Auckland- a league town?

[Themusician_2]

3 minutes ago, Keith989 said:

Doesn't union still dominate in the actual island of Tonga itself? 

It use to

[eal]

Rugby League's following in NZ is somewhat limited by the fact that virtually no white people play the sport, whereas Rugby Union attracts interest from all races.

[aj1908]

52 minutes ago, eal said:

Rugby League's following in NZ is somewhat limited by the fact that virtually no white people play the sport, whereas Rugby Union attracts interest from all races.

Yes no white kiwis like rugby league.  It's only followed by maoris

[kiwis 13 6]

12 hours ago, eal said:

Rugby League's following in NZ is somewhat limited by the fact that virtually no white people play the sport, whereas Rugby Union attracts interest from all races.

 

11 hours ago, aj1908 said:

Yes no white kiwis like rugby league.  It's only followed by maoris

Well I am one who does lol

but generally speaking Rugby Union is the preferred Rugby code of White (Pakeha) New Zealanders. But some prefer league and a lot follow the sport a bit as casual fans. Kieran Foran played for the national team this year even if was injured early in the game against GB. There is 2 young halfbacks that are decent prospect selected for the NZ Residents side Bard Campbell and Aiden Ackland along with Prop Alex Todd who are Pakeha/European. But it is what it is the Majority of people who play Rugby League in NZ are Maori or Pacific Island.

[dunno much]

4 hours ago, kiwis 13 6 said:

 

Well I am one who does lol

but generally speaking Rugby Union is the preferred Rugby code of White (Pakeha) New Zealanders. But some prefer league and a lot follow the sport a bit as casual fans. Kieran Foran played for the national team this year even if was injured early in the game against GB. There is 2 young halfbacks that are decent prospect selected for the NZ Residents side Bard Campbell and Aiden Ackland along with Prop Alex Todd who are Pakeha/European. But it is what it is the Majority of people who play Rugby League in NZ are Maori or Pacific Island.

Is Aiden Ackland related to John or Geoff?

[Bondi Cannon]

Eiden Ackland is John's son, Geoff's nephew. Was with the Warriors lower grade, then played Fox for Mt Albert this year (his dad was the coach).

[dunno much]

16 minutes ago, Bondi Cannon said:

Eiden Ackland is John's son, Geoff's nephew. Was with the Warriors lower grade, then played Fox for Mt Albert this year (his dad was the coach).

He's from good stock then, thanks.

[Tre Cool]

5 hours ago, kiwis 13 6 said:

 

Well I am one who does lol

but generally speaking Rugby Union is the preferred Rugby code of White (Pakeha) New Zealanders. But some prefer league and a lot follow the sport a bit as casual fans. Kieran Foran played for the national team this year even if was injured early in the game against GB. There is 2 young halfbacks that are decent prospect selected for the NZ Residents side Bard Campbell and Aiden Ackland along with Prop Alex Todd who are Pakeha/European. But it is what it is the Majority of people who play Rugby League in NZ are Maori or Pacific Island.

If that's the case there sure seems to have been a lot of white kiwi players? 

[Bondi Cannon]

there has been a very significant decline in Pakeha playing numbers here in the past 20 years and the issue with that is it has increasingly restricted league demographically - if Auckland is - roughly - 15% Pasifika and 20% Maori, and that's where you draw your players from, your potential playing base is quite small (let alone the issue of trying to appeal to the 15% and growing Asian population from Korea, China, India and the Phillipines). There's multiple sociological reasons behind it - league has retrenched a bit to suburbs which have high Pasifika/Maori populations, the issue of getting league played in high schools, middle-class parents reluctance to let their kids play contact sports, and an image problem of league as a working-class sport all play a part, then there is the very real issue of the significant size differential between Pakeha and Pasifika children and their rates of physical development. Most Pakeha players in Auckland, anecdotally, seem to be kids from very strong league families - like Eiden Ackland, or Bluey McClennan's son Regan, who is the halfback for Hibiscus Coast.

[Taniwha Warriors]

On 16/12/2019 at 21:40, Themusician_2 said:

Union dominates all over France. League has like 9000 players and no clubs in the north of France also no tv deal. Dark times there at the moment.I think there’s more union in Perth well at least for now unions dying in Australia. Adelaide from a rough google search theres  more union but don’t take my word for it. Tonga is now rugby league territory RIP union. Melbourne there’s more league.

You might find that in both Melbourne and Tonga, union has more clubs and schools playing all over. Having saying that the Storm is more popular than the Rebels and off course Mate ma'a Tonga is the flavour of the Kingdom at the moment.

[Taniwha Warriors]

14 hours ago, kiwis 13 6 said:

 

Well I am one who does lol

but generally speaking Rugby Union is the preferred Rugby code of White (Pakeha) New Zealanders. But some prefer league and a lot follow the sport a bit as casual fans. Kieran Foran played for the national team this year even if was injured early in the game against GB. There is 2 young halfbacks that are decent prospect selected for the NZ Residents side Bard Campbell and Aiden Ackland along with Prop Alex Todd who are Pakeha/European. But it is what it is the Majority of people who play Rugby League in NZ are Maori or Pacific Island.

That's so true I had a few Pakeha kids in my junior rugby league teams back in the late 70's but now days I've seen less white (Pakeha) kids in the game which is sad. The fact is there are more school rugby union players in Auckland alone than there are rugby league players in the whole of New Zealand gives you an indication of what rugby league is up against in Auckland or in NZ.

[Themusician_2]

17 hours ago, kiwis 13 6 said:

 

Well I am one who does lol

but generally speaking Rugby Union is the preferred Rugby code of White (Pakeha) New Zealanders. But some prefer league and a lot follow the sport a bit as casual fans. Kieran Foran played for the national team this year even if was injured early in the game against GB. There is 2 young halfbacks that are decent prospect selected for the NZ Residents side Bard Campbell and Aiden Ackland along with Prop Alex Todd who are Pakeha/European. But it is what it is the Majority of people who play Rugby League in NZ are Maori or Pacific Island.

That's not a good thing considering that white New Zealanders make up a huge chunk of New Zealand's population. We need to try and reach out to these people our game should be for everyone.

[aj1908]

12 minutes ago, Themusician_2 said:

That's not a good thing considering that white New Zealanders make up a huge chunk of New Zealand's population. We need to try and reach out to these people our game should be for everyone.

i think they are exaggerating.

[Themusician_2]

2 hours ago, Taniwha Warriors said:

That's so true I had a few Pakeha kids in my junior rugby league teams back in the late 70's but now days I've seen less white (Pakeha) kids in the game which is sad. The fact is there are more school rugby union players in Auckland alone than there are rugby league players in the whole of New Zealand gives you an indication of what rugby league is up against in Auckland or in NZ.

Yeah this thing of Auckland being a league town doesn't seem to be true. Warriors get ok attendances but the All Black dwarf every sports team in Auckland in popularity. The fact that there's so many more union players than league and league is being actively banned in many schools in Auckland should also indicate we don't have the establishment backing as well. 

[Themusician_2]

3 hours ago, Taniwha Warriors said:

You might find that in both Melbourne and Tonga, union has more clubs and schools playing all over. Having saying that the Storm is more popular than the Rebels and off course Mate ma'a Tonga is the flavour of the Kingdom at the moment.

For now, union is on it's last leg in Australia. Tonga we have only recently taken over.

[Keith989]

3 hours ago, Themusician_2 said:

For now, union is on it's last leg in Australia. Tonga we have only recently taken over.

It's taken over for Tongans living in NZ but in the actual island of Tonga itself union is still totally dominant. This of course should change now with the success of mate ma Tonga

[DoubleD]

53 minutes ago, Keith989 said:

It's taken over for Tongans living in NZ but in the actual island of Tonga itself union is still totally dominant. This of course should change now with the success of mate ma Tonga

There's been threads on this before, so have a look and research but union is not totally dominant in Tonga anymore, far from it. It's now playing second fiddle

[aj1908]

3 minutes ago, DoubleD said:

There's been threads on this before, so have a look and research but union is not totally dominant in Tonga anymore, far from it. It's now playing second fiddle

Is it really ?

I.looked.on Google. It shows.union has 82 teams league 18

[Damien]

There has been immense growth in Tonga but it's hard to get a true picture due to a lot of out of date information. This article suggests immense growth from 2017 to 2018 and it is totally plausible that this growth continued in 2019.

The impact has been obvious. Last year there were 11 A-grade teams in the domestic competition in Tonga, this year there were 38 A and B-grade teams playing for the newly minted Jason Taumalolo Cup.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12145543

[frank]

Rugby League is almost 100%Polynesian in NZ,Union IS quickly heading that  way the N/Island is almost Polynesian but the S/Island is a way behind maybe 50-50.

[kiwis 13 6]

14 hours ago, frank said:

Rugby League is almost 100%Polynesian in NZ,Union IS quickly heading that  way the N/Island is almost Polynesian but the S/Island is a way behind maybe 50-50.

Id say 90% of Rugby league players in the North Island are either of Maori or Pacific Island heritage & in the South Island there would definitely be a higher percentage of European/ UK heritage who play the game could be about 50-50 . But there is definitely a high rate of Europeans involved as Refs, Administrators, Volunteers. I wonder what percentage of NZ registered rugby league players are not Maori, Pacific Islander or European? I have no idea but id say 1% at a guess. 30% of Aucklands population is not of either European/ Maori/Pacific Island heritage & Auckland is the most ethnically diverse city in Australia or NZ.

[unapologetic pedant]

On 21/12/2019 at 10:37, kiwis 13 6 said:

Id say 90% of Rugby league players in the North Island are either of Maori or Pacific Island heritage & in the South Island there would definitely be a higher percentage of European/ UK heritage who play the game could be about 50-50 . But there is definitely a high rate of Europeans involved as Refs, Administrators, Volunteers. I wonder what percentage of NZ registered rugby league players are not Maori, Pacific Islander or European? I have no idea but id say 1% at a guess. 30% of Aucklands population is not of either European/ Maori/Pacific Island heritage & Auckland is the most ethnically diverse city in Australia or NZ.

Got here via another thread so this comment is, shall we say, belated.

There is a small ethnic minority competition for predominantly Asian players run by Counties-Manukau RL. Some of its products turned out for the India Jungle Cats last year and looked pretty useful.

[unapologetic pedant]

On 12/12/2019 at 13:37, audois said:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12181688

Interesting that this article refers to Union`s "messier wrestling-style nature". This is apparent to any objective observer, yet it does not lead to Union fans and pundits endlessly moaning about "wrestling".

[Cas Vegas]

On 03/07/2020 at 16:35, unapologetic pedant said:

Interesting that this article refers to Union`s "messier wrestling-style nature". This is apparent to any objective observer, yet it does not lead to Union fans and pundits endlessly moaning about "wrestling".

@unapologetic pedant A good article that. Cheered me right up.

As to your second sentence, could you expand on this?

[kiwis 13 6]

On 17/12/2019 at 15:36, eal said:

Rugby League's following in NZ is somewhat limited by the fact that virtually no white people play the sport, whereas Rugby Union attracts interest from all races.

 

On 17/12/2019 at 16:29, aj1908 said:

Yes no white kiwis like rugby league.  It's only followed by maoris

You'll see plenty of European faces enjoying playing rugby league in South Island regions like West Coast and Aoraki. But In Auckland North Shore clubs Northcote, Hibiscus Coast, Central and West Auckland Clubs like Mt Albert and Glenora, South East Auckland club Howick all have reasonable numbers of European players. Not any NZ born and raised European/Pakeha players at the NZ Warriors since Simon Mannering retired 2 years ago. Eiden Auckland was playing for the Warriors under 20's in 2017, currently playing for Mt Albert in the Fox memorial if he can put on a bit more size he could play for the NSW Warriors side. NSW Warriors should sign Canterbury Bulls halfback Brad Campbell who has shown work ethic to travel from the West Coast every week to play in Christchurch and has an excellent kicking game and good all round skills.

I want more people of all ethnicities in NZ to play rugby league, King Vuniyayawa is the 1st Fijian to make the Warriors from the NZ local game. Former Warriors player like Shaun Johnston who has European and Laotian ancestry, Omar Slaimankhel who is from Afghanistan. David Bhana who has Indian and Maori ancestry. I was in Auckland in December last year and on the way to Concert on the fringe of the city I walked past a Brazilian Church with loudspeakers blasting a sermons in Portuguese.... never thought there was enough Brazilians in Auckland to have there own church near the CBD.