How did we get here from 'BBC and RL'?


As for the BBC website/news channels, has no one ever noticed that RL drops down the rankings during the off season every year?


Tis true.

No there wasn't.....6 Aussies, 1 Kiwi and 17 English Born players.


Yep......Australia, New Zealand, England, France and PNG delivered 85% of the players......and 2017 will be exactly the same




A strong RLIF that stands up to the NRL and individual countries would be a start....



Hmmm....I suspect if any other sport had 35% of the teams supplying 85% of the players then that sport would get slammed. Even more so if some of the players were able to switch countries in between tournaments

Quote ="gutterfax"No there wasn't.....6 Aussies, 1 Kiwi and 17 English Born players. '" + This guy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matty_Hadden Quote ="gutterfax"Yep......Australia, New Zealand, England, France and PNG delivered 85% of the players......and 2017 will be exactly the same '" + Wales and Fijians (barring they qualify of course.) We don't know who's going to qualify yet, so we don't know who will be from where. I thought RL was only played in three countries though, will we have to include France and PNG now as well? Quote ="gutterfax"A strong RLIF that stands up to the NRL and individual countries would be a start....'" And pigs will fly...

Quote ="gutterfax"No there wasn't.....6 Aussies, 1 Kiwi and 17 English Born players. '" + This guy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matty_Hadden Quote ="gutterfax"Yep......Australia, New Zealand, England, France and PNG delivered 85% of the players......and 2017 will be exactly the same '" + Wales and Fijians (barring they qualify of course.) We don't know who's going to qualify yet, so we don't know who will be from where. I thought RL was only played in three countries though, will we have to include France and PNG now as well? Quote ="gutterfax"A strong RLIF that stands up to the NRL and individual countries would be a start....'" And pigs will fly...

Quote ="Pinkerton"+ This guy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matty_Hadden'" Hayden wasn't in the squad.....the RLWC site is incorrect and incomplete. (surprised???).....I really can't be d doing it all again but believe me, 55% aussie English and 85% 5 countries are correct figures..... Quote ="Pinkerton"+ + Wales and Fijians (barring they qualify of course.) We don't know who's going to qualify yet, so we don't know who will be from where. I thought RL was only played in three countries though, will we have to include France and PNG now as well? Quote France and PNG....where we have a grand total of 1 professional team.....in France, which has a Union salary cap that makes the NRL look like tiddlywinks. PNG is = Japan in union...except Japanese union is professional and financially cashed up... Quote ="Pinkerton"+ And pigs will fly...'" '" '" ...there lieth the problem. In union (and soccer and cricket), the dog still wags the tail...in league, it has always been the other way around!

Quote ="Pinkerton"+ This guy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matty_Hadden'" Hayden wasn't in the squad.....the RLWC site is incorrect and incomplete. (surprised???).....I really can't be d doing it all again but believe me, 55% aussie English and 85% 5 countries are correct figures..... Quote ="Pinkerton"+ + Wales and Fijians (barring they qualify of course.) We don't know who's going to qualify yet, so we don't know who will be from where. I thought RL was only played in three countries though, will we have to include France and PNG now as well? Quote France and PNG....where we have a grand total of 1 professional team.....in France, which has a Union salary cap that makes the NRL look like tiddlywinks. PNG is = Japan in union...except Japanese union is professional and financially cashed up... Quote ="Pinkerton"+ And pigs will fly...'" '" '" ...there lieth the problem. In union (and soccer and cricket), the dog still wags the tail...in league, it has always been the other way around!

Gutterfax, but he isnt a troll.............

possibly because that isnt his name......

20% of England's last Rugby Union World Cup squad weren't born in England or the UK, compared to 4% in the England Rugby League squad.
It's obviously a game in decline and anything that's good about it should be mocked and ridiculed because it doesn't immediately solve any and all issues in the game.

That sort of sense has no place here!

Anywho, RL on the BBC website has always been pretty good considering they have very few rights to broadcast it

First up, 20% or even 30% is a tad better than 100%. The only countries that had more than 50% of their squad "home born" were England, Australia, France, New Zealand and PNG......that means 9 International teams had less than half of their squads as locals, but instead relied on heritage players......Italy and Scotland had 2 each FFS.....SO 91% ringers.....puts the Union squad with players born in British Military facilities into perspective don't you think?

Secondly, I wasn't ridiculing the sport. I was responding to the irrational demands that RL "deserves" to be given national and international exposure, which are totally without merit. RL on the pitch is fantastic, but off the park it is a shambles....pointing this out is not mocking or ridiculing anything, it s pointing out facts.

If the BBC were to promote RL back to its sports landing page for international viewers, what would we expect to see? Bradford, the WCC a few years back in total and continued disarray? London moving to a ground that holds 5k and giving up all revenue streams other than the SKY money? Clubs from down the pecking order taking loan players from the big 4? The sport still unsure of its make up or even the consequences of finishing last or second last THIS YEAR? Maybe they could announce this years international Schedule so UK based RL fans can book their seats for the games in England?

Yeah! It's good news central at red Hall......let's all hope the BBC get back to promoting the game soon

Except its not facts is it. As I just pointed out. You can take stats and twist "facts" to back up whatever point you want to make. Just as you did a while ago when you posted the average attendances of different clubs. You twisted those "facts" to suit your argument. In the same way you and William did with the World Cup ticket sales and the double headers. You were ridiculing the World Cup and the RFL before it had started.

This is the problem, you often have a decent point, but you let that point get hidden in diatribes against anything that happens in RL. Your post above a perfect example. People are saying they want RL to be on the BBC international website, a reasonable request from fans of the game wanting the most exposure possible, yet all you do is ridicule it and the game. You point out all the negatives yet none of the positives like Salford's rise, the upcoming World Club Challenge in Australia for the first time in decades, the highly successful recent World Cup, they could all be on the BBC international website alongside the negative stories. But you wouldn't say that, because it doesn't fit your argument.

Dr Marwan seems less than ecstatic with ticket sales...so a new owner is hardly headline news when all he's done is assemble a team that might avoid bottom this year.


a one off club game in Australia......hardly headline news.

2 months ago......it's hardly news!



...no, none of the three things you have said are CURRENT or NEWSWORTHY.......and as for an argument, the BBC have made their decision, as did the Guardian with their 10 sports moments. Because they don't favour RL the more insecure amongst us spit their dummy's out......it is not the responsibility of the media to promote the game.......it is down to the RFL, the clubs and the fans. Whining is not promoting by the way!

The BBC seem to think it is, they have World Cup stories still on the RL page.
I know YOU think a successful RL World Cup isn't newsworthy but most other RL fans do think it is. There are stories out there Gutters, not to mention its the off-season with fewer stories, why would YOU only put the negative ones on? Why do YOU think it would be a negative for RL to have higher exposure?

That you dismiss the World Club Challenge and Salford so easily is very silly, and unfortunately just adds to the appearance that you don't care what is actually happening but would rather just say everything is terrible.

No-one has said it's the responsibility of media to promote the game. It is the responsibility of media to accurately represent and report the game. Especially a part of the media paid for with public money. Whether RL deserves to be on the international site is debateable, its hardly unreasonable for some to think it should be though is it?

But then that wouldn't fit your everything is terrible agenda now would it?

How dare you, a rugby league off season should be creating as many headlines as a union season ... Or a football season .., or the Winter Olympics - it's not therefore rugby league, and all who run it are an embarrassment ...

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty that's wrong with the game, some on the pitch issues and plenty off it, but I can see the positives out there as well as the negatives.

Can all these derailed threads just be merged into one? I'm sick of reading RU v RL posts day after day after TBH.

Either that or give the troll a polite reminder there's a separate forum for other sports.

Or just ban him and make everyone's day.

Not sure how either this thread or the one regarding the Guardian have been derailed? To discuss the merits or lack of them, with regard to the UK media and it's coverage of Rugby League it is patently necessary to discuss other sports and their standing in the UK media.

On close inspection, I think you'll find that I wasn't the first person to mention Union. If my correcting the often erroneous and misguided points regarding the slower but bigger and more popular code upset you so much, I would suggest either avoiding threads where the debate is pointedly going to head down that route, or placing me on ignore.


Given I haven't broken any of the rules of this site and am engaging in a debate regarding the merits of the media coverage of Rugby League, as well as other sports, I find your whining like a bitch and begging the moderators to do something as mildly amusing. Incapable of logical debate, you call other posters names and request moderator intervention.

It's just not fair, is it little fella




banning someone because they have a different viewpoint to yours? How very even handed of you

Just another observation but the FREE Metro paper had pages and pages day after day about the worst cricket team and it's abysmal failure down under.
Who watches cricket in this country?
Of RL not a note.

according to Barb.co.uk, the Ashes W/E December 15th got 264,000 at 6am one day....These aren't bad figures for SKY.......The 2013 Superleague Grand Final got 276,000....12k more than the cricket yet the cricket was on at 6am?

I don't know the figures but to my mind cricket is the 2nd biggest sport behind football in the UK

That alone tells a story but then who really wants to take notice?

killed this thread stone dead, that's for sure

What story does it tell, that Ashes cricket is more popular than domestic RL?

Have you got any other amazing stories for us, maybe the one about the sky being blue or that bears **** in the woods?

Next they'll be telling us the soccer World Cup and Olympics also had bigger audiences than a SL game avg!

Now you're just making things up, what's your agenda?

Not so much your figures but I will debunk your geography? Which beach in Kazakhstan would you be making reference to, please do inform.