I was purely musing about next season, when there will only be twelve SL teams, therefore four extra clubs will be required.

But I’m sure you could magic a few more French teams who would be competitive.

Toulouse were sub standard in the championship Jean.

That was way back then. Now they have a new coach (very important change) and some new players. I expect them to recruit even further from the Elite, and a much improved performance from them if they step up to SL2/Championship.

Oh, next season eh? You didn't say that in your original post. So here is the answer. The two relegated SL teams, plus the top Championship team plus Toulouse would make the 16.

Wasn't aware there was any union on in Auckland at the weekend jean. I was there and it was a brilliant weekend which will sell out in 2015 in a matter of minutes, but eminen also sold out......I doubt NZRU are fretting about gangster rap or whatever it is he does!

With regard to the millennium nines, it would involve an outside entity to bankroll it as has happened here. Duco events got Auckland council involved and once the base costs were covered, the NRL came to the table.....maybe the good dr at Salford would like to get his chequebook out and show The RFL how it's done

What happened with the Premier Sports coverage?
Was it just me, but the programme came on half way through the 3rd quarter final. We missed all of the last group games and the first three quarter finals.

At least I weren't the only one. Recorded it to watch it the following morning to find out I had missed most of it.

...and yet there were some on here decrying Premier not getting the rights to super league

Live coverage of the Auckland 9's Day 2 wasn't scheduled to begin until after the NASCAR event had finished, which, IIRC would be sometime after 3.30am. This was evident to anyone who made a note of their TV schedules. You obviously didn't do that.

The full Auckland 9s Day 2 schedule (including all the non-aired "live" group and quarter final games) were shown on delay this evening from 8.15pm onwards.

Hope I have helped you resolve your ignorance in this matter.

Ditto



See above.

BTW.....notes for the organisers of the Magic weekend.
Auckland hoteliers didn't decide to play dick turpin this weekend, even though 22k of the 25k each day were "out of towners" at the 9's........if the whining s in Cardiff want to know why they lost Magic, they should ask their hoteliers.......I've already pre-booked the same place for next year at the same rates.

Yeah you're right, sorry, I only caught the start and then the end very early on Saturday morning here, after the Warriors' last game when a lot must have left. Watched the recording back and then all yesterday's games and it looked pretty packed!

Much better than Magic Weekend that's for sure

People should note that rugby league is not as big as rugby union in NZ, so for Aucklanders to get behind the Nines like they did shows that the concept is a winner if promoted properly.

The question is: does the RFL have the wherewithal to make the concept succeed in the UK? Of course Sally Bolton and her team of World Cup organisers could work on it. But I wonder if Nigel Wood is capable of adapting to the very concept of a Nines in the UK in the first place, in order for it to be pursued and for Sally to make it a success.

That'll consist of the issuing of sundry promo codes allowing tightd fans of Super League to purchase adult weekend tickets for a fiver then?

How's your hugely discounted Premier Sports package going?

Alas Jean.....not even on TV....
Day 1 peaked at 148,000 viewers, Day 2 at 175,000 with both peaks at times when the Warriors were playing....lowest recorded figure was 109k on Sunday afternoon. These are encouraging figures, but I hope they can get a deal done for FTA TV next year......the more people that see this the better.

1p taken out of my account by direct debit a couple of weeks ago to cover the 1st month of subs. Two more months of being debited 1p before the £3.99 per month subs kick in for the following 3 months. Then it'll be time to unsubscribe again

Quite.

Not really.

Accepting an offer of a cheaper subscription TV deal to watch the NRL (when one can watch all those games for free on Bet365 and other bookies websites) is hardly the same as being a tightd modern day fan of SL and the RLWC who only attends games when huge discounts are applied to their tickets (the latter being you).

Pretty sure you didn't "accept" any cheaper deal but nice try. You proudly shouted to all and sundry on here that you were going to cancel your subscription before they reduced the price to try and keep you as a subscriber. Sound familiar?

And.. The latter being me? Modern? A Leeds' fan of 33 years and a season ticket holder who paid full price for a couple of WC games before taking advantage of some of the discount codes that were floating about, like anyone would.

Yeah nice one

Not familiar at all. Making up tall stories really doesn't help your agenda when I've indicated nothing of the kind.

I'd already cancelled my subscription to Premier Sports late October giving one month's notice before the channel was switched off late November - the end of the RLWC. Therefore I wasn't a subscriber when Premier Sports phoned me last month offering a welcome back deal in time for the Auckland 9's and the start of the NRL season. The offer was 1st month free, followed by 3 months at £3.99. I jokingly said I was more interested in Origin which begins in May, to which the response was to offer me 3 months free followed by 3 months at £3.99. Smart negotiation move, if I don't mind saying so myself... it worked in my favour

It saved me the hassle of resubscribing in March at full price plus a re-connection fee.

Oh, and guess what? I never pay full price for Sky either. Haven't done so for years. Why would anyone pay full price for such bollox? To watch Super League? Really?

I'll either pay half price or... if I'm lucky I'll be on a 75% off deal like the one I've been on for the past 12 months. When the deal ends, I politely phone up Sky retentions department to request another deal. If one isn't forthcoming, I cancel my subscription immediately as I did approximately 3 weeks ago when they said they couldn't offer me another deal. Give it 3 months and there will be half price offers in the post from Sky begging me to re-subscribe.

Being a subscriber to satellite TV channels provided they are half price or less is not in the same ballpark as being a tightd modern day fan of SL and the RLWC. A ducks @rse is water tight and it's still got nothing on you.

perish the thought!

So basically, what you're saying is that you'll only pay to watch RL on TV if it's cut price & discounted to the hilt?

Or

You're actually happy to pay full price but just like anyone else in their right mind would, you took advantage of a cheap deal on offer?

Either way they both sound very familiar to me

To have it in this country you need to make sure it's a tournament worth winning, the fans may well be up for it but if the teams don't value it, it will be a sub standard tournament.
So a decent amount of prize money is essential.

We also don't have the profile that the NRL does, to improve interest I would have it on a bank holiday over 3 days with more teams invited, SL, Championship and throw a couple of special invites out (potentially NRL, UNION, a 9's national side)

The only way I could see us being able to do something like this would be with the help of local councils/tourist boards because we simply don’t have the size to get people to take a risk on us.

I think if we could get the council and tourist board at somewhere like Mille to back it, then it could be a real success over a summer weekend, perhaps May day or Bastille day weekend, a bit of ambition and try and sell out the velodrome. Its 15 mins from the beach, nice weather, great food, it’s a city owned stadium, there is RL there and it isn’t too far away from the true French RL heartlands. Would be a nice celebration of European RL. It would also be a big event, if it isn’t then it would just be reserves and kids playing.

Knowing the RFL though it would be untelevised, midweek in march in Blackpool.