145 replies to this topic

[jannerboyuk]

Gotta agree with all of that, especially the part I took the liberty to put in bold print.

I am sorry to say that regrettably I forecast that yet again this Welsh experiment would come to nothing. I have witnessed this happen so often that it is sickening to watch it all unfold and inevitably with the same old outcome eventually yet again.

Welsh= RU! RL: not wanted!!
The main reason behind that opinion is that RL is viewed as an ENGLISH version of the game of rugby and for that one aspect alone is regarded as alien.

I would love to be proven wrong but I fear that Wrexham will go the way that the other Welsh forays have and oblivion will once more occur, as sure as eggs is eggs!

Sorry mate that's utter defeatist bollix. The welsh don't hate something just because it's English. There us a lingering disdain in some circles that league took players in years gone by but that's it. League is struggling but it's an unbelievably difficult and expensive thing to grow a sport in a area with other established sports. Whether that's Wales or anywhere else. It takes time, patience, money and luck. Which itself requires will.

[jannerboyuk]

Gotta agree with all of that, especially the part I took the liberty to put in bold print.

I am sorry to say that regrettably I forecast that yet again this Welsh experiment would come to nothing. I have witnessed this happen so often that it is sickening to watch it all unfold and inevitably with the same old outcome eventually yet again.

Welsh= RU! RL: not wanted!!
The main reason behind that opinion is that RL is viewed as an ENGLISH version of the game of rugby and for that one aspect alone is regarded as alien.

I would love to be proven wrong but I fear that Wrexham will go the way that the other Welsh forays have and oblivion will once more occur, as sure as eggs is eggs!

Sorry mate that's utter defeatist bollix. The welsh don't hate something just because it's English. There us a lingering disdain in some circles that league took players in years gone by but that's it. League is struggling but it's an unbelievably difficult and expensive thing to grow a sport in a area with other established sports. Whether that's Wales or anywhere else. It takes time, patience, money and luck. Which itself requires will.

[Cardiff Cymru]

South Wales Scorpions are given very good coverage by the South Wales Evening Post and by Nation Radio and Bay Radio. The South Wales Echo is okay but not fantastic. Less said about the WRU run Western Mail the better. But very pleased with the South Wales Evening Post that covers Neath, Swansea and further west.

However I agree with BBC's coverage, it's dreadful for all of rugby league but in Wales especially. ITV do something if you kick them a bit, they even showed the Scorpions' win over Rochdale on the news a few weeks ago, but it is all few and far between.

BringbackGB says despite the fantastic win against Cas the only mention that the game will get on BBC or ITV Wales during the sports bulletin will be “and finally in rugby league, Crusaders beat Castleford Tigers 30-24”. RL would get similar media exposure in Wales if Crusaders won the World Club Challenge and Wales won the World Cup.

Sorry but we don't even get that a lot of the time on the TV news. BBC Sports Review of the Year Wales edition ignored Wales' European Cup win despite mentioned Iestyn Harris was coach of the side!

[Cardiff Cymru]

Gotta agree with all of that, especially the part I took the liberty to put in bold print.

I am sorry to say that regrettably I forecast that yet again this Welsh experiment would come to nothing. I have witnessed this happen so often that it is sickening to watch it all unfold and inevitably with the same old outcome eventually yet again.

Welsh= RU! RL: not wanted!!
The main reason behind that opinion is that RL is viewed as an ENGLISH version of the game of rugby and for that one aspect alone is regarded as alien.

I would love to be proven wrong but I fear that Wrexham will go the way that the other Welsh forays have and oblivion will once more occur, as sure as eggs is eggs!

The Welsh experiment or the Crusaders experiment? Go to http://www.walesrugbyleague.co.uk and read about the youngsters, the students etc. Also go to http://www.crusadersrfl.com and take a look at the academy and scholorship sections. All is building very nicely down here in Wales and the numbers playing rugby league increase all the time.

[Matt J]

I don't see the point in Crusaders playing a game in South Wales, a place where they screwed over their fans, they have the Scorpions to concentrate on now. It would be like me giving a good seeing to to my ex to make sure she's fine, but I can't see my girlfriend looking too kindly on it, they should have just played every home game in Wrexham.

[EastLondonMike]

did they screw over their fans matt?.. i thought it was more a case of leighton samuel srewing them over.. he club would have stayed their if it was possible im sure..

i personally think wales RL will bear fruit. the current generation of 14-15 year olds wont bear the grudges of the past like their parents or grandparents might.. and id wager a lot of those parents wont begrudge their child playing RL if theyre also playing RU, which in wales theyre always going to do..

[nec]

Do those who feel that we should stop trying to expand the game really feel that we have such a uniquely unattractive product that people outside our current tiny geographical boundaries cannot possibly enjoy it? I'm curious, why like a sport that is so rubbish that no one else will ever get it? Is it the equivalent of liking obscure Icelandic techno just so you can be sure you will never have to share your tastes with the uninitiated, with people that haven't put your efforts into supporting this thing?

[Pen-Y-Bont Crusader]

did they screw over their fans matt?.. i thought it was more a case of leighton samuel srewing them over.. he club would have stayed their if it was possible im sure..

i personally think wales RL will bear fruit. the current generation of 14-15 year olds wont bear the grudges of the past like their parents or grandparents might.. and id wager a lot of those parents wont begrudge their child playing RL if theyre also playing RU, which in wales theyre always going to do..

The reaction of MOST parents is that they don't mind, although there are always one or two who can be a little against their sons playing both - mainly as if they are attached to a regional side that club will pressure the lad.

We made the Wlesh semi final at U16 (RU) this year and the Ospreys attached lads were 'encouraged' not to attend Crusaders U16 trials and we were unable to enter the Champions Schools due to fixture congestion - all of which has to be fitted around the Regional sides first and foremost.

[bowes]

Do those who feel that we should stop trying to expand the game really feel that we have such a uniquely unattractive product that people outside our current tiny geographical boundaries cannot possibly enjoy it? I'm curious, why like a sport that is so rubbish that no one else will ever get it? Is it the equivalent of liking obscure Icelandic techno just so you can be sure you will never have to share your tastes with the uninitiated, with people that haven't put your efforts into supporting this thing?

I don't get the blanket opposition but I can understand an opposition to too much emphasis on top down expansion. I don't think Quins getting less than 3000 to matches is sustainable and bailing them out would just delay the inevitable, people's excuse for this used to be David Hughes but he's indicated he won't carry on at the current rate. They need to follow the Crusaders model of basing their first team in an area people want to watch the sport but not necessarily play (e.g. Milton Keynes or Oxford), but base their junior development in an area people want to play RL but not watch it (i.e. London)

[bowes]

and id wager a lot of those parents wont begrudge their child playing RL if theyre also playing RU, which in wales theyre always going to do..

The Crusaders and Scorpions players won't be playing RU but I'd hope we move away from this mentality of RL being a fill in for RU (looking at the forfeits this weekend I can understand why the season has been short in the past), I'd hope that maybe we'd have a few amateur sides playing just RL (maybe linked in with the South West if it's not enough for a full league, but cross that bridge when we get to it) and then have the RU fill in for most teams below to get new players into the sport.

[deluded pom?]

From some reports it might be a good thing that not many people were there to witness events off the field...

Reports suggest - Fans singing YMCA, fighting with stewards, allegations of racist chanting, etc

Hopefully it was minor things blown up out of proportion...

Phew, no homophobic chanting then.

[deluded pom?]

South Wales Scorpions are given very good coverage by the South Wales Evening Post and by Nation Radio and Bay Radio. The South Wales Echo is okay but not fantastic. Less said about the WRU run Western Mail the better. But very pleased with the South Wales Evening Post that covers Neath, Swansea and further west.

However I agree with BBC's coverage, it's dreadful for all of rugby league but in Wales especially. ITV do something if you kick them a bit, they even showed the Scorpions' win over Rochdale on the news a few weeks ago, but it is all few and far between.

BringbackGB says despite the fantastic win against Cas the only mention that the game will get on BBC or ITV Wales during the sports bulletin will be “and finally in rugby league, Crusaders beat Castleford Tigers 30-24”. RL would get similar media exposure in Wales if Crusaders won the World Club Challenge and Wales won the World Cup.

Sorry but we don't even get that a lot of the time on the TV news. BBC Sports Review of the Year Wales edition ignored Wales' European Cup win despite mentioned Iestyn Harris was coach of the side!

That's not exclusive to Wales. The BBC in England can't be bothered to mention RL on their nationally broadcast news programmes.

[deluded pom?]

when are folk going to wake up RL will never expand outside Yorkshire Lancashire and Cumbria folk in South Wales North Wales support RU always have always will out of 1495 how many were Cas fans

God do I hate this mentality. What did your kind do in 1908 when the All Golds came over? "Feckin' sheep shaggers can't play Northern Union. It's a Northern English game and no one else can appreciiate like we can". I bet you even hate the fact that it's played outside of Sharlston where your hero comes from.

[NEIL FOX IS GOD]

Yes, lets just have our own little northern sport, we can all go back to wearing flat caps and having whippets and eating hovis butties.

and what is so wrong with that if folk don’t want to bloody watch it in Wales and the South why keep wasting money on the pipe dream that is expansion

I was once like others on this site I was excited when Fulham, Cardiff and Carlisle came into the league
I was in the 15,000 crowd that watched Fulham play Wakefield it was a great day out BUT it’s not worked and it won’t work I hope that one day I am proved wrong

[terrywebbisgod]

and what is so wrong with that if folk don’t want to bloody watch it in Wales and the South why keep wasting money on the pipe dream that is expansion

I was once like others on this site I was excited when Fulham, Cardiff and Carlisle came into the league
I was in the 15,000 crowd that watched Fulham play Wakefield it was a great day out BUT it’s not worked and it won’t work I hope that one day I am proved wrong

The game will die a slow agonising death, then you have no more professional RL, just as the game was going pre SL.

[deluded pom?]

I was once like others on this site I was excited when Fulham, Cardiff and Carlisle came into the league
I was in the 15,000 crowd that watched Fulham play Wakefield it was a great day out BUT it’s not worked and it won’t work I hope that one day I am proved wrong

How can you ever be proved wrong if we do as you want and pull the drawbridge up?

[nec]

and what is so wrong with that if folk don’t want to bloody watch it in Wales and the South why keep wasting money on the pipe dream that is expansion

I was once like others on this site I was excited when Fulham, Cardiff and Carlisle came into the league
I was in the 15,000 crowd that watched Fulham play Wakefield it was a great day out BUT it’s not worked and it won’t work I hope that one day I am proved wrong

I simply don't believe you.

The glee with which RL supporters seize upon any bad news as an opportunity to slate an aspect of the game they disagree with is utterly bloody depressing.

[Bomb Jack]

the Crusaders are hated in South Wales.

But the RFL said " There is supportive independent market research for Super League in South Wales " back in 2008.

[Dave T]

and what is so wrong with that if folk don’t want to bloody watch it in Wales and the South why keep wasting money on the pipe dream that is expansion

I was once like others on this site I was excited when Fulham, Cardiff and Carlisle came into the league
I was in the 15,000 crowd that watched Fulham play Wakefield it was a great day out BUT it’s not worked and it won’t work I hope that one day I am proved wrong

We have seen crowds not much larger in SL from 'heartland' clubs, and much lower in the lower divisions for hotbeds of the game.

Do we give up on these and cut them off?

[l'angelo mysterioso]

We have seen crowds not much larger in SL from 'heartland' clubs, and much lower in the lower divisions for hotbeds of the game.

Do we give up on these and cut them off?

no because in those cases it's all the RFL's fault anybody knows that.