Dunno. There is a pro RL team in South Wales still though.

Can you tell me why Castleford and Wakefield are both looking to move out of their town centres? Why Wigan moved out of Wigan town centre? Why St Helens are moving to Widnes? etc?

Anyway, again, how are you measuring the success of RL in Wales, and why do you regard it as an experiment?

Seriously...???

You're comparing the move of, for example, Wakefield from Belle Vue to Stanley (distance 4 miles) to a move from Bridgend to Wrexham (distance 160)..????

FFS get real.

To answer your question I’d measure the success of a SL club by its success. Doesn't the fact the club is in administration means that it hasn’t been successful?

…and if wasn’t a deluded RFL experiment then what the fekk was it?

LS16 has a very valid point here IF it was working so well why relocate?
Plus they made the play-offs and are still in administration.
I think they should of stayed put in the championship for at least 3/4 years and establish the club where they originally planned to be based and the RFL did "push through" their application and have looked foolish ever since imo especially from a business and established club sense.
Whether or not RL is played in south Wales is irrellevant to the fact that the Crusaders failed to get established there and the club is currently in the brown and smelly despite making the play offs and relocating which points to foundations of a soggy kit-kat.

At last sense.

RL has been in South Wales for the past 100 years so why hasn’t it organically matured into a popular, reasonably attended sport?

Because it is considered a niche sport and has far too much competition in the way of RU.

As rhinoms points out, if the RFL really wanted to establish a SL presence in South Wales they should have tried to nurture the Championship club to a point where it could make the step up to SL and even then they’d have had an uphill struggle. But instead they hot-house a Championship club that was no way near ready for the top flight competition.

You could make a healthy sized omelette with the amount of egg currently dripping off the faces of the RFL right now.

The fact that it didn't evolve organically is one reason why it perhaps merited more of a push by the authorities. It's also worth asking how many new, successful, professional clubs have developed organically in the heartlands recently.

Comparing, yes. Not saying they are the same, no.


Which means the RL experiment has also been a failure in Widnes and Wakey and more then.


another club playing rugby league.

At last some sense.

Clubs just aren't going to evolve organically nowadays. They will always need a push from the league governing bodies.

Which is exactly what the RFL did and it failed on it's ar[size=100s[/sizee.

OK then lets take your statement one step further - "It's also worth asking how many new, successful, professional clubs have developed organically in the heartlands recently"

How many clubs have developed organically in the heartlands recently - none. If clubs are finding it hard to organically develop in an area where Rugby League has its highest level of support then why the Hell did the RFL think it would be successful in South Wales?

This doesn't even warrant a response.



Did the RFL push Wakefield into the Super League way before the club was ready?



Not just another club playing RL at all. A club playing in the SL is a million miles away from just "another club playing rugby league" or are you finding it hard to distinguish between a RL club and a Super League RL club?

How are you defining ready? Wakefield were allowed into Super League despite not having a ground that was fit for purpose and they had to promise to move games to Barnsley to convince the authorities to allow them to take up their place. Once in, they played 1 game at Oakwell and nothing was mentioned about it after.

Think about what you're saying there then. It could be paraphrased to "Rugby League cannot grow neither organically or by league promotion, neither in the heartlands or in new areas"
Is that how you feel about our sport?

I can see why you can't.
RL is a failure in Wales because one club moved 160 miles, but you don't feel it's been a case when a club moved a shorter distance. What's your limit for moves?
RL is a failure in Wales because one club went into admin. Why aren't you calling RL a failure everywhere else a club went into admin?

Look at what we had in Wales and what we have now.
It wasn't long ago that there was no pro and barely any amateur RL in Wales.
Now we have two pro clubs, and a thriving amateur scene.
And you call this failure?

Being allowed into... and being pushed into... are two different things. Fair play to Wakey, they managed to hoodwink the RFL into their SL spot once again highlighting the ineptness of the RFL.

Where did I say that a heartland club would fail if assisted by the RFL in the same way as the Welsh folly?

You're putting words in my mouth.

Lets get this straight i personally (and i think ls16 is the same) have not said that RL is a failure in Wales.
My points are purely aimed at the Crusaders franchise in SL and how it's failed to get established where it was intended to be based.
The thriving amateur scene is great but does'nt detract from the thus far farce of the Crusaders plight in SL imo.

But Crusaders finished 2nd in the season before SL expanded from 12 to 14. If the RFL had decided to simply increase the league by promotion, as had happened previously, then they'd have been in the league by rights. Of course they'd also have been relegated at the end of 2009.

I saw a bit of Sport Wales last night that had a brief feature on Crusaders. They were saying that the lease on the Brewery Field was still a millstone round the clubs neck, which made it sound like the previous owner wasn't exactly doing things by the book, seeing as he owned both the ground and the club.

SUPER LEAGUE

How many times must I say it?

or are you deliberately trying to confuse SL Rugby League with Rugby League to validate your point?

P.S Stanley is in Wakefield so moving from one location to anther in the same town is hardly the same as relocating the club to a different county.

a director of one SL club i know tells me when the inspectors visit he gets in half a dozen diggers and shifts soil around and digs holes/footings then fills them all in again when they leave. worked so far

You were quite specific in calling the expansion of the sport, rather than the expansion of Super League, a failure.

I think the lesson from this is that as part of any franchising agreement, the league need to take a harder look at what stadium facilities the club has.
I was thinking about how the NFL run their expansion. Granted, it's on a bigger scale with ten figure sums typically being in play. In that case, expansion typically requires a new stadium. That isn't going to be practical in rugby league, but perhaps putting the ground lease through the RFL would help. For example, how about the ground rent and rent contract is held by SLE, and the payments deducted from the Sky payment to the club.

They've got a reprieve. www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... tlead.html

They've got a reprieve. www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... tlead.html

Quote ="rhinoms"They've got a reprieve. www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... tlead.html'" Reprieve or stay of execution?

Quote ="rhinoms"They've got a reprieve. www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... tlead.html'" Reprieve or stay of execution?

So effectively Roberts and Moss have sold the club to themselves. Remind you of anyone?

I still reckon the tykes are to blame for the state of our pitch.

it reminds me that santa is coming