Neil Jenkins appointed assistant coach for the Lions. Says a lot about international Union. Terrible player but great kicker. Looking forward to following the Lions... Not.

25,000 out at Twickenham to see Toulon kick 7 penalties (plus a drop goal) to Saracens' 4. The pinnacle of Northen hemisphere rugby, they tell me. Pah.

Surely a 'masterclass'. Or so the papers said. Therein lies the problem.

Some interesting venue choices for the 2015 RUWC.

Italy vs a qualifier at Elland Road, New Zealand vs Argentina at Wembley, South Africa vs a qualifier at the Olympic Stadium.

No doubt the press will be all over the All Blacks calling them the best sporting team on the planet etc etc so they will fill Wembley – similarly SA a big name and the Olympic stadium is a draw for some

The Argentina game at Elland Road is a gamble for me, they will have to work hard to get a full house of paying customers

From the BBC..
[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/22379872[/url

Somethings gotta give here...there are only 2,578,166 available tickets according to the listed venues, their capacities and the schedule published....112% ticket sales or 11% increase in ticket prices?

I think they have been a tad ambitious .. even the diehard RU fans are a bit dubious. I particularly can't see them filling St James' Park, Etihad and Elland Road without throwing cheap tickets out.

Remember, the beauty of union lies in the diversity of methods of scoring, apparently. Hmmm....

There are penalties & drop goals, that's it.

Disappointing for Leeds Carnegie to go out by such a narrow margin at Newcastle.

Would have been interesting to see all the internationals Newcastle have already arrogantly signed on the basis that they were going to be promoted playing at Doncaster and Nottingham next year.

Plus, anything that rains on a Dean Richards parade cannot possibly be wrong.

So it's them vs Bedford in the final and Bedford can't go up anyway right?

Had the radio on Friday morning and they talked about the Magic Weekend for a few minutes but not even a mention of today's Aviva Prem final. Club RU is just dwarfed by the international game.

81,703 at Twickenham.....hardly dwarfed.



Magic weekend is 7 games....will it get close to 80k?

I suggest you stop trying to put down the bigger and more popular code and instead, concentrate on the positives of TGG.......union is a far bigger code and all you're doing is making yourself look like a bitter little man!

TBF, he is hardly unique in this.

Why are you twisting my words? And why are you comparing two completely different events?

Even when it was the Premiership final, all that anyone bar Tigers and Saints fans cared about was Lions selection.

This thread is about Union and not League, so stfu with your ridiculous comparisons.

297 empty seats at Twickenham I am sure heads will roll at the RFU

Did I say that ?

The Aviva averages 12,500 this year, down 4%....but still 1,700,000 fans through the doors.....International Union in England will see about 800,000 through the gates of Twickenham this year.
BBC Sports landing page yesterday had the aviva result and the rabo result highlighted.....not a dicky about the magic weekend. Your assertion that international union dwarfs the club game is incorrect.....as full houses at Twickenham and the RDS clearly show.

oh, by the way, you mentioned magic weekend first....57,000 over 2 days and 7 games and half the column inches that the aviva final received.....I'd stop trying to put down the bigger and better run code if I were you...as I said.....you look like a bitter and twisted individual.

My post said that the club game is dwarfed by the international game. So why don't you try answering where the 82,000 inside Twickers for the big events go week in week out?

The biggest news from the final wasn't the result it was the fact that Hartley might miss the Lions tour after being sentoff.

12,500 average across the season, 1,700,000 over the year. 800,000 at Internationals in the same period...

1,700,000 is over twice the amount of 800,000.......Club union is not dwarfed by International Union.........

As I said, you really should stop trying to make the bigger, more popular and better run code look bad.....you come across as very bitter and twisted.

Explain this to me....how can Saracens attract a crowd of 83,000+ to a regular season game they marketed as an "event" and yet the RFL can't attract anywhere near that number to 7 "event games"?
[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17526130[/url

By the way, Premiership soccer is dwarfed by Internationals using your warped logic....35,903 average domestically (13,700,000), 85,000 internationally......(240,000).

No Rugby League club has anything like the private school monopoly of clubs like Saracens.. who interestingly had to build their new ground with a capacity of 10,000 since noone turned up at their weekly fixtures.

You only really served to highlight my point really, which was not (as you suggested) to make Union look bad, but to contemplate this huge gulf between the Aviva Premiership and the international stage.

12,500 for the regular league season, yet they could fill Twickers several times over for a big international. Where the hell do the bandwagoners go? Fascinates me.

On the other hand, the Aviva final was a surprisingly entertaining affair, no doubt helped by the absence of the dour Saracens from the game. They would no doubt have diluted it into a try-less kickathon.

Indeed.. the main headline on Daily Mail rugby union section was about Hartley... didn't even mention the score. Massively unfair to Leicester who would have won anyway once they ground down the Northampton pack.

...and there we have it ladies and gentlemen. The massive chip on the shoulder that is the blight of Rugby League everywhere.


Soccer doesn't have a private school monopoly either, yet it dwarfs all other football codes. Soccer fans don't have a chip on their shoulder regarding either egg chasing code.....and I have never heard a UK based Union fan decry Rugby League, but mention Union to a league fan and they start frothing at the mouth and speaking in tongues before bringing up the vichy government







You said that the Aviva premiership final wasn't mentioned on a radio bulletin you heard, but Magic was....and this led you to believe that International Union dwarfs the club game.......you are wrong.....as I showed with the figures for International and domestic soccer.

I suggest you step away from the shovel now

I don't see how you have proved anything by bringing soccer to the equation..? Soccer is dominant in Britain as it has been since the history of civilisation.. Most clubs can fill their ground plus many more, don't be fooled by the fact that the average is sub-40000. It's limited by capacity..

You asked me how Saracens can get 83,000 fans, I gave you the straight answer. Was that some kind of a trap so you can lambast me as some 'simple minded northerner' and decide you win the argument?