Is this the best Welsh side ever? asked the front page of Saturday's Guardian. That's as far as I got.

I saw the mail on Sunday and going by their coverage they seem to think England won the 6 nations. 2 pages of coverage with a small amount on the wales game no doubt there is a Welsh edition. But it was truly a media frezy over one game.

As for italy I notice they now play all their games in Rome in the olympic stadium 2 questions how long have they been doing it. I thought it was just the odd game & 2 how the heck do they fill it with the rubbish that is served up.

With regard to the press coverage in the Sunday papers....I suggest that the average 4.5 million viewers per game that the BBC attract during the competition, together with the 220,000+ fans in attendance for the 3 games on Saturday and overall, the 1,000,000 + people who will have paid an average of about 40 quid each for a ticket over the course of the tournament will have dictated the press coverage placed by Editors across the country.
Like it or not and it is patently obvious that old prejudices remain here, the 6 Nations is a massive sporting event in the British Isles....£40,000,000 split between the 6 nations in gate receipts alone for 5 weekends work is more money than other sports would make in a year from all sources.

Put it into perspective....other than the Wendyballers, what English team get's 80,000+ for internationals and 4,000,000 + viewers on FTA TV? Papers print what they believe people want to read......as Bi-product of this, they generate Advertising Revenue, which in turn keeps them in business.

The Italians, I believe, made the decision to move to the bigger Stadio Olympico as a result of getting close to capacity at the smaller Flaminio on regular occasions. InterESt in the Italian RU increased during the recent RWC and La Gazzetta dello Sport reported a crowd in excess of 10,000 welcomed them back to Rome after the tournament. Whilst Domestic RU in Italy is poor, the emphasis on National Pride lends itself to their culture.....

I constantly get shot down for saying this, but the RFL could learn a lot from the RFU and The Game in General from the IRB!

Just got back to Hull from the game in Cardiff, well done to a young Welsh team...but why are English Union fans such bad losers?

That's why...

You're right gf.

Sale set to announce the signing of Danny Cipriani, the move to Salford and a name change this week.

Without the resources & friends of the RFU, what exactly?

Cipriani is a walking headline. North West Sharks?

Possibly yeah. I won't be supporting them if that happens. They're f*cking deluded if they think a name change is going to help attract a bigger fanbase. Steve Diamond has been quoted as saying something along the lines of Stockport being difficult to get to and that with Salford it'll be handy as it's so near The Trafford Centre. Stockport has direct trains from Manchester right through to London, there's 4 direct motorway exits. Access has never been a problem.

I'm from Manchester myself so it may seem stupid that Manchester Sharks or North West Sharks would annoy me but it's no respect for the history. I can think of at least 10 Football or Rugby clubs who don't play in the place their name represents. It's stupid. Sale FC have won every game this season with a bonus point and got promoted into North 1 West a couple of weeks ago. I'll probably go and watch them if they change the name.

The one thing the RFU have managed to do very well, is sell an international game to the public as though it is some sort of unmissable 'occasion' - A sort of 'something you have to witness at least once in your lifetime' kind of thing that the middle-classes like to do, like trekking in South America, or witnessing the Northern Lights...



What's always obvious about these Six Nations games, Twickenham especially, is that a good percentage of the crowd always seem like they are 'tourists' with little knowledge or interest in the actual game....A regular glance at the scoreboard tells them all they want to know, what happens on the pitch is of minimal interest to them.

People have been burnt at the stake for far less than that



Seriously, if ever there was an example of contrasting fortunes in similar businesses, simply look at the activities of the 2 codes governing bodies since 1987.
Pre 1987, I am fully aware of the "history"....but since the first RWC and then professionalism in 1995, it's almost as if RL has been running through treacle when compared to the IRB




Conspiracy theorists need not apply.



Since 1995 Rugby Union has been professional and professionally run.........regardless of what you perceive to be a bias or anti-league stance by the world and his wife.....

I would love to hear your conspiracy theories as to how the Amateur Rugby World Cup on 1987 has morphed into the professional money making machine it is today at the expense of Rugby League.....how the RFU receives billions in aid from the Government, syphoned away from the funds intended to buy back the RL grounds that were flogged off by the RFL in the first place.

To whine about the money and resources available to Union goes far deeper than simply a sporting divide....it opens up a class debate. Given that in the 1970's most houses had 1 bread winner, 1 car, 1 TV , 1 Holiday by the seaside etc, it could be argued that toffs who played Union were better looked after, but by the time Thatcher had conned the entire country into believing that home ownership wasn't just for the middle classes and houses had 2 cars outside, with a TV in every room and Spanish people fled the costas in fear of their tapas, then there were no favours being done.

The IRB, managed to get national governments to fork out money ($100,000,000 in 2011) for the right to host their tourney.....then they go on to sell the TV rights, sponsorships and merchandise, whilst the host nation has to attempt to recover their outlay, through ticket sales and increased tourism dollars.......the Rugby Football League were touting the naming rights to the 2008 4 nations for 30 grand.........without the continued support of Gillette, the England set up would be sponsored by brains faggots.......

The IRB, seeing the potential, lobbied hard to get the shortened game accepted to the Olympics.....as a direct result of this success, the USA networks have begun showing the 7's on FTA TV.......800,000 watched the RWC Final in North America....miniscule audience by their standards, but a start. The RFL have bounced their showpiece mid-season event around to the highest bidder....getting embarrassing attendances over 2 days.....less people than the Italian RFU managed to attract to 1 game of Union for the right not to finish last in a tournament they wont win for at least another 20 years.........
I can't think of many international sports that need to have double headers in their tournaments so as not to be shown up for getting terrible crowds........yet the last 2 x 4 nations have had them, attracting 45k to games.......why is it the Italians can attract 50% more to 1 game of Union when their domestic comp is a pile of crap?

The IRB are a cash rich organisation that is in no way beholding to TV money. Individual Unions are more so reliant on TV money and the clubs even more so...........Rugby League would be f()(&3d without Rupert Murdoch.....and that, is a cold hard fact.

$115,000,000 is what the IRB will get from each of the next 2 hosts of the RWC......that's $230,000,000 over 8 years for letting them host it..........do you reckon all those Public Schoolboys in Japan are to blame? Is it the BBC's fault...or the Times or Telegraph because they don't give RL the coverage you think it deserves.


Rugby League is popular in NSW, Brisbane and along the M62.....It has always been a professional sport that at times in its history, could have rivalled Soccer........
Rugby Union used to be an upper middle class pastime......it gave League a 100 year head start and in 17 short years has overhauled it due to good business sense and hard graft.......

I am a Rugby League supporter, but it drives me mad that because someones Uncle Tony was shunned in 1965 and Aunt Mildred ran off with a Taff, Union is held up as the reason for the woes of TGG.

The trouble started and continues to be a lot closer to home.



do you think the RFU give a toss? 82,000 paying punters.......+ beer, +food+ replica shirts........and the fact that tickets are as rare as hens teeth. How many Wembley RL Double headers would it take to generate that amount of revenue?
The Green Eyed Monster is alive and well eh Dita

I see an England player got a little hungry during the Ireland game.

Did I hear right this morning when they said he [icould[/i get a four-year ban?

IIRC the recommended sanction is 12-26 weeks, which could rule him out of England's summer tour.

Not sure whether the fact he's done 26 weeks in the past for gouging might result in him getting a longer sentence this time around?

In other news, the SARU has announced a pre-tax profit for the year of £2m.

When I heard four years, I immediately thought he must have done something pretty bad previously.


Yes, saw that this morning. Not too shabby.

No jealousy here mate.....In fact, its a great compliment to their marketing department that they manage to sell something, that has the entertainment value of watching paint dry, so well..... If ever a sport was an example of the Emperor's New Clothes, then Rugby Union is it.

With regards to the excellent marketing, you could make a comparison with 20/20 Cricket.....Excellently sold to a public, willing to take part in an 'event', whilst being ignorant of the fact that the product they are buying into, is essentially mediocre.

..........or soccer.....I spent 10 years and many thousands of pounds on hotels and air fares as a dublin and then london based ST holder at Celtic.......90 minutes watching 0-0 in the rain at Ibrox and then being locked in at Ibrox for 4 hrs for my own safety was the final straw.
RL is by far the better game of football on offer.......shame the marketing is crap

The whole matter concisely summed up in that last sentence.

Shark J, Steve Diamond's recent comments regarding the move to SCS are condescending and arrogant to say the least. He basically admits that having Salford's juniors playing at Heywood Road will provide the union club with the perfect opportunity to poach the best talent. Reading the Sale forums it seems that the majority of people who are unhappy with developments are the traditional life-long fans, whereas the those crowing about taking over at Barton and conquering the North-West are those that have only known the club during the premiership years.

If you go over to our forum and look up a couple of recent topics made by J Moon you'll see how unhappy I am. I am pretty upset to be honest and I don't think I'm gonna continue supporting them, depending on what happens.

A bit of investigative work last night by me and a person on there made us realise we'll be changing the name to just Sharks. I suppose that's not as bad as putting a new word at the front but I don't like the name Sale being dropped.

As I said on there I have lost a lot of respect for Steve Diamond and the way he's handled all this.

If any Salford fans are reading this then rest assured 99% of Sale fans are very unhappy at the moment, with regards to both the ground move and the name change. With this primacy of tenure issue it seems we've done it again. Left it until the last minute to p!ss off another bunch of fans like we did with Stockport.

Good luck with it. Sale FC apparently have a plan in place to do 5 consecutive promotions to reach The Championship in 5 seasons. I'll probably go and watch them as I've said before. I might go to the occasional game, I'll be glad to see Sharks have won their games, I'll probably go to away games as I like getting to the different grounds, but my heart won't be in it like it was.

Could I trouble you to explain why the success of the RU has been at the ‘expense’ of Rugby League please as this is the first time I have heard this. Which Rugby League country sees its game weaker since 1987, Australia, England, New Zealand, France?

Thanks

At the expense does not mean that RL has weakened...it just means that opportunities open to both codes have been snapped up and exploited by the IRB whilst the RLIF (is that what it's called this week?) survived on the crumbs from the table of the professional Club game.

As it is, since 1987, RL has become stronger in not only the 4 nations you mention, but also across the world in general...it's just that if you compare the two codes, it looks like Usain Bolt taking on Manuel Uribe over 100 meters.

As I have said already.....RL is the better code of all the footballs I have come across, but until it gets the marketing right, it will continue to lag behind.

You're welcome.



By the way, none of the 4 countries you mentioned are "Rugby League Countries"...they are counties where in every case there is another code of football that gets bigger TV deals and more supporters......and in the case of New Zealand and France, having 1 professional team that plays in another country's competition makes the statement even more ridiculous.

HTH

Thanks for the reply

I certainly didn’t mean that these were Rugby League countries in the sense that it is the dominant sport there – more that it is where RL itself is at its strongest (PNG being the exception of course which is indeed a Rugby League country). I pride myself in having enough common sense not suggest that any of these are ‘RL countries’

Thought as much.
The problems faced by League at International level and at Club level can be summed up in numbers......

30> Full time professional RL clubs in the World
2 > Provincial Sides Drawn from the above.
3 >Relevant International Teams
0 >Number of teams below the 30 that seem to matter to the governing bodies
1,000,000,000 > Dollars that the NRL will hold out for next time....further reliance on TV money and not on fans.
44,000> Number of fans prepared to pay from a tenner upwars to see the top 3 International teams and Wales in a Double header at Wembley.......
Compared with
55,000> The Number of Union fans prepared to pay upwards of 35 notes to watch Australia play an exhibition match in London 3 weeks later.

League needs to catch up.......it needs to get fans involved and back into grounds, which in turn will attract sponsors and investors, which will in turn attract media attention,...etc......etc....

IMO that is