so it looks like the debate is over.

RL is the number 1 australian sport.

yehaa.

Does it upset you that you claim it's bigger than AFL, your other favourite sport?

i like AFL like englishmen like showers.

so he has dumped his club, then dumped his sport, then dumped his new sport, wonder when he will get the hump with the Stains and start supporting the warratahs?

What character the man has!

So how many fans do you think Lee would have been playing in front if he was playing for Leeds in February anywhere but Headingley - if there is 6,000 in Wrexham I would be amazed.

Johnny Wilkinson has always been a RU player so the fact he maximises his earning potential playing the sport in France is no surprise is it?

If he gets to play for England he will get to play in front of massive crowds with massive personal exposure which also help his earning potential. He will also get to play in a World Cup that is a genuine competition.

The major contributory factor to his decision to switch was not rugby related - his girlfriend is a well known soap actress that is trying to make it in the west end.

as long as RL is number 1 im happy

yay.

You knowledge of English rugby is small it is laughable.

RL will never overtake RU as an international sport - we simply don't have enough sides to have a meanigful competition and the distances between the sides is such that it makes games difficult to organise. In Wales, France and Ireland RU is a much bigger sport than Soccer, Italy has vibrant game with a big population. The structure of ticket distribution amongst the affiliated RU clubs also ensure massive crowds.

The revenues from these games - RBS - which had to be bailed out by the UK government - still continued it £40m sponsorship of the 6 nations - makes the RFU one of the richest sporting bodies in the UK.

RU has a much better TV deal than RL despite the viewing figures being approx 80k a game compared to 350k for a regular SL game.

RL has higher club attendances but this gap is closing - Leicester Tigers are extending their ground which will make them the best supported rugby club in the UK. 75,000 attended a club game in London over the Xmas period. RU has 2 meanigful cup competitions - a domestic cup and a pan European competition.

RU is a terrible game to watch - the skill levels are attrocious for full time players but its strength should not be under estimated - a bit like the comparison between the NRL and the AFL

I'm sure it's better than your knowledge of the Australian sporting "demographic"....



Absolute crap.

Utter .

Union is much bigger that Soccer in France, Ireland and Wales??????



x1,000

If there is anything McDonalds and RL has shown us it is that it doesn't matter how good or bad your product is, it's how you market it that matters!

again it looks like despite their best efforts, nobody can argue against the fact that RL is australias biggest sport.

That would have to be the joke of the century!

get it right - (allegedly in a statistical flawed methodology) the countries biggest TV viewed sport.

soccer has more participants
AFL has bigger crowds and more money
NRL has more TV viewers
Ru, well that has nothing!

what does this prove?

dble up

Total Fans = TV viewers + Crowds at ground

1st = NRL

and this excludes our NZ club and regional TV viewers.

add regional viewers and thats an extra 40 million.

in wales and france soccer is way bigger, just ignore the gimp

it looks like the NRL has a very prosperous future ahead of it.

statistics show that RL should be getting AT LEAST the same TV money as AFL, if not more.

that extra $50 million pa is just on the current contract, let alone for any future increases.

further, once we begin really expanding imagine how much more we will be worth.

AFL has mortgaged its future on catching on in nsw and queensland and so far its failed. the same strategy by RU almost killed off the sport.

look at the kinds of players we produce :

1. sonny bill williams
2. greg inglis
3. jonathan thurston
4. jarred hayne

just in those 4 your have more skill than the top 4 players in union in the world or in AFL.

you really have to be proud of what the NRL has achieved with poor finances.

We have the best athletes in the world,no wonder why everyone wants a slice of the talent we have out there.I wish they all just off and fine their own peace of running around!

Doofus is a better word!

Now THAT post is one of a totally biased one eyed clown RL fan,..if you keep on saying things like that even you might start to believe it,...it just happens that I like all three codes and each code has it's big faults,RLs big fault is the repeated play the ball,60 minutes of every match is wasted with it.
If you don't like AFL &RU,OK but don't try to rubbish them,there are millions that love the game,let them decide which is a good game and which is not,and stop making an idiot of yourself...from reading your posts I find you are generally an idiotic one eyed clown full stop.

Given all of those players have been linked with RU and/or AFL, I would say it is a fair point.

Fishhead, you might like to identify 4 players in each of RU and AFL that rugby league has tried to buy recently...

what should we do? instruct our forwards to put on weight and stamp and sit on each other instead?

or have the referees throw the ball over their head or hard at the ground?

the lesson is clear, if you want to make a lot of money become an average - above average RL player and youll be offered millions by either rugby union or AFL.

meanwhile the nrl just keeps churning out fantastic players like sausages.

you have to pity rival sports failure to develop talent

and we are talking on a world wide basis

heck even luke rooney is now eligible for the england RU team!




born in penrith, god save the queen

penrith is a multi cultrural place though, that italian lad gower's from there!