Now you are having a laugh, I nearly fell for this when I read it first time.
Good try.

So what was Martin Offiah then?

RAH-RAH.

Think you have no idea on Rugby League in London as this is whats happening and probably more people are playing League in London than many other areas like Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford/Keighley/Skipton, Huddersfield & South Yorkshire which have Pro sides in the area or are very neat to Pro sides. I guess because its not talked about especially in Northern League circles many RL fans are in the dark as to whats happening in London and just see Quins and Skolars struggling but do not see the work underneath that:

[uLONDON LEAGUE 2009[/u
In 2009 the following teams are scheduled to participate in the London League:

Bedford Tigers 'A'
Feltham Eagles
Guildford Giants
Hammersmith Hills Hoists
Hemel Stags 'A'
Kent Ravens 'A'
Metropolitan Police
St Albans Centurions 'A'
South London Storm 'A'
Southgate Skolars
West London Sharks 'A'

[uLONDON & SOUTH CONFERENCE DIVISION[/u
Above that is the London & South Conference Division
London & South
Guildford Giants
Greenwich Admirals
Kent Ravens
Oxford Cavaliers
Southampton Spitfires
Swindon St George

[uRUGBY LEAGUE CONFERENCE PREMIER SOUTH[/u
Then above that is the Rugby League Conference Premier South
Bedford Tigers
Elmbridge Eagles
Hainault Bulldogs
Ipswich Rhinos
London Skolars A
St Albans Centurions
South London Storm
Portsmouth Navy Seahawks
West London Sharks

Then there is a Junior League System running-:
[urlhttp://www.londonrl.com/tables/london-junior-league[/url

[uHEMEL STAGS[/u
Hemel Stags have been around for nearly 30 years and play in NL3.Hemel are currently involved with six schools in the Dacorum Borough. These are Adeyfield, Astley Cooper, Cavendish, JFK, Kings Langley and Longdean. Each of these schools receive coaching from the Stags both as part of the school’s curriculum and as an extra-curricular activity at lunch times and after school.Hemel Stags currently run three Age Groups for Rugby League: Under 12's, Under 14's and Under 16's

[uSOUTH LONDON STORM[/u

South London Storm were set up in 1997 and in that short space of time have one of the best Junior set ups in Rugby League as they have basically have 5 different Junor clubs set up around South London!

First Grade (Rugby League Conference Premier)
Second Grade (London League)
U18s (London Youth League)

South London Storm run the following junior/youth clubs:

Croydon Hurricanes:* U7s, U8s/9s, U10s/11s, U12s, U13s/14s, U15s/16s
Brixton Bulls:* U9s, U11s, U14s
Wandsworth Whirlwinds:* U14s
Thornton Heath Tornadoes: * U11s, U12s
Addington Lightning:* U9s, U11s, U12s, U14s
South London Thunderbirds * A newly formed all-girls club.

There is more teams in halifax than the london league

But Halifax has more teams than most areas except maybe for Hull, Leeds, Wigan/ Leigh, Wakefield/Castleford, St.Helens areas. But London has still way more than the likes of Bradford, Oldham, Huddersfield, York/North Yorks which are strong League areas for decades if not Centuries.
The Point I was making was that there is alot of RL played in London but very few people know about it!

There is alot played in London and still harlequins cant attract fans

Probably due to London Transport system and road network being a pain in the especially on the weekend! It can easily take well over 2 hours from many parts of London including South London to Quins as its a hike from the nearest Underground and Bus Journey is a nightmare. Driving in London is a joke!That said Quins should get bigger crowds!

Doesn't seem to affect quins union crowds that. I suspect that many in london dont know RL exists, partly due to lack of effort by the club but mainly due to lack of interest by a union bias media down here

But how long have Quins been around and playing at one venue? The problem with Quins, Broncos/Crusaders/Fulham is that they have never really stayed anywhere long enough to build up much in the local area for a number of years. As far as I know they have played at Craven Cottage, Chiswick Tech, Barnet FC, Brentford FC, Charlton FC (Two different eras!), Stoop, Crystal Palace (2 Different eras!), Hendon FC as well as the odd game at Chelsea FC and Wealdstone amongst others. No team is going to properly develop under that-and I am surprised Pro RL has survived so long as it is a joke to attempt to run and develop a club when virtually every 2nd year you move to a new ground with no officies to properly run out of!
Really Pro RL in London and other "Expansion" areas has been done on a shoe string budget and run by a group of clueless people! Paris SG, Southend, South Wales, cardiff Blue Dragons, Mansfield/Nottingham for example. If the game and the RFL are going to do expansion it should be done properly-but never is sadly and why Expansion is often laughed at.

That`s strange how come the Kiwi/Aussies and northerners working in London can get to the matches but Londoners can`t. Also how can the Londoners struggle to get to the soccer games as well. It`s because they like football down there , while anyones entitled to watch what they want and good luck to them I am against London geting any favours over and above anybody else they have been in the game long enough by now to be on a level playing field.

And that is the fault of who ?

London has various soccer teams and so fans do not need to travel too far to watch the Pro game. Plus Soccer is big especially in London with Arsenal, Chelsea etc. Many Sports struggle in London including Rugby Union as former London Clubs have moved out Saracens to Watford, Wasps to Wycombe and London Irish to Reading! Probably now only Quins are a London based team and even they are based on the outskirts to the west. If Union is struggling then why should League be any different?
Many Aussies, Kiwis do not go to games but many do as they often are in the West London area rather than in South London where RL has its biggest presence in the City.


Partly the RFL by helping London/Quins get in to SL by default and doing everything to help them without getting to the real root of the problem.But mainly the people running the club(s) as they have never really made them a "Local" product but just let them play games using mainly Aussies who stay a year or two adding to the unstability. Why would a Londoner travel say 1 hour to watch a team that has little local presence, is struggling to stay alive and whos ground is a pain to get to? No wionder they struggle to get over 3000.

Earlier in this thread there is some discussion about the gates and how they are disappointing given Halifax's form and the fact they are chasing the title.

One thing to bear in mind is that occasional fans will be put off by the uncompetitive nature of some fixtures, they won't want to see Halifax winning by 54-14, to date we've played a lot of the lesser teams at home in the league, the better teams have still to come to the Shay and hopefully that will see some improvement.

I can't understand people like that though. I love it when we go on the rampage - you get champagne Rugby League. Like someone else posted earlier - it's like watching Brazil

It sure is. The crowd go nuts!

I really don't understand the mindset of people who won't support their team because they are kicking ass, sounds like an excuse to me, and a pretty feeble one at that.

It never harmed Bradford, or Leeds, or Wigan, Or Saints

I'm pretty sure our glory seeker fans didn't desert us for Stains and Pies



I don't really mind transient support as its all cash for the club but it still annoys me when people don't want to see our brand of champagne rugby but still say 'I'm a fax fan' when they only go to 3 games if at all, if they did they'd support fax through the 'thin' as well as the 'thick'.

Come seasons end there will be fans who have been to most games this season looking at missing out because some of the 20,000 fans we suddenly find when we've got to a final will have bought their tickets. It still amazes me that in 87 we took 30,000 to the final at Wembley but didn't break 8,000 all season at TH which incidentally meant I didn't get to go to the final. Grrrr.

leigh looked to be trying throughout the game and played without any dirty tactics.

Some of the tries we scored came from real individual brilliance, and when i watched them on the courier website were SL quality. I don't agree with an assessment that there are any easy wins in our league any more.

Must have been watching a different game to me then. Were constantly throwing high shots, and petty things like grabbing Frankies hair. That is their game plan though - same as last year.

And the year before that.....and the year before that.....

some of the tries we scored at the weekend were of a high calabre i was especially impressed with 2 of them particaulaly the beswick flick pass to send greenwood under the sticks at the start of the second half that is difficult to do and even more difficult for greenwood to take hold of being so close to beswick when he made the pass.

the second one was the ben black chip over the top to himself that was a play that you here stevo call for on a regular basis on super league coverage when games are tight or a team has run out of ideas it is a very difficult skill to do on the run and the touch of it to get it short enough to reclaim it is difficult to do well done to him for thinking of that and executing it really well as well.

some good super league standard tries scored at the weekend need to keep that going into this weekend against barrow.

Not sure that's true. Think some Bulls, Wigan and Saints fans got bored.