I've been thinking about this over the day and thought I'd put it out.

With the multi millions of £££ to be made in European RU, could it be that IL's ambition (within the next ten years) is to create "Wigan Warriors Rugby Club"? A squad of 50-60 rugby players (homegrown, Welsh and other RU area products) skilled in both RL and RU which will enable him to create a Wigan based RU team to play at the DW?

Wigan RL will always generate 14-17k average crowds and I doubt the RU team anywhere near that to start with (certainly not from the locals), but they could be looking to pull in fans from Lancs, Bolton, Manchester....just like Sale currently are.

Could he been interested in setting up a "Leeds Rugby" style establishment over here in Wigan?
It could take many years for such a RU team to be propelled into the Guinness Premiership / European competitions but the income from such would be huge.

Probably way off, but stranger things and all that................

Highly doubt it. I've heard he is planning world domination though...

I understand he recently purchased an underwater volcano from which to base all future operations. And a fluffy white cat.

Nah

From a business point of view, it is a brilliant concept for a business man in my opinion.

for some strange reason he wants to be in bed with Rugby Union!!

As long as we can still play in our Cherry and White hoops shirts, lol

There is just not enough interest in RU locally to support an RU team.

We have been here before when DW bought Orrell and it just didn't get the support. Sale don't either and they are much nearer larger population areas.

It might appeal to the RFU to have Wigan as the equivalent of Leeds in the North West but I don't think it would appeal to the local sporting public because at the end of the day RU as a product is very poor.

It would be a huge risk when you consider Sarries have been loss making for years so as a business prospect it is a poor one.

IL is doing well getting Wigan running at a profit and there is still plenty of room for further improvement so he should stick with that and not be distracted.

Neither Union nor League clubs in the UK, with one or two exceptions, are doing well financially.
A hybrid game would attract big bucks, initially at least.
As an old mentor of mine said, where there's money, there's sh-t.

A hybrid game would be very succesful, but only if every single team and governing body bought into the idea and the attacking side of the game was RL based.

Quote ="MattyB" With the multi millions of £££ to be made in European RU, could it be that IL's ambition (within the next ten years) is to create "Wigan Warriors Rugby Club"? '" The rich clubs in rugby union are rich because they have rich owners, the European competition is not a cash cow with multi millions of pounds on offer like the Champions League in football. Most English rugby union clubs are struggling. The RFU makes good money through internationals and all the corporate sponsorship that comes along with that but not that much trickles down to the club game. See this article (from last year) www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard- ... -crisis.do A Wigan RU franchise would need a wealthy backer who is willing to pour money in and not get it all back, like Nigel Wray has done with Saracens.

Quote ="MattyB" With the multi millions of £££ to be made in European RU, could it be that IL's ambition (within the next ten years) is to create "Wigan Warriors Rugby Club"? '" The rich clubs in rugby union are rich because they have rich owners, the European competition is not a cash cow with multi millions of pounds on offer like the Champions League in football. Most English rugby union clubs are struggling. The RFU makes good money through internationals and all the corporate sponsorship that comes along with that but not that much trickles down to the club game. See this article (from last year) www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard- ... -crisis.do A Wigan RU franchise would need a wealthy backer who is willing to pour money in and not get it all back, like Nigel Wray has done with Saracens.

Was it only me who learnt from the RU world cup what a crap concept Union is. You'd have to pay me a lot of money to watch a union game live, it lacks excitement, unless you consider that knocking the ball between the sticks half a dozen times each is excitement.

But I don't think RU is about "excitement" ........... I liken rugby to cricket ........... RU is the Test match; a battle of tactics and strategy, it's sometimes slow and boring, but it can be enthralling ........... RL is the T20; stripped down to basics, leaving all the highlight reel stuff, the big hits, the tries, the end to end nature of the 6 tackle rule.

That is being very generous towards RU. The reason the world cup was boring was not because it is the nature of the game but because the teams chose to play it that way adopting a safety first mentality and the rules allow this to happen.

If you watch games like the Super 15 there seems to be an agreement not to adopt these kind of tactics to try and create a more exciting and expansive game. What RU has failed to do is adapt its rules to the increased fitness of players and tactical awareness of coaches (much learned from RL particularly defence) so whenever a crucial game occurs it is highly likely to be extremely boring to watch. It's got nothing to do with it being some sort of subtle chess like game but simply the result of trying to play a risk free game giving nothing away and the rules allow it.

But the success or otherwise of a sporting tournament doesn't depend on the quality of the play.

In football for instance, the real turning point in English footballing history that turned football from a popular sport associated with working class men and hooligans, to a huge multimillion pound business that led to the Premier League, major TV deals etc, was the 1990 World Cup, football exploded after that.

But that was actually the most boring world cup ever, there were hardly any goals scored. England struggled through the group stages only scoring 2 goals.

Just like with Warrington and their owner



It is true though that anyone taking on an RU "franchise" needs to be prepared to invest shed loads of cash to assemble a team for the top flight as Nigel Wray did at Sarries. I am sure when he started back in 1995 he wasn't expecting to have to sell half the club to the South Africans to secure a cash injection and was expecting Sarries be self sustaining like Leicester and Northampton but it didn't happen.

In contrast IL has got Wigan making a small profit in the short time he has been here so why he would want to lump Wigan RL into what would be a loss making version of Leeds Rugby or whatever its called I don't know.

One reason IL has been able to do this was the generous deal Dave Whelan gave him for the club including the Orrell facility and the lease of the DW.

And of course the other obstacle to any professional RU side in Wigan is where would they play? Orrell is not big enough and in any case to be part of the brand it would need to play at the DW with all the prestige that would bring but as RU is a winter sport sharing with Latics in winter is never gong to happen.

I think there is some mileage in a hybrid game.
Starting with RU they could reduce the number of players to 13, get rid of those silly line outs, remove the competition element from those dangerous scrums where most of the serious injuries occur, downgrade the value of those boring drop goals to, say, 1 point and introduce a recycling element to the ruck after a tackle is judged to be complete (this would remove all that tedious pushing and shoving), maybe teams could be required to kick the ball after, say, 5 tackles to avoid continuous possession by one team. Surely there is the potential to compromise on this basis.

It's the success of the club game not that of show-piece events that will determine the viability of an RU club.

RU does recognise there are problems with the game but seem stuck between a rock and a hard place about changing the rules. A couple of years ago the Doctor who was the RFU chief medical officer wrote that due to the way the game had developed it was essential from a safety point of view that all scrums become uncontested. I don't think he as that post any longer! However the result is scrums take an age to set and what this and the other rules do is make RU a very inaccessible sport to all but those who have convinced themselves such messing about elevates the sport to a higher plane.

This is reflected in the crowds at club games at the likes of Sarries and Wasps so while people turn out for the six nations or world cups that doesn't help clubs get big crowds or encourage fans to start watching the sport. This is another reason why it would be a huge risk to try and start a pro RU side in Wigan. It just would not IMO get the crowds because the game is essentially boring. The fact the World Cup or Twickers sells out for Internationals does not change that.

Nah, Rugby League is every bit the [ichess game[/i union is.

It took Asutralia 60 minutes to break us on Saturday. They had to be patient, wear us down and then break when they had the chance. Lose control and they'd have let us take it.

The equivelent rugby union game would have seen Australia 18 points ahead at half time, because of the multiple penalties they'd have picked up from the many infringements that happen when a team is under pressure. The game would have been over.

I switched a european game on the other week, I think is was Worcester vs S.Francias. I thought i'd give it a go and sure enough, the first minute showed some adventurous handling and running. Eyup, says me, leaning forward. The they spend the next 10 minutes faffing over a scrum and then a line.

I spend my pomp playing rugby union, which I enjoyed immensley and I also have respect for any player, but don't tell me it compares as a spectator sport, because it simply doesn't.

IL has just order a grey button front tunic,hes also planning plastic surgery to have a scar placed down the right hand side of his face and hes already got a white cat to stroke when he moves into Dave Whealans office.

The Name plate on his door has already been engraved with Ian "Bloefeld" Leneghan.

I think he is also planning to have a bevvy of beauties in planes circle over twickenham spraying laughing gas to cheer them all up when watching such a miserable sport

I can see there being one code of Rugby within the next ten years.

Wigan, Saints, Wire, Leeds, Hull will be top flight Rugby (Union) clubs

I can't. There are too many diehards on both sides for that to happen, you'll just get three forms of rugby that'll advantage no one. I certainly wouldn't watch an hybrid game that took any of the overly technical elements of RU that allowed the game to be stifled in the way it can, leading to the kicking competitions we see in so many top level RU games.

I agree, but is it just me that i am sick to the back teeth reading about Rugby Union, our game is far superior, i'm not knocking their players but how they play is boring, how Joel Tomkins can say he wants to test himself is a bit pathetic, i would have respected him more if he'd gone to NRL, he'll be lucky if he gets 4 passes a game and he'll hardly break sweat.

Only way that would happen is if the sports merge. That would be beneficial to both sports.

Imagine a league of -

Wigan
Leicester
Leeds
Northampton
Saints
Harlequins
Warrington
London Irish
Hull FC
Gloucester
Huddersfield
Bath
Bradford
Saracens
Hull KR
London Wasps

A 16 team league with none of the crap clubs both codes currently have in the top flight. It would be huge. The second tier would aslo be very very strong with the Likes of Widnes, Newcastle, Castleford, Exeter, Salford, Sale, Wakefield, Worcester, Bristol.

This would be bigger and better than what either code has now. Not to mention the strength of the player pool or the european competition. Catalans would join the french league etc.

It will probably never happen but it would make sense. A world-wide Rugby dual code could rival football.

and what about the hundreds of thousands of people that play either code at the weekend? Do they get a say?