Quote ="bewareshadows"The code 13 article is very good PR but lets get this straight, they are playing more RL in schools, that's hardly a ringing endorsement.
When I was in school I played basketball. I've never been or intend to go to a match to watch basketball and have only watch on TV for about 10 minutes in my entire life.
Kids playing RL in school is not a sign of expansion, it's a sign we have pumpe enough help and money in to get it on the PE schedule in more schools. As an ex teacher if the UK bowling commision came to the school and offered coaching and help getting bowling on the PE schedule then it's more likely that it would get on the schedule as you would grab any extra help or funding you can get.
So the schools part of it only helps if those kids leave school and play RL. The adults figure is more encouraging, but it does not say where those adults are playing.
Any PR like this looks good until you take it apart and ask the serious questions, if 29,000 of those extra adults are playing in Yorkshire and Lancashire then it proves zip about expansion.
The only stat tied to expansion geographically is 2 community coaches. The rest could be schools anywhere and adults anywhere.
Also Macmanus did not say expansion was bad, he said with hindsight we have pumped more money in than we should have. Lets not confuse issues, the money put into grassroots expansion is not what he is talking about here, it's the millions put into expansion clubs for 1, 2 or 3 seasons only to drop them.
Gateshead, PSG, Crusaders etc etc If those millions had been put into places like sheffield, doncaster, I would also say north wales we would have a larger region and a better stronger base. But like he says with hinsight, he does not say he thought it at the time.
As for Catalan, it's not an expansion of RL, That area of france was a hot bed of RL. It's like creating a SL club in Cumbria and claiming expansion. It's not there is a base of fans and players there already. Catalan was actually creating a club where there was demand, rather than creating a club and hoping demand comes.
I'm not against expansion, but I do feel it's more important to expand from your base, rather than creating outposts one there own where no local rivalry can be built. The local rivalry is part and parcel of RL. South Wales had zero rivalry, North Wales could have had a rivalry with Widnes. Wrexham is great for England v Wales rivalries. I do hope they come back as they got decent crowds for only 2 years with no original base to speak of.'"
Wrexham was an appallingly botched missed opportunity - the only expansion area RL has ever entered at the top level that showed any real enthusiasm for the game and managed to develop any kind of a real fanbase and it was tossed away and allowed to die after 2 seasons. A crying shame...
