The BBC and the NHS..

You either hate them or love them.

Both do a good enough job for this country.

You could also argue that moving the Challenge Cup and taking a lot of Rugby League away from the BBC has actually prompted them to go big on the six nations. Because this time of year is when they have would normally been showing crucial Challenge Cup ties.

The best publicity for rugby league would be continued exposure of the dire 6 Nations tournament on BBC.

15-15 with no tries.

Excellent...

I've heard it all now and can't wait for chris Irvine's next blog "rugby league killed grandstand"

France Versus Australia was live on the BBC last Autumn.

I`m sorry decent enough post till I got to bit - the reason that WC was a success had little to do with the BBC who whilst showing several matches live ( mid week ones restricted to BBC Northern channels) did their best to try and hide it away and more or less showed their hand as a RL- hating establishment service they really are ...

wasnt it at the BBC request that the Challenge Cup be moved from May to August?

that was in france not in australia though.

40 million reasons a year would do that to you. 40 million reasons for 15 games over 5 weekends.

And who can forget Steve 'where are you now?' Ryder's opening to the Centenary World Cup, '[iWelcome to a wet, windy and EMPTY Windsor Park[/i'. Gillipollas.

As stated I was refering to show games Live from Australia!




Well thats not the way I saw it. I've never thought the BBC is rugby league hating at all. It's definetly well down the pecking order these days though.

And I know it wasn't full live coverage that year but the point I was making was the quantity of Rugby League the BBC showed in those days in advance of the tournament provided an advert for it at least. Something that didn't happen in 2000.



I can't remember to be honest. It hasn't worked in my view.




I'm not saying the BBC coverage is perfect and I know they wouldn't put league games on in prime time. But if we had given them the four nations exclusively they would have shown all the games.

That was the 2000 World Cup not 1995. Can't excuse Steve Rider's comment but why should the BBC have got enthused about that (it was Ireland v Samoa they were showing) when all the big games were all on Sky? I think they had England v Australia Live later that night on Sky, from bloody twickenham!!

That's because RL never:
1) has three high-profile internationals, all played in front of sold out stadiums, on the same weekend.
2) sells those rights exclusively to the BBC.

It's OK claiming that the BBC is against us but if we aren't providing content of the quality that the BBC wants, it's not the BBC's fault - they aren't there to be the RFL's PR agency.

Remember it being the main event on Grandstand and there had even been a couple of adverts midweek. Whether it was a big game or not, it was unprofessional of him. Steve Ryder later went on to work on ITV's rugby union coverage, make of that what you will.
Do you think many presenters would open say a football FA cup 3rd round tie like that?

If they were doing a Wigan Athletic home match, probably!

Latics in the 4th round would be more difficult.

I know this is hard for a lot of fans to believe, but thousands of people really enjoy rugby union. Rugby league has been waiting for people to get bored and "come to their senses" for a hundred years. Maybe it's time people accepted that union fans genuinely enjoy their game and might even honestly prefer it to rugby league. Each to their own.

I hope that the RFL dont make the same mistake in 2013, every game on the BBC please

There is some truth to what you say, but it's not as if rugby union has always looked as it does now. Some may be more inclined to "come to their senses" now as opposed to a decade ago. Who knows. I think we can safely say that defection will not happen on a large scale, though.

It would, if people approached League with an open mind.
Having once been part of a big union squad, they don't.

And vice versa.

Which one are you then?

Although an aussie wouldn't have known about the postal strikes now would he?

Errrm

It was only last year!