fighting irish

Well done 'Arry, that's the best "put down" I've heard this century! Ha ha ha. Talk about being damned with faint praise. Keep up the good work.

Why are they doing it? Why is their home ground unavailable?

I think the Balkan Super League is an extraordinary idea. The fact that (however modest) they are making it work (all on their own initiative) is nothing short of amazing. You could argue that we'd better leave them alone to get on with it, unless we put the kibosh on it. Although, I think it might make sense to ask them to advise us (BARLA) on how to do it, over here.

Cardiff (please). Working with the WRL to benefit the game here, as Newcastle RL benefits from Magic.

Keep your ear to the ground mate, I can't wait. Any news on this, is good news.

Perhaps, more than most, I'm really interested in any and all news from the USA. If you would like to tell us the reasons you believe they are not affiliated, I'd be pleased to hear them. My other question was whether you believed the changes to the USARL would make any appreciable difference to the near/midterm future over there?

It's great to hear of these matches going ahead. If they can spread the game (on their own ) why can't we (BARLA) do it in the UK?

Tell that to the kids these days. They'll never believe yer.

What's this about mate?

Can you please tell us if you are party to this new constitution of the USARL? Any more information would be welcome? Do you believe it will lead to further growth?

Tell that to the kids these days, they'll never believe yer!

I'd like to see it in Cardiff (or Swansea) football grounds. RL fans travelled well to past events in Cardiff. The city is very accommodating. Personally, I'd give away tickets to Welsh school kids, as a promotional effort and let the WRL promote the Welsh league to the local spectators. I'm certain it would draw plenty of new ( amateur) participants to the sport here in Wales.

He won't be a billionaire for much longer.

Great news.

This is heartbreaking news. Again the burden, falls on the poorest to make anything happen. Good. The sooner the games fledgling (NH) nations realise and accept that no-one is coming to the rescue, the better. So what now? If I were trying to organise an international calendar I'd begin with a merit table and "encourage" teams to play one or two matches a year (at most) against the team/s above and below them. Each year the merit table is redrawn based on the results. This removes the grandiosity, gives governing bodies sensible, achievable goals with the ability, for the better organised nations to climb the ladder as they develop.

Good luck to all concerned, please let us know how it turns out?

I don't know anything about your situation but you seem really inspired to do something here but not actually committed (yet) to getting stuck in. I'm sure your idea of a pro-league (in North America) has real potential, in fact my gut feeling is that the States (or Canada) is probably the only place in the world, with enough potential investors, to actually make it work. Perhaps you are limited by your personal circumstances (?) but otherwise why don't you give it all you've got and try to gather support for your idea, over there?

I think I make my point fully and unambiguously in the two or three letters posted. I stand by what I've said (because I don't have any evidence to refute it). As far as I could tell at the time, there was some support for his initiative, but (even if it had proved ultimately to be a damp squib) it was the Covid pandemic which prevented cross border travel, so killed any possibility of this kind of initiative from coming to fruition. Didn't it kill the 2021 World Cup? I'm a bit dismayed that you conclude I'm ''deluded beyond repair'', I don't think I deserved that personal insult. However, if you want to explain your judgement (about the comment you emboldened), providing some supporting evidence I'd be happy to (listen) see it.

I think we are in total agreement here.

Well you're entitled to your opinion. I don't see how you can claim they are holding the game back when (more often than not) they are quite literally, the only people trying to move it forward. Ask Pulga? Without them there would be nothing to hold back. Who said ''they don't like silly rules'', you? That's your own construction, your interpretation of ''entrepreneurial types'', it's certainly not my own. It's true they're often not prepared to wait for inept, or impotent administrators to deign to help them. What if the Greeks, who persevered against ''silly rules'', in the face of very real threats of criminal prosecution (for years), sat on their backsides and waited for the IRL to do something? Well my friend I can tell you, they wouldn't have been playing in the last World Cup. What if the Welsh, had been cowed by threats of life-time bans from RaRa (even as visitors and paying spectators) and followed their ''silly rules''? There'd be no rugby league in Wales. The ''appropriate channels'' you laud, in most cases (abroad), either don't exist, are not listening, or are unwilling or unable to help or even cooperate with them. I did qualify my comments by adding that as long as he's not a charlatan or a fraudster then we could do with more people like him. I'm still undecided about him. You seem convinced. I admire anyone who's giving of themselves to promote our game and more than happy to cheer them on. God knows we could do with a lot more.

I support this initiative, I hope it has some validity. I can see why it lacks some credibility and I can understand people's cynicism but it grates on me. In a similar fashion, the mockery of the Euro XIII idea pee'd me off. As far as I can see, Mr Buchan had some real support for his early initiative, admittedly amongst mainly fledgling clubs, (although I don't know any details about what he actually proposed) and the whole thing was scuppered by the COVID pandemic. We know a little more about him, due to his recent inauspicious involvement with the game in Bath. Whether he actually achieves anything for the development of Rugby League remains to be seen but sadly, the truth about the development of our game the world over, is that we rely on individuals (or clubs) in almost all cases, like Mr Buchan, to drive the development. In most cases, these people are entrepreneurial by nature, chock full of energy and enthusiasm (nay love) for our game and normally passionate about spreading the game far and wide. They are normally frustrated about the games historical progress and unwilling to wait for ''support'' or ''approval''. They usually acknowledge that there is no-one to help them (from the games adminstrative bodies), they tend not be intimidated by false authorities, p...s takers and the whole gamut of nay sayers, and so decide to get stuck in and do it themselves. The very essence of this personality type is that they are willing to accept responsibility for their actions, they don't expect to get it right first time (and certainly not all the time) but are prepared to learn as they go along and modify their approach, based on tough (and sometimes costly) lessons learned. They are not normally defeated at the first signs of failure and tend to persist and improve their methods over time. So, unless he turns out to be a complete charlatan and fraudster, what we need is more people like Mr Buchan and I put it to you, the more the merrier.

I don't know if you've read the whole thread (or all my posts on this proposal) but if you had you might have better understood what I'm suggesting. It's not a quick fix. As far as I know the role of the IRL organisation is to promote the game across the world. I think they should do something like I'm suggesting to nudge things along in the Northern Hemisphere. I was just proposing that the northern hemisphere nations should start acting in unison to promote the International game, rather than acting in disparate and far-flung (small) pockets spread all over the entire Northern Hemisphere, only coming together every 4 years (if their lucky) for a World Cup. I'm suggesting that a Trans-Atlantic Championship Trophy featuring the best of European (excluding England) and the best of the America's would provide a prestigious trophy which would promote the game right across the NH, acting as an incentive to everyone to improve. The winners would challenge England in a one off match. How long will it take before the standard rises to a decent level? I don't know. It might take decades but who knows, some of the less hide-bound nations might achieve progress at a much faster rate than we have managed here at home, if there are sufficient incentives and an open invitation to take part. We'll have to wait and see. What I think though is this; if it's going to take decades, then the sooner we begin the better. What I'm not proposing is some ghastly, hastily prepared, ill thought out, short term ''fix'' which we know full well, is not the answer to any of our deep seated problems. We have an almost complete history of opting for short term fixes, all of which have failed to produce the game we want and need. We also have a pretty full catalogue of better ideas which we've not implemented because they involved some real commitment to the cause over an extended period of time. As far as I can see, no-one else on these forums, has suggested how progress might be made (accelerated) in the medium to long term, to actually provide the existing Northern Hemisphere nations with some decent opposition. So I'm being Avant-Garde Harry. There's a lot of wailing about the current condition of the International game and plenty of criticism of the poor French and gnashing of teeth regarding the poor attendances at these dreadful mis-matches and the only suggestion to improve is to keep doing the same thing over and over, oh but play it in France, so we can rub their noses in it on their own patch, just to cheer them up. The comment you quoted above (taken out of context) was meant to say that if in the long term, France did not improve as a result and Brazil or the United States overtook them, then that would not be a bad thing.

I have highlighted the major points/questions you make and have attempted to answer them in turn. Firsly I think it's reasonable to claim that amongst the competing nations players and organising bodies, winning a competition such as this would be prestigious. They could rightly claim that they are the best in their class in the NH. In your second point I assume you mean how would we get the rest of the world (do we need the whole world?) to agree it's a prestigious competition. My answer is a simple one - growth. We have to start, with what we have and promote it, as we go along. Your third point is that the gap in standards between present day competing nations is large and I agree. It is also true that the existing nations will almost certainly develop at different rates and the existing pecking order may change over time, depending on the local conditions which might influence the uptake. So todays minnows could catch up and overtake todays leading nations. It would depend on how successful they are in their respective home nations. I simply do not accept that England will always beat France and France will always beat Wales and Wales will always beat Brazil etc. if the game continues to spread throughout the world. Wales only has about 8 amateur clubs by the way. The yanks (in disarray) have a lot more. In one of my earlier posts I suggested that the winners would challenge England in a one off match and when England loses a game they could be brought into the competition proper. Until then, England could seek other opponents to spur their own improvements. This competition would only provide one game for England but one they would have to be wary of as standards improve. Lastly, prestige is accrued over time, with higher standards, growing spectator numbers, and commercial sponsors. I'm just arguing that we get on with it.

My gut feeling is that playing in an annual competition against the best in the NH (except England) which would demand the best of them in order to win it but in which they have a reasonable chance of winning (not getting stuffed) is pounds better than what we have now. I can't guarantee it, but as I said earlier, if the USA or Brazil, or Greece won it instead, would that be a bad thing?