Dave T

I've no issues with flitting between blue, red, none or both. It's what England football team do with little controversy. White, red and blue are absolutely colours associated with England. I'd have understood the uproar had we had a green chevron.

There is something in that, however the sponsor has changed since then too, which will have been a driver (not that they wouldn't have released one had Dacia stayed!).

The above is true - you are stating facts. They have changed the secondary colour. Ii's not a big deal, at all. People will either like the shirt or they won't.

Come on, RU have had red detail all over their shirt at times, other times blank. England football have had plain white, or they have had white and blue, or white and red, or white and light blue. I've already highlighted cricket that has used completely different shades of colours. RL kits are generally a bit fussier, with more detail, so they may look more extreme, but ultimately, the approach has been similar. Is this abandoning a brand?

But the red comes through on the badges and the sponsor. There is red detail on the shirt. I've seen England football shirts that are white, sometimes with blue, sometimes red, sometimes even light blue.

Nobody could answer the question 'what is our brand' for Football, Rugby Union, Cricket, or RL - other than people that work in the field. It's just not a question that the average fan asks. The England RL kits are white, with red and blue features. That is the same as Football and Rugby Union.

It has, but these are quite different: If England RL did this, it would be slated.

The France kit is very dark blue (like England's tbf) - they wore it in the recent game v Wales. I don't know about Greece - but I think we should have an alternate strip anyway.

I'm afraid your question needs a few more words than this to make sense.

I think this is somewhat overstated. It's a kit - people are used to clubs/nations having varied kits. Look at the England Cricket team, their kits are all over the place.

Yes - but again, this is my point. Other sports have these same views in their fanbase. But it doesn't mean their leaders share that view or pander to it. If we make bad decisions, its because of poor leadership.

I'm not sure we will wear an away kit. All of the other group teams have a dark base and England have a white base. I think that will be enough for them to be classed as different enough.

It's an excellent kit. People have spent years complaining about the George Cross. That has now gone, and we are back to a chevron, again, something fans have wanted. I think it is very nice, and I'm happy if we are now into a white with blue chevron design each time.

It should be A focus yes, but this was my point. It is the leaders who need to be catering for the different segments. I don't think it's a big issue what Harry thinks on Totalrl.com.

We don't need to overstate attitudes like this as a problem. It's a normal thing. People will have different views on stuff like this. Look how much stick some clubs get in football for their fan base not being from that city. A lot of 'banter' between City and Utd fans is around empty seats, or fans from London, and there is plenty of talk in football around away fans. RL fans are not really different, there are just fewer of us. Our problems are from our leaders, not fans.

I was going to grumble about that too, but think I've used my quota today

It isn't half term near us. All of what you highlight can be done without a Tuesday afternoon kick off. IIRC in the original schedule it was to be the France v Greece game that got this billing. Edit: it isn't half term at all. Not in Leeds or near us.

That was my point about somebody needing to be brave. We néed to prove the concept. The RU comparison isn't a good one. The nations like NZ, SA and Aus have been touring for years, and they won't ever end, they come because there is a commercial market for internationals. So there is no reason for England RU to just ignore the best teams in the world and arrange games versus teams outside the top 5. In RL, we have the weird position that the risk is relatively modest. Even against the Kiwis we have ran series' with fewer than 75k fans, so the benchmark isn't exactly that high for us to be pushing for. Similarly, I expect our TV money is modest (versus more prolific international sports), so it really shouldn't be out of the question to be able to build up quality test series' against these teams. If all goes to plan this year, England will play great games against Samoa and Tonga, in front of huge crowds. If both of those attract 50k, get good viewing figures, then we are in a place to be able to put that proposal in front of people. I can understand us going with NZ next year, but I do hope they are hoping that the RLWC can be used as proof of concept.

Yup. There isn't real value in the internationals in the SH. For all the talk of Tonga being a huge draw, they were sponsored by a local Aussie plumber. I think somebody is going to need to be brave here, we need to make it work financially for NH teams to travel South, and SH teams to travel North.

Isn't that just an SLE policy for the Grand Final, because of trouble in the bowl? Hopefully that won't be a thing for the RLWC Finals.

I've only just looked at the women's tournament, and tbh, I'm shocked at how it is being staged. England opener at 2.30pm on a Tuesday in Leeds. Semi final double header at York on a Monday night from 5pm. I hope it goes well, I was hoping to watch plenty of it, that may not be the case.

Because there is commercial value in touring the UK.

Just as I added tickets to my basket, I thankfully noticed that the game kicks off at 2.30 on a Tuesday so I haven't wasted my money! My point about this 'standalone' point, means that if they are going down that route, they will exclude the WC Final later in the tournament as being a record crowd.

I have just noticed that this is a double header, and not a standalone women's game of RL. God knows why it's a double header, but it is.

You really should watch a different sport. One that is played between big cities, and big nations, on big pitches. I'm not being offensive, but you clearly don't like what RL is, why are you wasting your time here, basically insulting RL fans' sport of choice.