there will always be the lower leagues how good will depend on them, but like TTD says we should support the lower league teams in some way,
I believe in the next few years the championship teams will reap benefits from the players not reaching super league status teams but having to move backwards because of the reduction in age limits

Good luck to him - good servant for us and nice guy...

yes and just out of interest how long does it take to educate pork, not being funny just making a point

Toulouse would fail it is a very strong RU area

for me it should be 2 divisions with 2 up and 2 down the clubs should be semi pro because the game can not support full time pros and before anybody calls me an idiot the evidence is there for all of us to see
SL clubs are now recording record losers all Barr 2-3 clubs are leaking money it is only a matter of time before we start to lose RL clubs forever and not just the National league teams, unless we address the situation
RL is not a national sport it never will be RU is football is it is time for folk to wake up and smell the coffee we are a little regional sport with a bloody good product before we go throwing money away in South Wales the North East South or bloody France, We should be making sure we do not lose the Dewsbury’s Keighley’s Wakefield’s and Widnes etc
If I was a Widnes fan I would be so Pd off with the whole situation it is a bloody disgrace ref the Crusaders some body at RL/SL HQ should be sacked for this bloody disaster RL in South Wales was always and always will be a dead duck as it will be at Pro level in London
So where will the lunatics try next Leicester, Bristol, and Birmingham Etc

Stop trying to sugar coat it and say it how it is man.

Can't for the life of me see the Crusaders lasting very long even with help/funding from the RFL and in the meantime clubs like the Cougars and Hornets will sadly go under. maybe thats just survival of the fittest but it would be a sad day for rugby league.

Pepignan is a strong RU area but it didn't stop Catalans building a better ground and getting bigger crowds than Wakey within a few years did it?

Most sports clubs are losing money. The combined debt of the Guinness Premiership clubs would probably be enough to bankrupt all the Superleague clubs, all the Championship clubs and the RFL combined. Clubs like Newcastle, Sale and Saracens are pouring millions upon millions into a black hole with little hope of recouping any money. Likewise Premier League clubs are drowning in a sea of debt. Manchester United's debt alone would bankrupt the RFU. Its not just RL, most sports clubs are in debt.

So your solution to the problem is to capitulate, surrender and go back to being the sporting equivalent of curling? I can guarantee that most clubs attendances would halve over night. It was money coming into the game during the professional era that has allowed many clubs fan bases to grow. Try pulling off bullmania with a few grand, impossible. Where will clubs get the money from to entice the local populace to come watch them? They are only going to end up on the losing side with hungry professional Union and Football clubs pinching their fans. In an era where razzmatazz and media exposure is everything making a retrograde step is just asking to be killed off.

Enjoy your semi-professional standing around in a tin shed with two men and a dog future because if it happens Leeds Carnegie will have stolen all your fans within a generation.

you started early!

It is also the heartland of French Rugby League, so given the attraction for players to play against the top UK sides on a regular basis and the crowds appetite to watch the top UK sides every fortnight, plus there is no other Super League side within 500 miles of them it isn't surprising they are pulling in the crowds.

I couldn't see the French League having Wakefield in it. Surely the best way to 'expand' the game is to build from the heartland outwards such as South Yorkshire, Midlands etc (and the same going North). Why we chose 2 clubs in different countries which are miles away from anywhere is beyhond me. That may help French and Welsh rugby but doesn't do much for the English game.

Putting aside that Super League isn't the 'English League', there is enough of a professional structure to support and nurture the English game. It's not the Welsh or French clubs which harm the English game, more the English clubs who'd rather have past-it or third-rate Aussies who'd never get a game in the NRL on their books than give the young English talent a lengthy chance in the first team.

What like the crusaders you mean? No not many journeymen there at all damaging the game!

You know the rules that expansion clubs have a higher quota than the rest, but one that reduces over time to the same level as other clubs. As much as it'd be great to see an-all, or mostly Welsh Crusaders side, that isn't possible after 4 years. Not as if we have an all English/WMDC side either.

So why not allow Crusaders to develop there own players before thrusting them in to the situation they have found themselves in now.

No but the European Super League does.

Okay, could you see the French League having Wakefield in it and renaming the European Super League? Or any other league for that matter?

Super League hasn't been renamed though, it's been the European Super League/Super League (Europe) since before a ball was kicked. Catalans are not playing in a 'foreign' league as Wakefield would be if they entered the French League.

Toulouse, I guess, are, but all the Championship clubs have funding for their travel/accommodation costs as far as I'm aware.



No idea. But their entry to Super League, like ours and the other 12 clubs, was based on a whole list of factors, not just that one.

Rugby League is no longer about what happens on the pitch, it's aout what happens in the boardrooms and the business plans.

It always has been. The clubs with the best business plans and most professional people on the board are usually the most successful. The two come hand in hand. What licensing has done is focus a lot of clubs to strengthen their off field activities to further benefit the on field side.
To think professional sport is only what you see on the pitch is naive to say the least.

The most bizzare thing though is that we introduced a salary cap to help prevent clubs from over-extending themselves through investment in players. Now we have nearly every club over extending themselves in a race to have the most administrators; best community structures etc to score points on a different league table.

I fail to see how bankrupting clubs in a race against each other is in anyway better than it was when the league table that counted was settled on the pitch - and not off it?

I am a widnes fan mate and have been peed off.But now i give up with the rfl totally.I have lived down south with the army and they like union and football only.Now i roll my sleeves up and try and enjoy my rugby in the championship.I know a few widnes fans who not go the games, because not in superleague.If rfl smell the coffee we would double our attendances, cos of the better standard of rugby and more away fans.Anyway i am very upset with celtic moving to wrexham which is 30 miles from widnes.Call that expansion?People near their such as chester have supported widnes.Well i disgusted as celtics attendances will be boosted by away fans now and free tickets.I hope some of the heartland clubs get together and boycott going.But i doubt many will as they like their clubs.Nothing surprises me with the rfl as the kicked us out for the catalans when we came 2nd bottom of the league.Next time around they could drop salford or yourselves which i hope not as you are good fans.I am just saying as the rfl are mindless.Anyway goodluck for the season and i admit miss superleague.

I agree we need to be improving english not french and welsh.The game does not have big money so we need expand gradual if we do.

Everyone knew the rules for that season - the bottom two would be relegated for the team from NL1 (if they met the criteria) and the Catalans. Widnes weren't kicked out.

Still made up at the beginning of the season.Catalans did not make their way up the leagues like we would have too.So if widnes was in gloucester with same fan base then we would go in automatically.Come on it a joke.I sure you be happy if say you have one bad season and french side toulouse took your place?It such a joke their is no promotion and relegation.If their was then celtic be in the championship now.My point is the rfl make rules up anytime.My view their should always be promotion and relegation to make fair for all teams.

And to give teams something to aim for.