www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/31026276

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/31026276

Journalism has changed remarkably in the last 50 years or so. Working class kids like John Humphrys and Michael Parkinson could leave school and get a job on their local paper and work their way up to the BBC or to National Newspapers, many of whom had northern copies (eg The Manchester Guardian). In the 1950s and 1960s Rugby League got a reasonable amount of coverage in the media, and working class lads from the Rugby league territories knew about the sport.

Compare that with today. There are no northern editions anymore. The local newspapers run on a skeleton staff. Any vacancies for trainee journalists go to graduates with a post grad in journalism as well. It is not unknown for 500 applicants for just the one post. National newspapers only employ ex public school, Oxbridge educated trainees (I'm generalizing here, but that's the trend).

So of course there is a media bias against Rugby League. The editors and journalists know nothing about it. Take the Guardian now for example, on a Saturday morning after the Friday night sky game, you will never find even a report on the game yet you will find two whole pages devoted to Union. You have to go to the website to get a report of the Super League game.

Similarly in the BBC. It is run by an elite who know nothing about Rugby League. The only time it gets reported is when Sam Burgess leaves or when the Ben Flower incident made headlines, nothing about the game itself. Look at the treatment of the Super League show, shunted around the schedules, on late at night or worse, only by the red button in some areas, whereas you can get an hour dedicated to Championship football right after Match of the day for example.

It has always been a problem. In the early 1950s the BBC actually refused to read out the Rugby League scores on sports report on the radio on Saturday evenings. The sport was portrayed as a rather comical and brutal northern pastime and this wasn't helped by the stereotypical commentary by Eddie Waring. Although he was a great player and great man, Ray French didn't improve things greatly either.

The RFL have tried, in vain, to move the sport into non-traditional areas. The World Cup was a great success, but once it was over, it was back to square one. And I don't blame the RFL for this either. There's not much you can do on a budget of £5.50!

An international game is needed. But there are only really 2 countries where it is played in the Northern Hemisphere. No matter how hard you try you just can't generate media interest in England v France or England v Exiles. I've been to every mid season England international and they really have been disastrous as spectacles, with half empty grounds and cricket scorelines.

And yet, if the southern based media were to come to a Super League ground on a Friday night, sample the atmosphere and witness superb athletes competing in a high intensity game, I really believe they would be won over. I'm absolutely certain the RFL and Super League are trying their best. As a fan I feel valued, the ticketing prices are always extremely reasonable, especially compared to football and even Rugby Union. And the product is of a very high quality. The game has improved as a spectacle out of all recognition since I first saw the BBC Floodlight Competition and became entranced all those years ago.

Jack Dearden really is clueless. Darrell Goulding as Wigan's most missed player (when they've lost Blake Green)? Marc Sneyd, who didn't even play for Salford last year as their "big loss" (when they have 3 better players than him for 2 half-back slots)?

Very good post.

The only suggestion I'd add is that with local newspapers being so short staffed and ran on a shoestring, is it worth the RFL paying to fund an RL journalist in every big city? Surely no local newspaper is going to turn down a free journalist and a stream of free stories to fill their pages

aboveus is spot-on. We *do* have a good product, despite what all the nay-sayers may claim. You are watching some of the best athletes in the country, ticket prices and availability are good, and, not least, it's a generally friendly atmosphere (proven by the large proportion of women and kids at games), without the rather ugly atmosphere that generally pervades soccer matches.

In the last couple of years I've tried to take friends and family who'd never been to a league match before to see our sport. In every case except one, they liked what they saw, and would go again.

BTW I do sometimes think that some fans in the 'heartlands' don't always appreciate just how under-exposed our sport is. I would say the average man in the street, even those who consider themselves sports fans (take a interest in football and cricket, say) would struggle to clearly explain and differentiate the two codes. When asked who I support, and replying Wigan, I've lost count of the numbers of times I've had a response along the lines of "Do they play the All Blacks/Bath/Northampton?"

The only reason I got into RL was because the Broncos moved in across the road from me to Griffin Park in 2002 and a bloke I worked with pretty much nagged me to go. Up to then, my only "contact" with RL would have been Saturday afternoon cup games on Grandstand.....I really didn't give it a second thought. It really has very little profile in London and I can only assume that's the same for the rest of the country outside of the heartlands.
As it is, I was hooked after that first game and guess I must have dragged over 50 friends and family to games over the years. All enjoyed the experience and some even took up attending regularly......sports fans appreciate good sport and that's what we have. Unfortunately, we don't have the administrators the sport deserves.....and that's where the problems start.
We also struggle with the concept of expansion. If Londons SL side had been given the same level of support and finance as Melbourne Storm, then they'd have probably won something by now and the games profile would be raised, but instead, we had 19 years of accusations of dodgy payments, too many imports and resentment from "traditional heartland" clubs, resulting in 20 years of development work in the capital being flushed down the toilet purely to give Halifax a shot at the SKY cash

As a result and regardless of if there is a conspiracy against League or not, it makes it simple for editors to ignore us.....we are now as local as a local sport can be.

To change this will take time, money and proper expansion together with meaningful international games. White Van man will dust off his England Union shirt (probably still got cellnet as the sponsor on it) later this year and become the font of all knowledge on scrummaging issues.......he doesn't know who leicester Tigers are or where London Welsh play, but he will follow Ingerland passionately. The Media will all get behind their comp and the whole country will bombarded with information supplied by the IRB and RFU PR machine.......we have Blake Solly......

Good post, a large part of the 'failure' of a London team has to be aimed at the games leaders, narrow minded doesn't even cover it and the long term fallout has being apparent for years. We are a minority sport that has all the makings of something bigger & better but is held back by morons.
We've reaped what we sowed, which is bugger all.

An idea worth looking at, though one not helped by the centralised and oligopolistic nature of the UK media and newspaper industry.
70% of the national newspaper market is controlled by 3 companies (News UK, Daily Mail and General Trust, and Trinity Mirror). 90% is held by 5 companies (add in Northern & Shell and Telegraph Media Group) with News UK (Fox/Murdoch) holding 1/3rd of the entire market.

The problem is as bad at regional level.
25% of Local Government Areas have no local newspaper while a further 35% have just 1.
70% of regional newspapers are owned by 5 companies.

It's also an issue with regard to tv and radio news.
83% of both local and national Radio news is produced by 2 companies, the BBC and Sky.
93% of both local and national TV news is produced by 2 companies, the BBC & ITN. 99% when BSkyB is added in.



Unfortunately, even if the RFL did have a journalist in the cities, the decisions on the major stories and are still made in London by a small group of people. Which is why you'll see the same story in several regional papers on the same day, sometimes even with the same spelling mistakes.

They print what they think their audience want to read.....in turn, these readers are then targeted by advertisers and this generates money for the media owner. In general, they do not think that their audience want to read about Wigan v Widnes. This could be because of the "stigma" of RL being a working class sport and their readers either being Middle class or middle class aspirant? It might be that they cover Union in their papers (Tele/Times/Guardian/Inde/Express/Mail) because their readers attended grammar/public schools and Oxbridge Uni's and might have actually played the game. They can't ignore soccer, because it is massive, but cycling, Tennis, Cricket, Athletics, Golf, Union Squash, and even Boxing have higher participation figures than League, and yet you don't hear the LTA whining that other than 2 weeks in June they get little coverage in the Sun!

Rugby League get's coverage that reflects its relevance to advertisers.......a Half page advert opposite Dear Deidre in the sun used to be the most expensive piece of print real estate in Britain.........the Sun know their readers.....they know what their readers want and they deliver it. If their readers wanted RL they'd cover it more.........

Sky sports at all super league clubs through out today

Marwin on 5 live this morning. Spoke very well about the greatest sport.

I know what you mean, but actually they don't. They massively underestimated public opinion when they got involved in the Hillsborough tragedy, the phone tapping scandals, the Iraq War and we could all probably come up with dozens of others. The Sun is run by bigots and chancers who have no clue about their readership.

Everybody likes football despite the fact that it is boring, nothing happens for about 89 minutes in total. I have introduced Football fans to Wigan Warriors and they are amazed at the pace, the athleticism and the honesty of RL players. The product is excellent. It is a family sport that offers value for money. But there is loads of competition for the public to choose from. The public are ill served by the media, as evidenced above by 'Him'. In a way we shouldn't expect to be treated fairly.

On the whole Rugby League is a working class sport, played by and watched by in the main ordinary northern folk. You need to be both skillful and tough to play it though. Skill alone doesn't cut it. It doesn't really chime with today's 'want it now/easy money' society. The sport embodies all that is good about the North of England in a way (I'm generalizing again), and that's hard for the southern media to understand. (That's not to say that it can't be played by anyone at all, but I'm talking about perceptions here).

I do think you are harsh on Blake Solly. He's only just started in the job. It seems to me that in the RL community (for that's what we are) we turn inwards quite a lot and criticize the administrators with no understanding of their roles and the difficulties they have to overcome. Sally Bolton did an amazing job with the World Cup for example. Unfortunately she's moved on. But credit where it's due. The fact that we haven't been able to build on that success isn't really the fault of the RFL.

The big tragedy of last season was the demotion of the Broncos. And the demise of Crusaders hasn't helped expansion either. But Catalans remain a shining example of success, though in a geographical area with some RL history and culture to tap into. I hope that London are able to get back into Super League and maybe a good news story in the capital will get editors to pay some attention. All of the underpinning work in London and the south-east mustn't go to waste.

On radio 4 at about 7:30, speaking about the British Bulldogs.

That statement there is absolute nonsence of the highest order, it isn't that they don't understand the endeavour and skill of the sport, just that the sport isn't on the agenda..period.
And your generalisations are complete bollox too, you think people in areas other than the 'North' think any differently from a working class POV, what about the 'middle classes' of any given area?
The problem isn't the people in the 'South', or should I say outside of the M62 corridor, the problem lies elsewhere far far closer to home

You're quite the charmer aren't you?

The case I made was that the southern based media is overpopulated with Oxbridge educated public schoolboys. Just like the government in fact. It's a useful analogy and helps to explain why neither understand northern working class people in general or Rugby League in particular.

Didn't you get banned on a AFL forum for calling their game an imported game from Ireland and England, which is true, but the truth hurt them?

never received a ban on that site....just dont bother going there any more.

never received a ban on that site....just dont bother going there any more.

Am i right in thinking though you annoyed them with your imported game from Ireland and England comment?

Yep

Back to the BBC... is anyone else not finding the SL Show on their Sky planner?

Am I doing something wrong?

It is on tonight isnt it?

Don't know much about your Sky planner but, it's on tonight at 23.45 up north, don't know about coverage in Union territory.

It's got a permanent Tuesday 1pm lunch time slot on BBC2, about the only thing the BBC got right.

The sport section on BBC Breakfast news covered football (Premier League, ANC final etc) followed by women's rugby union, followed by some funny incident in Dutch football. Annoyingly the lady then says "..and that's all for the sport..." and the programme carries on.

Just shows we are pretty far down the pecking order at the BBC given it was our opening week of the season.