That's the headline in the UPFRONT piece in today's R.L.Express and blames lack of publicity from Clubs and the RFL for the poor gates. Carcasonne gave much publicity to their game v. Halifax and got 3,250 fans but others showed "lack of enthusiasm" The article says "Last week this newspaper had hoped to include some preview material for the games and we were promised an interview by a leading official who unfortunately pulled out at the last minute. It seems that other media outlets were no luckier in being able to gather material that would have informed their readers what the competition was about". The article continues "The fixtures were not even shown on the BBC website, Sky, or the Sporting Life website. If the public dont know about the games then they wont be there. Why did the RFL or the Clubs involved not notice the lack of fixture information and do something about it"
The UPFRONT article is an interesting read, a knock for the RFL's publicity department and the apathy of the Clubs.
Personally I went for a pint in my local after the game and talked to a Leyther about what had happened in the game - to my horror, he didnt know the game was on.

I take your point there - the lack of publicity for Championship rugby was even more evident than usual. From the club's perspective, we will always be able to do things better - however, there was 'publicity' in the local press, the club website, this message board, and on LeighLife, but it's hard to drive something that the Game's governng body hasn't (for whatever reason) pushed. I noticed the very respectable attendance at Carcassonne - do you know what their usual gate is, out of interest?

Fev haven't published crowd figures on their website (and they let S/T holders in free) and Toulouse quote 300 for the Halifax game. (should boost their SL aspirations, that one! )

As Alan says, the club has promoted the thing as best they could - local press, internet, competitive pricing, etc - but they were always gonna be on a hiding to nothing with such a shabbily conceived concept.....and if the architects of this shambles aren't even prepared to promote it, what hope the clubs who were conned into participating??

Does anyone know if we have actually made any money out of this game, sorry if it's been mentioned somewhere else but i haven't seen it.

We were hoping to, presumably based on RFL 'sponsorship' of the tourament and prize money, but I've no idea of the final outcome - again, the RFL didn't publicise the level of attraction to the participating clubs.

It's not that it's a bad concept, but it really does need to be a better thought-out one, for it to continue.

Ok thanks Alan.

It would have been better all four games being played at the same venue on the same day and alternating the home advantage each year. Then the english teams could support each other and the french teams could support each other. You may have got a have decent support for each country then.

I live in Vancouver and knew the game was on so I don't buy the "I didn't know the game was on" excuse of the Leyther in the pub. This was simply a bad idea that was never going to bring in decent crowds at the UK clubs.
For Carcassone it was easier to attract a decent crowd. They were playing a higher grade team from another country. Classic win,win for there support. Watch a better class of opposition with the chance of giant killing a UK team.
Maybe the answer is to play all the games in France. The RFL reward the Championship top 3 or 4 teams with an all expenses paid trip to France at a time that does not impact the regular season (preseason) with some prize money thrown in.

I live in Jersey and knew all about the game from about a month ago!

To be honest,if the Leyther you talked too was a regular, and he didn't know the game was on,he must be a half wit!

To be fair to 'leigh-ratii' he makes a valid point. This competition was gradually downgraded from the initial grandiose scheme that was first mooted by the RFL, to something of a poor compromise. And, just to be fair to the RFL too, ( ) they were on a hiding to nothing, in that a larger scale competition just wouldn't fit into the season of the Championship clubs involved - or the French teams for that matter, as their season had ended.

The RFL probably made the mistake of reacting to the Championship clubs, who had one less home game this season, with an ill-conceived plan.

And if you think things are bad this time round, how are the Championship clubs going to fit it into their fixture lists next season, with EIGHT more league games to play?

As for people not knowing the game was on, I suspect they are the self-same 'supporters' who never seem to know when/where we are playing - enough of them ask me those questions on a regular basis!

Die-hard fans will have known about the games, but the lack of publicity gave them a low profile. If they had been hyped up the crowds would have been bigger, but the RFL didn't want that to happen because they clashed with Super League games. In future years it would be better just to have a game between the two champions in February which would give the French an advantage and make the game closer.

Which is along the lines of the idea I muted a while back. I suggested it might be played as a 'curtain raiser' (or 'double-header' depending on how you want to spin it!) with the WCC......no real disruption to the season, but a simple way to showcase both the Championship and the French League, and offer much needed publicity to both comps!!

Simples!!

Trouble is with such a game it's slap bang in the middle of the French season if played in February.

Much like this weekend and our league?

Then maybe it's time for the French to embrace the same 'summer' season as the rest of the rugby league playing world?