Given the obvious draw to these World Cup games of ex pats of the countries involved & cheering their respective countries along ,i was wondering if there is an avenue, as yet unexplored ,that may be beneficial to our game.

As we all know, Britain is now a multicultural society but much of its sport ,including RL is very much still white working man's by tradition. In our part of the world ,the M62 Corridor ,the heartland of the game , we are also home to many people of diverse origins & cultures who are not actually represented at sporting level apart from when the Indian & Pakistani cricket teams are touring the UK. Maybe the RFL should make soundings among various ethnic groups about forming teams at a level they would find for themselves & thus flying the flag to rally round their particular countries compatriots. The list is endless ,ranging from Australian ex pats right through to Indian & Pakistani ex pats & at first the teams could probably be nomadic ,hosted by various grounds throughout the country with assistance from the RFL, to see what appeal there would be to the ex pat public of the participating teams.Some ethnicities in the North would probably have a big appeal in their own localities. but a case in point was the recent England v Poland football match with its big attraction for Polish ex pats.

This could be where the London experiment keeps faltering because there are not enough actual white working class in an area that is already steeped in football & rugby union & the ethnic minorities there have no game to identify with . The games even get better crowds when moved out of the capital.

If it was a success ,a scheme like this would provide ,in time, a broader player base & hopefully bring communities together under a sporting umbrella by giving these communities a wider interest than tension on the streets.

IIRC, Pakistan already have a Rugby League team. Didn't Ikram Butt liaise with the RFL and set one up back in 2011? Obviously it's not UK based, but it's definitely a start.

This is a point I raised in regards to Warrington on here a few months back. Warrington has a thriving Polish community which to me is crying out to be tapped into. I stumbled across this website ( www.warrington.pl/ ) the other day which is interesting and shows the club could potentially reach out to new audiences at a low cost. That website has over 6,000 users, the club regularly posts on this forum these days which has how many Warrington based members?

This is a point I raised in regards to Warrington on here a few months back. Warrington has a thriving Polish community which to me is crying out to be tapped into. I stumbled across this website ( www.warrington.pl/ ) the other day which is interesting and shows the club could potentially reach out to new audiences at a low cost. That website has over 6,000 users, the club regularly posts on this forum these days which has how many Warrington based members?

Think we're running without learning to walk.

We need to first focus on three possibly 4 key areas first.

1.Any development of London regardless of ethnicity, they need help and they need it quick, the amateur game is thriving but the professional game is in desperate need of people who know what they're doing.
This should be the primary focus of help, they need a general focus and not just pockets of certain communities.

2.Wales ie Wrexham
This needs again someone who knows what they're doing, with a bit of business acumen and focused on promotion of both Wrexham and Wales as a whole, the Welsh love rugby and with the correct plan in place with the correct people it's a guaranteed success because the appetite is already there.

3.Cumbria
There's only one way this is going to work and for me it's a bitter pill to swallow not only for the history of the game but for the fans of Barrow, Whitehaven and Workington. They have to come under one Cumbrian banner and play in one place preferably a place that isn't one of the above so possibly Carlisle. The hunger is there but Cumbria is a small county in terms of numbers, they have to unite together and play under one name, would it happen though?

4.Only once all of the above are sorted would I even dare expand but I'd be looking to reestablish either Gateshead or look to the midlands, a prime candidate being Coventry, having been striped of their football club it's got some potential there is a rugby scene in the area and with the correct name and marketing could draw people in from surrounding areas.

We need sensible focused/targeted growth, we need the right people in charge and we also need to find out if the appetite is there before jumping in head first.

Have you ever watched a sport in which you know non of the rules, you think you like it but every decision naffles the crap out of you? That's the problem with attracting new fans, how many of us have 'converted' soneone, took them to their first game and talked them threw it as the game unfolds. I have and it makes it easy for then to understand, you can't just invite people without that, the game is alien and by that respect is confusing and not as engaging.

If you want to play it smart, target communties the right way, have possibly a couple of workshops on the rules and slowly introduce them. Just throwing tickets at them or pushing threw the gates isn't enough.

Think we should get the game run correctly before we try and expand it anywhere.
The RFL are clueless they cant entice sponsorship of the League itself never mind run it London disaster Wrexham Disaster Wakefield Castleford nearly broke No hope of any sort of expansion until someone fixes up what we already have imo

When did the RFL take on the responsibility of micromanaging individual clubs?

Penrith.....near the M6...crying out for a franchise...under the Cumbrian banner.

How would the "Cumbrian" banner work though as this is a 'county' and not a town?

If Cumbria want in it has to be under CUMBRIA not too fussed where they play, Carlisle was just a suggestion.

It's a name, an identity, it's the only way you'll get fans to unite, call it anything else and it just won't work.

I for instance COULD support a Cheshire team but if you called it Chester I wouldn't.

I could support a cheshire club if it wasn't a merger between warrington and widnes. I guess it would have to be similar to nrl mergers if ive read it correctly in the past?
Illawara Steelers despite merging with st George still survive at junior levels.
And North sydney still survive as a lower league NSW cup team. similarly west magpies despite merging with balmain to form the wests tigers still retain their original identity in a semi pro comp..

So maybe thats the way to go retain the individual clubs so the heritage of the old historic clubs isn't lost but create a new venture so former bitter rivals can start afresh with a new team.

Whats the model for London Welsh/Irish in RU?....are they clubs that have very strong links with Wales/Ireland or is it just a name?

Thing is that it's very well going for the ex pat route ie British Asians following the cricket and the Polish following the football is they are brought up on it and will follow it as it's their national sports. They will not start watching League. You can try but it will be slow progress.

For me the key aspect is to get all those Fijians at Rochdale on Monday to go and watch Rochdale on a regular basis. And build on places where the world cup has been played ie Cumbria, Wrexham, Neath even London to build on club attendances. Along with building a international platform of international fixtures across the smaller countries getting them playing more often so that players don't now switch back to Aus, NZ & England for the next few years then back to the world cup playing countries when the time comes around again

I suppose you could build a Cumbria team like Catalan do. Have a join team playing in Super league while the other 3 teams are playing in the lower league.

The only issues are what happens if one of the 3 make it to super league and at present I dont think any of the grounds are super league standard?

What i was thinking was at a local community level there maybe interest in forming & promoting ethnic teams which progress or fail at there own speed ....even to the point where, for instance, an Asian Mosque might have a dozen or so lads who could be encouraged at even just seven a side level to get started. In that way the teams would have their own identities & may even influence other Asian communities to get involved.
One barrier that foreigners have to overcome is nothing more than the same aspect of human nature that influences everyone no matter what their colour,race or creed ,and that is the fear standing out in a crowd ,the fear of being different. So ,if teams can be formed within these groups it may ,in time ,bring them them to the game in general.

This could apply to an minority community who could ,if you like, fly the flag for their motherland within the RL community.

Aren't some of these Island Nations made up of players who used to play for Oz & New Zealand at times ,but because they may not be as good these days the individuals have reverted to their countries of origin & these countries have then been strong enough to field their own teams ?

May be if these teams had not been formed into their own identities ,there might not have been the same minority interest in this World Cup. The ideal would,as you say ,be to get the Fijians to watch Rochdale on a regular ,but i am sure a lot of those spectators have come from other parts of the country to watch Fiji under the
flag of their mother country.

I think this whole conversation is going the opposite way to what NineArches had intended with his thread, but I will throw in my twopenneth.

You never hear mergers proposed in this part of the world these days, but dim and distant Cumbria seems to crop up every so often. We dismiss merging Warrington and Widnes out of hand, two clubs a few minutes drive from each other yet seem to think that merging three clubs miles apart would work.

If you move the three clubs to a new home, it will fail completely. If you try to do a roundrobin those who haven't given up all together will simply just attend the games at their respective grounds, meaning there is no real improvement.

Barrow, Whitehaven and Workington are proud clubs with their own history and rivalry, leave them be.

They don't have to be disbanded, just create a team called Cumbria and set them up.

I think the RFL has missed out big time with this world cup. If every game was being shown live on BBC it would have had a huge affected on non RL watchers. I have LOVED watching the WC on Premier sports and every game has been no less than a success. Bit how many non RL fans watch Premier sports? I wouldn't say many. The commentary has been a breath of fresh air and has actually game the game seem more exciting. Cos and Noble loving the big hits and Hoff. Instead of Eddie and stevo going on for an hour afterwards about how 'it isn't needed in our game'

If the RFL had maybe not every game bit certainly the majority, with the premier sports commentary I think a wider audience could have been reached and a wider interest sparked.

The RFL don't micro manage anything but they are supposed to make club's revenue streams from Tv and major league and cup sponsorship deals and then distribute it between clubs and grass roots Sky get it for peanuts imo we don't have any sponsorship deals we have failed and flawed attempts at expansion and more than a few clubs who are in financial meltdown in Cas Wakefield Bradford and Until Loadsakash turned up Salford who will be straight back there when he spits his dummy Hull Kr aren't far off it . It's probably easier to list the well run clubs but it boils down to miss management and missed opportunities by the RFL imo

A sport like Kabbadi could be missing a trick by not taking advantage of their large ex pat populations to have a World Cup in England.

The problem is the sport is not really taken seriously in England because people think its just Pakistan, India and Iran that dominate the international competitions but could you imagine the buzz if England got a World Cup and there were teams from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales made up of the local asian populations that play Kabaddi. It would be huge in some of the communities and it would be a great way to get non asians like the English whites to watch the game and also have their England team to get behind.

I reckon it would take off in Warrington and maybe could be an important step towards cultures living in harmony and ending racism in society.

But the bottom line Sally is that, in our multi cultural island with its large population , RL as well as many other sports is failing to tap into anything other white Anglo-Saxon stereotype spectators. It is naive to think that all these supporters have travelled from the south seas just to watch their teams in RLWC2013.....most of them live & work here just as do many other nationalities.

I'd be a bit concerned that the games would be on TV with near empty stadiums and this would not be good for the sport. I think someone has done a decent marketing job to fill the grounds. It's going well and perhaps we might have to give a bit of credit. The RFL are such an easy target.