Hey all, been a long time since I've posted (work etc) but thought I'd log on to check the reaction following the news yesterday.
I thought I'd add my tuppence here as I've been living in Devon and playing amateur rugby league and union down here (i.e. against teams in Devon and Cornwall) in 2019 and 2021.
Firstly, I saw the news and thought 'amazing!' as it will raise the profile of the sport down here. However, re. this chat about it being a rugby hotbed etc should be treated with caution. Of course the Cornish love rugby but it's all union.
Our team play in the South-West division, have recruited well over the last couple of yrs but we're under no illusion that 95% our players are anything other than Union players who are giving the game a go in their off-season. That said, there's some lads down here who are highly talented and actually love playing League. Would they want to aim to focus on League and go semi-pro? I'm not sure there'd be that many at this point in time. The game is growing at grass-roots level but it's still early days.
I saw a post about Cornish Rebels and how they must have been building to this, are an example of how it will build etc etc - on one hand, yes - they've been doing great things with the women's team but re. the men's team - they haven't once fulfilled a fixture with us in 2019 or 2021 and folded at least once during those two seasons.
So, I'm not sure where Eric's going to get all his homegrown Cornish talent from unless they're aiming to poach and convert a load of young union lads from the Cornish Pirates or the students at the Exeter Uni Cornwall (Falmouth?) campus who normally get groomed for Exeter Chiefs?