I'd go watch SOO at Wembley without a doubt. I also don't see how it can detract from the "prestige" of Super League - we all know that the NRL is tem times the competition that SL is.

Tests are important but would they be viable each year? I don't think they would against Australia. We don't see any reason to play France through arrogance but its the same with Australia and England. They are too strong for us to a extent than we are for France. No one is interested in regular mismatches. Now and again yes, but not every year. I think we should play NZ more reguarly though if it can be financed. That may at least provide competitive games and alklow England to develop.

How about making it a double header with England v Exiles?


On second thoughts...

I like it. I'd try and go and having a sell out at Wembley would help raise the games profile in London (and beyond).

I do wonder whether the NRL should be the ones to take over the running of the London Broncos. I'd hope they could get it going in the right direction, one way or the other.

Agreed. This is all about the NRL. It will do nothing for Super League or the international scene was so ever.

I like the SOO brand but I would purposely avoid this due to the arrogance of that article, they can go screw.

Your attitude explains why British RL is so impoverished. The NRL and their clubs are a business and must constantly look to strengthen, ok after their players and maximise their revenues. If they see a market at Wembley and can tap into sponsorship from more global brands as a result then good luck to them. At the same time they could raise the profile of RL in this country and London in particular which could have some positive effects on our game.

The question you should be asking is why aren't the RFL or our clubs capable of growing the game? I think Leeds has a big role to play - the one decent sized and economically successful city to boast a succesful RL team. Also a city wihout a premiership football team. Leeds should be attracting serious sponsorship and really driving the British game forward. If they can't no one in the North can.

I dont think anyone thinks it wouldnt probably be good for the NRL, i just cant see how it is good for RL in this country?

It just cements our position as poor relations and takes cash that could be spent in the UK game and gives it to the NRL. If the NRL were to give us the TV and Ticket revenue from this game i would agree, but they arent. Its a money making excercise for them which damages our brand and does nothing to develop the game here.

Nobody who doesnt already know of RL is going to be attracted to the game by a one-off game between two states in Australia being played at Wembley.

What cash would it take out of the British game?

the cash that would be spent attending that event and then used as an excuse for not attending a british RL event.

Two points there:

1. Most of the tickets would be sold in London and the home counties and so not affect British RL.
2. How many people when they go to a Test match or cup final then stop going to watch their own club to compensate? Not many I reckon.

I think your assumptions are a bit of a stretch. I can’t see that anyone except existing RL fans would buy a ticket for an SoO game in the UK, if you aren’t an RL fan, you wont really know what SoO is, so why would you go?

Secondly most clubs fans buy season tickets so what you are proposing isn’t really necessary. For most people this event would be the cost of another trip to London, another expensive wembly ticket, another hotel etc. I can well imagine that a fair few of those who would go to Origin would choose to do so at the expense of something like the GF or CC final

Isn't the problem that the RFL is putting on two few of the events that people actually want to attend, and too many events that people don't?

Personally, I'd rather watch far more England v NZ tests at Wembley, like we saw a fortnight ago, than I would additional rounds of Salford v Castleford or Hull KR v Wakefield. I suspect that many others (apart from perhaps the fans of the four clubs mentioned) feel a similar way. Unfortunately, we have too few clubs arguing that instead of putting our best product on show in front of 60k, in a big city and to a TV audience of 3m more often, we have to play more lower-quality games that few people are interested in because some clubs "couldn't possibly survive" without them. It is a mentality that seriously holds the game back in this country.

People will pay to see the world's best on their doorstep - we saw that on Saturday and we see it whenever the NFL and NBA rolls into town every year. Origin would just be another one of these events; the best players in the world playing within a reasonable distance from my front door. Why wouldn't I want to see that?

SOO at Wembley wouldn't be taking money out of English RL because, quite frankly, I doubt much of that money would even make it to English RL in the first place. If English RL could put on more events that I, and 70k+ others were willing to pay to see, then it might be a different story.

I agree with your first part but im not sure the 2nd part is right or relevant.

Yes the RFL need to improve the events they put on and their marketing of them. SoO at Wembley doesn’t do this.

There probably isnt a huge direct line you can draw to say that because of SoO person A didn’t go to RFL event B, but it is a cannibalisation of a market we agree is too small.

There are only a certain amount of people who will go watch an RL event, there are only a certain amount of people who will pay top whack to watch an RL event in London, and that certain amount of people will only spend a certain amount of money doing so. Having SoO over here damages our brand and gives our market another option other than us.

The NRL is a competition we should compete with, it’s a game we should look upon as equals. Having SoO over here is a tacit acknowledgement that we aren’t, and it entrenches our 2nd position rather than narrows the gap to first. In fact it does worse than that in that it builds up our rivals while doing down ourselves.

Correct, so what has this got to do with my attitude? The fact that the NRL are exploiting a market that they can benefit from means my opinion should be changed?



No it won't. It raises the profile of the NRL superiority and puts a negative effect on our brand. If you think Kids will take notice of a game they won't even understand anything about, then you're sadly wrong. This is the reason why SL is on its backside, naivety.



Now you're going a bit off topic. I was discussing the attraction of SOO to me and the arrogance of that article. But I will follow you. The RFL are poor at maximizing the potential of SL, we have known that for a long long time. However they did a damn fine job hosting the WC and are already making positives vibes regarding SL sponsorhip on the back of that, so lets hold our breath.

Leeds, my club, my city do a fantastic job. the RLWC was splashed all over Leeds. Pulling in 18K+ for a nothing game was a huge scoop for us. Nothing more could have been done.

The Leeds Rugby accounts show they are playing their part, have their own sponsorship in order and running a fine business. Its not up to them the drive the game forward. After all everyone is sick and tired of Gary Heatheringtons input arn't they? GH has built the model RL club.

I'd go.

I would go if they did, but I'd prefer it if they took it to China, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia etc. They've got the biggest market in the world right on their doorstep and they've never once tried to take the game there.

Get 60,000 in Wembley (including probabley nearly every Aussie living in London) for an amazing game of RL and market the hell out of London Broncos to everyone there. In fact, you could have Broncos play their weekly SL round as the warm up fixture (and if played on a Sat afternoon it wouldn't clash with other SL matches).

Yep, of course, this would be AWFUL for Super League...

Now that I think about it, i'm surprised we haven't taken Origin to England before. However, we probably should remember that while Origin has almost always been big, it's only in the last 5 or so years that it has become extraordinarily massive in Australia.

I'd seriously considering coming from Sydney to see Origin in London.

If they sort themselves out quickly enough, i'm definitely in to watch my Raiders play Manly in China next year. These would be opportunities of a lifetime.

The problem is the Aussies in London don't care for us and never have done. They either see SL as inferior to the NRL or they're union fans who turn out for the big events.

I think it is a good idea for a State of Origin game to be played at Wembley to help RL win its battle in London

And in return, I think it is only fair that we schedule a Wigan Saints game in Perth and a Hull derby in Adelaide to help Rugby League develop in those cities

I don't think you can confidentially make that claim until someone has actually tried to market to that group. London Broncos certainly haven't bothered as far as I can see (and I live in London).

No final decision yet but they've been looking at Manly v Canberra in China for next season.

If it was in London I wouldn't go.. to far and too much expense for a game that has nothing to do with a team I support...

They have several times, they've tried to market the club as an 'Australian club in London', which is stupid and why we've never held down any roots. I've never seen them attempting to promote the club to the local area or Londoners, like me who had to discover the game through Sky. In all my years going, I've never once heard any Aussie accents in the stands, except for when we played Manly.

We have just finished a hugely successful World Cup where it has become blindingly obvious that people outside of the core support base care about international sport above everything else

We all know that the State of Origin is fantastic Rugby League but without any comparatives that really doesn’t matter to the potential new audience. What they need is an occasion and two states in Australia do not create the occasion that an International match does

While SOO has been very good for RL in NSW and Queensland, it is the attitude that it is the pinnacle of the sport that holds us back. Apart from the US insular sporting market, I cannot think of another (team) sport where the pinnacle of that sport is not international competition