Link please Dunbar.

Quote ="Catalancs"Link please Dunbar.'" It was on the scrolling section but this has just been added news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_u ... 333133.stm

Quote ="Catalancs"Link please Dunbar.'" It was on the scrolling section but this has just been added news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_u ... 333133.stm

As much as I dislike Union you have to envy some of the attendances, especially internationals. But none of the people I know who go are attracted by the quality of the offering. The floating voter goes because it is fashionable to do so & it has a high media saturation. Unless something can continually reinvent itself (like godawful WWf wrestling thing) floaters people eventually get bored.

Quote ="Dunbar"It was on the scrolling section but this has just been added news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_u ... 333133.stm'" 'The reduction, which brings the total below £30m for 2009-2013, was agreed with the Rugby Football Union (RFU).' Bloody ell! That's still a massive amount.

Quote ="Dunbar"It was on the scrolling section but this has just been added news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_u ... 333133.stm'" 'The reduction, which brings the total below £30m for 2009-2013, was agreed with the Rugby Football Union (RFU).' Bloody ell! That's still a massive amount.

I think domestic and international union attendances are two entirely different animals. As you mentioned, internationals are an event, a place to be seen. When the RFU or clubs put on a special event such as Premiership games at Wembley and Twickenham the attendance figures rocket. Union needs to look at swelling the stands for the bread and butter, week in week out games.

Rugby league received an increase in funding from £18.5million to £29.4million in 2008 so it looks like the two sports are at parity now

Leeds have confirmed head coach Neil Back has resigned with immediate effect.

Will Back still hold that view?

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/my_club/sale/9480753.stmSale Sharks confirm the departure of 21 players.[/url Shark J, what's going on?

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/9481552.stmPaul Sackey leaves Toulon after just one season.[/url [i"As he did not satisfy us, we have decided to release him," said Toulon president and owner Mourad Boudjellal.[/i

[url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/club/8501366/Newcastle-Falcons-escape-the-drop-but-coach-Alan-Tait-expects-similar-fight-next-season.htmlNewcastle prepare for 2012 relegation fight before 2010/2011 is even over.[/url What message does this send out to Geordies?

Diamond wants to get rid of those who underperformed this season, it's as simple as that.

I've always been honest with you and told you we don't think we're a big club, we won the league but never got carried away. But our decline has been a drastic and unpleasant one. Teams used to come to Stockport on a wet Friday night and hate playing there. We rarely lost at home. This season has we have been embarrassing, as with last season. Steve is a Sale fan first and foremost and he obviously isn't happy with what he's been seeing. He's getting rid of those he considers not to be worthy of the shirt I suppose. He's bringing in a load too so the numbers will even out.

He's been quite public about how he feels and I hope that doesn't go against him. Mike Brewer, in the few months he was in charge was very vocal about the players and it annoyed a lot of them. One night he slagged Charlie Hodgson off in a post match interview after we'd gotten beat by Wasps 25-24, Hodgson scoring all the points that night.

I'm not sure what to expect next season. Season ticket renewals are this Friday and I've still not seen enough to make me want to renew just yet. It's £99 too so that's saying something!

Only £99 for a season ticket? Without wanting to depress you further, I've heard that should they come up, Worcester are looking to assemble a very strong squad with the aim of pushing for Europe. Looks like it could be a straight scrap between yourselves and Newcastle to avoid relegation.

I wonder if it would make an idea that some union clubs could do a Leeds (but other way around) and set up a league club. To operate in Champ 1 to start with to increase income during the "off" season.

I know some minor clubs do this with conference rugby.

Isn't it about time the Leeds Union side was wound up as they really are a bloody joke ?

What does that say about all the clubs in the divisions below them?

Is it time Castleford Tigers were wound up? They play in a ramshackle stadium in front of mediocre crowds and never look like winning anything.

What on Earth have Cas got to do with a struggling union club mentioned in a post on a union board?


Andy Powell to Sale Sharks. I thought Sale were reassessing and building for the future. What message does this send out? Has Powell finally learnt his lesson?

Read this in yesterdays paper. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 81994.html

Read this in yesterdays paper. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 81994.html

Quote ="dids858"Read this in yesterdays paper. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 81994.html'" Me too. Really don't think it will be too long before they copy thecrugby league model. A collective loss of £19? Can it really be that much? Sonny Bill Williams criticised for being too adventurous and inventive. When reading comments like those of the South Africa coach he must realise he's in the wrong sport. www.rugbynews.co.nz/newsarticle/ ... -issue-383

Quote ="dids858"Read this in yesterdays paper. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 81994.html'" Me too. Really don't think it will be too long before they copy thecrugby league model. A collective loss of £19? Can it really be that much? Sonny Bill Williams criticised for being too adventurous and inventive. When reading comments like those of the South Africa coach he must realise he's in the wrong sport. www.rugbynews.co.nz/newsarticle/ ... -issue-383

The person raising the question is a Cas fan - I'm just drawing him a parallel between two unsuccesful (on field anyway) sides to help him see how ridiculous his point is.

Castleford Tigers don't go up and down every season like Leeds RU do. That shouldn't happen to Leeds RU as they have money. Not ridiculous at all and it's got nothing to do with Cas anyway so there was no point bringing trying to compare the two sides.

Yeah, that's just in my stand

£99-£700 is the range.

Not sure really. I've gotten my hopes up slightly in the past few days. I watched Worcester and Cornish Pirates last night and it was dire. I don't think Worcester will worry anybody too much if they come up.

Steve Diamond confirmed we're looking to move to Barton. What are the Salford fans like on the whole? I'm pretty excited if it comes off and over on their forum they seem fairly positive about a possible share. I can't be doing with another bitter rivalry though like Stockport.

RL fans on the whole are decent people.

Surely the Worcester squad next season would be a world away from the one currently trying to get past Penzance.

I'd imagine that the Salford boys and girls will be fine as long as you remember who's stadium it is.

What, our stadium?



Not sure what's gonna be going on really. I'd imagine that we'd respect Salford's wishes and that they've planned this for many years but we'd prefer a say somewhere along the line. As I said on our own board - I'm excited at the prospect of a new stadium with good facilities, standing areas, COVERED stands all round. But if we were to ground share forever then I would want it to feel like it's ours. Not sure how I'd feel about being in a stadium forever with Salford City Reds all over it, red seats, Salford spelt out on the seats.

Now that's not trying to get anybody annoyed. But you can appreciate that although Stockport is home, it has always felt like a temporary home. I wonder how much the minimum ground requirements have stopped us moving to our own ground in the past. Kennedy has said for a long time that if we could guarantee an average crowd of 15,000 he would get us a new stadium, but of course now we're in a state where that's a million miles off. But with all the tension with Stockport I imagine the best solution would have been to get us a basic little ground, with the room for expansion. The ground requirements are daft and it's preventing the smaller teams from being able to develop and compete. So what if Cornish Pirates ground only holds 3000? It's not Football. They're hardly going to stampede or anything. Rugby fans are used to traditional grounds, most don't want all seater stadiums with no character.

And while you're all talking about the no relegation thing - please don't think it's a rip off of League. I mean, of course it's going to be compared to it. But in terms of Rugby, the Premiership is one of few leagues that still has promotion and relegation.

I do feel it's time to adapt to the league franchise style - but only if it helps the lower divisions. It's no good ring fencing it all off and then in 3 years time the gulf being even bigger. And that's the only negative for Super League for me now. I'm not the biggest fan of League, but in the games I do watch the skill level and speed seems to have gone up so much. The gulf between the top 2 flights seems to be ridiculously big and I think The Challenge Cup results show that. As a lot of people like to point out, effectively there are only 14 competing Rugby Union sides in England anyway. Worcester and Bristol being the other 2 outside of the top flight. But then the last season has shown just how damaging the modern game can be with Bristol being whipping boys and finishing 8th.

I'm sure they are. I was just curious as to what their reputation is like. If it's one of the more hostile grounds or if it has a traditional feel to it. I've nothing against Salford, but obviously, growing up in South Manchester I'm aware of Salford and like my home town of Wythenshawe it has a bad reputation. The last thing I would want is if the 3,000 or so die hard Reds fans were Salford hard nuts who hated Union!

Haven't got time to reply properly now but on the Challenge Cup point there were some close calls with cracking performances by the Championship teams.

St Helens 52 Sheffield 26
Leigh 16 Catalan Dragons 22
Halifax 34 Bradford 46
Batley 18 Huddersfield 28

An absolute shambles. www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/ma ... twickenham

An absolute shambles. www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/ma ... twickenham