iffleyox

If you were being really picky, you can just about parse that safely as town or county name does not equal representing that town or county, it just means 'in' that town or county. So by way of example you can be Cornwall RL but you can't be 'Cornish RL' Or you can be Wakefield, but you can't be Wakefieldians. Which is pretty much nonsense but it does technically probably mean that Town or County/in this caase Duchy names are ok. Or, as Tommy says, you've got permission.

which end's 1955?

As a complete aside, I've long thought that FL/PL have accidentally (and for whatever reason) ended up in the right place on it though. I suspect that after head injuries the next big story to hit is going to be some combination of injuries from artificial pitches, and potential carcinogens. I'm not convinced they're actually safe over the long term, and glad I'm not playing anymore to find out. Actually I see in the last 2 months the European Commission has cracked down on it again, so there's an issue there somewhere: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/europe-raises-the-bar-for-carcinogens-in-artificial-turf-pitches/4014144.article

And it's basically Cornish Pirates RU that have been making the running on the stadium (and a lot of what money there is) - so they're the ones who need to be convinced that RL makes sense, not a stadco.

the other rule of thumb between the two sports is if your mate had been a Salford RLFC fan and given up his season ticket then Salford would have almost certainly been a season ticket holder down. Whereas, when he gave up his season ticket at Everton, there's a waiting list of people queueing up to have it off him. In fact (genuine question) is there a single Super League club that's at its ceiling on season tickets (i.e. doesn't just sell them to as many people as want them)? I would guess not.

No, Bees. Birmingham & Solihull RFC is out by the M42 junction, Moseley FC(RU) are on the border of Moseley and Yardley Wood.

give that man a coconut

Liverpool St Helens are an (historically quite good but anyway still existing and presumably owning the name) RU club.

FTFY

except that the presumptuous belief will have become demonstrable fact..

I'm devastated. I'm from RU country, lifelong supporter of an RU side, and only got into RL because Oxford opened up playing over the road from my house and I'd got nothing better to do on Sunday afternoons. Since then, I've been to nearly all the SL grounds, become a (casual) Trin fan, met some great people, and fallen in love with what the game could be. Given I've still got my RU season ticket it would be very easy for me to drift away again just because I wasn't born into RL and it's not in my DNA. I chose it. You can regret choices of course....

In these circumstances, they might as well... Actually, that would be funny for about 5 minutes. Presumably in the interim no NRL player would be insured because their insurers would only accept them playing in recognised competitions. So if the NRL is recognised by the ARLC, which is recognised by the IRL at international level... Lawyers' beanfeast. I mean, they'd get round it, but maybe not before all this weekend's matches have had to be cancelled or played without insurance.* *which is why, when this has periodically been suggested in RU as the nuclear option to bring premiership clubs to heel, it's always been argued to do it on a Friday, during the season.

Although the new IRB funded PI sides might be well placed... I thought they were going to be a flash in the pan but if they can't capitalise on this then they're idiots.

Sanctioned by who though? The NRL or the IRL?

Over here they sponsor the RU Premiership.

But RL's important in Queensland (and more importantly in Australia). Pretty well anything they can get would be easy to dress up as 'UK government financially props up Australian sports league because they threw a tantrum' - I'm not sure the government can afford that politically domestically - *unless* any cash/assurances were followed through publicly in UK/Aus media with British government statements/mood music along the lines of 'we didn't understand the logic of their concerns when every other sport in the world seems to be carrying on, but we're very happy that giving them this relatively small amount of money seems to have made their concerns go away.' Let public opinion do the rest. Honestly, if this goes under, you'll care, I'll care, *some* people in the UK might care, but really when it comes down to it, this is a big fish from a small pond who deserves to discover he's out of his depth.

Just reading that sentence back though - he's got a track record of getting money out of the Australian government, fair enough. The NRL does all sorts of deal with Pacific Island governments and regulatory bodies, which I suppose also has to happen given proximity, relative economic strength etc, but... God knows I'm no fan of this government (and I'm going to keep this non party political heeding the many warnings on the thread already) - but this is the leader of a sport which is important to a relatively small country on the other side of the world. At a diplomatic level, for a whole host of reasons (similar outlook, family ties, shared history, etc) we want to be friends, hell we're basically relatives, But really, we're the 5/6th largest economy in the world (depending on which figures you use), there seem to be alternative options (as long as they're not stalking horses) - and while the country is keen for diversions, and we've got a strong interest in getting this tournament on for economic as well as prestige reasons (to say nothing of the political support given already), it would play politically very badly domestically to start shovelling UK taxpayers' cash to an Australian league in a sport most people don't care about in the middle of a pandemic. I'd hope if he tried that he got told to take a running jump. Bring on Serbia/Indigenous sides/whoever else frankly.

too early to read anything into it IMO - it could also be read as a positioning statement aimed at keeping the pressure up, or worst case, so that there hasn't been a total period of silence from them between Friday and then everyone else pulling out today that people could point to and say 'they didn't care either' FWIW I think it's the former of my options - this is just to get some messages out in public from the cup side, while who knows what is being said in private to the PI from Australia. Basically it's pretty transparent media management - but that's not to say it's pointless. It's a belt and braces statement that they pretty much have to issue at this point if they're halfway competent (which fwiw I believe they are).

Absolutely true, but it goes deeper than that. I've told this story before on here I think but a few years back I was involved in trying to get a multi-multimillion pound household name sponsor to invest in rugby league - and crucially a sponsor that's right for the demographic. Clearly given what follows below I won't name them... They weren't buying it at all - we tried all the arguments about fit with business - knocked back because apparently lower socio economic group males and families are in the bag already Really good grounds - showed them Wembley, Headingley, Wigan, Saints - still not buying it When it came down to it they finally said that despite their business being perfect for RL they'd be much more comfortable sponsoring something aspirational, or going to hospitality at football ('everyone likes football, cricket, tennis, or RU') - they objected to the people that watch RL - happy to sell to them, don't want to mix with them or be associated with them... Crucially also felt that they would be judged negatively by their own clients and suppliers if they invited them to come to corporate jollies at RL - it was 'right up there with greyhound racing' and further stymied by 'not having a national footprint' Not a lot you can say to that but it was an eyeopener. Personally I think it was both shortsighted and distasteful but it happened. BTW, as an aside, they then did pump a load of money into another sport (and not RU, so it's not as bad as it could have been).

I don't know if you've ever worked as a freelancer, but when I did I had a stock response to anyone who offered me "exposure" rather than cash....

and there we go - because no one bothered at the time, I agree with you the ship has sailed, unless we really think that IRL is going to hose cash at them to come under the umbrella? 20-odd posts of common sense and good ideas, shot away because 2 decades ago the RL international authorities showed about as much grasp of strategy and long term planning as they do now.

This. Same with my mum, I dream about her and regularly think i’ll Just tell her something.... 5 years on Feb 17th- who knows where the time goes? mind you, 62 was no age at all. definitely gets easier though, sort of. Different might be a better word. It gets progressively different.