I'm not sure what point you are making there, Egg Chasing. The NRL isn't better because 'English fans can't be d to watch SL', why should that have anything to do with it? As I said elsewhere, i watched Cas v Hudds, and quite enjoyed it. but the Canberra game I watched earlier, whist not reaching any great heights, was still a better quality contest, if it comes down to that mythical "if you had to invite a viewer who'd never seen rugby league before" argument.

Of course the quality is better. My point is that how is the game supposed to grow over here when our own fans cba to watch it?

If people tuned in for games on tv and viewing figures were high we would get better tv deals and could demand better coverage. Instead we get games moved around at daft times or shoved on sky sports mix.

You must be an absolute masochist or something if that's your solution. You can't be being serious surely?

So we now all have to be little bum buddies and watch RL all the time? I bet you're the type of guy who buys those half and half flags. Is this a new level of fan btw? Someone that has a season ticket & all the merch, is no longer the top tier. They've now been usurped by someone who watches all RL games on sky (but not the NRL obvs).

I think I'll just stick to watching stuff that I enjoy

When Australia and New Zealand can send teams to the Olympics and Rugby Union players to our country, it is simply proving that they do not want to take part in the event as they see it as a loss making venture in the present Covid19 situation of our country.

Fans will watch games they want to watch. Salford v (near enough anyone bar Wigan) on Sky doesn’t tickle my fancy. I can add HKR, Wakey, Leigh, Huddersfield into that too.

I’m a boxing, golf and cricket fan too. I don’t watch games there I don’t want to.

But by your reasoning we should all watch RL all the time as that will boost advertisements and money? You’re far off the money here.

Watching sport should be a pleasure, not a duty.

You’re spot on, and that’s exactly my position as a diehard RL fan.

Quite simply it’s not worth watching HKR, Salford, Huds, or Leigh vs anyone as it’s usually low quality fare in front of a trickle of a crowd, no spectacle atmosphere or event.

Sadly that’s what super (sic) league has become.
I love watching the game but I’m only interested if it’s the top SL teams playing each other. Otherwise it’s usually a non contest or pretty rubbish rugby....tbh games at the top of SL can be like that too, just less frequent and more often get a decent game.

Top of SL is just about watchable, bottom half is largely a waste of time. There’s only really 6/7 decent clubs, even then it’s miles off the quality of NRL

Easily, the best two games of last season were the two Wigan Vs Saints games. I'm saying that's as both a fan of Wigan and also a fan of what RL should be. If every game was at that level, then more people would watch it. It isn't and they don't.

If you ever want to know what's wrong with British RL then read this article rlhttps://www.seriousaboutrl.com/proof-the-salary-cap-works-41335/rl. I'm not a fan of Saints, but why should they suffer because they've built a decent side? Why should players be asked to choose between being part of a winning side, or a big pay day? Why is it seen as a positive that, as I said above, a team that played a part in two of the best game have to become weaker?

People question why fans like me don't like British RL. Well that article is all they need to read. The opening paragraph states that it was done prevent the team I support from being dominant. What more of a reason do you need? Fu to the rest of the clubs and British RL imo.

Couldn’t agree more with you, the article or afootingmiracle.

I don’t know if you’ve seen it but occasionally sky play retro games. The last (to my knowledge) being Wales v Aus in the disastrous 2000 WC, the one before that Wigan v Saints for the last ever game at CP and some retro GB games. They’re brilliant to watch and bring back some good memories (or not so good on the 2000 WC but that’s beside the point).

The point is is that these games were so much better then the current rugby being dished out. Better atmosphere, better styles and better all round players. The SL decline started when the RFL for some bizarre reason decided to bring the league down to Wakefield/Cas/Salford level instead of forcing those clubs up, or booting them out. Now we’re paying the price.

I want to love British RL, even more so as I can’t stand the NRL, but I just can’t bring myself to watch the aforementioned teams if Wigan aren’t playing. I’ll gladly tune in to Warrington/Saints/Leeds and sometimes Catalans but even then I’m far from “can’t take my eyes off this”. The quality just isn’t there anymore, despite what Sky and any other podcast other than ‘Out of Your League’ would have you believe. That contributes to falling crowds, viewing figures and ultimately funding.

Rads spoke about how much more entertaining the game was back in the early 2000’s during a recent podcast. Everything goes in cycles and since Maguire came here in 2010, the whole game in this country and changed and got in to that grind mentality of low error counts, low risk plays, strong carries from your outside backs in your own 30 metres and the defensive structures have improved. A team will go totally against the grain at some point and be a trend setter for playing a more open brand of rugby. Why can’t that be us? If Rads knows it’s turgid, why not do something about it? We couldn’t been making the change these last 3 seasons. We’ve won nothing anyway, so we could had a transitional period to go in a totally different direction. One where you say ‘you score 30 and we’ll score 40’ or at least try to do that.

The Liverpool way a few seasons ago, I don’t watch much football but it seemed to have brought about a change in the PL and more attacking football than the English way of defensive play.

I agree. It seemed when we appointed (and at the same time didn’t) SE then AL that was the way we were going to go. That could well have sprung change in SL but alas due to the well documented failure of the coaching staff it isn’t to be under the current coach.

Cas kind of threatened it in 2017 and Saints certainly did under Holbrook, but it never caught on. Part of me hopes Powell does it at Warrington and inspires the rest of the league to change their way.

Liverpool are the example that springs to mind in sport of a team that broke away from the supposed winning method of playing to go their own attacking way. Rather than packing the midfield, sitting deep, playing on the break and winning by not conceding and pinching the odd goal, they went ‘we’ll go after you’, pressure you with the ball, push the fullbacks right up and if we concede 2, we’ll get 3, concede 3, we’ll get 4 and for a couple of seasons they were totally dominant.

I do fully expect Wire to be hugely entertaining to watch next season. They have an ultra attacking spine and a coach who will encourage that. If they can do that and win the big trophies, than they could lead a change away from the robotic rugby we see most teams play.

The real question now is whether we go ahead or not.

For me, we should. Any sort of Australia/NZ representational team IMO would devalue the comp. As they aren’t recognised teams I doubt the clubs would be obligated to release players.

We should look to add the 2 of USA, Solomon Islands or Serbia and see how many players defect to the south sea island nations. It could even result in a more competitive tournament with talent more evenly spread.

Stick 2 fingers up at ‘em

It might be a question of money whether we go ahead. It may well be a mickey mouse competition with no Australia or New Zealand but the amount we would have to pay back to cancel it may mean we have to go on.

With you all the way until the last sentence! I like singing about 1955 at the HJ...