A lot of the people involved in the varsity match.......

a ) often players who end up in high end jobs in the city.
b ) bank roll much of the game in the london areas once they have stopped playing as they are in high end jobs in the city.

This is why it is important to give this match as wide an audience as possible.

It's good enough for me, but I think there should be more SRL stuff on TV or even just available on the web.

The actual BUCS final (usually Leeds Met v Lufbra) will be a decent standard. Both teams would compete in the highest levels of the amateur game.

I'm pretty sure their rowing teams aren't exactly world class either. The Olympic rowing teams would probably wipe the floor with them.

But like the boat race it's a spectacle, albeit a less prestigious one, and an endorsement to our sport that the two premier universities in the world at least have a go.

I'm also sure that if it WASN'T televised, there would be a lot more people grumbling about that. "Second class sport", "If they can televise a boat race, then why not RL" and all that.

Easy. Because people have heard of, and care about, Oxford and Cambridge. Would you have any aspirations to go to Dewsbury or Leigh university?

I would suggest you are watching the wrong game then if you think any RUGBY LEAGUE is boring. It may not be brilliant but boring it never is IMO.

Perhaps the game played at Wembley last night and it's relations are more to your liking.

I was going to say what a ferkin moron, but that would be rude so i won't.

Instead I will just ask, WTF is your problem? I mean, just look at the example of college football in the States, where for example a packed sellout stadium of 20K or more might and regularly do watch some basically meaningless game between colleges, in scenes reminiscent of the Superbowl. That game will inevitably be televised, and will in comparison to the pro game be of obvious and unmistakeable amateur standard.

How do they get to that? Because when they first thought of it, and ever since, people with a positive and can-do attitude are involved with it, and not people who seem to want to find any negative to whinge about. The same probably happened over time with the Boat Race, which means nothing to me and every year people like you roundly deride on here, yet has become a true national event for reasons I can't comprehend. (Which is not to say it will always remain so, but still).

The bottom line is that thankfully it is another 80 minutes of decent airtime where TGG is being transmitted, as opposed to the sale of plastic vegetable cutters or Remove Your Piles In Sixty Seconds, and I for one am very grateful for that.

And just because it is a varsity game, it will inevitably if briefly attract the attention to TGG of a number of influential people who would at that time otherwise have been doing something else.

I don't understand fans who seem to be ashamed of our sport and would prefer it to be played in secret, with maybe the result in point size 2 on page 356.

I suppose I can see the off the field aspects that the game could benefit from that have been mentioned by yourself and a few others but it would interesting to know how many people tune in, especially regular Rugby League supporters and those posting/reading this thread.

I understand it's a 'discretionary' full blue.

One of the lads I coached for a number of years is playing for Oxford so it's of particular interest to me. First time one of my former players has been playing live on telly and I'll be at the Wigan beer festival tonight

. I'll catch one of the replays tomorrow.

Just me who finds it boring and does little impact when televised, then.



Jeez, touchy subject for some.

Biggest joke of the year as usual. I would rather them televise another championship game. Poor standard, poor crowd and nobody cares.

I will probably watch more of this than I did of England v Egypt last night

+1

Hopefully Corrie is on another channel.

I will be there - some lovely posh totty in the crowd usually!

Exactly. Friendly wendyball featuring assorted millionaire adulterers: who needs it/

Really, ABP, if you can't see whay it's a good thing to let the nation, however few watch, know that rugby at Oxbridge does not just mean 'union' then you're blind.

as stated above, its the CC this weekend, therefore sky havent anything to show tonight. im glad they are using the allocated time to show rugby league, rather than giving the spot elsewhere. unless of course you think 2 hours of tv time on one of 4 dedicated sports channels is wasted on rugby league.

I'm looking forward to it, know a fair few cambridge lads so will be shouting for them.

Why anyone would have a problem with more rl being shown on tv baffles me.

It isn't more Rugby League. It's a time slot that's usually occupied by two pro/semi pro Rugby League sides trying acheive something in their respective league. Tonight it's been replaced with two, low standard university sides in a one off game where the teams' players mainly come from Union backgrounds, hyped up because it's Oxford and Cambridge.

I just don't see the excitement. I can't see why so many people are out raged

It's Oxford V Cambridge. Supposedly learned men knocking lumps out of each other. Nothing wrong with that. Put it on the telly. Well done.

I don't know if the players mostly come from union backgrounds.

I have a few mates who are at cambridge and 3 of them played rugby league up until last year. And thats just from my college. I know at least one of them tried for the Uni team last year and didn't get picked so presumably they have more than enough League players to get a team together without having to try and convert union lads.

Yes, but all those semi-pro RL sides are playing in the Challenge Cup this weekend, which Sky doesn't have the rights to show. So they have to show something else. The tv ratings for this game were slightly higher than many of the championship games last year, so presumably Sky are happy to keep showing it. There are several hundred thousand Oxbridge graduates out there who might take an interest in this game. My father-in-law was an Oxford Don. The only other RL games he'd make an effort to watch would be internationals.

Its a source of constant amusement and amazement to me,watching people ask questions, and then when they don't get the reply they expect..... ignore the replies!

In short:
There is no Championship game for Sky to show, so rather than show a game from last week, they pick up a game which - while being totally meaningless to a lot of us - shows that
1) RL is not an oiks game
2) Is more entertaining than 'other' sports traditionally associated with Oxbridge.


The alternative of course is that they could have given the space over to enduro space hopper racing or something else, which would have set the barking off in style on here....

Wigan have managed a run of 4 unbeaten games. Their fans are now too good for SL and certainly too good for something as nondescript as the 2 most famous universities in the country (maybe the world), going head to head at rugby league.

Try crowds of 50k to 100k and you'd be closer to the mark. There are 11 college football stadiums with a greater capacity than the largest NFL stadium. College football does get bigger crowds and I suspect the TV viewing figures aren't that different. College football is massive in the States and although it's played by young men, the standard is not even remotely amateurish. These kids can play. In fact, I find college football more entertaining than the NFL because it's more open and free flowing. Oh, and the games are in no way meaningless to the players, the colleges, the fans (and multitude of people betting on them

). There's a reason that College football coaches get paid as much as if not more than NFL coaches. They are moulding the future of the game and attracting a load of money to the colleges.

Sorry to go off on a tangent but it's comparing apples to oranges.

Leeds Trinity Titans would put 40+ on either of these two teams...