I am picketing the offices of the Daily Telegraph in London next Thursday 1 December. You can see a video of me explaining why I am doing this here: [urlhttp://www.thelifedept.co.uk/livelonger/footer-featured-c/the-daily-telegraphs-coverage-of-the-rugby-league/[/url There will be two or three of us in attendance with other London based fans saying they’ll try and bob over for a while. I have already had a quite a few messages critical of media coverage and I am going to print them off and display them outside their offices. This will show that many people are fed up with the shameful coverage our sport gets. If you have something you want to say to staff at the Daily Telegraph please email me at stuart.glendinning@thelifedept.co.uk and as long as it avoids abusive language I will print it off to display at their offices. Also if any of you have a team flag/banner or team shirt that you would trust me with it would be great to display it. It would look fantastic to see lots of different team names displayed outside the offices of the Telegraph. If I get enough I will take a film and post it on Youtube. If enough people like it, it could show up each time someone does a search for ‘Daily Telegraph’. A paper that, according to one fan ‘purposely ignores the sport’, would forever be linked with our sport! Interestingly 5 fans have contacted this week to say they had previously complained to the Telegraph. I have today had a particularly interesting letter from an 80 year old gentleman from Leigh and this is the focus in today’s video blog which you can see here: [urlhttp://www.thelifedept.co.uk/livelonger/livelonger/6-days-to-daily-telegraph-picket/[/url This makes me wonder how many complaints the Telegraph is getting but more to the point why it does nothing improve? Another fan has pointed out that Telegraph.co.uk does not list rugby league in its sports section in the toolbar unlike other newspapers websites. Convenient for saying you don’t get many people looking at rugby league stories online and justifying little coverage in the paper? Ignorance or, as some think, malice? If you live in the north west I could possibly collect your team flag or banner, further afield you’d need to post it to me. I will return everything of course (but make sure I have your address). Drop me an email to the address above. As you’ll see from today’s blog I already have a Hunslet flag. Thanks very much Pat, it will be an honour and privilege to display the pride of Leeds at 111 Buckingham Palace Road Thursday next. I hope it serves to educate and enlighten the workers at the UK’s supposedly leading quality newspaper. Thank you to those fans that have emailed me their best wishes. Stuart

I am picketing the offices of the Daily Telegraph in London next Thursday 1 December. You can see a video of me explaining why I am doing this here: [urlhttp://www.thelifedept.co.uk/livelonger/footer-featured-c/the-daily-telegraphs-coverage-of-the-rugby-league/[/url There will be two or three of us in attendance with other London based fans saying they’ll try and bob over for a while. I have already had a quite a few messages critical of media coverage and I am going to print them off and display them outside their offices. This will show that many people are fed up with the shameful coverage our sport gets. If you have something you want to say to staff at the Daily Telegraph please email me at stuart.glendinning@thelifedept.co.uk and as long as it avoids abusive language I will print it off to display at their offices. Also if any of you have a team flag/banner or team shirt that you would trust me with it would be great to display it. It would look fantastic to see lots of different team names displayed outside the offices of the Telegraph. If I get enough I will take a film and post it on Youtube. If enough people like it, it could show up each time someone does a search for ‘Daily Telegraph’. A paper that, according to one fan ‘purposely ignores the sport’, would forever be linked with our sport! Interestingly 5 fans have contacted this week to say they had previously complained to the Telegraph. I have today had a particularly interesting letter from an 80 year old gentleman from Leigh and this is the focus in today’s video blog which you can see here: [urlhttp://www.thelifedept.co.uk/livelonger/livelonger/6-days-to-daily-telegraph-picket/[/url This makes me wonder how many complaints the Telegraph is getting but more to the point why it does nothing improve? Another fan has pointed out that Telegraph.co.uk does not list rugby league in its sports section in the toolbar unlike other newspapers websites. Convenient for saying you don’t get many people looking at rugby league stories online and justifying little coverage in the paper? Ignorance or, as some think, malice? If you live in the north west I could possibly collect your team flag or banner, further afield you’d need to post it to me. I will return everything of course (but make sure I have your address). Drop me an email to the address above. As you’ll see from today’s blog I already have a Hunslet flag. Thanks very much Pat, it will be an honour and privilege to display the pride of Leeds at 111 Buckingham Palace Road Thursday next. I hope it serves to educate and enlighten the workers at the UK’s supposedly leading quality newspaper. Thank you to those fans that have emailed me their best wishes. Stuart

I doubt that anything will come of it but well played for your efforts

The Telegraph is a business, and if it's advertisers and readership wanted more RL coverage then it would include more about the game.

Yes, the Telegraph is poor at covering RL - but stuff like this is embarrassing for the game really. Spend the day trying to develop the sport rather than wasting your time stood in the cold

Bizarre and embarrassing. There isn't a law to say that a newspaper has to cover Rugby League. I commute via Victoria, I'm going to come along and laugh at you

You are the Alan Partridge of Rugby League sir and I claim my £5

If Dave Lister turns up chin him. He's had it coming for ages.

Seriously though good luck.

I vowed I'd not start posting on forums because I knew I'd get comments like Dave Listers. The good news, David. is I'll be there from early in the morning until evening so you won't miss me if you come to laugh - albeit I'd prefer it if you didn't (laugh that is, although I'd be happy to meet you).

Not suprisingly quite a few people have questioned if it'll do any good and to be honest I don't know if it will.

EHW I hope you won't take offence if I disagree with you. In my opinion broadsheets are very important and influential - these are the papers that potential sponsors buy and they often set the news agenda (including sporting news). Although you could never say the Telegraph has been good for RL, as a regular reader I have noticed a distinct change. There was a time not so long ago that there was something everyday and the major events got a semi decent bit of coverage. OK it might only have been a snippet but even those days are gone. My particular angst was about coverage of the Four Nations. Personally I believe many readers of the DT would have been interested in the England vs Australia game at Wembley. Let's face it, most RL fans I know are interested in others sports. Why should it be that readers of the DT - that are not RL fans - would not be interested in hearing about Darren Lockyer or Sam Tomkins? The 40-odd thousand fans that attended Wembley will have been RL fans and we need our sport to reach out to a wider audience.

The DT is a business yes but I am not convinced that it means it is right to ignore our game. Was it brilliant reporting by the DT to report that Joel Tomkins was going to Union but not mention that Sam Tomkins was secured to league for 3 years? Would not the DT's Union readers have been interested to know that League's most brilliant star was denied to them for at least a little bit longer? I had to read The Times to find out Sam was staying in League. Also quite a few DT readers have contacted me to say they have complained to the DT. One fan has shown me a letter from Adam Sills the DT sports editor dated the 2 Nov 'apologising' for the 'unacceptable' coverage. That is two days before the truly insulting coverage on 4 November. I don't understand that.

This Adam Sills has overseen a reduction in coverage in his tenure (he started in 2010). The previous DT Sports Editor is David Bond and he is now sports editor at the BBC. So why the change? Did RL fans stop reading the DT as soon as David left or is the case that Adam is ignorant of our great game?

Personally I wonder how anyone at the Telegraph knows how many of their readers are interested in RL. They are the only broadsheet not to offer rugby league as an option on their sports website. If they had it on their toolbar and no-one selected it - then fair enough that would be good evidence that their readers are not interested. Oh and I ought to just mention that their toolbar includes various sports including UFC. I don't want to be disrespectful to other sports but has it really come to a point where rugby league doesn't warrant inclusion on the Telegraphs sports website but UFC does?

I 'get it' when people say my activity is embarrasing but actually I am not embarrassed and I will not bring shame on our sport. We have leaflets to hand out to all their staff, most of whom will be blissfully unaware that rugby league fans are unhappy with their coverage. Personally I reckon many DT will questions whether 3 sentences is appropriate for what they claim is the UK's leading quality paper.

Incidentally I have had one person contact me who works in London for one of the newspapers - one that definitely is read by lots of rugby league fans. He says the ignorance of our sport is appalling - and this at a red top!

What will be embarrassing is to only have two flags - at the mo I have a Hunslet and Widnes Vikings flag. Will some other fans please lend me their flag? I promise to look after it and return it. My email address is in the first posting above. Although the comments in response to my request have been mildly ridiculed here I genuinely have had a lot of people email me direct with words of encouragement.

if i could afford the flight over i would be standing with you. dave lister is an idiot for evening tryin to put a downer on you for standing up for your beliefs

. If they dont want to increase the coverage for rugby league it would be better if they just stop posting half d articles full stop. if there was more people like you in rugby league are game would be better for it no doubt about it. it is a pointless protest at all and well done for taking time out of your private life and at expense i can imagine.

Wouldn't it be better to have huge banners with "DON'T BUY THE DAILY TELEGRAPH - THEY HATE RUGBY LEAGUE" at every Super League game?

I'm sure Sky/News International wouldn't mind.

You need a woman.

I do feel there is a genuine issue with the coverage our sport gets, but twas ever thus. Back in the day though there tended to be more abuse from journalists who talked derogatively about our sport from the outside; nowadays we are just ignored. Which is worse? And is it the newspapers' fault or is it Rugby League's fault?

Looking back to the 1994 test series, the games were on the BBC, were slightly better attended and had some 'household names' playing. The latter does make a difference - but is it chicken and egg again? We had what we think now was a competetive GB side - but I reflected seven days ago that the 17-year old me had stared resignedly at exactly the same bleak Elland Road wasteland outside the NE Corner back then so it's not really that different is it?

Anyway, had we beaten the Kangaroos at Wembley on the 5th there is no way the (Sunday) Telegraph would have repeated this front of the Sport section splash from '94:



So the ground rules [ihave[/i changed - but perhaps the world changed and we never noticed? Even compared to '94, football dominates even more the national sportscape and we sit here, still losing big international games, still self-evidently a regional sport at the highest level. Perhaps its a miracle we weren't more marginalised before?

I won't under-estimate the potential impact of the national media, and the ease with which RL can be and has been pushed to one side. I wish you luck with the protest but we seem to have been down this road so many times before that it all seems a little too late. At least devoted fans now have instant access to news on their own terms, from dedicated sources, and perhaps we have grown to accept that? Perhaps it is now too easy to sidestep the national press's non-coverage. And, indeed, perhaps it is too easy to come here and elsewhere, to talk amongst ourselves, to immerse ourselves in this oasis of Rugby League, whilst the world outside continues, blissfully unaware of our existence.

If I send you an old British Coal sponsored GB shirt, can you also have a go at them about the way they reported the miners' strike too please?

I live in Victoria and I might just do the same thing!

Now that I would love to see

I'm quite flattered

You won't be an embarrassment to the game, but I doubt you’ll change anything. RL is becoming more and more marginalized in Britain. We used to have a very good national profile, before the Super League era. I think, with the advent of Professional RU, the media have decided there is only room for coverage of one pro-Rugby code. That was always going to be a code with a better national and international footprint.

I think, at some point, our top RL clubs may end up having to make a very unpleasant decision – whether to stay in RL at all at a pro level and jump in bed with RU instead. If RL's status and profile drops any more, I cannot see BSkyB broadcasting it for much longer.

That is why I hope you’re successful.

What time does the picket start?

Being seen in possession of Hunslet and Widnes flags only increases your embarrassment.

One of Rugby League's biggest problems is that its fans have no belief in their sport. Super League represents one of Sky's biggest rating sports, picked up fairly cheap. Why on earth would they stop broadcasting it? Why on earth would RL clubs move to RU when their fans, who still represent the vast majority of their income streams, would be almost uniformally against it?

Crazy talk - and dangerous if it reflects the misbeliefs of more than a tiny sliver of RL fans, which I fear it does.

So, all RL fans have to do is say [i'I believe, I believe'[/i and the sport will take off, just like that? Just like wishing for fairies?

Err...'kaaay




Because, in one stroke, they can ditch 60%/70% of pro RL clubs, amalgamate the rest into RU with a massive one-off payment to the top 4 or 5 RL clubs and the RFU, and save a fecking fortune in the long run.

Alan Tait predicted such an outcome, in his book. I dismissed it as nonsense at the time, but now I'm not so sure.


Because of the massive national exposure being part of the RFU would bring, and all the money that would bring with it. I hate to admit it, but RU has us licked on this. The massive crowds, media exposure and sponsorships RU clubs receive, just blow us away. The top clubs would have much to gain from swapping, should our sports profile suffer much more. Yes, they'd lose some supporters, but they'd probably gain some as well. The massive sponsorships and TV monies they'd pick up would make up for this - and then some.

These clubs may have their hands forced, in such circumstances. '[iThe Aviva Premiership or oblivion' [/i. What do you think these clubs would choose?


Do you know what?

I hope you're right.

Because I know that my club won't have the option of choosing whether to bail out of the sinking ship. We are likely to be left behind, without TV money and, thus, finished as a pro club. (not that I really want my club turned into an RU club)

If it does happen, it won't be right away, but in a decade or two. As our sports national profile decreases, so does it's appeal to sponsors and TV companies. Its bargaining power is limited and it is harder to get a deal that is sustainable and allows the top clubs to keep their star players.

At some point the TV execs may decide that it is no longer worth it and offer the top RL clubs a way out - and a lucrative one at that. Moving to the dark side may seem preferable to them, to becoming semi-pro clubs again, without a TV deal. They may start to see the lesser clubs as a major stumbling block to their prosperity - clubs that are struggling to spend up to a poultry £1.6Million salary cap. This is a cap that is making it very difficult for the top clubs to keep their best home-grown players from being tempted away to RU and the NRL. The RFL have managed to stem that tide a little, with it's new salary cap ruling, but that may not be enough in the long run.

Sam Tomkins' appearance in a barbarians shirt may well be a glimpse of what is to come. The difference between the two codes are slowly and subtly, becoming blared. Top RL players are already eyeing up RU with a certain amount of envy and are openly speaking of their willingness to change codes. The national profile and fame, that comes from being an RU player, gives them opportunities to make money off the field as well as on it - even after retirement. Jason Robinson now has his own range of clothing. that would not have been an option, had he remained an RL player.

We need national coverage. Without it we are screwed. Chemicz knows this full-well. He's right to be worried by the total lack of interest by newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph. This is why, instead of snearing at him, I wish him well. It may be too little too late, but at least he is willing to get off his and do something about it, even if it does seem a little quixotic.

See this just isn't borne out by reality. As a fan of a club which has spent the past decade hosting and supporting a top flight RU club, all that has been seen are tiny crowds and huge losses. It has cost Leeds, Leeds Met and Paul Caddick the best part of £15m to prop up Leeds Carnegie. And whilst they are an extreme example, the average Aviva Premiership club loses more money than the average SL one.

I just don't see how the process would work. The '95 Super League protests would be nothing compared to this - no matter how much the fans love their clubs, do you really think they are suddenly all going to start paying to watch the kind of entertainment that game on Saturday produced? You suppose that the club owners are financial mercenaries which makes little sense given their decision to invest in RL in the first place. The reality is they are almost all drawn from the same hardcore fan base in the first place, whose love is Rugby League.

National media coverage is important, and I would not disagree with anyone who protests against the current dismal efforts of many newspapers. But it is of declining importance as people find out their own news which matches their own interests rather than relying on one central or national source. The key to RL is its local strength - and it would require a complete collapse at the local level level rather than continuing national ignorance for any decisions to shift to RU to become even remotely likely. It would require a collapse of the local playing base, TV viewing figures, local media coverage and attendances. Anything is possible I suppose but at present it looks anything but likely.

Sadly its all to do with cuts. most papers now take everything apart from Football from the PA. Some of the broadsheets have even ditch cricket & union jorno's.

If you look at the indi and Guardian who still employ RL staff the coverage is good not but not great.

There is a couple of RL mad jorno's at the torygraph sadly neither work in the sport section. They know your coming.

That’s right. RU struggles in the north, and only has two clubs in the Falcons and the Sharks in the Aviva Premiership. Neither of these clubs are particularly strong. Leeds Carnegie struggled badly and are vastly overshadowed by the Rhinos. If the Rhinos brand were moved to RU, then there’d be no-one to overshadow them. It would suit RU perfectly, to amalgamate such a club into their code. They may even be willing, at some point, to make rule changes that could encourage this. They already have, to a certain extent. Obviously, further movement would be required.



Like I said, there would have to be a process involving both codes for this to happen. I agree that the skill level of RU players is poor compared to RL, but more and more RL coaches are getting involved and the levels of fitness and skills in that game are steadily improving. Even the kicking mindset is changing, and they are trying to throw the ball about a bit more. Not all of the RU games are as poor as they produced on Saturday.


Unfortunately, that is the problem. This isn’t about whether, or not, there is enough RL news out there, it is about the national coverage the game receives. It is about RL still being part of the national consciousness. It must have this in order to grow otherwise what media coverage there is, is only being preached to the wise.

I don’t like football. I find it more than a little pathetic these days. But I have a large bank of passive knowledge about it, that allows me to discuss it with an acolyte of that sport. It is this passive knowledge which generates the interest in the sport for many. If I didn’t have RL as a distraction I may have found myself going to watch football. That is what national coverage can do. Where I work is full of football fans(I do not work in Widnes or an RL area). None of them have an interest in RU or RL but, when the recent Rugby World cup was on, most watched it and had discussions about it. Despite my constant input about RL only one person bothered to watch the final of the RL four nations. That is what national media coverage and hype can do for a sport.


I have already said that, at present, it won’t be happening. But if the sport becomes more and more marginalized and ignored by the national press, it’s importance and interest outside of its heartlands will suffer. Slowly and surely, we seem to be heading in that direction. If other newspapers follow the DT’s lead, we will become totally insignificant outside of the M62 corridor. TV viewing figures could fall, as a result. TV deals may end up being ditched and Professional RL would cease to exist. RL would still exist at a Semi-Pro level, as well as our amateur clubs but, if the players want to become full-time professionals, they would only have RU to turn to. RL could not realistically sustain itself at Pro level without a TV deal. There is no cast iron guarantee that the sport will be offered one in 20/30 years. Some RL club chairmen may have tough decisions to make if that happens. It is possible, by that time, that a Hybrid form of rugby may be on offer, with massive financial incentives from TV companies to form.

If RL wants to avoid this fate, it desperately needs national coverage and a national footprint. It is important that the likes of the London Broncos are a successes and that the RFL continue with a sustainable process of expansion. For that to be effective we need to be getting column inches in newspapers such as the DT and regular match reports on national TV. We don’t get anything like enough of that and, what little we do get, seems to be decreasing at an alarming rate.

Quote ="Chemicz"I am picketing the offices of the Daily Telegraph in London next Thursday 1 December. You can see a video of me explaining why I am doing this here: [urlhttp://www.thelifedept.co.uk/livelonger/footer-featured-c/the-daily-telegraphs-coverage-of-the-rugby-league/[/url There will be two or three of us in attendance with other London based fans saying they’ll try and bob over for a while. I have already had a quite a few messages critical of media coverage and I am going to print them off and display them outside their offices. This will show that many people are fed up with the shameful coverage our sport gets. If you have something you want to say to staff at the Daily Telegraph please email me at stuart.glendinning@thelifedept.co.uk and as long as it avoids abusive language I will print it off to display at their offices. Also if any of you have a team flag/banner or team shirt that you would trust me with it would be great to display it. It would look fantastic to see lots of different team names displayed outside the offices of the Telegraph. If I get enough I will take a film and post it on Youtube. If enough people like it, it could show up each time someone does a search for ‘Daily Telegraph’. A paper that, according to one fan ‘purposely ignores the sport’, would forever be linked with our sport! Interestingly 5 fans have contacted this week to say they had previously complained to the Telegraph. I have today had a particularly interesting letter from an 80 year old gentleman from Leigh and this is the focus in today’s video blog which you can see here: [urlhttp://www.thelifedept.co.uk/livelonger/livelonger/6-days-to-daily-telegraph-picket/[/url This makes me wonder how many complaints the Telegraph is getting but more to the point why it does nothing improve? Another fan has pointed out that Telegraph.co.uk does not list rugby league in its sports section in the toolbar unlike other newspapers websites. Convenient for saying you don’t get many people looking at rugby league stories online and justifying little coverage in the paper? Ignorance or, as some think, malice? If you live in the north west I could possibly collect your team flag or banner, further afield you’d need to post it to me. I will return everything of course (but make sure I have your address). Drop me an email to the address above. As you’ll see from today’s blog I already have a Hunslet flag. Thanks very much Pat, it will be an honour and privilege to display the pride of Leeds at 111 Buckingham Palace Road Thursday next. I hope it serves to educate and enlighten the workers at the UK’s supposedly leading quality newspaper. Thank you to those fans that have emailed me their best wishes. Stuart'" Good luck with this - an innovative approach, fingers crossed for you. This thread is currently right next to another on the forum entitled "Still no Sponsor for Super League".... the sport's flagship competition, and we can't get a sponsor.... surely in part due to the lack of mainstream media coverage. The media hype up any old crhap these days, and make it 'popular'..... but refuse to touch Rugby League - which was for years the nations second spectator (team) sport. Look forward to hearing how you get on.

Quote ="Chemicz"I am picketing the offices of the Daily Telegraph in London next Thursday 1 December. You can see a video of me explaining why I am doing this here: [urlhttp://www.thelifedept.co.uk/livelonger/footer-featured-c/the-daily-telegraphs-coverage-of-the-rugby-league/[/url There will be two or three of us in attendance with other London based fans saying they’ll try and bob over for a while. I have already had a quite a few messages critical of media coverage and I am going to print them off and display them outside their offices. This will show that many people are fed up with the shameful coverage our sport gets. If you have something you want to say to staff at the Daily Telegraph please email me at stuart.glendinning@thelifedept.co.uk and as long as it avoids abusive language I will print it off to display at their offices. Also if any of you have a team flag/banner or team shirt that you would trust me with it would be great to display it. It would look fantastic to see lots of different team names displayed outside the offices of the Telegraph. If I get enough I will take a film and post it on Youtube. If enough people like it, it could show up each time someone does a search for ‘Daily Telegraph’. A paper that, according to one fan ‘purposely ignores the sport’, would forever be linked with our sport! Interestingly 5 fans have contacted this week to say they had previously complained to the Telegraph. I have today had a particularly interesting letter from an 80 year old gentleman from Leigh and this is the focus in today’s video blog which you can see here: [urlhttp://www.thelifedept.co.uk/livelonger/livelonger/6-days-to-daily-telegraph-picket/[/url This makes me wonder how many complaints the Telegraph is getting but more to the point why it does nothing improve? Another fan has pointed out that Telegraph.co.uk does not list rugby league in its sports section in the toolbar unlike other newspapers websites. Convenient for saying you don’t get many people looking at rugby league stories online and justifying little coverage in the paper? Ignorance or, as some think, malice? If you live in the north west I could possibly collect your team flag or banner, further afield you’d need to post it to me. I will return everything of course (but make sure I have your address). Drop me an email to the address above. As you’ll see from today’s blog I already have a Hunslet flag. Thanks very much Pat, it will be an honour and privilege to display the pride of Leeds at 111 Buckingham Palace Road Thursday next. I hope it serves to educate and enlighten the workers at the UK’s supposedly leading quality newspaper. Thank you to those fans that have emailed me their best wishes. Stuart'" Good luck with this - an innovative approach, fingers crossed for you. This thread is currently right next to another on the forum entitled "Still no Sponsor for Super League".... the sport's flagship competition, and we can't get a sponsor.... surely in part due to the lack of mainstream media coverage. The media hype up any old crhap these days, and make it 'popular'..... but refuse to touch Rugby League - which was for years the nations second spectator (team) sport. Look forward to hearing how you get on.