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Welsh Warrior posted:
Dear Mr Gimble,
Didn't realise you were Welsh. I for 1 do speak Welsh and take great exception fo your comment. I didn't mind England winning the lasat world cup. In fact it was a nice change for as northtern hemisphere side to win it. Full of part time supporters eh. Think you should have been in Cardiff last Saturday. Really think Stephen Jones may have gone to France for the same reasons Faz ment To RU. Not really sure tho. Cannot blame either though and really do wish them both the best of luck. Wishing Faz the best of luck could really come back and haunt me though. I am a guy who really prefers league to union. Reasons I won't go into here. If you really think all South Walians are plastic come and have a chat. I wear my Welsh jersey with pride along with my warrior jersey.

Dwisio rhoi hwn yn gymraeg ond dwi ddim isio bod yn anghwyrtais ar pobl arall. This is not a rude or nasty message as the Welsh warrior can confirm if needed.

My major bone of contention with South Walians stems from the way Union is treated up in North Wales. Over the last say half century the game has been so under developed its a joke. No North Wales regional side does that not smackof direct discrimaination, just so the WRU can get more money into its own coffers and not setup a side in say Wrexham. We do have very tenious links with the Scarlets but be honest 1 game a year is down right arrogant on their behalf.

This is to be blamed on the WRU and the people running the clubs due to there greed oh and the National Assembly who could have intervened.

Also whatr this line you have you did not mind England winning the WC i never said a word about them winning it i said that so many people in Wales called the English glory hunters in 93 and in 95 they do the same.

Re being in Cardiff for the Ireland match how many of them will go and watch a game only yesterday the Osperys won the Celtic Leagu and just over 10,000 turn up. what i can not abide is people who only support a winning team that irretates me so much.

Millennium stadium holds 75,000 and yet on a weekend only a quarter of that will see a Union match on a league weekend do the maths that smacks of national glory hunters. these people mostly would have been watching the football team until they became poor again over the last year. If as you say Cardiff was full for the Ireland match where was this volume of support for the last decade or more. The same happened in Caernarfon hundreds out with there new glimin shirt on. Most had never seen a rugby ball nevermind seen a game. Some of them were my friends.

Also i said that almost all were plastic. If that has caused you any offence then im sorry but how can we as people potray ourselves as a nation when we are really so divided. Youd be suprised how many people in the North feel like this.

Full of part time supporters eh. Think you should have been in Cardiff last Saturday.

This proves my argument of supporting a winning team. How many people were watching Wales lose to Austria on Saturday in Cardiff and in the pubs national pride seems only to exsist if we win that is what is starting to rear its ugly head in Wales. We lambasted the English for the same. Where have your so called supporters turned up from. They are all ex football supporters now who will turn again if the rolls are reversed as quickl oa a Martin Offiah try. If we potray ourselves as a nation then we must support teams who win or lose not just as is happeniong now of when we win.

One thing i would like you to honestly answer is. Do you wear the Welsh shirt with the same pride when they lose. Im no part time supporter of Wigan and if we lose today ill still be in my shirt tomorrow and id still attend matches if we were in the bottom 2 of SL.

How many of the people you know can you say the same about if Wales lose would they still be wearing there shhirts or would they be back in the Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal or Chelsea strip. I can gurantee you my friends will all wear the football strip if Wales starts to struggle.

Cleveland Pieman posted:
For 5 of the last 6 weeks there have been quality full page (broadsheet) articles on RL and features on players in the Sunday Times. Generally the paper is good for RL coverage.

The problem has been with Stephen Jones ( :eusa8: ) , the article was printed on the RU page in the paper.He is obviously ignorant of the facts and now deserves all he gets.

Yes we get it at work and in the main its been positve. I wouldquestion if Stephen Jones wrote the article. As in the past Austin Healy on the last Lions tour got into trouble for putting his name to an article written by Eddie Butler. This could be the same.

Personally i think he is a worried man if #Faz goes in at stanbd off, then i do not belief Jones is big enough or quick enough to stop him.

thegimble posted:
I wouldquestion if Stephen Jones wrote the article.

I've not seen this article, other than through Mike's link (having been in Las Vegas for a week - maybe I should bog off again if it means Wigan winning 3 times in 10 days!) so don't know if there's any photos etc attached to the original copy, but I don't think it's the same Stephen Jones as the one who plays Union occasionally. This particular Jones has been spouting utter bo@@ox in the Sunday Times for years, predicting the demise of League, probably in some kind of takeover where Yawnion swallows up the sport, takes in the shreds that it thinks it needs and throwing the rest back into the Dark Ages never to even be whispered about as a rumour again. Quite what his problem with RL is, I don't know, but I long ago stopped reading anything he had to say. The guy is a bigotted to**er of the highest order, and should be ignored and dismissed with the contempt he deserved. The fact he spends so much time slagging off our sport instead of writing something about his own shows that he certainly sees something in RL that's a threat. If we were to cease to exist, he'd be really in the messy stuff as he'd have nothing left to say.

As mentioned elsewhere, RL does quite well in Times publications so the Sports Editors there obviously don't share his ridiculous views, but I think his columns were part of the reason for debates raised in Parliament to force the press to treat our sport a bit more fairly a few years ago (although the main culprit was a writer in the Daily Express). I seem to recall signing some petition that was later presented to the government to protest about the way our sport was being represented in the media.

ABSOLUTLY DISGRACFUL! Just when the codes begin to tolorate each other a prat like this comes along and messes things up! Hes totaly and utterly out of order! And whats all that about league players not being fit, Iyestn Harris was fat, unfit and unable to get back into league when he came back from Wales what the hell does he think hes chatting about. Why would union WANT to train with league if they were that bad, league is on the up, lets back it all the way and show idiots like this why our sport IS "simply the best!"

CAN I JUST MAKE A VERY IMPORTANT POINT? THIS ARTICLE WAS NOT WRITTEN BY STEPHEN JONES THE WELSH AND SOON TO BE LIONS FLY HALF AT ALL. IT WAS WRITTEN BY STEPEHEN JONES THE SUNDAY TIMES CHIEF RUGBY UNION CORRESPONDENT, A MAN WHO HAS DEDICATED HIS CAREER TO BELITTLING RUGBY LEAGUE AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY AND IS ENTIRELY CONSISTENT WITH HIS VIEWS WHICH ARE LARGELY IGNORED BY MOST FANS OF EITHER CODE.

STEPHEN JONES THE FORMER LLANELLI FLY HALF NOW PLAYING IN FRANCE IS ACTUALLY A THOROUGHLY NICE BLOKE AND IS VOCAL IN HIS APPRECIATION OF RUGBY LEAGUE AND THE PEOPLE WHO PLAY IT.I THINK THOSE WHO CALLED FOR HIS LEGS TO BE BROKEN SHOULD TAKE IT BACK

DaiJones posted:
CAN I JUST MAKE A VERY IMPORTANT POINT? THIS ARTICLE WAS NOT WRITTEN BY STEPHEN JONES THE WELSH AND SOON TO BE LIONS FLY HALF AT ALL. IT WAS WRITTEN BY STEPEHEN JONES THE SUNDAY TIMES CHIEF RUGBY UNION CORRESPONDENT, A MAN WHO HAS DEDICATED HIS CAREER TO BELITTLING RUGBY LEAGUE AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY AND IS ENTIRELY CONSISTENT WITH HIS VIEWS WHICH ARE LARGELY IGNORED BY MOST FANS OF EITHER CODE.

STEPHEN JONES THE FORMER LLANELLI FLY HALF NOW PLAYING IN FRANCE IS ACTUALLY A THOROUGHLY NICE BLOKE AND IS VOCAL IN HIS APPRECIATION OF RUGBY LEAGUE AND THE PEOPLE WHO PLAY IT.I THINK THOSE WHO CALLED FOR HIS LEGS TO BE BROKEN SHOULD TAKE IT BACK

Thanks for pointing that out and i do take it back regarding him breaking his leg. But the other post i sent in re south Wales i still stand by infact i should have said most Welsh were plastic.

Ive noticed a decrease in the football shirts worn and a huge increase in the rugby shirts. And people who only watch winning sides whether they be from the North or South in my mind are plastic.

If your team wins then support them and support them if they lose do not jump on the band wagon when success starts and disappear when it stops.

One thing i forgot to put in my last post was during the 90's i got a call every thursday night from a member of the Rugby Club (Union) asking if i wanted a ticket for an international and 6 nations, Wales struggled to sell all tickets for all matches. Tickets were distrubuated to the clubs due to Clubs status the better your status the more you got.

Caernarfon RFU could not get rid of all and this happened all over now you can not get a ticket due to the demand and this is due to winning.

Where were this lot when we lost to most sides.

Seems i screwed up on Sun. I sent this to Stephen Jones now.

I sent an Email to you on Sunday without realising you were not The Welsh Fly half. So therefore i apologise for that.

I quote from your article

Rugby league’s world in England is a tiny one, at a top level confined almost entirely to, as one league writer says, “a slender slice of the north between Hull and Widnes�. He described it as feeling “like a prison�. The code is always anxious to be noticed outside that slender slice.

Does this paragraph show pure ignorance from yourself. In England there are 3 teams North Of Birmingham. Tykes, Falcons and Sale. And the Tykes will go down this season and that leaves 2. Now by next Super League we will have 2 teams South of Birmingham the London Broncos and a team from France. So threfore can the paragraph be said the same for Union in England. Now i come to Wales the game thre on the highest level is played in an area smaller in distance from St Helens to Wakefield. So therefore can the paragraph again be used for the game in Wales.

During the holiday period Super League again set record level of attendances. The following is from www.wiganrl.com. The six matches played last Thursday and Friday attracted an aggregate of 69,830 supporters which beat the previous all-time record aggregate of 69,499 (set by Round 1 of Super League IX in 2004).

During this weekend of Top Union games in the Zurich Prem for 6 games was 63,071which is an average of 10645 Super League averaged 11638. These facts only shows the arrogance and the ineptness which you write to such an exceptional paper. Are you not tainted with the fact that the Times is one of the sponsors on the official Zurich Premiership web page.

Do you not realise that what you have put down re Rugby League only goes to show how inaccurate you are if the game with a tinyrea can muster that amount of support and which is growing year on year as the record is beaten at least once a season how come Union attendances are so far behind still. The Union game in England should be on a high after the World Cup success and still you can not get near the attendances in the highest level of Super League.

So therefor this comment by yourself now seems idiotic and i quote But rugby union is still spreading like a forest fire, as the Total Rugby. Where exactly is it spreading the game is still played at the highest level in the main in the south of England and South Wales. If you cannot beat attendances set by a game played in a Tiny part of the UK when Union is on such a high what hope have you now with the decline in the English national Team from the best in the world to 3rd best in Europe.

I Quote

Farrell may be missed sadly by Wigan and Great Britain, but if he succeeds in union, at least it gives league a window, a justification, a sense that it can make a difference. If he has a glittering union career, then every rugby league fan can tell himself that union is easy, therefore league must be better. And maybe blow a raspberry.

Yes Andy will be missed but unlike English Rugby Union we have a ready replacement for him in his brother in Law Sean O'Loughlin and going by what the Warriors achieved this weekend he might not be missed that much. His signing by the RFU smacks of desperation as you see the RFU only thought of World Cup in 03 and not the future it did not need a fortune teller to see once the back row retired along with Johnson then you had nothing else coming through the ranks to replace them. League sides do not need to get anymore Union players in as the likes of Scott Gibbs and now the retired Scott Quinell where hardly succesful where they. No now we have the academy. Oh yes have the RFU not made an approach for Kevin Sinfield. Danny Maguire, Mark Calderwood all products of the academy at the Leeds Rhinos. And if League needs a glimmer of justification then who were the England backroom staff, Larder, Lydon, Hanley and Edwards. That is why you won the cup was that you played a League type defence and attack. that is the justification that we need of our exsistance. Clive Woodward covered himself with League backroom staff as what you had before was not goo enough and does that not speak volumes of the inaduquate people you have in Union in the past nad now in thepresent with Shaun Edwards likely to be given the Wasps coaching role. Also Kris Radlinski rejected and offer by the RFU. So what the RFU is doing now just smacks of desperation. We have no talent in our camp lets go and buy it policy.

Wigan on Friday and Monday played with almost half a team missing and due to the success of the academy and in no small part to Dean Bell who set thAcademy in Leeds up we now have redy made relacements coming in and playing the game at the highest level. What happende to thenew English Centre pairing against Wales they just looked completely out of thre depth. England miss a few players and go backwards as the infrastructure of the game in England is still amateurish at best. Wigan has a major injury crisis lose their talismann and what happens we go third by beating the 2nd and 3rd place teams.

I Quote

For goodness sake, nobody has even worked out Farrell’s best position. Laughably, we have even heard that he could play at fly-half. It seems No 8 may be his best chance, although Martin Corry may just have something to say about that, some statement to make about the pie-in-the-sky nature of these expensive cross-code risks.

Now how's about that comment does that not show how desperate the game in England has got, you sign an injury prone player with 1 game of Union under his belt. Just like you the RFU has been full of there self importance in sitting and admiring their magnificence after the World Cup to notice anything else going on in the World of Rugby, more of a case of the World revolves around us mentality.

Your obviously biased by the way you write about the game of Union and put it on a pedastle. You believe your more important than you really are and also bigger that you really are.

What was the last domestic final in the UK Rugby Union wise to be a sell out. It is at least 3-4 years ago. In that time Supere League has filled Cardiff twice and Old Trafford 3 times. Yes Union is a bigger game internationally as that is its main source of income if that fails then all Welsh and English clubs go bankrupt. The again The GB Lions in the Tri nation series set new records just showing that the Superior game Of Rugby League is spreading like a forest fire as the attendances and gate receipts show and not just a television progam proves.

Please write in a more articulate and proffesional manor next time as what you write in inaqurate, subjective and seems more akin a political spin than a sporting journalist.

You sound like a Tory journalist desperatly trying to prove your worth and making the opinion polls work for yourself when all the statistics and facts go against you.

Hope he replies then again im not holding my breath. If you get any more crap off him put it up here and we all should reply to him, just to wined him up.

what is his e-mail address because I feel we all should send him an e-mail to show our disgust in him.

thegimble posted:
Hope he replies then again im not holding my breath. If you get any more crap off him put it up here and we all should reply to him, just to wined him up.

As I mentioned earlier, he spouts cr@p all the time, will continue to do so no matter what anyone writes to him, and to be honest he's not worth the effort even thinking about. He's been coming out with this anti-league bulls**t for years now, he's not likely to change his tune anytime soon. I get the impression he's a bit like Stevo (and is also employed by Sky Sports IIRC), he likes to be controversial and by rising to his bait we're just going to make him happier. I found a reference to something he'd written on the web last night, he's won journalism awards although I've no idea what journalistic merit his columns have. Maybe he also does the TV listings in the Times.