Brian Noble interviewed by the Times www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 005335.ece

Brian Noble interviewed by the Times www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 005335.ece

AFL to help grow its expansion teams allows them to spend more on players than the rest.

seriously giving the crusaders leeds first up last year and this year isnt doing them favours.

it should be an easier team imo.

the first game will always get a good crowd. to give them a team which could embarrass them could wreck their season and any new fans.

hope its close

An easier team such as Quins or Salford? I doubt they'd have sold out against either of those.

id rather they got 6000 and won the game, or go close than get 10,000 and get belted

6,000?! Not a chance they'd get that.

Against Salford or Quins it would be 3,000 max (possibly 2.000) and still no guarantee they'd win or even come close.

this is why i was ignoring you for a year.

so im guessing there are 7000 - 8000 Leeds fans going to this game then to make up the difference

Probably not but you must concede the factor of going to see the champions is a little more intriguing for the causal supporter then facing a lesser known team

like i said, id prefer a smaller crowd if it meant a game they can win

1st vs last is hardly a way to give a competitive game

especially when crusades squad didnt finalize their situation until recently.

But what happens when only 5 or 6 k turn up to watch Crusaders vs Salford (instead of 8 or 9K to watch Leeds) and Crusaders still lose. That is the worst possible start to the season by losing at home to their closest rivals, it gives them no confidence for the future.
They gave it a good go at Headingley last season and if they can put in a similar performance it doesn't matter whether they lose because they will have given it a good go against the reigning champions.

Against Leeds, its all about performance
Against Salford, they have to win.

All the move to Wrexham will do is make life easier for the travelling away supporters.

I'm not saying the club wont attract and retain some new support, but I can't see it being many. I stand by my point that any RL fans living in north Wales will already be supporters of the established clubs. Warrington is only 30 miles or so from Wrexham. St Helens, Wigan....not that far either.

I don't doubt the Crusaders will get a big crowd tomorrow, as I've said on earlier posts a lot of it will be out of curiosity. Leeds are a well supported club and are also the current SL champions so they will always attract quite a few supporters along to their games. Geographically Wrexham isn't that far away from all the other SL clubs so holding the games there will obviously attract more away supporters than holding the games in Newport or Bridgend.
If I lived closer to Wrexham I would probably pop along for a beer and to watch a bit of Rugby league on a Friday night as well.

But don't think that just because the Crusaders sell 10,000 tickets for the first game of the season against the current champions to an audience who have been missing their RL since the end of last season that means the club will survive.


I'm a Hull FC fan by the way.

Less than 200 tickets left www.walesonline.co.uk/sports/rug ... -25706679/

Less than 200 tickets left www.walesonline.co.uk/sports/rug ... -25706679/

Quote ="loyalsince1904"Less than 200 tickets left www.walesonline.co.uk/sports/rug ... -25706679/'" Great news and "90% of the crowd local" makes about 9000 crusaders fans! great effort by the club!

Quote ="loyalsince1904"Less than 200 tickets left www.walesonline.co.uk/sports/rug ... -25706679/'" Great news and "90% of the crowd local" makes about 9000 crusaders fans! great effort by the club!

Quote ="loyalsince1904"Less than 200 tickets left www.walesonline.co.uk/sports/rug ... -25706679/'" A sell out would be a fantastic achievement. RL needs more of this to create demand and interest, hopefully the ones who haven’t got tickets will have wished they had and get in their early for the next match. As an aside, Peaock will be pleased that he’s playing in less matches this season.

Quote ="loyalsince1904"Less than 200 tickets left www.walesonline.co.uk/sports/rug ... -25706679/'" A sell out would be a fantastic achievement. RL needs more of this to create demand and interest, hopefully the ones who haven’t got tickets will have wished they had and get in their early for the next match. As an aside, Peaock will be pleased that he’s playing in less matches this season.

Doesn't it hold like 15,000? Have they really sold out?

Presumably Leeds must be taking 8000+.

Oh so the huge terrace is closed. Thats a shame it would be a great away stand that would.

Lets hope it will be a fantastic game to show off RL to the newbies. Lets hope they beat Salford so supporters stick around.

Who honestly believed the Crusaders would get anywhere near a sell-out for their first game at Wrexham?

Of course the challenge is for it to be sustained, but no-one can deny its a tremendous success story.

As was PSG for that first week.

They've basically sold out, which is a fantastic achievement. As I've mentioned before it'll mean nothing if they lose by 50+ as not enough of those floating voaters will return.

This is the kind of match where, were I head of the RFL, I would be asking the Leeds team to perform a little bit of sports entertainment for the crowd. Start big and impressive, big hits and flowing length of the field moves, but not actually scoring. Then let the Crusaders get ahead and lead into the final stages of a ding-dong battle. Then come up with some big plays and walk away having won but also having enabled the Crusaders to win over 3 or 4 thousand voters. We've got three or four Wrexham boys and girls in work and they are all going, with the attitude of "Lets check it out" and one said today, "I could get a season ticket if it's good, it's only down the road". They don't have any Union bigotry to get over as Union isn't big there either.

This isn't the WWE mate.

Only got half of the Yale stand, so I presume around 1k will be Leeds.

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