[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/sep/27/saracens-steve-borthwick-heineken-cupSaracens' Steve Borthwick misses Heineken Cup launch for team trip

[/url

[iHeard the one about the international rugby player who snubbed the Heineken Cup launch to attend a beer festival in Munich? It may sound like a tale from the amateur era but European Rugby Cup organisers were distinctly unamused today after Saracens stuck two fingers up at tournament protocol by sending their captain, Steve Borthwick, on a team-bonding trip to the Oktoberfest instead.[/i

Well,there's only one way to get a RU physique....

In your dreams...

And mackenzies.

See I can print them too...









Troll.

That confirms it then as far as you are concerned.

Case closed.







Troll in residence.

Dally/Old Darlin

I have no idea why.

But you make me laugh out loud





I imagine you to look like this



I can picture you right now frantically typing 'BLT' or 'YOU TROLL' over and over again on every thread where someone dares mention something that you consider to be not related to rugby league

Given you posted a picture of a fat Englishman (of which I am neither), your fevered imagination needs attention.

No doubt it is closer to the photo in your real passport.

I've just been reliably informed that the description of you being a 'fat Englishman' (your words not mine by the way) is quite accurate.





Yet another Pommie troll guys.


Any news on the BLT Darling??

[url=http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyunion/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rugby/10/09/28/RUGBYU_Sale.htmlSale Sharks have announced they are to switch their Aviva Premiership home match against London Irish to Bolton's Reebok Stadium.[/url

[iSale attracted fewer than 8,000 spectators to their opening two home games of the season but they are targeting a 28,200-sell-out at the Reebok next spring.[/i

Reliably informed?

You are deluded. No one here has met me.

And your moment of revelation must have been just seconds before you took your bat and ball and went crying home. Refer NRL section.

I read that as well.

How on earth do they hope to achieve that?

Madness. You're a mile or so from the Wigan borough border there, and I bet WWRLFC couldn't fill the Reebok for a regular season game, let alone Sale for an RU game.

Where on earth are the magical 20,000 fans going to come from? Especially in spring when it's the business end of the football season and a month or so into the new Super League season.

Free tickets, 2 for 1 offers, family package deals etc.
With the money at Sale's disposal advertising and marketing the game won't be a problem. If they do get a full house or somewhere close, the big test will be the following home game and indeed the future. How many of those new fans will stick around week in week out?

Some boring yawnion team, Gloucester I think, did this big publicity push last weekend to try & halt their slide in attendances. I think it worked in bringing numbers back up to last year's average only.

I still can't see it happening. According to the Beeb, the fixtures that weekend in the football (barring any Sky changes) include Arsenal v Liverpool, Newcastle v Manchester United, City v Spurs. So unlikely to have any floating football fans coming, or many at any rate. Then you have the SL.

So a significant chunk will need to be people who don't normally go to any code of football.

The aim is to get 20,000 people in. Brian Kennedy has said all along that he wants a fan base of 15,000 before he'll sort a new stadium of our own.

There are 7 months until the game and so I am more than confident we will get near enough a full ground. All lower division matches in the Lancashire and Cheshire divisions will be kicking off at 1pm so the players and juniors can get there for 5:30. The tickets start at £5 for kids and £10 for adults. Season ticket holders get in free. We can also chose to sit anywhere we want in the ground. So that means I could sit in a £40 seat with my season ticket that cost me less than 60 quid

Saracens get around the same crowd as us and they got over 40,000 2 or 3 times last season when they played at Wembley

The other 3 London clubs don't get much more and they all combined to nearly sell out the London Double Header at Twickenham on the first day of the season. With good marketing it can be done well in my opinion

There are clearly a lot of English Rugby Union fans out there... look at the crowds the England national side pull in when they play at Twickenham.

Compare the crowd the Union side would get if they played a side like Italy

Then compare it to the size of the crowd an England RL fixture gets against a top side like Australia or New Zealand.

Despite league being a better sport (in my opinion) clearly RU is doing something right when it comes to getting people along to Twickenham for internationals.

I think the Wallabies and the All Blacks are playing England at Twickenham in the next month or so.... both games will sell out.. or if not... it will be very close.

Yet an England v NZ or Australia league fixture doesnt attract half as many.

Strange.

As Shark J says, it's something that can and I think will be achieved. Mick Hogan is a smart and rich cookie and with the resources Sale have filling the Reebok shouldn't be a problem. Season ticket holders in free, cheap tickets, giveaways...
What will be interesting is the number of people who stay around and start watching Sale.

A few friends went to the England international at Old Trafford a year or so ago. They got free tickets from work and made a day of it. They were, in the majority, football fans and were open to the idea of rugby union. None of them have been to watch a live rugby union game since, neither international nor Sale as they weren't overly impressed by the fayre on offer at OT.

With all due respect to bolton... I'm sure it's a nice place... but a day trip to watch your team play at Bolton doesnt quite have the same kudos as a trip to Wembley.

I wouldn't bet on anywhere other than a football ground selling out, with the matches on that weekend.

I may love Warrington but if I can get a ticket to City v Spurs I shall be there.

I'd be interested if Sale played a game at Heywood Road, though.

That's the voice of a man who has never been to Bolton!

Which could be the killer.

But the real killer, as I keep saying, is the weekend's round-ball fayre.

I know plenty of people who go toyawnion internationals. None of them ever go to another game or have any real interest. None of them ever pay for their tickets.

On November the 13th the Wallabies are in town to play England at Twickenham

Twickenham holds over 80,000 people... and I reckon the attendance will be not far off a sell out.

I agree that a lot of people get free tickets (I will be one of them because my employer is a sponsor)... but many many MANY thousands will pay to watch.

I won't argue with you on that, but that's interest in internationals, not the club game. Club RU, like international RL, is a bit of a joke.

A lot of those people in the Sale crowd at the Reebok will have corporate tickets.