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RugbyLeagueGeek

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RugbyLeagueGeek last won the day on August 21 2021

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  1. Ah yes - another corker! If I remember correctly, there was horrendous traffic on the motorway and people were abandoning their cars and walking to the ground. We got in just in time for kick off and didn't Ken Nagas score inside a minute, or am I mis-remembering?
  2. I went to that and had the same experience. Pretty big crowd if I remember as well. I love international RL, but the common theme with every international game I've been to in the last 15 years or so is that - with the exception of Eng v Samoa at Newcastle - it never feels like a big exciting event. I took a load of workmates to England v NZ at Hull in 2018 and the atmosphere was like a morgue Worst game I've ever attended was 2nd Test between GB v Aus at Bolton in 2001. Traffic jams outside the ground meant I had to park miles away and run to the ground in time to make kick off. Everyone knew that we caught them cold in the 1st test and David Waite wouldn't get away with same GB selections and tactics 2 weeks' running... And he didn't - we got pumped by 40 points.
  3. The Hundred was devised from a blank sheet of paper, and they decided to come up with a regional, group format competition. They could have chosen to do a straight knockout with the existing counties and minor counties, but they didn't. Cricket's cup comps used to be straight knockouts like this, but they ditched those formats years ago. I love the Challenge Cup in its current format - I've thoroughly enjoyed watching all the rounds from the amateur teams at the beginning, and have just watched a great tie between Leigh and Fev. But I just don't think any sport starting a comp from scratch would ever decide to go with a straight knockout comp anymore due to the uncertainty involved around the fixture list.
  4. I think if you were creating a new sporting calendar from scratch and had a complete blank sheet of paper, nobody would come up with a straight knockout tournament anymore - there's just too much uncertainty around the fixtures. There's a reason that existing comps like the Champions League and RU European Cup, plus relatively new competitions like the IPL and The Hundred have gone done the group format route prior to knockouts. The only future I can see for the Challenge Cup is a group fixture format where it's included in the season tickets. It would definitely lose a lot of the romance, but it would seem to be a more pragmatic solution.
  5. Agree with all that. When I started watching the game, GB played a different style to the Aussies. As you point out, nowadays we just seem to be copying them instead of innovating.
  6. The RL community has been saying this for as long as I've been watching. I don't think we're catching up at all - we've just always been a bit behind them. I agree this is where we fell behind them in the 80s. I don't think it's the case that they're ahead because they adopted professional training approaches a bit earlier - I think it's because they have the pick of the best athletes over there, and most of our teams are playing second fiddle to soccer over here. We just don't have anywhere near the same talent pool to pick from. Unless the UK game broadens its horizons and looks to get more people playing then I can't ever see us catching up unfortunately.
  7. Fair point. Is the trick therefore to market the teams, almost like the NFL do? E.g. Warriors v Rhinos rather than Wigan v Leeds? Or do we already do this but it just doesn't have the cut-through?
  8. I agree with that. He was massive within RL, and for people with a passing interest in it. I reckon he would've been a household name had he done media stuff and not maintained a wall of silence. Offiah was the big name that people knew.
  9. I think the odd one out there is Offiah, in that he didn't make his name in RU. Everyone else on that list is known by the wider public primarily because of what they've done in RU.
  10. Living outside the heartlands, I don't think any of those names/faces were known nationally when they were playing. Farrell now because of RU, and Sinfield and Burrow now because of MND. I think you'd have to go way back to Martin Offiah as the last household name unfortunately. I agree though that every player is potentially marketable. Without wanting to keep dragging Snooker Loopy back up, my point with that, and also with the darts, is that they manage to project 'character/personality' on to what would otherwise be fairly nondescript sports people. As others have pointed out, it's probably a benefit of an individual sport that makes it far easier to do this. But with the best will in the world, Luke Littler doesn't have any more personality than your average SL player. It's just that there's a story around him that has caught the public's imagination, and the PDC are riding that wave.
  11. I appreciate your points, but that's not how I remember it to be honest with you. I don't remember snooker ever becoming a joke sport that people didn't take seriously.
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