The other thing is that the Yanks don't have an obsession with alliteration. With RL, particularly the further down you get, it seems just a case of picking a big animal or synonym for "Warrior" that begins with the same letter as the town / district name.

Halequins are actually the spirits of mischief in some book or play i cant remember the name of. but i know its true.
the generic clown connotations came later.

i mean a 'proper' bull

not just a male cow of some puny agricultural breed

Here's how I refer to teams in conversation

Leeds
Bulls
Cas
Wakey
Wigan
Saints
Salford
Crusaders (sometimes celtic oops)
Quins
Warrington
Giants
Catalans (with "s"icon_wink.gif
Hull
Hull KR

So thats 2 nicknames I use plus saints

Harlequin or Arlecchino in Italian, Arlequin in French, and Arlequín in Spanish is the most popular of the zanni (sic) or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dell'arte and its descendant, the Harlequinade.

The name of Harlequin derives from Old French Hellequin, leader of la maisnie Hellequin, thought to be related to the Old English Herla, a character often identified with Woden.[1[2


says [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HarlequinWiki[/url

Not the Eagles?

Hate all the nicknames that have come in since super league started its far too american for me. The old style nicknames are miles better because they more often than not mean something and say something about the team/where they come from. I understand that its all about the family package these days, but cheesy nicknames aren't for me.

And for me Crusaders is just taking the Michael!!!

Thankyou sir! thats it, i had a vague memory of it. A specific style of theatre rather than a specific piece. i was almost there.

Yeah, I'd go along with that. As a Bulls' fan I always think of the Rhinos, but though I often talk about the Bulls, strangely I still say I'm going to the Northern.

Like you I always think of Wire not Wolves and also Cas not Tigers, Wakey (or Trinity) never Wildcats, Salford not Reds, and Wigan not Warriors, though it's Giants not Hudds. Why things are the way round they are I don't know.

glad we got rid of ours, maybe if we had a link up with The Deep, it could've worked, hull fc will always be known as fc or black n whites

I call them all:

Huddersfield
Cas
Warrington
London
Wigan
Rhinos
Saints
Hull KR
Bulls
Hull FC
Catalan
Salford
Celtic
Wakefield
---
Widnes
Batley
Leigh
Toulouse
Hunslet
York
Barrow
Fax
Fev
Seagulls
Dewsbury
---
Cougars
Oldham
Dons
Swinton
Rochdale
Worky
South Wales
Gateshead
Skolars
Haven

I usuall refer to the teams as:

Giants Huddersfield
Cas Castleford
Wire Warrington
Quins London
Pies Wigan
Whinos Leeds
Plastic Scousers Saints
Hull KR Hull KR
Dulls Bradford
FC Hull FC
Catalans Catalan
Reds Salford
Crusaders Crusaders
Wakey Wakefield

God, really? Sounds a bit convoluted in so much as a nickname of verbal convenience.

as a bit of a thicko plus being a southern softie,can someone tell me why Bradford called themselves 'Northern' ? when they are obviously in the 'North' !
And why on earth did they feel the need to change to the Bulls when Northern was such an established 'brand name' ?

I love to confuse my Aussie counterparts St George Illawarra are Dragons, St Helens are Saints, Catalans are Catalans.

Bulls was easier to market than Steam Pigs!

adopted a name that clearly marked their loyalties.

ok,thanks

I think the biggest problem there was trying to find a picture of a Northern for the club badge. Or in slightly less cryptic terms, Bulls was a far more easy name to work with for the marketing team.

I don't call a single club by their 'new' nicknames, and I only started watching in 2001! Shows how crap they are really. Unless we're counting 'Saints' as a nickname, rather than the obvious shorthand for St Helens. I use Wire too.

They aren't there for your benefit. You were, presumably, going to RL games before SL.

The nicknames, logos, mascots etc are for the benefit of small children and journos.

No, like I said, I only started watching in 2001. I was 6 when SL was introduced so would have been a little difficult to be going to games before that xD

Bulls
Cas
Catalans
Crusaders
Dobbins (no apologies, I'm sure they will respond accordingly)
Hudds
Hull
Pies (not in an offensive way)
Quins
Salford
Saints
Wakey
Whinos (juvenile I am fully aware)
Wire

Or other names if we have just lost

I'm only 20 and started watching RL in 1999 but always refer to clubs by their 'proper' name i.e. the name of the place (apart from Quins although still sometimes say London) or a shortened form like 'Hudds', 'Cas.' etc. Occasionally use traditional nicknames like 'Wire' and refer to Saints as 'Saints' bcause it's shorter and more convenient. I would never want us to adopt it in the club's title or to be anything other than St Helens RLFC. I rarely ever use the tacky Americanised nicknames. Maybe it's because Saints never adopted one so I never bother with them but I am quite a traditionalist when it comes to this, one of the things I do actually admire of the round-ball game is the continuing with historic club identities and not adopting modern rootless nicknames. I can understand that some people can identify with these brand names but it will never be as significant as the club's 'real' names to me.

I used to like that big Shark that featured on the back of the Hull jerseys when superleague started in the late 1990's

Or was it on the front?


I can't remember now