not really, it's a well made point but hardly the reason RL is less popular than RU.

It's down to history, prejudice and the fact that RU was and still is nationwide, RL was and pretty much still is the north of england , mainy the M62 corridor.

Looking at the international game, which is where a sport is showcased and we in RL are an utter joke, RU is definately not.

Back to Wane, seems to be a good coach so far if you can look past his shortcomings.

Love how a wigan fan thinks RL lacks characters, er no it doesn't. It's just that you are trying to draw a positive from the fact your coach comes across and an ape. Seriously don't worry about it, it's his coaching ability that matters.

At this stage it's an outside bet that he lasts past this season in post, and even longer odds he gets anywhere near international level (apart from maybe ireland, scotland or wales) so the fact he looks ans sounds thick is pretty irrelevant.

If you really want to draw a positive out of it, you could claim, and rightly so, that he is the true face of wigan.

Sad, but true.

I always pick up on things like that. It seems like whenever Peacock is on Sky Sports News, and his clip has just finished, it always comes back to the presenters in the middle of laughing and they have to try and get a straight/serious face back on for the camera.

On talkSPORT a while back I remember the presenter (don't know who it was) read out an email from a Hull fan moaning about rugby league's lack of coverage on the station and the presenter made a joke about RL being "a sport for thick Northerners like yourself Quinny!"(Micky Quinn). To which Quinn said "I wouldn't know I don't watch it. I might watch the odd England game at Twickenham if it's on tele but 'league' is the other one anyway isn't it?!"

We're fighting a battle nobody wants us to win.

Anyway, back on topic, we do have intelligent people who can string sentences together very well in our game. Kevin Sinfield and Jon Wilkin are used a fair bit, but we have so many more, but the outside world would never know.

I understand what the previous posters mean about the interviewing of players such as Hock and Peacock.

SKY really must get to grips with their coverage.
They should pick the MOM for each game prior to the kick off based on grammar and pronunciation rather than base it on the actual 80 minutes play.

Take the Wigan v Saints game. Jon Wilkin should have been made to come back out of the dressing room ( or ambulance if his injury was that bad ) to collect a well deserved MOM award rather than giving it to Hock.

Or even better lets stop any kids who cannot speak perfect Queens English starting to play the game so we wont have this problem in the future

BITE

fadge did, his was faded as fook at the end of last season

That was due to him sweating over Wigan's poor performance in the league.

finished 1 point behind wire in the league

My original post wasn't saying we should stop Hock, Peacock, etc from being interviewed, but simply pointing out a class bias that exists in society, which undoubtedly leads to opinions being formed about our sport, which is mainly restricted to working class northern towns.

Many people like to cite the Eddie Waring years of whippets, flat caps and laughable coverage, which held back our sport for many years in lots of people's eyes and it is unfortunately a reputation that still exists in many neutral's eyes....For me, it is something that will never go away and it is something that will always be a negative for our game.

Rugby League's lack of success on a national basis, has as much to do with class divide than any question over the quality of the sport and the lads who play our game are unfortunate in that they get judged on their accents than their actual talents.

Shaun Edwards hasn't refined his accent much and he's now treated as Union royalty. Andy Farrell, Chris Ashton, Jason Robinson, Mike Ford anyone?

Actually, I think all this stuff about accents is a complete pile of Ben Cross. Contrary to what was written earlier in the thread, I don't remember ever hearing anyone in the media take the Lee Gaskell out of 'thick, Northern accents', although they do treat us with contempt in a series of different ways. The stuff about Peacock 'sounding thick' is a construct entirely created in the head of chippy, self-hating RL fans - he's a very bright bloke and he speaks eloquently about the game.

Gareth Hock is as thick as pig dung though.

Jamie Peacock does sound quite dense when interviewed straight after matches. However, he's hardly on his own - it continues to astonish me that professional sportspeople are expected to come across like Oscar Wilde when a microphone is thrust in their faces almost before they've even stepped off the pitch/field/court/oche, etc.
The vast majority come out with cliches and banalities, which is hardly surprising, whatever their 'real' level of intelligence may be.

Jason Robinson is very much the exception to your list. He went to Union with a Leeds accent, his current Southern accent is unrecognisable from his original dialect.

A coach one told me, ex Wire full back actually, that Hock is indeed not the brightest academically, but his rugby brain and game awareness is absolutely outstanding. I would prefer him - warts and all - than the well spoken Wilkin.

All those you refer to have been 'accepted' because they have been perceived to have washed themselves of RL and, instead, fully submerged themselves into Union fold.....I wonder what their views are on Chev Walker or Karl Pryce??

Ultimately, RL is viewed as Union's simple, village idiot cousin.....They patronise and put up with us because they simply don't see Rugby League as a viable threat to their media dominance, because that media is dominated by their own type - They also view those running RL as simple characters too, a view which can often be seen as valid when you see some of the decisions that those in charge of our game make, in both the marketing and running of our game.

Wane is a very good coach and wigan through and through, I know that when he goes home every night he watches vids of our games and picks stuff out I wish more coaches has the passion he does

The crafty git!