The NFL are only playing three games a year at Wembley not a whole season the dynamic is very different. Easier to market an exclusive - an example would be Bolt running a one off meeting. If the NFL were playing at Wembley every week I doubt the attendances would anywhere near as large. If you want to see elite American Football live this is your only opportunity, the same could not be said of a new RL franchise

Don't really know how seriously the NFL are taking expansion into the UK when they don't even know where it is???

there is only 8 home games in an NFL season, so hardly every week 8 games between september and january is easily sustainable with crowds of over 60000

Looks like Sam might be fast tracked into the England set up sooner than we thought.
Clearly made a good impression in his first game then.

Just saw Stuart Lancaster's comments, really hard to believe that the RFU just gave him another 4 year contract.

Sam has a lot to live up to. Apparently Courtney Lawes was taken off “after making an astonishing 12 tackles in an hour”.

As I said on previous page Lawes had an outstanding game on Saturday, I was there. The number of tackles is irrelevant, as more relevant was the change of direction from the Aussies to keep away from him.

What is also more relevant, is that I believe in Union, the stats for tackling are recorded as the first man in, rather than also including the 2nd and 3rd man, like league. I am not a defender of Union, far from it, but the comparison of tackles if made to league, should be a fair reflection.

Well we have the uneven fixture in the 2nd half of the league...there's our opportunity to take the game on the road.
Even double head them and play in areas like Birmingham/Nottingham/Leicester/Bristol/Newcastle

Do they play the play off games on neutral grounds?

What I find disturbing from a RL perspective is that the RFL can't sell out Wembley for an international between us & Australia nor for the Challenge Cup Final whereas the RU is able to sell out both Wembley & Twickenham for Premiership RU games.
Plus in terms of expansion the RU premiership is moving teams out of London. Saracens, London Irish & Wasps have or are moving to grounds away from their so-called supporter base.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Wasps crowds when they move to the Ricoh Stadium in Coventry.
Can you see that happening & being successful in RL? Salford fans can't even be bothered to move 3 miles in the same area despite Koucash's massive investment.
On the other side of the coin GH still hasn't managed to establish a viable RU presence in Leeds. Maybe it's a northern thing? Are we all too parochial in this part of the world?

Why?
We can't even get locals to come out in large numbers to support the Magic Weekend, so all this would do is deprive home supporters of the opportunity to support their own team as easily as they would if the game were to be played at home.

Play the long game

I think someone has already pointed out the different jobs RL and RU forwards have during a game.
RU is fully professional, they have the highest levels of fitness possible for the sport they play, in days past fitness in RU was a joke compared to League, not any more. Laws is a phenomenal athlete and had an outstanding game on Saturday.

I'm sure Sam will find out the pleasures of mauling for a forward. After 30 seconds (which seems like an hour) your muscles feel like they are on fire and your lungs stop working.

if the team made the playoffs (doubtful for a while, they would sell out)

Will they though? The dilemma between centre and back row is a real one. I think he will end up playing at centre for England but I don't think he'll excel there. Plenty of blood and thunder which will please some but not really a creative force. Neither does he have a kicking game. Flanker has to be a better bet but to those not too [iau fait[/i with the subtleties of union (and I include at least 50% of the average Twickenham crowd here) the perception will be of a bloke paid an absolute bundle to lift the jumpers, tackle, ruck and maul. That's if they notice him at all.

RL has been around for 120 years - how long a game to you want to play?

Part of the success to Sky viewing figures is that there are fans of the game that are not or ever have lived in the 'heartlands'.

Accessibility has stopped the growth of the game, just dumping a team in say Nottingham won't suddenly reap any reward either.
Bring games, even if it is only a couple a year, to these areas with the established teams, market them and try to bring in those that are interested but not interested enough to drive 200 mile round trips for something they are not sure about.

I say this only because of the uneven fixture list, kill 2 birds with one stone.

^ This.

Without SL teams and the RFL dedicating time and effort at Grassroots level whats the point? Get the teams going into development areas with workshops / training sessions / coaching lessons for team managers / player facetime with the local teams / Academy games / Under 19's etc against local academys / teams really push the boat out and make a big effort to be seen in the community and to be investing time and effort into these areas, hearts and minds if you will.

Once a certain level of interest is generated, then a SL game can be set up to be taken to them, the usual kids in free, discounts for local club teams etc. With "Every, Minute. Matters" these games can be billed as a serious event, instead of a half assed friendly with as much passion as a wet dishrag.

To do this we as a game need to seriously start pulling in the same direction. That means stop the petty squabbling and start forming close bonds between the amateur scene and the profesional. Say what you want about RU but their club network at grassroots is lightyears ahead of what we have even at some profesional teams.

We have a really great sport, very marketable (in the right hands) and loads of potential. Nothing will ever be acheived while one set of local businessmen argue with other areas local businessmen over nothing, while the governing body makes descisions to try and placate and please everyone and end up pleasing no one. Pick a battle, fight it then move on to the next, dont jump around every other year with a new gimmick / league structure etc.

damned right! absolute stormer of a game. tackled everything and anything put in front of him. the issue i have with the anti-union brigade on here is that they have no idea about how to play the game, yet feel that its a crap game.
its not league, there for its not about breaking tackles and getting 50 meters down the field to score a try. union is much more of a team effort.
the stuff that goes on in the ruck will have flown you guys by. the ones who say chris robshaw is a crap player, but the stuff he does in the ruck makes him an exceptional player and most RU games are won there.
either watch the game with your eyes fully open then comment on it, or dont bother!

as for why hes gone to bath, well as pointed out, its a lovely city, 3rd in my eyes to salisbury and york as great places to visit. im sure the money didnt put him off, but to say that a man youve never met "only went for the cash" is silly. he has a chance to play in a sport that famous.

last big RL headline? ben flower punch (god knows when last one before that was)
last big RU headline? eng beating the aussies.

says it all.

Actually the last big RL headline was England losing to New Zealand, which was also a big RU headline in the last few weeks.

england losing to NZ at league was not a big headline, as stated the only big headline for RL lately was Flowers punch

And probably before that our man Zak.
Bit of a pattern there don`t you think?

haha, was that on the BBC news at 6? no, no it wasnt. the only press we get is bad press.

Just because the national media ignore Rugby League doesn't mean Rugby League hasn't had any big news stories since the GF. If you base your news intake purely on what you see on national TV news then you will be getting a particularly skewed and very superficial view of the world. Which might explain a lot actually.