Hello

Highs: The license payers' fee being used to give good quality and comprehensive coverage of the tournament to a wider than before audience, well done BBC. The fantastic attitude of the players and those fans that were present, with special shout-outs here for England, Samoa, Fiji, Greece, PNG and Tonga in particular (tell me who I've missed out), but others also. Lows: The continuing depressing inability of the sport, both domestically and internationally, to sort it's **** out and properly promote expansion of the sport, both within nations that already play the sport and in terms of introducing new nations to the sport.

It's easy to get bored and angry with certain posters (one in particular) banging on about how it's "blah blah impossible to expand the game because noone outside the heartland could ever like RL" because they're so afraid that if the game ever did become more popular then their small home town team might drop out of the top tier of the domestic game. Talk about being "King of Nothing".

The football world cup has just started in front of a global audience of billions. I take my hat off to those within RL who dare to think about introducing the game to new audiences. Unfortunately, many, but of course not all, of the fans of the sport love to ridicule anyone who dares to have such ideas, though of course they will deny it. it does the sport zero favours whatsoever.

Great game in front of a decent crowd. Wanted the Kiwis to win to have a final without Oz for once, but can't complain about the advert that that spectacle was for the sport that is RL - brilliant stuff.

That reply to the point that I made totally makes sense, of course.

Says the man who went out of his way obsessively to comment on Toronto's crowds (even though they were very decent). Contender for most hypocritical post I have read on any forum ever.

I get where you're coming from, it was indeed a very good performance from England and it's my bad that I didn't say so in my original post, fair play to them. Nonetheless, I was very dissapointed by the total inability of PNG to compete, as I was last week with France, and am pretty underwhelmed by the development of the sport. I think having a competitive PNG and/or France would be great for the sport and would have a knock on effect of attracting other nations around the world to the sport if they were to see an increase in the number of top level countries competing. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any sign of that (I don't see island nations with tiny populations and heritage teams as a serious help to credibility of the game).

I watched the game about an hour late on iplayer without knowing the score. After about 15 minutes I started fast-forwarding a bit as it became another very uncompetitive match. I've got to say that I was very disappointed - I wanted England to win, but in a close and compeititive match with plenty of promise for PNG's future. Unfortunately, I feel a bit down about the lack of progress in countries outside the "big 3", also being very disappointed about France's efforts. Personallly I would be much more excited seeing progress in PNG and France towards being potential tournament winners than in the small island nations, as PNG and France have decent populations sizes and proper domestic teams, not relying on nearly pure heritage teams. It's been very good to see generally pleasing viewing figures for the tournament in comparison to past tournaments, but I cant help feeling a bit flat after another one-sided capitulation by what should be a nation working towards challenging the best.

I have my hundred posts? Didn't notice, but I guess this sort of thing matters to you. I can also see that you are one of those people to whom any clearly presented ideas that don't agree with your own narrative are "waffle" since it appears that giving actual facts about results of matches is apparently "waffle". If you've had enough of me then put me on ignore and just listen to people who say "yes" to everything that you say. For my part I was trying to have a healthy debate and make a point, not make petty personal digs.

Wishful thinking this. In Union in recent times, Argentina and Ireland have beaten the All Blacks. In turn, Japan beat Ireland at the last world cup. Wales bear south Africa this year, yet Wales were beaten by Italy. Italy, in turn, were beaten by Georgia this year. I've not yet mentioned England and next world cup favourites France, or Australia. The top of international Union is far wider in terms of potential upsets and competitiveness, and in fact the second tier nations such as Spain are fast improving and getting reasonable crowds. Instead of pretending that the RL world cup is as competitive we should instead focus on what can be done to make it more competitive in a way that doesn't just involve heritage players, and support nations such as France, Serbia, PNG where there are decent populations and where there is a domestic game. More regular internationals are desperately needed to develop the game, but promoted in an effective way.

I'm aware that this is getting petty, but since some people seem to be in denial about the makeup of teams in union here is a link to the Japanese Union squad. You will note that the clear majority of the players look "Japanese" and have Japanese names. I just don't like people stating untruths about other sports to cover up the failings in League in allowing these "plastic" nations where the game is barely played. Let's call a spade a spade. https://www.ultimaterugby.com/japan/squad

I think, more to the point, if you're going to have games outside the heartlands, which you should, then choose games that are not going to be obvious one sided blow outs.

You are wrong. Don't listen to "the man in the pub" if he exists lol.

Yep, and Australia scored exactly 14 times more points as in said game

The squad is not "the team"

They have a majority of Japan born and bred players

Hey, I can understand that you might be upset with the way the game is going tonight, but you can't be serious surely? As was said, the Union side nearly always sell out a passionate Murrayfield, but surely hardly anyone up there enjoys league or there would be more than 2 or was it 3 teams left at the end of the amateur domestic season earlier this year, played in front of virtually zero fans. Don't get me wrong, I wish it wasn't this way, but as a supporter of expansion I have to say that Scotland is not an area that shows any promise at all and I am more hopeful of other areas e.g. further strengthening of France, PNG, maybe even the likes of Greece who are new to the game and not set in their ways the way that the British Isles are in their familiarity with football, union, league and cricket. Anyway, I would love to be proven wrong and see domestic growth in league in Scotland in future but I find it extremely unlikely if I'm honest.

Hey, I respect your position, but can't agree. No matter how long it's been I just can't get into "pretend" international teams, I'd rather have a smaller tournament reflective of where the game is actually played instead of trying to pretend otherwise. That said, I'm an advocate of expansion though that feels like p***ing in the wind at times when I read some of the posters on here, for example a certain poster of a certain promoted team who on one hand says they are in favour of expandng the game and on the other are clearly desperate not to in case it means that their team loses it's remote chance of becoming the "king of nothing". Anyway, let's enjoy the world cup, I'm hoping for some good crowds and positivie vibes.

Hi. How do you think, though, that 13 born and bred Aussies playing for another country should be viewed? Not a good look for a sport, surely.

To be fair, for a sport struggling for attention not only internationally, but also within the UK, and even withing the north of England, it would be a super glamorous boost for Super League to see the name of Leigh on the trophy, a town that is steeped in history and well known not just across the UK but also globally. Surely it's beyond doubt that that would attract massive interest from all four corners of the country,with a subsequent boost in interest and investment in the sport not only nationally, but also internationally with SL being beamed into living rooms in countries around the world. And that Beaumont has a proven track record of being a lovely chap...........

If you offered any team the chance to lose all of their home fixtures in the regular season, I don't think a single one would view that as a potential advantage since home teams have a significantly higher chance of winning on average.

The season before is what I was trying to say (when they were in the championship). You've probably gathered that I'm a supporter of expansion of SL to larger and new areas of population and as such am very pro having Toulouse in SL. However, I am not anti any team as such and so will extend you a gentemanly good luck for the play-offs!

To be fair, their crowds were half the size that they are now three or four years ago, so they have been very much on the up and give it a few more years and they will be higher still unlike the majority of SL clubs whose crowd numbers have stagnated for years now.

Not really. Toulouse will likely dominate in the same way. As they did the previous season when they got promoted, beating everyone including Leigh, not dropping a single point despite the massive disadvantage of having to play every single regular season game away due to covid.

I agree. I also favour P and R, taking it away removes the incentive to aspire to the top from all other towns and cities.