Cumbria is a lost cause to all forms of top line professional sport isn't it? No Premiership soccer club. No top flight RU club and no SL side.

Now you might think that gives us as a sport an opportunity but I thinks its actually an indication the population up there can't support top flight professional sporting sides.

Towns like Barrow, Workington and Whitehaven are just not big enough and a joint side is a none starter as it would have to be on one of those towns so wold soon be considered Workington or wherever.

Dave

on the plus side, they do very good in the sheepdog trials

and i do believe they have high hopes in canoeing for 2012

One thing's going for it. Wrexham is a fabulous night out, and I for one will more than likely take advantage of it.

'Fabulous' is over egging the pudding significantly.

I just feel sorry for Widnes, can you imagine if we were in that position? It would be so disheartening. The only thing IMO Celtic had over Widnes to be in Super League is location. They dont even have that anymore. Widnes have a better fan base, its an RL heartland, better youth development, better stadium, and more than likely better financially. Celtic are a mess.

But back when the franchises were being given out one crucial thing Celtic had (ironically) over Widnes at that time (which is what counts) is they had not recently gone bust.

It's all changed now but back then not giving Widnes the place was sensible. Unfortunately it has turned out badly for Celtic since then.

Dave

Dave your line about not being a hotbed of either code is right at the moment but

The WRU over the last 16 months have developed a strategic plan to create a new 5th Welsh regional team based somewhere in North Wales, 12 months ago they chose Colwyn Bay to be the base and Parc Eiras will have quite a lot of money spent on it for upgrading, theyve just appointed Clive Griffths to head it up and last week the Welsh Ru Youngsters played Australia youth in Colwyn Bay

Additionally Rugby Canada are going to allow some of their more Experienced players to come over in the next few months to help them develop at the right pace ie not rushing the project- saying that Leicester Tigers are sending a team up there next month to play a game

Make no mistake the WRU are serious here and , theyve got plenty of money and time and theres an amateur infrastructure of sorts already there - once again it seems whichever door we try and open RU are in first

if you search around theres plenty of stuff about this on the web

phil

How can anybody take Rugby League seriously in South Wales any longer?

So fustrating.

It's a complete embarrassment and a totally failed project. I have no qualms with the Crusaders and backed their promotion to the Super League but it is obvious that we have all been deceived by the fools at Red Hall.

We have had disastrous 'expansionist' clubs in the past and one would have thought the RFL would have learned from previous mistakes. Catalans seemed to show promise not just for the expansion of the game but that the RFL had learned from previous mistakes and wouldn't fast track sides into SL just to try and look like a national game.

Putting Celtic Crusaders in the lower divisions was also the correct decision but it's patently obvious now that the licence system that is supposed to be the fairest way to have a strong Super League is just a way for Red Hall to pick and choose who they want in the SL. Perhaps the cynics will say this was always the case but for me the RFL must want the game to succeed and they seemed to be making the correct decisions.

This sends us back to square one, what a joke.

The real problem is, it is just neevr ending, there are no announcements, although they have apparently signed Tommy Lee & Michael Witt, but no comments from Celtic, Noble or anyone connected to the club.

The longer it goes on, the more farcical it becomes.

Absolute joke