If you go over to our forum and look up a couple of recent topics made by J Moon you'll see how unhappy I am. I am pretty upset to be honest and I don't think I'm gonna continue supporting them, depending on what happens.

A bit of investigative work last night by me and a person on there made us realise we'll be changing the name to just Sharks. I suppose that's not as bad as putting a new word at the front but I don't like the name Sale being dropped.

As I said on there I have lost a lot of respect for Steve Diamond and the way he's handled all this.

If any Salford fans are reading this then rest assured 99% of Sale fans are very unhappy at the moment, with regards to both the ground move and the name change. With this primacy of tenure issue it seems we've done it again. Left it until the last minute to p!ss off another bunch of fans like we did with Stockport.

Good luck with it. Sale FC apparently have a plan in place to do 5 consecutive promotions to reach The Championship in 5 seasons. I'll probably go and watch them as I've said before. I might go to the occasional game, I'll be glad to see Sharks have won their games, I'll probably go to away games as I like getting to the different grounds, but my heart won't be in it like it was.

Could I trouble you to explain why the success of the RU has been at the ‘expense’ of Rugby League please as this is the first time I have heard this. Which Rugby League country sees its game weaker since 1987, Australia, England, New Zealand, France?

Thanks

At the expense does not mean that RL has weakened...it just means that opportunities open to both codes have been snapped up and exploited by the IRB whilst the RLIF (is that what it's called this week?) survived on the crumbs from the table of the professional Club game.

As it is, since 1987, RL has become stronger in not only the 4 nations you mention, but also across the world in general...it's just that if you compare the two codes, it looks like Usain Bolt taking on Manuel Uribe over 100 meters.

As I have said already.....RL is the better code of all the footballs I have come across, but until it gets the marketing right, it will continue to lag behind.

You're welcome.



By the way, none of the 4 countries you mentioned are "Rugby League Countries"...they are counties where in every case there is another code of football that gets bigger TV deals and more supporters......and in the case of New Zealand and France, having 1 professional team that plays in another country's competition makes the statement even more ridiculous.

HTH

Thanks for the reply

I certainly didn’t mean that these were Rugby League countries in the sense that it is the dominant sport there – more that it is where RL itself is at its strongest (PNG being the exception of course which is indeed a Rugby League country). I pride myself in having enough common sense not suggest that any of these are ‘RL countries’

Thought as much.
The problems faced by League at International level and at Club level can be summed up in numbers......

30> Full time professional RL clubs in the World
2 > Provincial Sides Drawn from the above.
3 >Relevant International Teams
0 >Number of teams below the 30 that seem to matter to the governing bodies
1,000,000,000 > Dollars that the NRL will hold out for next time....further reliance on TV money and not on fans.
44,000> Number of fans prepared to pay from a tenner upwars to see the top 3 International teams and Wales in a Double header at Wembley.......
Compared with
55,000> The Number of Union fans prepared to pay upwards of 35 notes to watch Australia play an exhibition match in London 3 weeks later.

League needs to catch up.......it needs to get fans involved and back into grounds, which in turn will attract sponsors and investors, which will in turn attract media attention,...etc......etc....

IMO that is

Sorry to break up the rugby league is going the way of the dodo theme but,

[url=http://nz.sports.yahoo.com/rugby/news/article/-/13233131/lomu-claiming-500-000-euros-backpay-from-mille-clubLomu claiming 500,000 euros backpay from Mille club[/url
[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17453195?Welsh regions facing 'radical' change warns rugby union chief[/url

Apology accepted

Oh gutterfax, what [iare[/i you like!

[url=http://www.reds.co.uk/rugby-news/reds-youngsters-in-demand-but-no-sale-deal-in-placeSteve Diamond shooting his mouth of again, getting it wrong again, embarrassing himself and Sale Sharks again.[/url

It's a good job for Steve Diamond that so few people in the north west give a flying one about Sale, otherwise he'd be a PR embarrassment.

If "crouch, touch, pause, engage.." and 20 minutes per game of scrum time does one thing, it might be to preserve the mental faculties of front row forwards once they reach middle age a little better.

One thing’s for sure, the BBC like to spin their Rugby Union Dan Lydiate's Six Nations ‘moments of magic’ can be found here www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17465020 I have to say, I was expecting a little more from the text

One thing’s for sure, the BBC like to spin their Rugby Union Dan Lydiate's Six Nations ‘moments of magic’ can be found here www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17465020 I have to say, I was expecting a little more from the text

Quote Dunbar="Dunbar"One thing’s for sure, the BBC like to spin their Rugby Union Dan Lydiate's Six Nations ‘moments of magic’ can be found here www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17465020 I have to say, I was expecting a little more from the text'" Have they put the wrong video up? I saw nothing magical in that.

Quote Dunbar="Dunbar"One thing’s for sure, the BBC like to spin their Rugby Union Dan Lydiate's Six Nations ‘moments of magic’ can be found here www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17465020 I have to say, I was expecting a little more from the text'" Have they put the wrong video up? I saw nothing magical in that.