The game of Rugby League came to the fore tonight when Kevin Sinfield came runner up to Andy Murray in the SPOTY. At last some recognition for a great sport. First time since the programme began in the 1950's that Rugby League of any description has received a nomination. A job well done.

My only question is who the hell is voting for Andy Murray?!

His mam ! One hell of a phone bill but the bbc will pick up the tab

His mam ! One hell of a phone bill but the bbc will pick up the tab

And how did they manage to string a few minutes together about Rugby Unions successful year
That aside well done to the rugby league family for getting KS into second place

Scottish vote

Although I did vote Sinfield, is it just me who thinks the campaign was very cringey and makes us look desperate as a small time sport? It certainly was over the top.

A cringeworthy campaign or not, he pulled in nearly 200,000 more votes than Jessica Ennis.

More votes than Ennis, Fury, Hamilton, Farrah and Froome put together

As an honourary/part-time member of the tin hat brigade I do wonder how Murray got so many votes. Was there a specific campaign ala #buykevapint or is he really that much more popular than the others?

I expect he is, yes; Tennis has a massive, broad appeal and Murray is consistently in contention with Federer and Djokovic for the top spot in tournaments around the world. He won Olympic gold and more recently, won the Davis Cup virtually on his own. He's a superb athlete and fully deserves the recognition.

All that said, getting Sinfield on stage at all was quite an achievement - so coming 2nd to an internationally renowned athlete from a much more popular sport is nothing short of a coup; the best thing for the RL community to do now is be positive about that, rather than denigrate Murray.

Well put

I’m please for Sinfield who I like.

However I’m very pleased for Murray and I don’t get the negativity at all.

Murray has already achieved all he ever set out to do, Wimbledon, Olympic gold and whatever else he’s won. He didn’t need to play Davis Cup and could easily have cried off leaving the team with no chance.

However he saw his brother and team mates and one assumes friends with possibly their only real chance of ever winning anything and he stepped in to help. In fact he did more than that, he dragged them kicking and screaming to success and they all played above themselves, whilst Murray with little to prove played IMHO some of his best Tennis ever.

If that’s not SPOTY stuff I don’t know what is. Much as I love RL until we slay the Aussie dragon we quit rightly IMHO won’t break out in to popular culture - had Kevin captained us to a WC victory over the Aussies I suspect he’s have got the extra floating votes and won - but he didn’t.

I agree Murray deserved to win it Vastman and I don't begrudge him the award. The negativity towards him is I think because of derogatory comments he made about the English some years ago. Some folk have long memories but hey perhaps he's grown up a bit since then and realises where a lot of his wealth has come from - and it's not north of the border!

Can't be too disappointed at Murray's win. A fair wedge of his vote will have been an anti (English) establishment vote from his fellow Scots. A motive not too different from many of us who voted for Sinfield, I suspect. Just unfortunate that the former also attracted the pro-establishment vote from those south of the border as well.

None the less, very pleasing to see the number of votes KS did attract. It doesn't require any class from us loiners to vote for him but it does for fans of the likes of yourselves, Cas, Wigan, Hull et al and who felt able to set rivalries aside. Hopefully for one night only though