dealwithit

It’s subjective. You can have your opinion of course. Quite a few former QLD and NSW cup players running around in super league.

NRL clubs receive an annual grant well exceeding the salary cap, and all travel is paid by the NRL. So what else is really needed to make it any more sustainable than any other team? Living quarters in a gated community? I guess the $600M will go cover the initial capex required. So what else? You have the hunters in the qld cup, a competition arguable as strong as super league. You have the PNGNRL that is also strong. So there’s a player pathway. There’s thousands of Aussie expats in POM living in gated communities. Why would NRL players be any different?

I remember deluded pom.

Snooze.

Agree it’s a long term process. We need to improve standards and increase quality to grow the pie. Personally, I wouldn’t have prioritised SL+ when we don’t have a large audience and we become competitors to broadcasters whose money we need.

Some strange comments on here. 1. Kenya does play the game 2. PNG has held world events including pacific games, youth world cups, APAC etc. They can manage RL events. If ticketing pricing is right, you’ll get good crowds. 3. Bundling the WCs together meant it was unviable for any tier 2 nation to tender. 4. Profitability is an odd one. Major events are reliant on gov funding. If the tournament is profitable, did it need gov funding? A better way would be to have a hosting fee payable to IRL that is distributed to nations as a development grant. This was the way previously, but I’m not sure after the bumpy 2017 and 2022 WCs.

There’s always merit to tapping into the diaspora. It just needs to be measured and in alignment with the local strategy. We have Aus, NZ, Fiji, PNG, France and England with comparatively strong domestic comps and pro teams. They should be rewarded with WC berths. Fill the remainder with full member IRL teams through a qualification process.

@ATLANTISMAN ??

It annoys me that on OurLeague they list the whole game day squad and don’t always indicate who the starting 13 were and who was on the bench.

Better structure than a lot of SL teams

It counts for nothing. You basically have a blank canvas. New generations of fans that have never witnessed a GB or England tour. In fact, most Australians refer to your country as the UK. Great Britain doesn’t mean much. Just focus in locking in dates, times, stadiums etc and then start spruiking whatever the hell it is.

Great match report. Do we know the breakdown of each player’s origin?

How many FTE does the RFL and RLC have? They may not be the best in the world, but England has resources France can only dream of.

FFRXIII is amateur run compared to successful sporting bodies. If England wants a competitive and profitable mid year event, it’s not enough to just turn up. 1) share marketing resources 2) promote the game in community in the lead up 3) provide coaching and player development support. The depth of coaching is shallow in France. Regarding the scoreline, two things stuck out for me. The french effort dropped away after 20 mins. Even if the team wasn’t as strong, the only excuse for poor effort is the coach and failure to motivate/inspire. Similarly, the coach left the starting front row on until the 26 minute. He should have rotated after England scored their second try. They were gassed. He persisted and England scored a third. Bonkers.

Bit of an oxymoron that. You kinda just did compare the two.

Probably demonstrates that to maintain the initial buzz or a decent portion you need a winning side.

Do you know which ones? I know crowds, performance would be.

Is the 3 year assessment period for all metrics, or only some? Ie crowds, performance

Hudds are spending the cap, yes. But they don’t have a better squad than the teams above them IMO. They are a middle table squad.

Apparently they switched back to Union because of the travel distance. Was it Saluzzo Roosters? Struggling with memory. Italy domestic comp has always been a union off season thing. And since Tiziano passed away, I’m not sure who is on the ground.

Why are there no pads on the goal posts?

Yeah I don’t really know the french mindset towards UK city trips… but for me I’d love a weekend in Manchester. There’s plenty of games too within half hour. Put on a manchester (or london or liverpool) weekend city trip with a shuttle to the game. Has that been tried before?

As an observer from abroad, this kind of thinking is bizarre. I’m not sure if Brits care what others think of you, but a protectionist-style approach to growth is weird. I’ve never seen a UK Club partner with their local authority or tourism board to try and actively entice French fans to travel. The victim mentality in British rugby league is a tired approach. You have Union on its knees and you have two prosperous French teams that want to partner with you. Only British RL could stuff this up.

Complimenting the size of the people? Is being fat a compliment?

I think it’s worth bothering. But to make the sport more popular and mainstream, it’s gonna take external advice — something the RFL is reluctant to do.