the football kicks off at 19.30 our time.the rugby kicks off at 17.15 .so thats 30 minutes between games.plenty of time

The RL is earlier. The problem is for fans who are travelling, they will not get home before the football kicks off. It should have been either midweek or on its own at a weekend with no SL fixtures to water it down. I also get the point about the rail ink, this is a sore point to everyone in Leigh, the biggest town in Europe now without a station.

That's a different scenario altogether. The ARL seem have a disregard for international competition and don't seem to do very much to develop the pacific islands. The RFL at least have tried to help other nations improve. The problem in the northern hemisphere is that we can only pin our hopes on a decent international programme on Wales and France. One is a small nation in terms of population and the other seems to have an inate ability to cock things up on an almost permanent basis.

The problem with most big companies like the RFL is that they are too focused on the short term they would rather have 10,000 paying top whack in a small stadium than 25,000 paying a fiver a piece in a large stadium.

25,000 for an international game would get a lot more publicity. If they had thought about it they could have had York vs Skolars, Leeds vs Quins andEngland vs France as a triple header somwehere in London. KO at 1pm and all games over so people could watch the footy. Would have been good for England and RL in London.

I'm going to England v France and then finding a pub to watch the football. No reason why others couldn't do the same.

Unless we're in London

presumably a lot of people dont want to go into a pub in Leigh which is likely to be full of skin headed England supporting yobs, where they cant take their kids and they cant get home from afterwards?


at the end of the day, most RL fans will have more than a passing interest in the football World Cup. Given that there is little possibility for most people to get to Leigh and away in time to watch the footy, most RL fans will take the option to watch it on SKY at home, then watch the footy afterwards.

If they dont do that, they will probably go to their pub in the hope of watching the rugby - but it probably wont be on.

At the end of the day, I can see the RL viewpoint (why should we reschedule our game because there is another sport playing?), but it seems to me as cutting your nose off to spite your face. There is no reason why it couldnt have been earlier on the Saturday afternoon, or on the Sunday, or on the Friday night. Who knows, after a rousing England soccer victory, it might have promoted a bit of national pride and get a bigger, more enthusiastic crowd out on sunday.

Welcome to the world of televised sports.




(fwiw, I [ihate[/i Saturday evening internationals – unfortunately its the price of selling the rights to Sky)

Perhaps the rfl thought that there might be some chance of people getting into the international fervour by watching England v France before the England v USA game, long shot I know as most football fans would rather watch some 40 odd yr olds playing 5 a side than watch rugby league. Can't say I'm too concerned about the Super League programme continuing as normal as the top teams have stronger squads and it doesn't happen regularly. So there's lots of rl to watch and amongst that I can watch the football as well. I'm looking forward to the weekend and am not sure what some people are moaning about but we do win the award for the sport with the most disgruntled fans on the planet. If people could find the positives (commentators and pundits included) instead of always finding negatives maybe more people would be interested in the game.

Are you a troll or was this a serious post?
Do you know tickets are priced £10/£5? Your suggesting this is too expensive and they should be £5/£2.50? Thats what some national conference teams charge

Typical complain at anything t

As for the it should be in London part, im guessing that confirms you are a troll.

That could be describing every town and city in the country, now could n`t it......... Some folks will find any excuse not to attend an International, including the pathetic there`s NO rail link ( apart from Atherton, Daisy Hill all about 3 miles away and on the main bus route into Leigh )
Whilst on the subject of a rail link..........How many posters attend club/country games by Train in comparison to Car/ Coach etc?

The point is that the RFL has pencilled an important mid season International game that clashes with London Skolars v York then Quins v Leeds. Four sets of fans who can't go. Shambles, makes my blood boil. Shows the contempt with which the RFL hold their own Internationals. It sends a message that "why bother it's meaningless"
Clashing with the much hyped England Football is never gonna be a winner. We've already disscussed the merits of having the game in a town with NO Rail links. In short it's a disgrace. How can we expect the media to show interest when our own governing body can't even be bothered with the game?

In times like these, and possibly what's coming in the near future, International RL should be the least of the game's worries. I really believe that admins, fans etc. should start making moves to protect their immediate interest in the game, and view games such as this as nothing more than an amusing sideshow.

If this sounds like i've got contempt for the international game, then good, because i have.

We're no further from a train station than Elland Road is, Eastlands or even Old Trafford if you discount the Metro. Atherton and Daisy Hill are only three miles down the road (literally, down the road) with direct connections from Wigan and Manchester, hardly the other side of the country.

Almost sold out anyway and if anybody seriously wants a family beer watching the game in Leigh afterwards you could do much worse than Leigh East, 100 yards from the ground, Leigh Miners, 250 yards away who are having a fun day/Family BBQ, the hotel 50 yards away has big screen, Leigh CC is a few hundred yards away, LRUFC not much further and the Atherleigh way pub at the retail park opposite Leigh miners.
In town the soccer boys will be much the same as any other town on saturday night.

Stop whinging will you...... Four sets of fans who can`t go







..That should knock `000s off the gate then.

How can you possibly be happy with the International game being compromised by having a clashing fixture with Leeds, the biggest club in the game, it beggars belief. It would never happen in the NRL or the RFU. I went to the last England v France game in Donny but i'm following York in London at the Quins double header, the scheduling is madness. I have not the slightest shred of confidence in our governing body.

Leeds the biggest club in the whole wide world, probably similar to MU in terms of watching their club rather than country....... Thats in no way defending the clowns at Red Hall but surely NO club games should ve been scheduled for saturday.

I should have been played in London, at the Stoop, in between the Skolars v York and thr Quins v Leeds games.....that would have got our average for this season up

Naughty .......

So you have finally come round to my way of thinking

I have little interest in footy until the WC , then I enjoy the occaision , as for the RL International , I am not that interested in watching our governing body come down to the LSV , praise us and the stadium , probably telling us that we will stand a good chance of getting a licence , and then s all the way home afterwards

As for Hunslet , since when is shouting ' offside ' yobbish behaviour , yes I had had a couple of beers , but I wasn't the one threatening to throw a young Leigh fan over the balcony if they didn't shut up was I , the afformentioned Hunslet bully moved shortly after I started my annoying shouts

did you actually read my post in the context it was made?

the point raised was that you should go to the game, then go to watch the football in the pub. If you were doing that, you would have to go to a pub in Leigh so not to miss any of the game. If you did that, you would have to either not drink or drink drive, as there is no public transport system.