A paraRL Universe: What happened to the Euro Super League after 1995

[Tides Of History]

As today marks the 30th anniversary of the birth of Super League, myself and Andrew Foster got together to write an alternative history for the Real Class website. 

https://www.realclass.co.uk/golden-years-thirty-years-on-from-the-super-league-revolution/

What if mergers had been handled better?

What if we had developed the game in Wales and continued to raid RU?

What if we ha developed Catalan over Paris and even managed to keep hold of Jason Robinson ahead of the 2003 Ashes?

We have done this to have a bit of a fun and debate at a time when the game again appears to be at another "crossroads" - so would love to hear your thoughts on roads the game could have taken and things we might have missed...

We are also looking to raise a bit of money for the brilliant SDS charity. Many of you will probably be aware that Andrew lost his son Rycroft, who suffered from Shwachman Diamond Syndrome (SDS) - so if you enjoy the article please feel free to donate!

https://www.justgiving.com/page/rugbyleaguewritingforrycroft?ref=realclass.co.uk

Happy 30 years of Super League, here is to another 30 years of ideas, healthy debate and hopefully growth for our great game. 

[Maximus Decimus]

I wouldn't say this is an alternative history, more a wishful thinking history where every potential alternative decision became an excellent one.

Take the mergers as one small example, they would have never worked. There's no alternative history where me and my brothers are travelling to the Halliwell Jones to cheer on Cheshire.

Even in Australia where mergers happened in a less tribal and more positive culture, they haven't really worked have they? Manly-North Sydney is largely just Manly, St-George-Illawarra is basically St George and Wests Tigers are consistently one of the worst clubs.

 

[Amber Avenger]

1 hour ago, Maximus Decimus said:

I wouldn't say this is an alternative history, more a wishful thinking history where every potential alternative decision became an excellent one.

I guess there is no fun in saying every alternative decision would be ###### and it's just a bit of fun to start a conversation. I guess you can break it down into the litany of individual missed opportunities rather than all of them at once -not all of which might have come off. If just one of them had, perhaps things would be different.

I thought it was good fun anyway! 

[Maximus Decimus]

1 hour ago, Amber Avenger said:

I guess there is no fun in saying every alternative decision would be ###### and it's just a bit of fun to start a conversation. I guess you can break it down into the litany of individual missed opportunities rather than all of them at once -not all of which might have come off. If just one of them had, perhaps things would be different.

I thought it was good fun anyway! 

I'm not saying it wasn't interesting, but I don't think labelling it as an alternative history is quite right. That is usually what could have been different but in a balanced way, and I clicked on it for that reason.

This was more of a fantasy history, where RL took off in an incredible way. I personally don't think that was ever possible after about 1940. 

I used to run one of the old Rivals.net websites, and when I was setting it up I did a couple of filler pages that I recently came across. One was about the RLWC 2000 and it was talking about what had happened. It read very much like this. Record crowds, record viewing figures, the game exploding in Ireland etc. It wasn't plucked out of thin air, it was based on optimistic reports I'd read (selling out from the quarters onwards being one I remember).

In an alternate world where the Aussies retreated after '95 and just wanted tours, there'd be people saying we missed a huge opportunity not going to 16 teams and if we had our World Cup would rival Unions.

The world doesn't work like that sadly.

[The Masked Poster]

I remember being so optimistic around this time that big things were going to happen. They really were and people just needed a nudge to get onboard.