and there's the litmus test spooner owd cock!
If the welsh club win a few and the paying crowds increase to a sustainable level, fair do's. There's the rub.
If they don't, the wales project will need some evaluating. Same could be said of any club!
Time will indeed tell if the club is a success or the scars on the dead horses corpse from excessive flogging! - That's the question that Ganeden so badly put and which I (sot of) thought was a question worth asking!
As I said, most of you think it's too early and that's fair enough - I'll live with your point of view. I'll disagree in the knowledge that it doesn't matter a hoot anyway what I think!

No he's a true Featherstone Rovers RL fan , in the same way as I'm a true Leigh Centurions RL fan

He is also a fan of the clubs that his team play as he watches them

As I am as long as they are all playing to the same set of rules , and if not to the same rules at least I know what set they are playing to

A holyer than though attitude seems a bit prevelant within the ranks of the fans of clubs in SL , maybe that is one of the reasons he has little interest in your clubs and their competition

oh give over this martyr crap gets on my nerves after a while. whatever the good or bad of rfl decisions its based on some sort of understanding of the reality of a minor sport trying to survive in a difficult set of circumstances. the idea that the rfl have just decided to persecute poor old fev or leigh is childish nonsense. obviously the heart and soul of the sport is in the vast array of smaller and amateur clubs but the rfl has a difficult job of balancing that against the growth and prosperity of the code as a whole. not a task i envy.
as to rotherham fev: i didnt read your post properly, i was talking about comparing us against the other superleague teams with their many derbies taken out, we are an outpost trying to bring new people and new players to the sport. some leeway should be given but i dont expect some people will ever accept that so we will just have to get on with it.

Not a martyr at all , not totally against the Franchise/Licence system either as long as the competition and clubs that we are left with are shown some respect in their own right

ie , decisions made for the benifit of those clubs and the competition rather than thin veiled gimmicks with long term aims of SL

Basically cut the bull and say how it is , then we all know where we stand and can move on

Not too much to ask really

I think that's kind of missing the point. The derbies are a fundamental part of the appeal of heartland teams. Not to say they are set in stone, but just ask the good people of Humberside how energised the city is by a genuine competitive rivalry being re-established.

I was/am against franchising, though deifniteley not against expansion. My fear for CC was and is that the grassroots and fanbase have not been established sufficiently to support a SL club at this point, and while the great success of the colts is a lift, that doesn't mean that CC were right for a franchise this time around... the lack of derbies and the likelyhood of long, losing runs must surely have been a consideration in the first place.

But... while we're being controversial and exploring the point... I wonder if it might have been better to have TWO teams, a Swansea side and a Cardiff side, playing in the NL, to create exactly the kind of local rivalry and, therefore, coverage, that the sport enjoys elsewhere.

At grassroots level it works in my region... Jannerboy, you of all people will appreciate the significance of Exeter Centurions' last minute win over Plymouth Titans in the SW Nines semi final this weekend



PS...are you in Wales or do you want to get involved in SWRL? PM me if you're still in the westcounty.

PPS.. why couldn't Argyle get relegated and reinstate that particular derby game next year

U SUK

you're right about the derbies of course but when people are measuring our success then it needs to be taken into account in terms of headline numbers. our role is to expand the overall pool of rugby league support, players, media coverage, officials, coaches, merchandising. those people who would turn up for widnes in the superleague are already league fans, we bring new people. of course in the long run you risk losing those widnes fans but thats the balance and gamble that the rfl have to take.
whats worrying to me is the vitriol from some people directed towards a fledgling club barely hidden by a paperthin "i dont want any club to fail but' bolstered by a significant number of people actively hoping for our death. its not nice to be honest and can cloud some worthwhile debate.
what should have been done is interesting but moot, i think people concerned about the future health of the code should get behind us, forget the politics.
That result is a lot like the ashes defeat two years ago...i can barely recall the score, not really convinced it actually happened. the more i think about it the more unlikely it seems

great win for the titans in fact. something like that.
im in wales at the mo, very happy to see how league has grown in the southwest. are the giants looking solid? any news of cornish teams - now that would be a rivalry worth having in league!
congrats to exeter for getting promoted. wont last.

fair enough response.
to be fair to the rfl i genuinely think they want to see a flourishing championship, a strategy that makes perfect sense and is more then possible. i get sky sports next month and i look forward to seeing the thursday night game, i really enjoyed being in the national leagues, i miss it in some ways and not just cuz we won all the time.

But it's the NL club and it's fans that are being used as the stake in the rfl's gamble - not the crusaders!


So fans across the NL are being asked to "get behind the crusaders, forget that your club has been dumped on"???????
errrrrrrrrrrrr, no!!


I can see how some fans may identify the celtic club as the focul point for their angst, as that club has been the beneficiary of the direction the game is being taken in.
I think it is important to identify that my wholehearted disatisfaction is levelled at the RFL. I don't give a toss about the crusaders as a club. If they fail they fail. If they succeed they succeed. C'est la vie. My constant ramblings are unlikely to change matters but I'll never stop asking the questions I believe deserve an answer!

well life's a bitch then you die.

Did Catalans and Quins get the same amount of bitching as we're getting now?

If not, why have a go at US for getting LESS preferential treatment? (I don't remember Cats and Quins fighting up from NL2)

And if so, then why complain when the RFL want to extend the game beyond a 20 mile strip either side of the M62?

Either you WANT to expand your game, or you want to keep it a bizarre local quirk like cheese rolling, bog snorkelling and pushing donkeys from belltowers.

Choose which.

I was happy with our game regardless. However, I can see the benefits of a more National game. Just NOT how it's been done and definately not how it's going!