I was talking to a PE teacher recently. He said 95% of applicants specialise in football. They're crying out for a PE teacher who specialises in rugby, hockey, athletics, gymnastics...

Most PE departments have been cut to the bone in the last decade so the chances of having anyone specialising in either code has been reduced massively. Less staff means less nights for training etc. etc. and that’s before you get to the general malaise in the teaching profession anyway. You’ve also got community coaches trying to dictate to kids they don’t want them playing for schools. We certainly don’t help ourselves as a game.

Be that as it may, I'll wager there are many times more schools in England playing Union than league. Every bloody private school for a start, and many State ones.

I’m a parent Governor at my youngest lads school and the Head is a fanatical Wigan Warriors fan. You can imagine the banter I have with her at Governor meetings.

They prioritise RL over football largely due to her and the contacts she has with the club. Also helps her that Liam Marshall’s wife to be is a teacher there.

My lads although loving RL do prefer football if pushed and they moan that RL is given more importance there.

It does seem to be more dependent on the Head Teacher rather than any sort of local curriculum.

It was happening well before that.

to be fair, Wigan have done quite a lot in regards to schools over the last 12-18 months (not sure how much that has changed or not). One of my mates was telling me that the primary school his sons are at used to have a dedicated sports coaching company (small local one) come in to do PE and holiday sports camps. The primary school due to costs, have now dropped some of that, and are using Wigan Warriors Community Foundation, and thus there is a RL focus being delivered in those sessions. From an RL and a fitness perspective its great for the kids, however thats probably only happening in RL towns like Wigan, St Helens, Warrington etc. Once you get out of the heartlands, will there be any desire to get into the schools. This is where the RFL and possibly clubs should come up with a plan and perhaps target different regions of the country. We should have hours of video to sell the game to kids, and if we could back that up with a joined up approach to going into schools to start off with basic skills, then surely we could start to entice the next generation into thinking about RL as a minimum. I know you would need community clubs etc, to really help the game take off, as its no good just doing schools alone, but there has got to be an ambition from somewhere in the RFL to grow the game we all love

Exactly, pieman.

International match next year against France in April,thats a start

yep, just posted the link on warriors fans. Tickets look reasonably priced for early bird, so hopefully get a good crowd on

i would like to see either us tour Oz / Nz or one of the 2 over here in the Autumn with the top 2 sides in NRL / SL playing as warm up matches. Not quite the tours of the 80s / early 90s that i've watched, but some incentive to finish in top 2 and not too long a tour for the touring side

It is but why not stage the game in France to maybe give them a bit more of an advantage, particularly as the next World Cup is being held there.

It is a start but it’ll become pointless if the sport can’t get together and arrange a proper calendar out with tours here and down under.