Quote: ROBINSON "Entirely correct.
I'm sure they are capable of understanding it, but as lot simply don't want to. A lot don't like hearing the truth, especiaqlly as it doesn't suit them.'"
Except that I'm not sure it is the truth. It's a fair opinion, but that doesn't mean it's 100% accurate.
My travels around the country regularly depress me about the perception held of RL. Most fans who watch it in non-RL strongholds tend to be ex-pats from the game's heartland. None of my London pals can name any current RL players, the way they could name Edwards, Offiah, Jonathon Davies, etc.
The game was once seen in these areas as a kind of quaint anachronism. The cup final was a day for a load of flat-cap wearing northerners to invade the capital and sing about Ilkley Moor or lassies from Lancashire. All that's gone now (and thank God for it), but we've replaced it with what ... a slick but very small game that most non-northerners aren't prepared to pay Sky subscriptions to watch, and so don't follow it any more (if they ever followed it). One pal of mine from the South Coast recently asked me if RL had been swallowed by RU, because he hears so little about it these days.
Wigan and Saints are still well known as big RL clubs, but more because of their past exploits. No-one I know down south has ever heard of Sean Long or Kieran Cunningham. When you mention Wigan, if often invokes hostility because of a perception that the RL is preventing the football from taking it's rightful place at centre stage.
I honestly don't think the difference between a Wigan v Saints cup final or a Hudds v Wire cup final will make so much difference that it's worth arguing about. But if it did, don't you think that would be a pretty depressing state of affairs? That the RFL would want a Wigan v Saints final every year, because that's the only way they'd get Joe Public to watch?