It used to be thought that the early '70s were a low point in British RL at club level or the test match series of 1980 at international level. But surely today the game is weaker than ever - a 70 - nil challenge cup semi in front of a half empty stadium? I really think the game is in one almighty mess.

Lets not go that far.

Why not?

You start to ask the question wether full time proffessionalism and RL is susstainable with the rules the game currently has

Once a team gets on top it seems it is very difficult to reverse that dominance, and fatigue sets in much earlier than other sports

This was 2nd against 12th best teams in Britain. It was a big game. It was wholly uncompetitive. There was a pathetic crowd in a little town like Leigh. I honestly cannot think of such a pathetic day in the game's history.

And many still believe that Super League and summer rugby has been good for the game

Low crowd nothing at all to do with the venue, and all to do with Broncos being the opposition. They brought no fans and also ensured that the game would not be competitive, thereby not attracting any neutral support.

Four or five Championship teams would have conceded less than Broncos today.

Both concepts soon to be scrutinised and subject to critical analysis in the Blackwell's catalogue: "Rugby League: The Sport that Alienated Itself"

Price: £18.99

I'm expecting another open letter next week from Brian Barwick telling us how great the product is after today's shambles.

Fixed your omission BTW.

So the last blow out of this nature in a CC semi happened before SL - things were so much better in those days, winter rugby can't beat it (sic)

How many years before SL were we unable to compete with the Aussies? Jeff has a very selective memory

Actually we were getting competitive and very popular- that's why Super League came into being. It took the development of RL back 20 years.

But the best of them were knocked out by the Broncos as were the Bulls

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I have to say - i'm not a fan of the licensing system and I've disagreed wholeheartedly with Headhunter many many times but he's spot on with this video.

Calm down folk. The game will rise out of the quagmire eventually. It's too good a sport not to.

How do you figure that?

sets up a sell out at Wembley.....Wigan v Hull or Wire = 80k+ att. (and should be a great game).

Indeed, we had a competitive international 'GB' brand based around proper international tours which were becoming increasingly popular - with very encouraging attendances at places like Wembley, Old Trafford and Elland Rd. All sadly flushed down the toilet because of Super League.

As I said, perhaps time they look at a few small changes to the rules ,I'd start with the scoring team kicking off instead of recieving after scoring, not sure what other rules they could look at

And as Lord Melchett once requested - "machine guns for fullbacks". Only for the underdogs obviously.

They had this rule which lasted 1 season I think. Probably around 1996

We had a brilliant Test series in 1990 with big crowds at Wembley, Old Trafford and Elland Road. In 1992 we lost the world cup final at Wembley 10-6 in front of 72,000. That loss was marginal - our centre got injured in the latter stages and John Devereux (ex-RU) replaced him. I said to me mate in such a tight match that could prove the difference due to defensive decision making. Sure enough we lost through a try from the brlliant Steve Renouf who exploited a very marginal defensive mispositioning (I'm talking about 1 foot out of position only, from memory).

At that time in London when I mentioned RL people would say things like "that's big now" "it's the new sport". Never before nor since have strangers with no knowledge of the sport had that perception. SL killed a once in a life time expansion of the game. The SL investors of course got involved because they could see the sport was looking great and had huge potential. Unfortunately the in-fighting and the lack of understanding and vision of the British supporters put paid to that and we've been try to get to where we where ever since in this country. We have failed misearably to date.

I would agree with that.

I also recall the rule being in place for just the one season... 1997 IIRC... which corresponded with the Australian Super League competition which lasted just the one year. I'm pretty sure all those WCC games of 1997 where our SL clubs endured embarrassing scorelines were all played under that rule. Good job they were otherwise the likes of Bradford, St Helens and the rest might have ended up conceding 100 points in some games as opposed to just the 70.

The average crowd in the last season before SL was 5,516. The average crowd for the 16 seasons prior to SL was 5,578. A high of 7,301 in 88/89, a low of 4,568 in 85/86. The lowest SL average crowd was the first season, 1996, with 6,578.
Compared to an average crowd in 2012 of 10,699.

What have the crowds been like in the challenge cup and internationals during the SL era?