A great that should be supported and applauded.

I havn't heard us do anything to promote going to the game, you'd think smaller clubs would want to try and sell some tickets if there was money to be made from it? Is there anything in the pipeline from Leigh?

, it involved filling a full 50 seater coach and included match tickets , coach tickets and purchase of the new England shirt , it was declined as unworkable and unlikely to be taken up in enough numbers to work

Ah, didn't realise it wasn't for pro clubs. Cheers.

That's quite a tough sell - perhaps they should have pooled tickets for amateur clubs on a regional basis, then put on a number of coaches centrally dependent on take-up?

It was the RFL trying to get the amatuer clubs to do their job of ' selling ' Internationsl RL to the fans/amatuer /junior players

Ray Tennants idea

Bury Broncos are offering coach and ticket for Wembley, coach and ticket for the final AND an England shirt for £100.

Club first, Its my love of watching Widnes that got me interested in Rugby league, Its that which keeps me interested in rugby league and were we still in the championship after next year it would be the RFL's treatment of that league and my club that would kill my support and interest in the game.

Rightly or wrongly i view our national team as the RFL's club, they do not realy represent our nation as players can switch nations seemingly at will. A player will be Irish one year, then welsh, then when theres a big tourny come up hey presto they are English, its a bleeding joke. I have paid many times to watch england, and have in the past supported them with the same kind of passion as i do Widnes. But my dislike of a lot of what the rfl are doing, and have done has turned me away from the national team.

And dont give me any of this, its your country blah blah. I didnt support England when we won the RU world cup, they dont represent me. I dont cheer us on in hockey, i dont care about it. I Dont care if england win the ashes in cricket, i dont like the sport so im not going to pretend i do when a big game comes up. At the end of the day its just a bunch of blokes that come from the same island as me, you could say the same is true of Widnes. But it feels different.

In short, Club first, club last. there is nothing in between.

Fairly sure last year it was dearer than that



They must have a lot of shirts left over

Just checked and you're right, it's £107.

Bringing back proper tours where the tourists play the top club sides in addition to tests would make me more interested and would, I think, get the fans behind the national team more, particularly if the club sides had given the tourists a run for their money during the build up. But that would depend on clubs from the touring nation putting country first which isn't likely to happen.

That joke would only make sense if England had the same shirt this year as last year.

That's not true though, is it? We don't all know what the problem is. There isn't just one problem either. There are many issues, some of which not everyone was aware of as it doesn't affect them personally. That is the point of this thread: to highlight the problems, not necessarily provide the solution. There's no point in providing a solution to one problem if it doesn't address the others, especially if it might exacerbate them.

+1

So sorry I didn't know they had a new shirt , not

The main problem is the lack of success , that is the reason most fans that don't go , don't go , all the other reasons including mine aren't really an issue

I disagree. If that was the case how come the Aussies and Kiwis don't get huge home crowds? I think lack of success is an excuse rather than an actual reason.

An opinion you are entitled to

You have the same misinterpretation I did. There's no minimum number on the ticket deal, and no obligation to take extended deals with travel and/or accommodation.

Interesting. In which case it sounds more a case of apathy on the part of the fans than lack of trying by the RFL. If the people who regularly play and watch our game CBA heading to watch England, what hope have the RFL got?

I think the problem here is that you're asking this question to hardened fans. We're pretty much all going to be club before country; we pour lots of time and money into following our clubs and are pretty much spent when it comes to internationals.

I think what the RFL need to realise is the modern trend towards how to sell international sports; concentrating all your resources on hardened club supporters isn't going to work, you need to look for the part-timers. The hardened supporters will have spent a lot of money and large portion of the year going to home matches, popping over the pennines, going to cardiff, going to London, going to Perpignan etc etc. It all adds up.

Part time supporters might have a keen interest in the sport, but they might not be able to afford the time or money to follow a team. When a big event comes around that is marketed properly, particularly an international, they'll head to that. For example, a fella from Fev who has moved to Kent and has a young family. If the tickets are a tenner, will he take his family to a) Fev vs Skolars, b) Quins vs Salford or c) Wembley Double Header.

Similarly, you live in London, you're new to the game, got a mate who bangs on about RL, you've seen a couple of matches on Sky, which were good and you just want a good, different night out. Which of those three options would you chose?

You look at RU, Football and Cricket. The international matches are targetted at part timers. They develop a comprehensive media and sponsorship portfolio and make the image of matches as prestigious as possible. We can argue all we want about what we think about Eng/GB etc, but it doesn't really matter in a way because the international games needs marketing beyond us.

Last season there was , it was a 50 seat package

So it looks like the RFL looked at that and addressed the matter.

The lack of competitiveness can't be underestimated when it comes to small crowds for internationals in England. There are a lot of bandwagon supporters of GB/England - if we really look likely to beat Australia when it counts, people would turn up. But if we get smashed when the big crowd turns up, a lot of people wouldn't bother going again. Unfortunately the near future promises more of the same. I can't see England getting close to Australia any time soon.

People should also remember that international RL in Australia is way behind Origin and the NRL. There's more interest in NZ as they are now regularly competitive, and even the Aussie fans are starting to take interest when they play (and an added side-benefit is we're starting to see more young Kiwis who are eligible to pick either Australia or NZ opting for NZ). But there really is no interest at all in seeing England as far as I can tell.

You make a very good point about the bandwagon.
People often use the argument that a club's hardcore support can be measured by the size of the crowd against one of the lesser teams with few travelling fans. If you look at England, our hardcore support is about 12k (what we usually get against France and Wales in competitive fixtures). Should we look to build this up first, and the rest will follow maybe?