Damien

Great crowd

I just don't think 2 average teams playing each other in a poor, low intensity game benefits England just because they all happen to be English. A high intensity SL club game benefits the English players involved much more than that. I fail to see how this concept helps the national team in the slightest beyond what cant be done in other ways, it certainly hasnt before.

What Premier League clubs are these? I would be amazed if these Premier League clubs even knew about future internationals without the RFL approaching them first.

That was the point.

I get the point about Origin not being built in 1 season but the trouble is the NRL seems to be actively holding back international Rugby League and has done so since the emergence of Tonga in 2017. It does next to nothing to promote it and treats it as an afterthought. Even this piecemeal announcement less than 2 months away shows the disdain in which they hold the international game. I honestly believe that if any real effort had been made that these games would be massive now. Unfortunately the NRL doesn't seem to want that and doesn't want anything to take away from Origin either in terms of prestige or players choosing international RL over Origin.

A poll that is against its return. Even worse a poll amongst the very demographic that I imagine would be more in favour of it.

Isn't it just.

Is it not just the same but they dropped the black label tag?

Jesus wept if the powers that be are seeing the return of county games and Great Britain as the way forward.

I think for this to be in anyway the case London would have to play in a fitting stadium for that. Playing at Wimbledon or even past grounds like the Stoop doesn't really cut it.

I don't think it does. The 2 teams you will add to get to 14 would likely get better attendances than at least 2 teams that seem guaranteed to be part of the 12 anyway. They would also be more likely to get in that 8k+ range you are looking for. The Championship yeah by taking away two stronger teams but I don't think that should be the aim really.

The only press that would do that is the RL press, most of which aren't exactly impartial when it comes to all of this. The wider world wouldn't care less.

Just because you say something Harry does not make it true. I mean that's clear from your posts and the timeline of what happened does not support your claim when it comes to the rebrand, marketing etc. Beaumonts comments certainly dont back up your opinion. You disagree and that's fine, happy to agree to disagree. Again the rest is just strawman stuff where we go round in circles because you talk about what you think and what people didn't say rather than what we know with different standards applied depending on the club. Sorry I didnt answer your question, you ask that many, think there were 4 in the post I quoted, and most are irrelevant to the point. If its important to you though I honestly have no idea what they will do nor care. I suspect they will just continue in the Championship and try again. Maybe they will follow Beaumont and throw a hissy fit and threaten to form their own league. Really no idea.

That's what I have always called for, it's perfect for a mid season tournament to then allow for cross hemisphere games at the end of the season. We all know why this won't happen and why the mid season international window was scrapped.

I completely agree with this and have long wanted a 14 team SL. It has to be the goal and from what we have heard from IMG is. If we have 14 teams that are all scoring well and are close to 'A' status, with very little difference between them, it makes sense to me just to go to 14 now. Based on what we know and can gather I suspect there will be 14 strongish teams and a gap to 15. If that's the case then I'm not sure what is to be gained by cutting one or two teams out because of a fraction of a point.

I would love to see 2 tournaments of 4 teams every 4 years between World Cups (daresay the fabled intercontinental cup) where England and France are added.

Forgot to say I do like the P&R element but 1 nation dipping in and out every year just doesn't work for me and doesn't really work with P&R either (unless we keep getting lucky).

Leigh have had 3 goes at Super League over almost 20 years. It took that long for them to get their act together and then only did so brought on by the changes needed by IMG and the fear of them missing out altogether. I'm not sure why you would expect Toulouse to do the same in 2 years, particularly when the process was announced to be changed at the end of their season in SL and when it was made quite clear what they need to do (as it was for all teams). You should also know yourself how relegation can affect a club after Leigh's relegation's and Beaumont's hissy fits about cancelling contracts, scrapping reserves, walking out etc in the past after relegation. Since then what they have done so far is doing was enough to score well in he indictive grades, 10th in fact and higher than Leigh who you wish them to copy. Now that may well change, and probably will, but there is nothing particularly in it for them to take the approach that you want.

A great servant for Hull FC. He will be long be remember for the Challenge Cup performance and match winning tackle towards the end against Warrington. He was phenomenal that day.

35,502 at the Bulldogs v Manly game. The biggest ever attendance in the Friday 6pm timeslot.

Undoubtedly you can if you throw enough money at it, the kind of money that has never been thrown at a club in Rugby League. I don't agree that the issues are the clubs that London play per se, the bigger issue is the London brand and club itself. Sort that out and the rest is trivial. I think when it comes to brands and London better comparisons are a RU club like Saracens that have lost many millions every year under various owners, and well over £100 million since they first started being bankrolled, to build their brand. They have put on big events and been prepared to lose money playing at places like Wembley. They have long spent a fortune to sign the best players from all over the world and have been pretty dominant with plenty of success. Despite all that they still lose money and play in a 10k ground with double headers at Twickenham boosting the average attendance. London are ultimately competing in the Rugby space against clubs like that. I think for London to get traction it needs to be a well financed club more along these lines (and I think the same result in RL can be got at a fraction of the way Saracens have done it). Money to do a London club proper is the issue for me and without that we are looking at a semi professional club, at best, on top of the pyramid whose main function is to develop players in the South. Even this would also need backing too.

As always this is where comparisons to Football become pointless. We are not close to Football in terms of size, status, awareness and just about anything else you wan to throw in there. No other sport in the UK is.

A lot of strawman arguments there. They have had one season in SL that was still suffering the after effects of Covid and in which their first few home games were still played under Covid restrictions. The entire league suffered from poor crowds that season. As for the rest they have always said their strength is their sponsorship portfolio and their business link, their partner list seems pretty impressive to me: https://www.to13.com/partenaires/ Similarly their business events always seem well attended and that has been commented upon by other SL chairmen that have attended those. I am presuming these are the kind of reasons why they also scored well on the indictive IMG ratings.

Yeah, think it's a poor signing whatever way you try to spin it.

Full draw: 2024 Pacific Championships Draw Pacific Cup - Men Fri 18 Oct Australia v Tonga Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Sun 27 Oct New Zealand v Australia Apollo Projects Stadium, Christchurch Sat 2 Nov New Zealand v Tonga Go Media Stadium, Auckland Sun 10 Nov Final CommBank Stadium, Sydney Pacific Cup - Women Fri 18 Oct Australia v PNG Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Sun 27 Oct New Zealand v Australia Apollo Projects Stadium, Christchurch Sun 3 Nov PNG v New Zealand Santos Stadium, Port Moresby Sun 10 Nov Final CommBank Stadium, Sydney Pacific Bowl – Men Sat 19 Oct Fiji v PNG Fiji Sat 26 Oct Fiji v Cook Islands Fiji Sun 3 Nov PNG v Cook Islands Santos Stadium, Port Moresby Sun 10 Nov Promotion/Relegation Playoff CommBank Stadium, Sydney Pacific Bowl – Women Sat 19 Oct Tonga v Samoa Fiji Sat 26 Oct Fiji v Cook Islands Fiji Sat 2 Nov Final Go Media Stadium, Auckland Sun 10 Nov Promotion/Relegation Playoff CommBank Stadium, Sydney https://www.nrl.com/news/2024/08/30/2024-pacific-championships-draw-announced