[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/8365564.stmThis[/url kind of demonstrates the difference in financial clout from one code to the other doesn't it?

They didn't stump up the cash themselves. The insurance company paid for it

I can read too mate. So if it was that easy why don't SL clubs offer the same kind of thing?

Didn't think of it?

who knows what the terms of the insurance were. Its a pretty remote chance, but Im not sure the competition will be offered next week.

Two things strike me from that article (and its' not the payout).

The lads local RU team run FIVE teams. How many RL clubs can do that?

Sarries got 46k attendance at Wembley.

Impressive on all counts.

Quite. And on a tuesday night too.

How much profile would an insurance company get from a Friday night match at Belle Vue?

Was the Suncharm Headingley challenge not the same???

I like the way you did that. How much would they get for a Saturday match at Old Trafford? Or Saturday afternoon match at Wembley in the sunshine?

The point is that Union DO do these things. They do have the collateral and the support. You want to know why the Aussies kill us Internationally, as G1 says, Welwyn are putting 5 teams out at senior level, be interesting to see what they're doing at junior levels too.

correct - you can insure against it happening, good idea though.

I've played against Welwyn in the dim and distant past. My club in Bedford put out 5 teams - many weekends we had 6 (and a very good colts team). There were two other junior clubs in Bedford that could put out 4-5 teams. There were also half a dozen smaller clubs in and around the town who could put out 3 teams. And of course there was Bedford RFC itself which ran 5 teams.
The same scenario was in Northhampton and Leicester where we used to play a lot of teams. It's no surprise that Leicester can fill their ground every week.

My RU team often get 5 teams out too, again, in leicestershire

I remember Letchworth and Lutterworth were great away days.

Bicester, not so good.

I think the five teams is indeed very impressive but the crowd for me is probably more to do with opposition than anything (but still impressive). They don't have their own ground and they of course now otherwise use Vicarage Road in Watford and I suspect that is the reason they want to play some bigger games at Wembley. Lets see how they do for the other games.

In terms of the competition most RL clubs could run something similar if they so wished but the insurance premium would be quite high for £250k! Some friends of mine had a prize of a mini cooper for a hole-in-one for their small corporate golf day last year and it only cost them something like £150. I suspect that the dealership pays some money to the insurance company as well, as they of course brought down a mini and several other BMW's for people to look round at lunch. But they felt that it was £150 well spent and it was certainly a talking point!

I remember Saints did a thing all season once where you had to kick so many goals to win a car. Some lad managed it and the club panicked and announced he'd failed to do it in the time limit available. Much booing and protesting occured until I think they gave it to him. I think it was a Peugot 206 and people walked out of the ground worrying if it meant one of the players would have to be sold as the club couldn't afford it.



If there ever was a 'war' union has won it. They've got the grass roots, the money, the investment. Soon enough the big Union clubs will have attendances equal to that of a premier league football team. It's a superbly run sport if you look how far they have come since formally admitting professionalism.

I contrast I have been involved with long standing amateur Rugby league clubs here in the heartlands who struggle to raise one team.

Mine has just folded it's winter Pennine team for that very reason.

I think it was a Sky game and they used Sky's video of the kicks to prove he'd done it in the time. I don't think the club would have paid anyway it was the car dealership that sponsiored the event.

Its' very depressing. When the Lost Loiners have been nomadic in the past, looking for somewhere to knock about on a Monday evening its' been the RU clubs that have been welcoming and hospitable, not the rL clubs.

Our home now, Morley, have been great to us for the last five or six years and there is literally NO issues with us being RL lads or any chips on their shoulders. In fact, many of the Morley boys and admin avidly watch RL as well.

I know of precisely 0 RU players/fans who were not thoroughly impressed by Burgess' try the other day. I suspect that had an RU player scored such a try many RL players/fans who would have dismissed it astripe on the grounds that the Vichy government seized RL's assets in france before they were born and that the Southern RFU refused to pay broken time payments and threw Ray French off a train.

LOINERTILIDIE--- "The point is that Union DO do these things. "

Well said and the GOLDENGAMBLE itself rarely pays out its full prize.Gives me the impression that sales have topped out.On away matches the prize available seems consistently smaller.
Conversely it would be interesting to know what the Gprem clubs normal revenue incomes are like for this type of scheme.

The biggest thing holding rugby league back in this country is the attitude of its fans IMO. Too large a percentage are the sort of bitter, small-time, insular people who are happy providing their own club is doing alright irrespective of the bigger picture.

Perhaps the comments of the Hull KR chief exec yesterday that he believes the average pre-tax loss of the 14 SL clubs to be in the region of £450k this year might act as a reality check to those within the game. It's quite capable of killing itself through apathy and mismanagement without Union having to lift a finger.

There seems to be an assumption that RL NEEDS to expand to survive, NEEDS to be innovative and forward thinking, NEEDS to be bigger than it is.

The RFL are continually trying to expand the sport out side a country’s ‘heartland’ and it continually fails.

Why is it that we can't just accept that we have a parochial sport and be happy with it – it has managed to survive for over 100 years as is and will never be as big as RU, why is that such a bitter pill to swallow?

Expansion makes sense from the point of view of the international game. We currently have players from at best 3 or 4 counties representing England, and little or no decent representation from Scotland, ireland and Wales.

I guess the long term vision is to have clubs from outside the heartlands, and a greater number of people playing the game, and being scouted, and therefore being available for the national sides.

At the moment, we simply don;t have the talent, or intensity of matches to compete on the international stage

If any business doesn't expand and look to exploit new markets it will wither and die.

By expanding outside its geographical heartlands, rugby league will attract larger spectator and player bases generating increased revenue. A larger player base potentially presents a greater opportunity of being competitive, maybe even dominant at international level giving the profile of the sport a massive boost.

The financial results being posted at all levels of the game would suggest that remaining as things are is simply not a viable long term option.