precisely, is my "attitude"? I have never complained about RL media coverage in my life. It's a bit lower than it should be, but there are more important things to worry about, frankly.

International rugby league is a farce - the vast majority of the teams are completely contrived, and as such, I can't see that many people, in these straitened economic times, being willing to shell out to watch games in which they have no vested interest. The games may be entertaining, but those involving the 'minnows' are not likely to be of a high standard.

Well done for you in going to some lesser games in the 08 World Cup - I'd have done the same had I travelled half-way round the world on such a holiday, no doubt.

No they aren't. If you are too ignorant to do some research then that's your problem. It's people like you that make international RL into a 'farce' though, by having this attitude the game you are supposed to support.

You go onto answer your own question. Your 'attitude' is the negative guff that many RL fans spout.

Rugby League fans really should copyright the use of the word 'farce'.

RU and Fotoball fans don't care about the things that you list. Hell, they aren't even bothered if something's interesting!

At least we have entertaining sport in RL, but for some reason people would rather sit at home and call it a farce.

Well there's about ten of us planning a trip to Limerick to watch the Ireland game and show our support for RL and to have a good long weekend as well.

The biggest problem with international RL is the nation swapping. It is that more than the 'grandparent rule' that is an issue. The 'grandparent rule' goes on in many sports as people point out, but you do not have that many dual code internationals.

Imagine in football if you had say John Aldridge winning a few caps for Republic of Ireland then switching to play for England in World Cup 1990 and then switching back to Republic of Ireland in the 1994 World Cup. Or in cricket Kevin Pietersen suddenly switching and deciding to play for South Africa.

Where RL is a farce is guys like Chris Bridge and Danny Brough using Ireland and Scotland to get international caps and then declaring themselves eligible for England. To give credit to Lee Briers he ruled himself out of England selection, I'm sure I saw him say something on Twitter that when he chose Wales he chose Wales and he would never switch.

This is also a big problem with the south sea Island teams and is what weakens them, you get players viewing Samoa or Tonga as a team to play for early in the career and then at the end when they aren't in the NZ or Australia teams. If all the players eligible for those island teams actually played for them and stuck to them they would be quite strong, pushing NZ. But there isn't enough international exposure for them, what they could do with is an annual Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and PNG tournament like the Four Nations but obviously funding is an issue.

I agree with all of that, and I understand people dislkining that rule, I do too.

What appears to happen in other sports though is that they do things that would also be described as 'farcical' if it were Rugby League. Fans don;t need to like all of these things, but there is no denying that watching a game of RL like Fiji vs Ireland, or PNG v Samoa, or Tonga v Scotland at the HJ Stadium will be a good standard of sport and give plenty of excitement, especially when compared to minnows in other sports.

In RU, whilst there is no nation hopping that I am aware of, England have featured players from NZ, SA and the Pacific Islands IIRC. This is the kind of thing which has seen much criticism when it happens in RL (although in my experience much of it from within). In the recent RUWC there were something like 60-odd New Zealand born players in the squads across the tournament, and even England and Aus had approx 7 overseas born players in their squads.

In Cricket, the England team has had plenty of overseas players representing them, and don't they have nation-hopping issues (i'm thinking of Ireland and England)?

In my humble opinion, for the 4-6wk duration of the tournament, people should put politics to one side, enjoy the RL, and get to as many games as they can afford and have a good time.

Maybe if we as fans started to do this, we would start to see the game grow and these issues wouldn't need to happen.

They do have a tournament - the Pacific Cup. It's not annual but was held in 2009 and the competing teams were the Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga. By beating the Cook Islands in the final, PNG won the right to take part in the 2010 Four Nations, much like Wales did for the 2011 Four Nations by winning the 2010 European Nations.

Ideally, these regional tournaments would be annual, with players forced to stick with their original countries.

Yes, of course, it's my fault that the likes of Scotland, Ireland and Wales contain next to no indigenous professional players.
Roughly 50% of the Wales national football team were born in England, does that make them a 'farce'? You are aware that Ireland has over 20 RL clubs? I would point out the number of domestic players in the squads for the recent internationals, but since you're so ignorant that you probably didn't even know they took place, then I won't bother. It's ok though, you are quite welcome to sit at home moaning about 'indigenous' players and the rest of us will enjoy the World Cup.

Yes very good. I note you conveniently ignore that I actually stated indigenous professional players. You know, given that we're talking about a supposedly professional sport here.

Maybe you should do some research so that you actually have some idea what you are talking about before making yourself look any more ridiculous.