Chamey

It could be completely League dominated, should TWP continue to make inroads and Canada RU lose in the repechage this November, plus MLR failing. Or at the other extreme Argyle & co. could decide that they're not going to get the TV deal they want, and pull out, or code switch themselves leaving minimal trace of league in Toronto. In reality it's going to be somewhere in the middle. Toronto Wolfpack will continue to outsell Ontario Arrows, and be the dominant rugby team in the city*, but RU will still have a much larger playerbase, with multiple RU clubs running RL sections. RC will have got their act together with multiple (3-4) teams in MLR, leading to an improved national team, which will lead to more players for rugby as a whole, and better scouting pathways, which TWP & CRL will be using to harvest talent for the NT. Canada will qualify for the 2021 RLWC, which will lead to a boom in interest. Providing Argyle&Co keep TWP going I see sunlit uplands ahead. *I could see the TWP moving to BMO, and OA to Lamport at the end of the 5 years.

Yeah, that goes without saying. Don't wait for the RLIF or RFL to organise anything, otherwise you'll die still wanting. I was also quite surprised that no sides switched codes to avoid the amateur player levy earlier on this year tbh. Didn't ORL also shoot themselves in the foot this year by moving the season to compete with ORU? Having the seasons at separate times is a great method for getting RU players to give the game a go.

Relatively Canada's moved backwards, but I don't think that the actual quality of the players has moved back massively, it's just that the other nations have vastly improved. A less skilled pro will almost always beat a better quality amateur player. The ship can be righted relatively quickly, because the youth talent is still there, but I'm not longer how long that pipeline will keep going if the NT keeps losing to Brazil/Uruguay, and getting spanked by Russia. RC needs MLR to work more than anyone else in the world. Two to four pro teams with proper scouting pathways and Canada could be back to top 15 quite quickly. Just look at how having properly conditioned players has helped the US.

Yes. Others have progressed, they haven't moved a jot.

There's two big issues for the CRFU(?), from what I know. The first big issue is a lack of a talent identification pathway, it's all based on getting selected for regional sides, then for the national youth side, which is just mad. Plus players also then have to pay for all travel and the like, so only the richest can get to the top. Secondly, they've stood static while others have progressed. For example Uruguay were basically fully amateur back when qualifying for the 2015 RUWC, but after that they took the IRB money* and created a HP centre in their capital (which is where the vast majority of the population lives), and gave their first team fully professional contracts (all funded by the IRB), and just today announced an agreement to supply MLR w/15 players next year, and in one blow have added more Pro Players to Uruguay's selection pool than Canada has actual pros! Whereas with Canada RU, basically nothing has changed since the 90s, in that the NT players are almost all amateur and play in local club leagues. This was okay when only the 8 T1s were professional, but now that 25 odd^ nations can field a team of full-time RU players, they've got left behind, although like in the 90s there are still the best of the amateur sides, just the issue for them is that there's more Pro sides. In addition, since there's no real job prospects in RU in Canada the best players just quit at 21. * This is why I get so annoyed about ARL not paying the RLIF the money they promised, the RLIF could have used that money to give a nation to run a HP programme in the lead up to the WC, or even used across three or so nations to enable them to become fully-pro for 3 months or so before a tournament, which would make the event more of a spectacle. ^ working available on request. CRFU's issues could be solved relatively simply (get a second and third team in MLR, spend the money CRFU used to spend on HP contracts on youth scouting subsidy), for the actual youth player base is good enough to finish around 16th in the world each year in the U20s WC, however everyone at the CRFU is blessed with suboptimal decision making. As for whether CRL should want the CRFU to fail is a matter of opinion, personally from what I've seen the RL and RU base in new areas often overlaps (for example the Atlanta Rhino RL's owner is the point of contact for the Atlanta MLR(U) team), and the two rugby's are seen as much closer to each other than they are here, so I'd apply the whole 'better to grow the size of the pie, than grab an increasing share of a shrinking pie' thingy, and seeing how the Wolfpack and ORU are collaborating, they seem to agree as well.

The Atlanta Rhino's CEO (Bob Taylor) is the point of contact for the confirmed MLR(U)'s Atlanta team. Surprising.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12127085

Quick question, does anyone have the Beeb viewing figures for the Denver test and CC final?

It's a match made in heaven; both are places in desperate need of humanitarian intervention.

Much lower travel costs though, no in-country flights.

The Thursday night slot is important for sky, because they have no other live sport on Thursday.

That may have been the plan, until the RFL changed the day.

Transport back after the game would be the obvious one.

Tottenham have moved their home game v City due to the stadium issue, as a result City are offering free transport, would be nice to see the RFL do the same. https://mobile.twitter.com/theawayfans/status/1036603748565635072

I blame Toronto.