London-based BBC journalist George Reilly reported on Radio Leeds that the delay to the kick off was due not to crowd congestion but to a monumental balls up in sending a "16 seater" to collect the champion Manly team from their hotel.

Jesus wept

Yep...it's true

And they had Jamie Lion and Steve Matooo playing for them!!!!

I thought at one point he said "Jamie Lyon" as in the city in France.

Ju-das is the correct pronounciation

The bloke on the PA was an embarrassment. He pronounced it that way more than once, as well as crediting the second try to the tiny scrum half when it was scored by much bigger left winger who had already scored the previous try.

Also, there was no announcement regarding the team line ups at any point. I'm unfamiliar with most of the Manly players; they were listed alphabetically in the programme without numbers beside their names but I had no idea who most of them were, and they didn't have their names on thier shirts. The PA bloke spent ages wittering on uselessly about one thing or another but didn't give out the most important information. What a shambles.

Giving out our next home game as Warrington .....

and they moan at us for wanting to keep Chris Warren on the Mike. No way would he have blundered like that.

Is CW gone for good?

He also said it was 8 days away, so some of the aussies we pulled in today might end up turning up to the stoop next monday expecting to see wire, having missed our annihilation of the worlds most famous club on saturday

Who [iis[/i this imbecile?

Rabbit Burrow, Chris Warren's less talented brother.

He scored some excellent own goals yesterday, up there with Stevo for shooting the sport in the foot with both barrels while attempting us his mouth.

We want WARREN, we want WARREN!

Give us a "W"...

Don't know who he is, but the club are doing what they can on a limited budget.
I suspect that accounts will have to be submitted as part of the next round of franchise bids and Mr Warren ain't cheap....he's a media star now



I am more concerned about the continued marketing to those who came to the game as against the tw@ on the tannoy.
Why were there not posters all over the place advertising the Wigan game? Why weren't we actively selling (if not ST's) tickets to the Wigan game in the bar before during and after the game? Why do Harlequins as a whole continue to get an unsuccessful company to try to get the ads in the toilets sold?
All of these things will be addressed WHEN we get a CEO/Marketing bod in place, but without the RFL and Alisons hard work, we would have seen 3,000 yesterday and the club need to buck up their ideas. It says something about the state of the club when a volunteer group and an ex-player manage to add 100% to the crowd on a shoestring budget.
GUTTERFAX PREPARES TO GET SHOT DOWN IN FLAMES
Mr Hughes is a saint, but we need to direct funds into marketing, or we will miss this (again) opportunity to build on yesterdays crowds. Yes, the community team are bringing through the fruits of their hard work (O'Callaghan being another one to look out for), but money needs to be put into marketing on a game by game basis NOW. I get the impression that Mr H isn't that bothered by the crowds and is the type of person who doesn't take critisism to well, but if you start at £10,000 a game and assess the success for each game against the 3 year average for each team, then you start to understand what works and what doesn't.
For example (and in theory as it is too late for this game)
Wigan: 5 games over the 3 years with an average crowd of 5,350. If we spend 10k on marketing and attract 7,000 to the game, then 1,650 fans at £15 each, then we get a £24,720 return + Residuals (beer etc) (£6 a ticket)
Catalans: 4 games averaging 3,080.....spend 10k get 5,000 and you get 1,920 fans at £5 each, with loads more on the bars etc.....and generate an extra £28,800 in revenue.

Yesterday proved what can be done when you allocate budget and get creative with how to spend it. Please god the lesson has been learnt