Many who attend RU games go to it for the event / occasion. A bit like horse racing to a certain degree. You know, the local racecourses get your avid followers and pro gamblers, the show piece events like The National and Ascot get the people who just want to go to be there, as well as the real sports enthusiasts.

Personally I don't have any problem with this, yet there are some who seem to think this is to be derided.

Why is it that that too many RL fans are too worried about the atmosphere or "how bad it will look on TV"? I have read on this forum in the past of how some fans would not be attending certain games as there would not be much of a crowd there

It's a good job not all think that way isn't it



Let's face it, the stereotypical RL fan is passionate about their sport. Unfortunately the stereotypical RL fan tends to have a chip on their shoulder about lack of national coverage and then a few will try and compare RL to other sports.

If you like RL, great, enjoy it. If you don't like RU, fair enough. But do yourself a favour and dont compare them. It's not a like for like comparison.

I wonder how many of those 84,000 will go to the next game? Or will their next RU match be the same fixture next year?

Its a cultural thing re London and Union.

The sport is very much seen as a posh lads day out, and offering dirt cheap tickets to see Wembley provides the perfect excuse for them to get drunk.

Rugby League on the other hand is steeped in inter club and town rivalry. Its a parochial passionate family sport, so putting on a similar even just does not work amongst Leagues fanbase.
Something similar to league can also be seen with soccer matches. When Arsenal played European games at Wembley their best attendance was 73,707, which is significantly smaller than what Union got today. However i doubt any sport fan would go around saying Saracens are the biggest club side of any sport in the South East.

The figures look good for someone not familiar with the sport. However the reality is that in a week or two when they move back to Watford they will be back to their usual 6000.

The time to get really worried about club RU would be if they were pulling in huge crowds on a week by week basis. The reality is they are not, they are broadly similar to those in RL. This is despite the far higher media profile they have.
That in itself should be a real worry for RU.

The simple fact is that the biggest threat to RL is from the very insecurity and inferiority complex of many of its fans.

So 84000 people turned out, 80000 of whom actually paid a fiver to be bored eless. I can sit at home doing nothing and get the same result, without paying a fiver.

Thank you for proving you know naff all, it was a fantastic game.

put the GB v Exiles game on at Elland Road ,on a Saturday Afternoon 3pm kick off , charge £5 max a ticket , plus freebies as the RU have done and ok we wont get 84,000 but I bet the take up would be on a sold out basis...

What the RFU have done can be matched by the RFL , but it has to be on on an equal footing in terms of timing , ease of travel etc to be comparable ......

From where i live in the Black Country, our game starts at Widnes,simply because it is the closest Superleague Team to me....then we go north....We will never match the Union Game in terms of numbers,,,if anyone looked at the game at Wembley today,it was absoloutley great in terms of marketing and promotion...Wasn*t a bad game also.....(Am i allowed to say that,,Whoops)..!!

The rfu know how to put on an event

Some people have a willy measuring competition....Sl fans have a chip on shoulder measuring competition.
MY CHIPS BIGGER THAN YOURS

Anyway, let's not turn this into the now regular 'union is great, rugby league is e' spiel.

I wonder when Sale Sharks are going to tell us all what their massive news is.

But it's not fair...the RFU have friends in high places and we RL types are just poor put upon working class types...




They've managed to lose less money this year?

I'm not comparing them, however I like an atmosphere at a game. Considering there was 84,000, it was very quiet. That's just Union though. The game wasn't too bad, last 10 being the stand out.

new coach?

Just to put some of the misconceptions on here to bed.

There were NO free tickets for this game. Ok, corporates and such, yes. But to the general public - no. They were given out to customers from places like Aviva, but Aviva paid for the tickets first so it isn't completely free. Free in terms of the fan was given it, maybe. But the club will be making the same amount of money.

McFly at half time - they would have played about 4 songs. That might have got maybe 5,000-10,000 people in there. Living in Manchester I can tell you they've played the Apollo recently which holds 3,500 people. I'm not a chart follower anymore but McFly aren't one of the big names anymore and tend to play theatres more than arenas or stadiums so it's not like they got any superstars of the moment.

Saracens average attendance - yes, sometimes they only get 6,000 at home. Their fans hate Vicarage Road. Have any of you ever been? I haven't but I've seen it enough times. It's an old fashioned stadium in which one side got closed down due to health and safety, the rest is faded and grey, Watford isn't meant to be the nicest of places. They're moving to Barnet next season in a 10,000 capacity ground. The real test will be filling that near to capacity every game. But like someone has said, it's going to Wembley that's the experience. Do you think the Super League Grand Final would get over 60,000 every year if it was held at a rubbish venue? No, I really don't. They never shut up about "Old Trafford in October" when you're watching Super League. If it was held at a rubbish Rugby League ground every year, St Helens fans would sure get bored of losing in every final, that's for sure.

Posh boys day out - I can't really comment on everybody. There's no point in going over old rubbish as it will go around in circles as it has for 150 years. But as a working class Rugby Union supporter I really don't think yesterdays game was anything like that. Rugby Sevens - now that's where you want to be making those sort of digs. Probably the worst excuse for Rugby there is, thousands of p!ssed up posh Aussies and Southern lads in their mid 20s just there for the drink. Yesterdays game was really marketed at families I believe. Don't forget - Harlequins nearly fill The Stoop these days and get massive crowds when they play at Twickenham themselves.

Either way - they got 84,000 people there for a club game and a Rugby League forum with 4 pages of people arguing about it. It obviously worked.

Not a chance on here

Shark J, that thread you mention is comparing the marketing prowess of the RFL and RFU, not the union game at Wembley.
Gutterfax, grow up.

How embarrassingly amateur of Sky Sports to say, ad nauseum, that the attendance record for a club rugby game had been broken. Ignorance is bliss I suppose.

I notice how no one has talked about the actual game yet.

Game seemed to be above average and the last 10 minutes was pretty exciting for those watching.

I didn't watch it. I had a weekend in the North East. A very rare mix of games. I watched Sale get beat by Newcastle at Kingston Park in what was my lowest point as a Sale fan. Just 5,200 there for a relegation battle. I then watched Durham City beat Warrington Town 7-1 in front of 115 people. Best 7 quid I've spent in ages. Today I went to St James Park for the Newcastle and Liverpool game. Premier League Football isn't worth the money, entertainment wise. But the ground was class and the atmosphere was electric.

Sale were 3 tries to 0 at half time and then we faded in the second half. Macleod has gotten worse as the season has gone on. We don't have a single fly half in our squad. He's a centre playing the position. He got injured and Cueto took over the kicking duties but was useless. It was embarrassing. Fair play to Newcastle, they wanted it more. I put my hood over my head at the end as I was genuinely feeling upset. I just couldn't believe it. As I've said on our forum - in the first half we were like the Harlem Globetrotters. Never seen passing like it. Then as always we fail to carry on a good half. I think it's about 8 games this season where we've gone a whole half without scoring.

I haven't heard much about the game at Wembley. It sounded a decent game. At least there were some tries, otherwise there would have been a lot of moaning.

Catalancs - apologies if people were just discussing that. I didn't mean they were slagging it off really. I just meant it became a talking point. I scanned through the last page.

Who do you think will go down Shark J? I still think, and hope, it's the Falcons. What about coming up?
Any idea when Sale Sharks will let us in on their big plans?

It has to be Newcastle with Wasps winning today

I had very mixed emotions today. Despite us being the embarrassment of English Rugby right now, we're still 7th. 6th would guarantee Heineken Cup Rugby, 7th would if an English team wins either of the 2 European cups. If Wasps won and Gloucester didn't get anything from it then we'd have only been a point behind them, if Newcastle won then it would mean they were only 4 points behind Wasps. I'd rather Wasps go down as I want a Northern team in the Premiership and it's a good away day.

As for coming up - I really don't know. Only Bristol and Leeds can come up on ground regulations and Leeds are out of the running. London Welsh are top of Bristol's group. Bristol having drawn 2 of their 4 games. As it stands I think Bedford, Cornish Pirates and London Welsh could have a big say in it. Bedford already stated they don't want to go up but I'm not sure what would happen with the other 2. I don't know if they'd want to go up or if they'd try and get a local Football ground or something. For Cornwall - the only ground I can think of would be Plymouth Argyle and I don't know if they would travel that far, or if they'd even be allowed to use it. London Welsh - they get crowds of about 1,000 so I don't know if they could afford to rent a ground. Again - they play in Richmond and it's hardly on the door step of Football teams. Suppose they could play at The Stoop but then there would be 3 teams playing there.

I really don't know about our big announcements. I think it's been postponed until this Wednesday. I think the ground share would have to have been decided by now if we're to move in for next season. A lot of people seem to think we're having one more year in Stockport.

Only so many ticket which were a tenner. Still double the price of the union.

No idea was in the pub arrived about 10 mins to kick off of the first game.

Sure was saw a tweet. "At wembley for the rugby no idea whats going on."

Says it all.

Henson's been sacked.

Rugby union Premiership entry rules stipulate that all top-flight clubs have to register their declared ground for the following season by March 31, a deadline that passed at the weekend. So unless they allow Sale Sharks to break the rules (or should that be laws?), it looks like Shark J was right and another season in Stockport beckons.