Return to Winter Rugby League ?

[Oldbear]

No way could Toronto play in a winter league,  Catalans might be less willing too, given the likelihood of more weather postponements and travel disruptions.

[Trojan]

14 hours ago, scotchy1 said:

Sadly many on here are weirdly, vociferously against 9s.

I'm a huge fan of international RL and think we definitely need to increase its priority, that's why I think we need to look at the calendar and who is playing where to create the space for them

International success is the only way to big up the game and expand.  Every other method is very iffy.  Catalans Dragons was supposed to re boot the game in France,  but all it's done is produce another SL club with no visible effect on any revival over there.  I went to Perpignan n 2017 and was very impressed, I also went to Toulouse,  and wasn't impressed at all.  The set up off the field was very slapdash and the crowds weren't particularly impressive.  No the way to go is success against the southern hemisphere sides

[THE RED ROOSTER]

I would make a some of additional points here:

Soccer is played now nearly all year round, sometimes when there are International Tournaments the pre-season friendlies start in July the week after the final. So wherever you positioned the season you would get soccer. It comes back to that age old question of what is yiour primary sport - Soccer or Rugby League ?

The idea of international alignment is down to the NRL not the Northern hemisphere. Origin is prioritised ahead of International RL and until Australia are consistently beiong beaten by England / Great Britain that will remain the case and one of the reasons why Super League lost momentum was the 1997 World Club Challenge in which the Super League clubs were shown to be a vastly inferior product to the Australian Super League sides.  Those in the Rugby League "bubble" never have come to terms with the damage it did with the rest of the UK sporting public outside the "bubble"

There are a lot of competing sports in the summer and it has been a topic on here in the past how SKY does not feature Rugby League in its summer advertising or in many of its TV adverts. It now has more "properties"than it had then and pushes the sports that maximise advertising revenue.

Given that the sport is now played for ten months in the year from late January to mid-November I am struggling with the vehement opposition to even consder having a season running - September to mid June.

For sure it does not address with the issue of expansion but might assist in that a winter season would mean fewer alternative atractions.

[Hela Wigmen]

I’ve got nothing wrong with the months of which we play the game, more what we fill those months with. Do we need to play as many regular season games in Super League or the Championship as we have, for example? 

[fighting irish]

20 hours ago, bobrock said:

It's so nice to read Shaun Edwards when he says "rugby union is not boring. It's great"

Thats not what he said, when Wigan played Bath. 

[Wigan Riversider]

17 hours ago, M j M said:

He's changed.

I believe he once said that the greatest captain he had worked with was Laurence Delaglio.

Also he advised John Monie to move Ellery to play number 13.

He used to love listening to the British Lions tour on the wireless when Barry John played number 10.

Recently, Mike Ford was the dominant half back in the classic 1985 Wembley final.

I suppose my point is that the truth should never spoil a good story.

[RMBJ]

On 03/05/2020 at 10:49, The 4 of Us said:

 

Not sure Shaun Edward’s comments add to the situation. His reference to “interesting” tactical considerations is presumably ability to play in suitably dire weather. It’s another of those “subtle nuisances“ we keep hearing about, that we mere RL fans are unable to understand. Like many other things with the other game, there’s more than a hint of emperors new clothes about them. 

Jesus wept 

[Big Picture]

19 hours ago, Marty Funkhouser said:

Unfortunately those places are the only places where people with the will, desire, makeup, and ability, to play Rugby League to a professional level, are located in sufficient numbers in the UK. 

The way habits, society, the world and the human race is going/has gone , that is not going to change, in the UK at least.

That is the unfortunate truth at present, and it's also something which must change if RL is to continue as a pro game in the northern hemisphere.  Either the game acquires a way to appeal successfully to the rest of the UK population and bring a number of them over or it will keep falling further behind soccer and RU until pro RL in the northern hemisphere ceases to exist.

[Steve Slater]

It's a conundrum in that it would be good to have a short summer break during the school summer holidays. You could then hold international fixtures during this period. You could then have another break in January and February after the Christmas and New Year derbies, but when would you stage the play-offs? Whether you called it summer or winter rugby makes no difference because you'd still be playing in June and throughout some winter months.

[Steve Slater]

15 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

People right now are watching Belarusian Football via YouTube completely legally and without the need of a betting account, which was previously the only way of watching some sports live.

I tried it but got blathered on the vodka!

[bobrock]

On 04/05/2020 at 13:21, fighting irish said:

Thats not what he said, when Wigan played Bath. 

With all what has happened in the history of the two codes, I am amazed to see how much league fans still think about those two matches and I wonder why they still believe it was such a relevant episode in sport history. Wigan beat Bath when they played league and Bath beat Wigan when they played union so it's hard to see what the fuss was about. Union was becoming a professional sport, so many things happened, and I wonder if there are more than a handful of union fans who either remember or care about those two matches.

[nadera78]

6 hours ago, bobrock said:

With all what has happened in the history of the two codes, I am amazed to see how much league fans still think about those two matches and I wonder why they still believe it was such a relevant episode in sport history. Wigan beat Bath when they played league and Bath beat Wigan when they played union so it's hard to see what the fuss was about. Union was becoming a professional sport, so many things happened, and I wonder if there are more than a handful of union fans who either remember or care about those two matches.

Well, I can't speak for all union fans, but not so long ago I had one flat out lie to me about those fixtures. According to him Wigan only just won the first game, while the union version was a non-contest in favour of Bath - and apparently they took it easy on Wigan. Got very agitated about too. All because I had the temerity to state that I thought RL was the better game.

[Gooleboy]

5 hours ago, nadera78 said:

Well, I can't speak for all union fans, but not so long ago I had one flat out lie to me about those fixtures. According to him Wigan only just won the first game, while the union version was a non-contest in favour of Bath - and apparently they took it easy on Wigan. Got very agitated about too. All because I had the temerity to state that I thought RL was the better game.

I went to the first game at Maine Road and it was a massive mis match. In the second game at Twickenham, Wigan, as expected, had no Line Out skills and were starved of possession.

[fighting irish]

12 hours ago, bobrock said:

With all what has happened in the history of the two codes, I am amazed to see how much league fans still think about those two matches and I wonder why they still believe it was such a relevant episode in sport history. Wigan beat Bath when they played league and Bath beat Wigan when they played union so it's hard to see what the fuss was about. Union was becoming a professional sport, so many things happened, and I wonder if there are more than a handful of union fans who either remember or care about those two matches.

yes you are right.

My comment though was not about the match(es) it was about Sean Edwards comments about rugby union, after the union match.

A lot has changed since then no doubt, including it seems, Edwards' opinion of the game he now works in.

[fighting irish]

6 hours ago, nadera78 said:

Well, I can't speak for all union fans, but not so long ago I had one flat out lie to me about those fixtures. According to him Wigan only just won the first game, while the union version was a non-contest in favour of Bath - and apparently they took it easy on Wigan. Got very agitated about too. All because I had the temerity to state that I thought RL was the better game.

Lies? you seem so surprised.

Their propensity, to re-write history and in particular, to gloss over their most shameful acts and in this case, a most humiliating debacle knows no bounds.

What surprises me is how we so often forget, the true nature of the beast, here in Blighty.

I said to Maurice Oldroyd, listen Maurice, you can cosy up to these people all you want, but the simple truth is they're out to get us.

By any and all means. Be vigilant.

[bobrock]

15 hours ago, nadera78 said:

Well, I can't speak for all union fans, but not so long ago I had one flat out lie to me about those fixtures. According to him Wigan only just won the first game, while the union version was a non-contest in favour of Bath - and apparently they took it easy on Wigan. Got very agitated about too. All because I had the temerity to state that I thought RL was the better game.

Well I am surprised a real union fan could find a reason to be agitated about the whole thing. It all seemed to me a little more than a gimmick. Can you really believe those two matches could actually prove some kind of superiority of either code ? And you really believe they proved League to be superior just because Wigan won the league match by a larger margin ? Call me arrogant if it makes you feel better,  but that claim would be laughable.

[nadera78]

8 hours ago, bobrock said:

Well I am surprised a real union fan could find a reason to be agitated about the whole thing. It all seemed to me a little more than a gimmick. Can you really believe those two matches could actually prove some kind of superiority of either code ? And you really believe they proved League to be superior just because Wigan won the league match by a larger margin ? Call me arrogant if it makes you feel better,  but that claim would be laughable.

I don't know where that response comes from, it doesn't connect to anything in my post. But carry on.

[bobrock]

5 hours ago, nadera78 said:

I don't know where that response comes from, it doesn't connect to anything in my post. But carry on.

Well it does connect actually. You said that union fan was even agitated about that thing. I just state he had no reason to. If he wanted to "defend" Union he was mistaken because those matches proved nothing against it.

[John Fisher]

Summer Rugby means for a lot of people choosing to play cricket or Rugby, with a corresponding reduction in numbers in both sports.