Because your average insular club fan has no interest whatsoever in a game in which none of their club's players or their own national team is involved, The 2000 World Cup taught us that lesson.

The only feasible place to play it was in London where at least the expat/backpacker contingent would ensure a decent crowd if the locals couldn't be bothered turning up.

Becareful : Saddened is a Rugby Union fan posting on league sites. Ban him or get him to come out from the dark side.

You what?

I am a very respected member of the RLFANS community. Over on the Saints board there have been three threads this year set up to post their appreciation for me. I'm also very popular on the Leeds forum, but they banned me from the Wigan board some years ago. Politics on the scale of Israel/Palestine over that issue.

Union, as much as it annoys me, is the bigger sport. It's international arena does have that sheen of competitiveness that league's lacks. It's hard to deny it.

And so it should do. The fact that comparisons are made between a international powerhouse of a sport like union and a regionalised minority sport like rugby league is incredible.
Anybody got the latest Premier League and BBL figures to hand?

I quite rate Jones as a player, a shame he feels the need to have a pop at us.

You're not confusing Stephen Jones the journalist with Stephen Jones the Scarlets, Wales and Lions fly half are you?

We will need to see an awful lot in the next week or two to persuade us that the Great Britain-Australia series in rugby league is really the only thing that will ever mean anything.

I can probably help with this - did you go?

For those who say he is right, how on earth does it fit in with the rest of the article?



That's the bit that's frustrating, there is no need to cover it at all, but if you do, why be it "negative?

fwiw - my view.

-Sat 8pm is a terrible slot (I would guess Sky forced the decision?)....20 million people have plans to be down the pub and 20 million are watching X-Factor & Strictly with their family.
-Stoop perceived as harder to get to than other venues (wrongly)
-District line was down that weekend.
- Aus/Kiwi market in London is smaller than norm due to recession (fewer temp jobs and many taken by Eastern Europeans)
- most of my antip mates in London are middle class RU fans and much more inclined to follow the Wallabies.

Once those 'excuses' are out of the way - the marketing drive didn't start until two weeks before the game (after Grand Final) as far as I can see.
Aus/NZ arrived in London the weekend before making press coverage minimal until final week. Even then it was sh*t.
So many people have already made plans by this time. Cripes, most of my mates are booked up for the next 8 weeks, let alone 2.
I was at the Aus v Barbarians game at Wembley last Dec and about 35k tipped up & it was still a good atmosphere. Booking a larger venue for this 4N's game would've (imo) ensured a much bigger crowd due to perceived ambition.....though it was a fantastic atmosphere at the Stoop.

Agreed. It's a bitchy & unnecessary comment & the bloke clearly has a chip on his shoulder. But then he'd say that about the sport of RL no doubt. And he's generally right.....

Doubtless Jones still has issues (like a lot of Welshman) about how League robbed Wales of its greatest players up until 1995. It's hard for him to see through this issue and accept that Union treated a lot of human beings like sh*t by not allowing them free gangway between the codes.....

I think this is to suit the australasia viewers

Only speculating

Nope. It's entirely Sky's choice – probably fitting around their association football coverage.

ok. strange considering SL matches are played at 6pm on sat.

But wasn't that when Sky's rivals Setanta were showing the football?

I agree - I don't think it had anything to do with overseas coverage at all. Just RL getting a bum deal as always. How often do you see ads for the quad nations on Sky compared to soccer or Guinness Premiership? Sky has RL by the nads sadly.....

I was just thinking the same thing, he often spouts $hit, but there is truth in his remarks, even if they are deliberately aimed through his bile and hatred for our game.

Anyone seen any advert's or promotion by the BBC for Saturday? Nope, thought not!

I thought Stephen Jones son was a St. Helens fan ?

So what if there is truth in what he says, what is it to him if RL gets 200 or 200K to games? How does it affect him? It doesn't.

Jones is a bully who doesn't compare like with like. He likes pointing out how small RL is, which it is, big deal, but he couldn't hack it if a soccer writer started pointing out the reality of RU compared to soccer and how global that is compared with the few countries that play RU (and how many of them are not empire connected?) Because RU is itself a minority sport, so he better be careful when ridiculing people.

He also says 'the mighty Lebanon'...well I don't recall anyone saying that, nor do I remember them being in the 4Nations but they [iare[/i Lebanese, playing in Lebanon, so again, what is it to him? Does he point out how low netball crowds are? What he neglected to say was that the curtain raiser to that game was a kids game featuring a UAE side. This sort of stuff is happening in loads of places now. It doesn't mean RL will take over the world but it means it is developing pretty well.

Personally, I don't give a frig what this clown thinks of RL, (the fact he is STILL going on about it tells you the real story) but he is in a position to trash RL and does so regularly. Do you think the readers of his stuff actually check out what is really going on?

Sorry ... who are you?

Nik Taylor[Reader: I cannot understand why some find the need to constantly argue between rugby union and rugby league. Rugby is rugby in all guises. We should relish this fact and unite to move coverage of this prince of sports from the obscure pages to the back page and replace football!

SJ: Nik, sorry but that is cloud cuckoo land. Football is too massive, and I am afraid that for union to see league as some kind of ally would be a disaster. Rugby league's coverage now seems ghettoised into online stuff only, there is just no longer the interest. Football is a leviathan.


Could anyone care to explain the reasoning behind his reply concerning Rugby League?

Why would it be a negative?

Premiership Rugby Union never was that big until the national media started putting out daily articles about clubs, players and fixtures.

Rugby Union has a media cartel and no wonder rugby league struggles to attract the general public.

Typical old school network which includes Stephen Jones who wont give RL a fair crack.

An example will be how much coverage Saturdays game will get in the national papers.

So you and Big Graeme concur with Jones that apart from GB v Australia there's nothing else in rugby league that will ever mean anything?

Super League Grand Final, NRL Grand Final, State of Origin, World Cup, Challenge Cup? No?

Point one I dont like Jones,But an interesting point he makes about union being boring is spot on & percieved to be the reason it is stuggling in Australia. Despite that the crowds will flock to thier internationals,Pay twice or more than league fans & most of those will never have been to a club game.If we could figure out why we might be on to a winner.My theory is that it is part of the social calender & has been for well over a century & has nothing to do with supporting the actual game.

Point two I keep reading on this forum that League has become boring! I love this game & am quiet happy to watch week in week out but if people on here who in the main are died in the wool League folk find it boring why should any one else be expected to turn out?