Magic Weekend: Wigan Warriors Vs Huddersfield Giants

[EDINBURGH-WARRIOR]

The Magic Weekends are not only to give Rugby League supporters a great weekend away they are ther to sow the seeds of League to people who cant easily get to games in the Heartlands .

I have watched RL on television for may years (Granstand)Saturday afternoons . In 1999 i went to watch Wigan play Gateshead in Superleague @ Tynecastle , Loved it .Next season saw a couple of games at the JJB . Next the 2002 cup final at Murrayfield and some games at the JJB. 2003 Grand Final and even more games at JJB .2006 Perpignan and more JJB games .Last season me and my son were at all the home games and quite a few away games .

Next season we are now both season ticket holders and expect to also take in most away games .

We travel from Edinburgh every week (420 mile round trip)and regularly see other Rl fans on trains , planes and motorways travelling south for their weekly fix and a lot are born and bred Scots and not just English exiles .

If you sow the seeds you end up with big trees .

Regards Edinburgh Warrior .

[cpwigan]

Until the sport is more widely known and liked throughout the United Kingdom we will always be a small time sport commancing similarly small televsion and sponsorship revenue. Yes we need to make sure everybody in the heartlands is a RL fan but we cannot nor should ever neglect the importance of the rest of the U.K

[DaveO]

The Magic Weekends are not only to give Rugby League supporters a great weekend away they are ther to sow the seeds of League to people who cant easily get to games in the Heartlands .

I have watched RL on television for may years (Granstand)Saturday afternoons . In 1999 i went to watch Wigan play Gateshead in Superleague @ Tynecastle , Loved it .Next season saw a couple of games at the JJB . Next the 2002 cup final at Murrayfield and some games at the JJB. 2003 Grand Final and even more games at JJB .2006 Perpignan and more JJB games .Last season me and my son were at all the home games and quite a few away games .

Next season we are now both season ticket holders and expect to also take in most away games .

Dave

We travel from Edinburgh every week (420 mile round trip)and regularly see other Rl fans on trains , planes and motorways travelling south for their weekly fix and a lot are born and bred Scots and not just English exiles .

If you sow the seeds you end up with big trees .

Regards Edinburgh Warrior .

So basically you became a Wigan supporter off your own bat before Millennium Magic in Cardiff or Murrayfield Magic were even dreamt of?

I don't doubt some people travel a distance to see RL games but it is only going to be a handful and so if that is all MM is about it is completely disproportionate staging such an event to the benefit it brings to the game.

I don't even think Millennium Magic in Cardiff has had any influence on the game down there. If they had started Celtic up without it, it would be no different a situation there than we have now IMO.

The RFL have lost the plot in how to develop the game because they don't understand the significance of the international game.

You can take meaningful International games on the road anywhere and if RL did have a highly regarded international game the fans would travel for a weekend in Edinburgh just as readily as for a club fixture and the locals could come along as well. Well when I say travel as "readily" as they do to MM that is not quite right is it because the fans do not travel to MM that well. Many don't go and while the RFL goes on about crowds they are nothing special compared to a normal set of league fixtures. There obliviously isn't a situation where the heartland fans travel and the local fans swell the numbers to give us more than a normal weekends crowds.

Plenty of people like it for the weekend away but I think now the novelty has worn off, the publicity it attracts is less you will see not so far in the future the RFL will drop it.

I think it does zero to promote the game outside of the heartlands. If the RFL want a team in Scotland they have to set one up like Celtic and MM is not going to make any difference to that IMO.

MM for me is really a case of the "Emperors new clothes". Look beneath the RFL spin and just what is there in this that benefits the game as a whole? I honestly can't see anything.

[EDINBURGH-WARRIOR]

I take your point Dave . On the road internationals would have to involve Great Britian . Scottish , Welsh and some Irish supporters were lost to the 4 nations because England were the home representatives . I attended all GB games at home over the last few years but NZ .v. AUS was the only one this year

I know 99% of the GB team were English but i was happy to shout them on in a GB shirt .I missed out this year but i cant bring myself to shout on an England team .

Reading this back it seems petty but thats life

[ancientnloyal]

We are wiganers living in S.W.Ireland.We do have electric here and we do get Sky sports!!!!!!!!

sorry thought ireland didnt have sky... all is good then

[ancientnloyal]

away from my other post it is a good idea that we dont play St Helens, the game loses it's appeal to me if we play them all the time and equality becomes more of an issue... for example, we may play st helens 3 times... warrington play salford 3 times... whats easier, it could end up who is in or out of the playoffs.

Surprised at the outcry about not having derby matches as we didnt have many pro-derby threads the last 2 MM... saying that, although the RFL are right to have a draw system... it will be a slow death for the game.

C'est Magique! in Paris for 2011!!!

[jaws1]

Why have a draw at all when the league positions are established at the end of the season.Play as how they finished in league 1 plays 4,etc
2-3
5-8
6-7
9-12
10-11
and then the bottom 2 play each other what could be more simpler.When we played SAINTS i thought like A n L said the fixtures did not help our cause.

[ancientnloyal]

Another view or reasoning by the RFL pencilled on paper is another SL team in Paris... I would love tospend a weekend there for c'est magique! in 2011... BUT, the problem is that my view, or if it happened in Dublin, would just be a chance to have a weekend away with rugby being a bonus... im not too hardcore to simply go for a rugby game if one has to spend 'x' amount on train/air fares... this is the problem... you can get away with edinburgh and cardiff but in the british isles everywhere else would be a trip

[cherrywarrior]

Im quite looking forward to my weekend away in Edinbrugh again...just hope the train back on Monday isnt as bad as last year...

[exile in Tiger country]

To be honest i don't know if this should be a seperate post but if the RFL want to move the game forward then they should have two top leagues Lancashire league and Yorkshire leauge with the end of season play offs between the top 4 from each and then the winners of Lancashire and Yorkshire play offs play out the final at Old Trafford. We would then be able to invite a Scottish,Welsh,French and London club to each league. It would also see the likes of Barrow Whitehaven Leigh and Widnes playing top class rugby league in the Lancs leauge and in Yorkshire they would have the likes of Halifax Dewsbury,Featherstone and Batley two leauges of 12 teams. More players playing at an higher level better choice for internationals. We would also be able to have 3 state games throughout the season Lancs V Yorks instead of the Majic weekend.

Surely a Lancashire league would exclude Stains, Wire and Widnes, as they are Merseyside teams, and Hull is in Humberside