RP London

Honestly.. i dont agree. I think it will mostly go unnoticed by the majority of the people we need to get interested in the game. Unless, of course, we shout about it too much and make it seem less worthy.. if we are all positive about the tournament i dont see it as being an issue at all.

you're making the same error as gould is... basing a decision on todays information rather than on how the modelling is. We are fully open, our stadia are open. With the vaccination programme (the best in the world) going to plan, infection rates (and more importantly hospitalisation rates) will be very low by October and November.

really?? the african representative zimbabwe got beaten twice having 60 and then 70 points put on them in 1987 then three times over 50 points in 1991?? the extra team brought in instead of South Africa were roundly walloped.. yes they had/have more depth at the top level but lets remember Tonga beat Australia last year, New Zealand were 2008 world champs, they only won the 2017 world cup by 6 points in a tight affair they could have easily lost... the winner could well have won it even if Australia were there. That is the point.. not about what happens further down but could someone else really have won it if they were there, and the answer is yes.. so play on!

He;s also making up the fact that the chairman of the International Rugby Board is from the UK and that its "his baby".. the chairman is an australian for a start and he has only been in post that long.. he just sees how important it is and is pushing for it to happen.

South Africa were not in the RU world cup in 1987 and 1991 (for obvious reasons) but were one of the strongest international teams in the world at the time (if they had been allowed to play) but no one would say the 87 and 91 world cups didnt crown the world champions..

Leigh, ahead of their time... who'd have thunk it

If they are "flexing their muscles" its only about time... no way would the IRB or FIFA be dictated to in this way by 1 country no matter who it was... (in FIFAs case that may change depending on the size of the brown envelope of course)/

but its the same excuse as using the numbers in the UK at the moment. We are 3-4 months away and the view of experts here (which may be proven wrong) is that there will be an initial spike of infections but they wont be leading to hospitalisations and then it will drop considerably. Start of the school holidays and summer is the perfect time to do this to cause the least disruption to opening business (except of course they have messed that up with the continued pinging of everyone through the app).. right or wrong (not wanting to debate the politics) that is the idea.. So for Gould to say "look at the cases they wont be safe" is just stupid as that is going to come down (if the plan works)... we can have full stadia now and things are moving forwards. When you pull out all the extra guff that is just that, guff, then you get to the real crux of the issue. IF you get towards the latter stages you will be 2 weeks late for pre season. Any team going out in the groups isnt a problem as they will be home 2 weeks earlier anyway. So its only the teams that qualify for the semi finals really.. so that probably Australia, New Zealand, England and Tonga.. Clubs surely have strong enough and deep enough squads to not need those international players for 2 games.. some of those players may well have been rested anyway to give them the best chance to be "on it" when the season matters. it is just simply me me me me me.. i'd say nimbyism as its the same sort of thing, its ok but it has to 100% suit me.. it doesnt so they want to take their ball home and screw the damage it will do to all the other nations (New Zealand could do with a good world cup etc).

Except that 4th place team could still be the best team/squad to go up. The butterfly effect of time travel is a major consideration. If you change one thing, even the smallest tiniest detail, you can change everything thereafter. A team that is in a system with the play offs knows it needs to make the play offs as the first stage, then after they have to be on top form for knock out rugby. Therefore you enter the play offs at your peak. Before that you can rest players at points during the season, you can try out new combinations, youngsters etc knowing that the key is to hit the play offs with the best set up and with everyone in peak condition. Like it or not that's what they can do. Teams may aim for the top for an easier ride through and to take confidence but other teams decide to do it a different way. If clubs know from day one that they must come top to go up then they plan and structure everything from day one of pre season (maybe even squad selection) to win every single league game. You cannot say, while we have the play offs, that the team that comes top is the best team etc because it just isn't the system in place and other teams are playing that system to the best of their advantage..

Peacock answered the question perfectly well.. Mark Chapman asked it.. at least throw stones at the correct person from your glass house.

Ok he said it at about 30 minutes into the program (its on Iplayer.. i skipped through bits where he wasnt talking and found it). It was in a very throw away point where they were talking about how difficult it has been this season and the fact cas have had a month off and saints have been playing and getting wins. He said pointing the question at Jamie Peacock: "We have had this conversation before ahead of the final, not in such extreme circumstances, about players being rested, teams being rotated, because there are play offs at the end of the Super League season so if you can squeeze in you're alright or, if you're looking the other way down, there isn't relegation this season. So a lot of the Castleford players haven't been featuring for a while and even the last game they played, when they were thumped by 70 points to 18 by Salford, that wasn't the players that you're going to see out here, so positive or a negative?" While he could have corrected him, i'm really not sure there is any point in doing that rather than answering the question put to him.. especially when they are on timescales to get to other segments of the show.

To be honest i watched pretty much the whole thing and i dont remember him saying it.

I dont think it matters one jot what was said to be honest. I doubt anyone is really all that bothered if there is or isnt relegation or promotion from Super League/championship this year. I am not sure if it even worth the air time to contradict him and take up air time as things could end up being a debate. For me its just nit picking that isnt needed. I would much rather the RFL/SL took any time they would have spent refuting this (against someone who is a staunch advocate for the game) actually pushing the game. If they responded to every false rumour from someone who does not work for them it would be a large amount of wasted time. For RL fans they know the truth (if they really think about it rather than knee jerk) and for none RL fans tuning in I doubt they really care.. if they enjoy the game and start to look for more i dont see that being something that will put them off.. just dont really see the point in getting into it. Sometimes you just have to let things go and become yesterdays news and it disappears away.. which this has done (havent seen it covered anywhere except for here), if you engage with it though you can end up in a rabbit hole (its a well worn policy for many, just let it go)

Chapman was not talking as an employee or representative of the RFL or SL so its not something they should/could retract. The operational rules (or whatever they are called) for this year are that relegation will happen and that the league standings are based on points percentage, whatever your view on that is those are the rules. Therefore the only time they need to advise the public is if that changes. They have enough on their plate without confirming this every 5 minutes because someone has talked out of turn. IF this changes then fair enough but at the moment there is no change and the rules are as they were at the start of the season.

equally it depends who people are referring to with "Violent racist bigots". Those that broke into the stadium and started fights were definitely violent but whether they are indeed racist or bigots is a up for question as they did not (as a group) show that, just the violence. There was some violence i have seen on video against people that could be racially motivated or could just genuinely be violence with no racial undertones, but again this is not all of them just a small amount. There are then the keyboard warriors that were extremely racist and bigoted but not violent (they were just sat at home typing, whilst probably waiting for the next video on some porn site to download while sitting in the basement of their parent's house [at 42]). individual cases could be of violent, racist bigots but as a group for everything that happened around the final a catch all of idiots probably works well. For the last paragraph I wouldn't get him using a line like that but having him and some of the players in a promo saying "got excited by our tournament, we're excited about this one.... etc" would be great, but not cheap, maybe its where the bbc may be able to do something we cannot.

"hour"?? thats extremely generous of you, couple of decades really!

Mid season International matches are vital, I've said it before and I'm sure I will say it again. End of season are fine but anyone who gets interested in the sport due to watching the internationals have nowhere to go for their RL fix for 3+ months. Mid season you can easily say, now watch this match next weekend. Then you have them.. it would help sky too.. watch one on BBC but with sky pushing the next matches etc (they'd probably prefer itv or Channel 4 and have an advert for the next round of super league in the break). They are a must, with the end if season being for a tour style set up or world cup.

Of course it will have been discussed, to think it wouldn't would be naïve.. It would have been a 10 second conversation along the lines of "the document is legally binding and we could end up forking out loads of money just because the Aus govt shut the country down!" "Look, if worst comes to worst we just put together a team of players based in the UK, Australia compete but no players get stuck." "Fair point". The Mail are just using it as a negative in line with everything they print.

it can easily be tinged by the last experience you had. My last one was trying to use a voucher for a london theatre that i was supposed to go to last May, decided to take the voucher rather than the refund last year. It would have been 900 million times easier if i had just paid with a credit card when i rebooked yesterday... utter pain in the backside to try and use the voucher!

Honestly i didnt find it hard at all.. perhaps a link straight from the fixture to the tickets, but if they need a 3rd party to run that side of it its not so easy.. Just been quickly scanning through other sites (including SWFC and some other football ones) and they are about the same for getting the tickets. Obviously it could be better (as so many things could) but as a customer journey goes it is about the same as many others. To be fair I was expecting a proper maze but it really wasnt. edit; in fact i had a worse experience trying to buy tickets for some of the big london theatres or concerts at arenas.. which can be painful experiences. it was really quite easy compared to some of those.

1 click to find the fixtures. 2 to get to the ticket company.. then a search and there are the tickets.. not too difficult to be honest.. its almost the same paths to get to the same places on the eagles site, I'm not sure that would put me off buying a ticket

yes.. that is definitely part of it without a doubt, but then once you get them to know, what is stopping them then... and so on..

Sorry, the point i was making was more about whether yet another move to another area is really the answer to anything. Is the ground/location hindering or helping or actually making any difference whatsoever and the problem is deeper (which is my opinion) and no matter where the club is its not going to attract people. What is actually stopping people from turning up to matches? Supporters clubs are great and they need to get that side sorted out, absolutely. The key though is they need to find out why some have stopped going with the move to Ealing (may have nowt to do with the ground). More than anything though its about why are other people NOT going, not why do people already go. They need to keep people there but thats not enough as to be a sustainable club they need to get more and more people and a move to Wimbledon is potentially not even part of the solution, and if it is its only a small part, to get people to see how "great" the new home is they have to go there first. If you cant fix that problem then they are screwed.

bbc have it now https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/57820038

Its an idea absolutely.. it would also be an idea to move to a park pitch near Brentford as that was a place they had some good gates.. so then those park pitch crowds will automatically go up. IMHO the biggest problem with London, as it has been for a long time, is that they do not engage with the fanbase or potential fan base.. even when i was in London they didnt do this properly and didnt engage properly with the amateur clubs. IF they really want to solve some of the problems they actually have to find out what the problem is. Falling crowds is not the problem it is the symptom.. what is the underlying issue? Maybe it is the ground but maybe it is also the area and where it is (does Wimbledon fix this? i would say probably not), maybe it is KO times, maybe its something to do with the club itself, maybe its the fact no one knows when you are playing etc etc etc.. They have to find the problem and fix it otherwise we will be going round and round and round and round like this ad infinitum, or at least until David Hughes cant be bothered anymore and just gives up... and a new owner with money is only going to be able to do something about it if they then look at the issue, if they do not then we are back in the loop again.