Ah, good times.

I remember a day after one of those topics a few of us spent 24 hours on the naughty step

Jeezus wept!



Allow me to explain to the extremely thick majority in here how it all works.

This Exiles concept is dying on it's @rse for several reasons but mainly because neither the fans or the players can be bothered with it.

The RFL are desperate to generate some interest in their misplaced concept because hardly any tickets have been sold.

So what do they do to try and flog some tickets?

1. They attempt to encourage ticket sales by throwing in freebie England and Exiles shirts. Nope... hasn't worked.

2. They attempt to encourage ticket sales by offering a cheapo combo deal which includes cheapo World Cup tickets. Nope... that hasn't worked either.

3. They attempt to encourage ticket sales by offering a "buy one ticket - fetch a mate free" deal. Nope... that hasn't worked either.

4. They attempt to encourage ticket sales by asking the England skipper (that's Sir Kev BTW) to engage in some marketing of the game. Nope... that hasn't worked either. Nobody is fool enough to recognise this Exiles fixture as containing some some of best players in the world, or just like playing Australia and New Zealand, or being of Test-match standard or a step up from Super League... and anyhow, Sir Kev's target audience is already bored less by having to listen to his uninspiring monotone voice!

5. The final desperate attempt to drum up some interest in this joke fixture is to employ Sam Tomkins and instruct him to talk even more bollox by attempting to create some kind of Origin-esque SL mate against SL mate division where none shall ever exist.

Yes, it's all pitiful and embarrassing stuff from a sport in huge decline, with little to no international profile whatsoever and run by a bunch of clowns who haven't got a clue, but who have the support of an even bigger bunch of clowns who are fans of one SL club or another.

Feel free to carry on though!

TOMKINS BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

WIGAN BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Hell if he has fired up the Exiles team then he's done the game a good service.

RL fans are way too precious about what gets said to spice things up/sell tickets. See also complaints about GH - god forbid - trying to hype the Leeds squad for this season to try to sell a few more season tickets. How very dare he.

Don't....tvoc might mess his nappy again!

Didn't (and don't some continue, including the pillock that is Danny Lockwood) p*ss their pants about Sinfield for his "tonight's for you" speech with a 'how dare he say that' attitude?

Is Tomkins signing for the BNP next year? "they took our jobs!"

Great player but my god the boy is a tool. SKY's obsession with him gives him a platform to spout this nonsense all the time. They paint him as the poster boy of our sport but, whilst people respect him as a player, the fact he gets boo'd playing for his own country tells you what people think of him as a person

If he is just making headlines and building controversy, there isnt a more classless way of doing it. I thought ‘they’re coming over here, taking our jobs’ type thinking went out with Alf Garnett. Im all for a bit of hype, and building players profiles, im not ok with players doing that by reading from a BNP flyer

Building up the game is fine, even a little needle in the build is fine. In fact if a prop comes out and says I hate opposition prop A and im going to absolutely smash him, its absolutely fine. Weird xenophobic outbursts arent. They type of people who would be attracted by that statement are the type of people who should be weeded out of the game.

Besides, its an idiotic and clearly wrong statement. Players are free to come and search for employment as per their rights. It’s the clubs who are failing by not investing in youth development and hiding behind NRL cast offs.

Defending the kind of anti immigration rant one might expect from UKIP or even the BNP.

Are there no levels you won't sink to just to get a rise these days?

For the first time that I can recall I find myself in almost total agreement (for clarity I have deleted the bits where I don't agree) with Sir Spamalot, Will I Am of Eve



I think Sam Tomkins' comments are transparently an attempt to big up the game in much the same way as Sir Kevs comments were. Both doing their job to try and help their sport out and whilst I might think this fixture is an ill advised nonsense, it is bad news for the sport if it is a financial disaster. Sad I know, but I really worry about such things and even more about the potential success / failure of the World Cup. I seem to remember that the RFL was in a very poor financial state after the last one held on these shores.

All view expressed above are provisional subject to psychological review

The New Year message from the Leeds CEO went beyond just talking Leeds up and I don't think there's anything wrong in that either as long as the comments are justified.



Wasn't one of those games between Salford and Wigan? I'd imagine about the only thing hard to predict at the time of the statement was whether insolvent Salford would still be trading and able to field a team rather than the eventual outcome if the game went ahead.

The best opening round of SL IMO was when we started with Millenium Magic under the roof in Cardiff with the derbies and the RFL were rewarded with an excellent set of generally close games including some results that probably few would have predicted beforehand and when was that ...... all of two seasons ago.

Castleford 40 - 20 Wakefield
Huddersfield 28 - 18 Warrington
Catalans 4 - 11 London
Wigan 16 - 16 St Helens
Hull 22 - 34 Hull KR
Leeds 32 - 28 Bradford
Salford 12 - 42 Celtic

__________

Sorry if having an opinion isn't to everyone's tastes on here and that results in one poster in particular displaying what a 'classy' individual he is but I'll expect I'll continue to rise above the insults and have debates with those prepared to be civil - as the vast majority are.

I blame the inept RFL marketing department.
You prefer to shoot their messenger instead.
No surprises there.

TOMKINS BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Which part of [i"The final desperate attempt to drum up some interest in this joke fixture is to employ Sam Tomkins and instruct him to talk even more bollox"[/i and [i"Yes, it's all pitiful and embarrassing stuff"[/i are you struggling to comprehend?

<Your next chump goes here>

Monkey's, room, typewriters, million years, complete works of Shakespear, etc...etc..etc.

Is there a single mention of Tomkins in the post you quoted? You’re really struggling with your comprehension at the moment.

So you find it acceptable to engage in UKIP/BNP rhetoric to promote a meaningless rugby match?

You'll be making holocaust jokes next.

Even by your usual VT standards, that is another comprehensively lame response on your part.

Here... let me help you out again... TOMKINS BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Feel better now?



I've gotta hand it to your beloved RFL and their marketing department though. They've obviously been keeping an eye on Murdoch media outlets over the past month and spotted an opportunity to flog England shirts and tickets for their dead-duck Exiles game to EDL members.

I know it's off thread but mrs backwoodsman suggested we might drive over to the exiles game, after I picked myself up from the floor . The only thing I could say was to borrow a phrase from the late great tony Hancock ' are you stark staring mad'. We will watch it on sky, even though it has as much attraction as a dental visit for root canal treatment.

I'm looking forward to the game - I might even watch it - with the sound turned off obviously.

Enjoy those strawmen. The ones with the hats on are particularly fetching.

I think on this occasion it will be more entertaining to listen to Stevo along with Eddie trying to convince everybody that the game is meaningful .

I'm looking forward to this game, it will be interesting to see how it goes

This site's going (gone) down the pan with troll posters like this just spouting cr@p all day long.

Southstander given up caring?