The Catalans players, Leon Pryce excepted as he was with Bill Arthur, shook every travelling fan by the hand last night. Check it on Sky.

Indeed not. McGuire is past his best...let him go to Salford

Ok Fatboy, see you at the Stoop on a Monday night then. If you do make it then think about doing that on workdays several times a season.

I think the counter arguments to the critics cannot simply be lumped together in a "coach knows best" category, whereas much of the negative comment could be classified as the "painting by by numbers" approach to coaching.

There was 19 Broncos fans last night on Western terrace, we even got our hands shook by players at end of game, we are a loyal small bunch, do you really know how much it costs to do a dozen Friday night away games a season,

Hotel £50
Get In £20
Programme £3
Sausauge & Chips £3
Train £45
Beer £50 +
kebab £4

and still out in town at 3am, all this after a loss,

never mind, some of us, travel 1 1/2 hours to get to home games, another £20 train fare,

but still a car load !!!!

Indeed. I have nothing but admiration for those of you who made it and then stood on an open terrace in such appalling conditions. More power to you.

Agreed regarding the London fans with the above. Friday at 8pm is not ideal time to get
To a game in Leeds. And this is a regular occurance for them, which is a big exspense

Take my hat off to the London travelling contingent.

He's not joking either!

My brother was in a bar somewhere in the posh part of London this week with his girlfriend. It cost him £48 for 4 drinks! You'd think £50 is a cheap night for them

I repeat - there were four of them on the Western Terrace, four - not four thousand, not four hundred but four.

Make as many excuses as you want for them but to have only four away supporters is pathetic. Even if they are losing every game, even if it was a Friday night, even if it meant taking the day off work to go see them - having four supporters at an away game is inexcusable.

Remind me again what they bring to the Super League party?

Bet my left nut I've seen Leeds play in London more times than you've seen London play in Leeds.

...and you picked on the wrong bloke when it comes to watching your team away from home.

Another reason why expanding out of the heartlands is a futile exercise.

How many we're Friday nights - none. By the way I have been to every game at Leeds over at least the last 10 years - all involving taking holiday. As for 4 you probably counted that in the first half. Some of the more sensible amongst us were under cover in the Carnegie terrace and moved at half time to the Western once the rain had stopped.

Assuning you are from Leeds/the North (and aplogies if you are not) It must be a real effort to get to all those away games Cas, Wakey, Bulls - Widnes away must seem like an expedition! A lot of London fans spend as much time getting to home games as Northern fans will take to get to away games.

So looking forward to meeting you on Monday 5th August at the Stoop

I KNEW you'd be a hothead "I'm a superfan me" Leeds fan.



Being a Leeds fan is easy. It's not remote , it's not difficult, it's not a countercultural statement. It's just something you can fall into, something you can easily do socially. And you can sit back and watch the team win most games. That's not a bad thing - it's just the way it is. But what is pathetic is to call out the fans of a team who enjoy none of those luxuries, who put much more effort into supporting their team than any Leeds fan who isn't based in Timbuktu does and who enjoy many fewer moments of triumph.

The fact that so many simplistic northern s view the Broncos fans support of their team as futile just makes it even more admirable.

Superfan, Classic statements really, also love the picture, 20 mins to kick off, all the other 15 london fans in sky rack pub, with our two closet leeds rhinos players family with us, who also stood on western terrace with us.

Like paddock, i have done all these games at leeds over the years, even done pre season friendlies on a sunday in front of 3,000 people, think 2006, also did one before, way back in early 2000's as well. sub 2,000

The funny thing is, leeds fans are always alright and decent folk, so where do you get al this stupudity from, you are a individual when it comes to your way of thinking, wow suppose fat boy thinks the catalan dragons fans stink as well, such a small club really.

Surely any person, who goes RL, does not believe what you think,

Like i told a nice pair of rhino fans in Original oak after the game, what use would a Rhinos scarf be in London, its exactly the same, people do not recognize it,

we are all in this together, you know

The four I counted were there in the first and second half - their numbers didn't seem to get any larger at any point throughout the game.



..and why expansion outside the heartlands is futile.



I'll be the one in the Rhinos shirt.

First of all my admiration goes to you and your fellow supporters who made the effort but their are so few of you it makes it hard to take your club seriously.

Fulham, London Crusaders, Harlequins, London Broncos or whatever bailout name they currently hide beneath have been around for over 30 years. That’s more than enough time to accumulate a decent fan base if the sport had any credibility outside its heartlands – which it doesn’t.

Thinking that expansion is “stupidity” just blows in the face of history does it not? Name me one successful team that does not sit in the sports heartlands?

Please could you explain what a "superfan" is?



I didn't call any of the fans who traveled to Leeds pathetic, I think the clubs support on a whole is pathetic - there's a subtle difference that I'm sure you're intelligent enough to identify but as it doesn't suit your agenda you chose to distort it to make out I'm saying something I'm not.
Also could you let me know how Paris, Bridgend, Jacksonville, Perpignan, Edinburgh and London are "not remote" to Leeds?



As I am a feckw[size=100i[/sizet please could you explain to me how the expansion of the sport outside its heartlands has succeeded?

i would say catalans have been a success. they haven't been going long but have made giant strides

The catalan Dragons have been successful, wembley and playoffs over recent years, good crowds, in fact they are rising, as more locals are getting into it.

how about Cumbria, is that a heartland place or a watse of time expansion,

Papua new guinea, Ireland, wales, Scotland, rugby playing and getting bigger, year on, where do you think all ther players come from originally, Imagine if the games extends to Cornwall as well.

Some of the so called big teams have sometimes taken 50 away, bradford the other year comes to mind, Huddersfield could be put in that group, sometimes very poorly supported away, fev have a better away support.

Take it, you will not be going to any of the RLWC games this year, they are all out of the heartlands, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi

Like i said, the game has to grow, it will make it better, its not about what we bring to SL, its about making SL

I said outside the heartlands.



Again, name me a success story or a team that could compete in the SL?



Link?



When did I say that I wont watch RL outside of the heartlands?



Why does the game have to grow? Every time the sport has been trialed in an 'expansion' area it has failed.

Why do people insist that for RL to survive it has to be a national sport? It's been around for the past 100+ years confined to the M62 corridor and the South of France - what makes you think that RL will die on it's arris if it's not nationalised?

And the reason RL struggles is that the international game is not great. It never will be until we can be competitive against the Aussies which we never will be with the narrow talent pool that is the M62 corridor.

We will never be competitive on the international stage and it has nothing to do with talent pools. Until the Aussies change their drinking laws we will always be behind them.

Let me explain.

Australia has these weird drinking laws which mean that local communities tend to congregate in amateur sports clubs – surf clubs, Aussie rules clubs, Rugby clubs, etc. Literally thousands of people go to these clubs on a weekly basis. They have several bars, slot machines, casinos, bookies, restaurants, café bars, all sorts and generate millions of dollars a year.

This means that they can afford to get full time, professional coaching at a much younger level. For example, I was out there for the World Cup in 2008 and we went to an amateur RL club in Newcastle. I got chatting to one of the blokes that worked there and he was telling me that from U11 onward they have pro coaches.
By the time these kids hit 16 they’ve already had several years under a trained coach compared to the English setup where all our junior teams tend to be coached by some kid’s dad that can be bothered to put the effort in.

We do not have the luxury of throwing the same amount of cash at our junior level and, therefore will always be behind our antipodean cousins.

There is simply more money in the Australian game overall, that’s why they’re better than us and it has very little to do with increasing our talent pool.