International RL ... why it's not taken seriously
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eccywarrior
- Posts: 1148
- Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:37 pm
Re: International RL ... why it's not taken seriously
i got told theres been 50,000 sold
IN WANE WE TRUST
Re: International RL ... why it's not taken seriously
Yeah, TEW - spot on comment. It's just so easy to be negative, without any proper evidence to back these views up. A case of the glass being half full instead of half empty makes more sense, imo.
Mention union and people are so quick (and correct) to quote the full houses at twickers for the internationals. But each season, there's only a handful of these matches (perhaps 3 or 4 times,max).For the rest of the time, their bread & butter league games are not attracting the crowds, so the atmosphere is flat for the vast majority of games. Surely its better to play at the Warriors & average a good atmosphere of 16/17,000 attendances, with more for the big games. Also, this number would grow with success.
Also, England RL don't get big crowds because historically (over the last 30-odd years?) we've lost all the time. If we could get into a winning culture, the potential would be greatly enhanced with the game being taken more seriously.
Mention union and people are so quick (and correct) to quote the full houses at twickers for the internationals. But each season, there's only a handful of these matches (perhaps 3 or 4 times,max).For the rest of the time, their bread & butter league games are not attracting the crowds, so the atmosphere is flat for the vast majority of games. Surely its better to play at the Warriors & average a good atmosphere of 16/17,000 attendances, with more for the big games. Also, this number would grow with success.
Also, England RL don't get big crowds because historically (over the last 30-odd years?) we've lost all the time. If we could get into a winning culture, the potential would be greatly enhanced with the game being taken more seriously.
Re: International RL ... why it's not taken seriously
Players switching registration, annoying though it is, is not the reason why International RL isn't taken seriously.
The Aussies and Kiwi's have always done it yet back in the era of Schofield (in his prime), Edwards, Hanley and Davies International RL was a big deal.
So what is different then than now?
Well for a start we played as GB and this has always seemed more natural to me.
We also had end of season tours where we would see the Aussie touring side play the top club sides and I have great memories of the last time they came to Wigan with Inga scoring a great try. They were special occasions that raised the profile and also gave players who were not internationals a chance to play against the great payers. They have now ceased.
These tours also coincided with an Ashes series and so made it harder for the touring side who had to play more than just three internationals while on tour.
Compare that kind of integration into the season with the seeming after thought that current internationals are. The Ashes no longer seems a regular fixture. The 4N is new so has no tradition and is not really a creditable competition with Wales and England split in it.
A big reason for the difference is the fact we switched to summer and so end of season tours to the other hemisphere where the season was still in full swing have stopped.
We will never switch back to winter so if we want to have short tours and proper ashes competitions back we as fans need to accept what cricket fans do and that is we lose our international players for a few weeks mid season to go off down under. It already happens to a small extent for the Anzacs test with TL having gone to play that.
We need to send GB to Oz mid-season with all the top stars going not as we see now with lots of withdrawals because by the end of the season the injuries have mounted up. Maybe a two week break in the season could minimise the loss of players to clubs if they went for a four week tour.
In any case now we have the play offs it is not as if winning the league is the be all and end all any more is it? Well if it isn't lets take advantage of that and accept the fact a club maybe losing couple of games due to international commitments is no big deal and a price worth paying to raise the profile if the international game.
Treat it as an ideal time to blood young players if some games must be played while the senior players are away.
If the Aussies did the same and the tests were mid season over here the games would sell out IMO.
This could be done alternate years so internationals v NZ could be incorporated in some way but the idea is to try and get back some of what we lost due to moving to summer.
The Aussies and Kiwi's have always done it yet back in the era of Schofield (in his prime), Edwards, Hanley and Davies International RL was a big deal.
So what is different then than now?
Well for a start we played as GB and this has always seemed more natural to me.
We also had end of season tours where we would see the Aussie touring side play the top club sides and I have great memories of the last time they came to Wigan with Inga scoring a great try. They were special occasions that raised the profile and also gave players who were not internationals a chance to play against the great payers. They have now ceased.
These tours also coincided with an Ashes series and so made it harder for the touring side who had to play more than just three internationals while on tour.
Compare that kind of integration into the season with the seeming after thought that current internationals are. The Ashes no longer seems a regular fixture. The 4N is new so has no tradition and is not really a creditable competition with Wales and England split in it.
A big reason for the difference is the fact we switched to summer and so end of season tours to the other hemisphere where the season was still in full swing have stopped.
We will never switch back to winter so if we want to have short tours and proper ashes competitions back we as fans need to accept what cricket fans do and that is we lose our international players for a few weeks mid season to go off down under. It already happens to a small extent for the Anzacs test with TL having gone to play that.
We need to send GB to Oz mid-season with all the top stars going not as we see now with lots of withdrawals because by the end of the season the injuries have mounted up. Maybe a two week break in the season could minimise the loss of players to clubs if they went for a four week tour.
In any case now we have the play offs it is not as if winning the league is the be all and end all any more is it? Well if it isn't lets take advantage of that and accept the fact a club maybe losing couple of games due to international commitments is no big deal and a price worth paying to raise the profile if the international game.
Treat it as an ideal time to blood young players if some games must be played while the senior players are away.
If the Aussies did the same and the tests were mid season over here the games would sell out IMO.
This could be done alternate years so internationals v NZ could be incorporated in some way but the idea is to try and get back some of what we lost due to moving to summer.
Re: International RL ... why it's not taken seriously
Why not? The RU mob tour as the GB and Irish Lions still. If we must have England then leave that for games v France and go as GB for an Ashes series.TWO EYED WARRIOR wrote:Revert Back to the Tri-Nations focus on quality again !
We wont get GB Back because of the funding from the likes of sport england etc
The exiles game is not International Rugby League and just takes up a slot in the calendar when we could be promoting International Rugby by, wait for it, .....playing Inernationals v France for example! It is just another idea from Red Hall that actually detracts from International RL.Continue with the Exiles experiment mid season but increase to 3 game series with big prize money for the players
[quoute]What i am promotinbg is quality backed with cash for incentives for the players ![/quote]
They do get paid for playing for England/GB you know.