Hanover XIII

Still get The Times on a Saturday and Sunday for the supplements. However the sports sections are now completely devoid of RL coverage. I thought it was bad when there'd be a small match report and no photo. Now it might as well not exist. Could only laugh when it described Andy Farrell as `born to lead the Lions' .

We were cutting it fine arriving at that game so I dropped my friends off and went to find somewhere to park. By the time I got in we were 20 points down and it just got worse after that. Was thoroughly, thoroughly depressed. Seems to be a few Widnes fans joining in, so I remember a first round play-off game at Barrow where we got hammered on a miserable afternoon in pouring rain. That was another lowlight.

Very sad news. A true great and one of the first players I remember being in awe of when I saw him play.

Watched it. Was excited by it. Thought there was some superb rugby played. Stadium looked great event at two-thirds full. Proper sense of an event happening.

If I had a spare grand or two I'd have definitely been there, and so would three or four friends. I'll definitely get to at least one if they're going to be there for five years.

The cost, the previous week's result and the general mood around the club will all have contributed. Even taking all that into account I thought it would still crack the 1,000 mark. Fewer than 800 is very worrying.

Not being wise after the event, but said pretty much the same when I heard he was being appointed. Wondered how long it would take him to become the centre of attention.

This is not a `you're wrong, I'm right' view but just shows how we all see things differently. I've always thought he was one of the BBC's poorer presenters.

I enjoyed the piece for what it was, and the mentions of rugby league were an added bonus!

£1.55! Why don't the RFL adopt a similar pricing policy for tests over here.

It's a difficult balance between creating visible, household names and the demands of the sport. I'm surprised we don't see more players attending events as sporting celebrities, even if just in the north of England. Their agents would surely be able to secure invites and then photography from the events, social media follow-ups etc help create the air of someone who it at least on the scene - whatever scene that might happen to be, whether it's a big gig, a fight night and so on. There would always follow some criticism that they were getting above themselves, but sponsors, TV bookers and so on will follow the numbers and if one or two players are starting to cross over into other fields they'll get noticed and the whole thing snowballs. Plus you need a career outside and after the sport. Look how many things Offiah has done as a personality. Although being an all-time great didn't hurt.

In time honoured tradition my dad made us leave this game early `to beat the traffic'. As we got in the car we heard the radio commentator talking about the final, length of the field try that had finished the game. I remember my uncle going nuts because he'd missed it.

Absolutely. My nephew - football first, ridiculous boxing match-ups, fake grudges, pointless re-matches, YouTubers fighting each other a close run second, all consumed on his phone.

Other commitments each week. Will be recording the games and watching later. Makes no odds because I can't go, but I'd like to have seen one game played outside the corridor.

In Widnes many people have hated being in the borough of Halton since Runcorn & Widnes were joined together by local government reorganisation, which also put them in Cheshire, not Lancashire, and then with the arrival of the Liverpool CIty Region, which Halton is part of, they hate that as well.

Widnes announced an attendance on the day. Not sure why it hasn't been released since. Something around 3,200 from memory. Certainly over 3K.

Loved watching him at Widnes later in his career. Such a good player.

Yeah, a visitor attraction I worked at until recently had a partnership with Sky and they had loads of Sky VIP free ticket holders coming in. Part of some kind of promotion they run.

I might have brought this up in the past and apologies if I have, but are there staged payment plans available for tickets? Most big music events now give you the option of a deposit scheme. My last music festivals were bought with a relatively low deposit and eight further payments. Much more affordable than £200 each upfront. I know that doesn't help with the associated costs of travel etc but it is, at least, one way of spreading the cost.

That's certainly true and you have to go in with a compelling case as to why any company would want to back you and get a return on their sponsorship. But it doesn't have to be top level especially where the community game is concerned. For example, and Indian restaurant chain with outlets in Nottingham, Leicester and Birmingham is looking to expand into Leeds and Sheffield at the moment and has appointed an agency to handle its marketing. Say they were to get involved at a grassroots level in the Midlands and play up their RL loving credentials particularly in Leeds and albeit at a lesser level in Sheffield, they would have a sizeable audience looking at them even before they make their food offer known. Their Midlands investment could be about increasing participation in Asian communities with follow-up schemes in South and West Yorkshire. I know this is all hypothetical, but the chain and their expansion are real.

If the idea is for a new event with silverware I'd build towards the opening of Everton's new stadium on the waterfront in Liverpool and be liaising now with the city's marketing and tourism people about what sort of offer/package can be rolled up for visiting fans in terms of reduced price city attraction tickets, weekend passes and so on. A 9s weekend involving existing teams, women's teams, invitation squads held over two days with qualification rounds followed by plate, bowl, champions fixtures on day two. Then there's the waterfront attractions to visit outside of competition - Beatles Story, Tate, British Music Experience, Maritime Museum, Royal Albert Dock and a lot of places to eat and drink. The city is built for events, has good rail and road links and the new stadium will be the right sort of capacity, in the right location.

I have an issue with Jonathan Davies regarding your last point. So often he describes something as a `simple try' just because the last person walks it in. No mention of what the play was leading up to it to create the walk-in.

These days, electronic entry systems will tell you by the minute how many people have entered so getting a figure for the women's game wouldn't be a problem. Just choosing which point you decide to take it from would be the issue.

I work in Liverpool and it wasn't obvious there was a World Gymnastics Championships on for eight days recently. There was branding but nothing to make you stop and take much notice.

If we're going to go down that road, then this approach should be the Other Nationalities game, surely. England v France has to count for something as a Test match for which caps are awarded irrespective of the entertainment value.