The state of Rugby League today

[pacman]

I think that very few people would disagree with me when I say that you would find it very difficult to find a more cut and thrust, entertaining sporting event than a super league match. Every single week the Super league throws up more drama and edge of the seat action than most sports can hope for in a season. Each and every player is now a finely tuned athlete. (as Craig Smith proves week in week out) Gone are the days when the fat lad played prop, because he couldn't run more than a few yards!

A lot of steps have been taken over the last ten years to improve the spectacle of Rugby League in this country, some have been undoubted successes, the advent of summer Rugby, SKYs involvement in the game, video refs, the play-offs etc. As a result crowds have increased, grounds have improved and the professionalism of the entire game is now at an unpresidented level.

Even the advent of the salary cap, which a lot of people disagree with has without a doubt improved the competition by putting teams on a more even playing field, even though the 'big' clubs are still big, and always will be, the number of some called 'upsets' is becoming must more frequent ie. London over Wigan, Salford over Saints etc.

The number of players being brought through academy systems is on the increase which has to be good for the British game. Could anyone imagine Wigan having so many youngsters coming through the ranks if they could just go out and buy whichever players they wanted, just to cover injuries like last season?

The like of Wild, Robinson, Brown, Aspinwall etc may be unknowns now in favour of overpriced Australians and New Zealanders coming over for the big pay off to end their careers.

I think the state of Rugby League is extremely healthy at British level at the moment, however I think now is the right time for the powers that be to try and expand the market fr Rugby League around the world. Allowing Perpignan into Super League is a good start, but there is the entire continent of Europe which is, on the whole blissfully unaware of the wonderful spectacle that is Rugby League.

Clubs such as Wigan, Bradford and Saints should be encouraged to go on pre season tours of Italy, Germany, Scandanavia etc to broaden the market. Even if only the academy sides do this it will increase the interest in the sport beyond these shores and the southern hemisphere.

Not until there is genuine international competition will Rugby League achieve the status that it truly deserves, These young gifted players deserve to be tested at international level, otherwise what is the point? We should have World Cups, Tri-nations, European Championships without it being the one sided farce that it would be now. It is up to Britain, Australia and New Zealand to go out and promote the sport, countries won't come to us.

It would be a long hard process, but one which will give great rewards in the future, it pains me to see other sports like Rugby Union thriving globally whilst League, as a Global brand seems to be going nowhere.

Any views?

[ian.birchall]

Pacman, a lot of forward thinking there, lets hope this vision of the future becomes reality.

[kt4ever_1]

I prob would have views if i could be bothered reading it! :exc:

[Welsh Warrior]

Have to agree with you pacman. Pre season tours to the continent are all very well but what of us here in Wales. Rugby League is getting bigger all the time in Wales and we lost a lot of Welsh Rugby Union talent in the eighties and early nineties to RL. For me Rugby League is by far and away a better game than Union but there a lot of people in Wales who think that RU is better. ( I know I get into arguments all the time ). I would like to see more RL played in Wales to show the short sighted crowd I live amongst which is better. They will soon learn. London played a game down here last year but nothing this year. I realise its difficult but I think we should try and expand closer to home before running further afield. The Challenge cup final is a great start. Lets have some more. Anyone have any ideas?

[robjoenz]

Can't disagree that this is the greatest game, I think the tenseness edge RL has over other sports is to do with the terrotorial aspect of the game. Continuous pressure and hard work pays off whereas in the likes of football you go from your keeper having the ball one second to a potential goal five seconds later, there's not always the exciting build up you get with RL. I also think the play-offs has a lot to do with this. I know there are many people that oppose the play-offs prefering first past the post champions but there is a definate advantage of finishing as high as possible in the top six and a thrilling end to the season.

I think the salary cap is a good thing to prevent teams from going bust as behind the scenes goings on becomes more and more money orientated and also to try and level the field. I do, however, think that there ought to be some kind of allowances for home grown talent to encourage ALL teams to pull academy players through the ranks. The likes of Wakefield and Salford have either foreign players or other academies cast offs which I don't think they should be punished for, I just think the teams with successful youth systems ought to be rewarded.

When it comes to players from overseas I think it should be as simple as if you're born outside of the EU you are an overseas player and count on quota. If it prevents the likes of South Sea Islands players from coming to England then perhaps their leagues will benefit from this. I know they've scrapped the five year rule but now I think they should declare the likes of Robbie Paul and Lesley Vainakolo overseas players again because they were born in the other hemisphere.

I have mixed feelings on the admission of Perpignan, I think the concept of broadening SL is a great idea, however, the RFL didn't think about it anywhere near enough. I don't like the idea of two teams being relegated and only one coming up, it just isn't fair on the team going down. Expanding to 13 games is the obvious solution, however, down to money the RFL and SKY don't want less games. Even though another team would mean a greater combination of games for SKY to choose from.

I can also understand the views of fans of NL1 not liking the idea saying Perpignan should start in a lower division and prove themselves, however, they just wouldn't get the following and financial support they needed for it to be successful.

I think it would be a great idea if clubs like Wigan, Bradford, Leeds and Saints toured countries that don't really know RL, it would give some of us diehards an easier choice of holiday destination too lol. I think that the smaller clubs striving for a lower salary cap would be better with a training camp in Wales or Scotland and spending the rest of the money on childrens summer camps to get the local kids more into their rugby.

I think to get the public to fall in love with RL we need the national team to win something, whether it be the Ashes or Tri-Nations. The amount of people that don't understand RU but consider themselves fans just because England won the World Cup; RU a sport with the most boring club sport I can think of. Another problem is getting the public to see the game, too few people have SKY and those that watch it may not have patience for Stevo's ramblings. It needs to be on a Saturday/Sunday evening on terrestrial TV when people want to watch it but not to clash with every other game that day which will reduce gates, something the RFL don't seem to care about at the moment.

To win a trophy we also need to attain the same mental standard as the Aussies, they don't find the positives in a defeat, they are hard on themselves to strive and do it right next time. Nothing but a win is good enough, how many times in British sport do we hear managers talking about what positives they can take from a defeat? There's my thoughts!

[Fraggle]

robjoenz posted:
I think it would be a great idea if clubs like Wigan, Bradford, Leeds and Saints toured countries that don't really know RL, it would give some of us diehards an easier choice of holiday destination too lol. I think that the smaller clubs striving for a lower salary cap would be better with a training camp in Wales or Scotland and spending the rest of the money on childrens summer camps to get the local kids more into their rugby.

This was posted at http://forums.wiganrlfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=654 earlier this week:-

Costaki wrote:

Preparations for the introduction of Rugby League in Greece have begun with the historic match scheduled for Athena in October 2005.

Greece will take on Russia in an international and there have been discussions about the possibility of Greece travelling to Moscow in 2006 to play in the European Nations Cup.

"Going to Russia in 2006 has been discussed but we have other matters to attend to before that" said Colin Mylonas.

A domestic competition will be held prior to the international between Greece and Russia with the number of teams to be determined by how many players are available.

Mylonas will travel to Greece in September/October to secure a venue for the international as well as finding suitable accommodation for the Russians.

Greece will meet Victoria State side on August 22 at Olympic Park which will be the curtain-raiser to the Melbourne Store-Bulldogs NRL match.

"It will be a good experience for the players and it also helps development of the game in Victoria." said captain/coach Steve Georgallis.

Greece have confirmed that they will take on Italy on Saturday October 2 at Marconi Stadium in Sydney's West. The game will be played under lights at the 8000 seat venue with kick-off set down for 7pm.

Tonga is expected to play the curtain-raiser and are hopeful of playing a Jim Beam Cup representative Selection side.

The Italian Rugby League will also stage an under 15 side at 3pm featuring players with an Italian background. A squad will then be selected to tour Russia next year for the Under 16s Youth Games scheduled for late September.

Greece will then participate in the World Sevens Qualifiers in February 2005 and are looking at playing the United States at Belmore Sports Ground around the same time.

"It's great to play matches in Australia but the bottom line is that it doesn't mean that much. Our aim is to get to Europe and start playing matches in Greece and other countries" said Mylonas.

"What is the point of just playing in Australia? It's good to have something from time to time but our future is overseas."

Greece will also participate in the 2005 Mediterranean Cup but only if it is staged after the NRL grand final.

" We were all set to go this year but the tournament commenced in late September and that is not practical for us" said Mylonas

Preparations for next season have commenced as the Greek Rugby League are looking at approximately $100,000 to stage the match.

"I don't think people realise how much work and money is involved. At the moment we have spent $70,000 out of our own pocket to get where we are" said Mylonas.

"People complain that not much is happening but not many realise how much is involved in this".

The Greek Rugby League are planning a sportsman's dinner on Friday October 8 to help raise funds for Greece.

The Greek Rugby League currently have up to 50 players involved in friendly matches in Greece with one of the Athens-based players drafted into the nation squad.

"If he can take time off work he will be in Melbourne playing for Greece. He will be our first Greek-based player involved in the side and the first of many to come" said Mylonas.

The Greeks squad for game against Victoria will involve players from around the world including Australia, England, France and Greece.

"People criticise us for having Australian-based Greeks but we have to start from somewhere. We would love to have had it started in Greece" said Mylonas.

"We also need to be competitive. There is no point getting beaten by 100 points so we need to get the best Greek players available from around the world"

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Just a shame they couldn't have got RL into the Olympics, it's more an amateur sport than most of them there. Aren't half the Manchester United first team taking part in this so-called amateur sports event? We could have sent a BARLA team along to give the sport a bit better profile to support the Greeks.

[GeoffN]

Have to agree with you pacman. Pre season tours to the continent are all very well but what of us here in Wales. Rugby League is getting bigger all the time in Wales and we lost a lot of Welsh Rugby Union talent in the eighties and early nineties to RL. For me Rugby League is by far and away a better game than Union but there a lot of people in Wales who think that RU is better. ( I know I get into arguments all the time ). I would like to see more RL played in Wales to show the short sighted crowd I live amongst which is better. They will soon learn. London played a game down here last year but nothing this year. I realise its difficult but I think we should try and expand closer to home before running further afield. The Challenge cup final is a great start. Lets have some more. Anyone have any ideas?

Absolutely.
We were priviledged to be guests of Taff's Well Rugby Club when we went down to Cardiff, and they were very upbeat about the long term prospects of RL in S.Wales. They could not have been more welcoming...even to the Club secretary travelling to the ground on our coach to show our driver the best parking spot!
For a start, I hope a Welsh club gets the new spot in NL2...maybe Bridgend?