Celtic Crusaders we destined to fail from the moment they were given a SL licence. By calling themselves the 'Cardiff Dragons' or similar and being located within the country's capital city they would have stood a better chance with Marketing / pulling the punters in. Obviously the club would have needed to have been better funded than the Crusaders, the writing was on the wall when they moved to Wrexham, which is a shame cause it's a great away day especially with that pub connected to the ground.

I like the idea of regionalisation in principle and can see many benefits to it. But can you expand on how you believe such a plan would help to create expansion opportunities?

Welsh RL should have linked with the Cardiff Blues in a Quins style link to stand a better chance of getting somewhere.

Getting a successful RL club up and running in south Wales is a bit like getting a branch of the Klu Klux Klan operating in Brixton.

I've been a fan of regionalisation as an expansion policy to.

It would seam fairly straightforward. But requires some planning by the RFL. They need to know where they want the game to expand, rather than just waiting for some died hard to try and expand it one club at a time.

The advantage of a regional system is that any expansion region will compete against each other so not exposing them straight away to the full strength of the league system. But also that expansion league will get equal proportions in the playoffs at the end of the season giving them decent exposure to traditional championship sides.

You could have an east and west division along with a southern divison or expansion division. How you divided the teams up could be decided on a 3 yearly basis, to keep the divisions level in numbers.

Get your facts right before blaming it on "fast tracking". They spent 2006 and 2007 in National League 2, finished top in 2007, got promoted to National League 1, and then finished 2nd in National League 1 in 2008. Then got a super league licence in 2009.

Where's the "fast tracking" in that?

i think the problem with sl, is that we are trying to expand to fast,
we need to get the game huge and sustainable in the "hotbeds" that we currently have, expand all over the lancs and yorkshire, with cumbria etc, once its got a stable and steady foothold up here, where we know it works, and we are good at getting crowds in, then lets start expanding to whales and london,
(im taking catalan out of this cos they have done everything correctly and it is really working in down there)

2006-2009 - 3 years, not fast track??? Those are the facts,

Get a Midlands team in!

So you think they should have been [irefused [/ipromotion even though they came top of the league? Is finishing top not good enough?

Is finishing 2nd in NL1 not good enough for selection to SL?

well if finishing top isnt then how can 2nd be

Could it not be that they brought in all these aussies/nz in on big contracts they couldnt afford

The hotbeds have had 100+ years to get themselves "huge and sustainable", and failed, for the most part. Give somewhere else a chance (and a proper chance, not like the Crusaders balls-up).

they havent tho, cos our funds and the rfl focus have been diverted elsewhere to get these tin pot organisations like crusaders and quins up and running and keeping them, need to exand in the hotbeds, create a better atmosphere in them, one of moving forard, and progress,

Crusaders were promoted to Super League far too early and the blame for that lies firmly at the door of the RFL. However two consecutive boards/owners have pulled the wool over the eyes of the governing body, players and fans alike. Have the RFL been naive? In my opinion yes. They saw an opportunity to gaina strong foothold in Wales and let their hearts rule their heads. It must never be allowed to happen again. Ever.

Have you seen the increase in playing numbers in London, the south east and Wales over the past ten years?

If it's exposure you're talking about, what's the problem with being on BBC2? More people have access to BBC2 than Sky Sports.

There's already a thriving Midlands rugby league set-up, just not in Super League. I'd love Coventry Bears to successfully apply for a place in Championship 1.