Why the time is right to promote the growth of RL

You don’t get much coverage of Rugby League in the newspapers during the close season so I’m sure you won’t have missed the news from other parts of the sporting world, Mr Henry and his basketball skills which led to the inevitable conversation about video technology in football and people of course bring up rugby as a shining example of the use of video technology. Which always make me feel a little smug, for such a long time rugby league has been an innovative sport, not afraid to reassess and change itself, always trying to improve the game for spectators.
You may also have read the news about Lords cricket ground possibly selling their name to a sponsor and you’ll be sure to think we’ve been doing that for years. I even thought to myself, what’s the fuss! We have a team who sold their whole name - The Vodafone Warriors - and people are up in arms over the name of a stadium.
I also read one of the silliest things I’ve read in a while – the suggestion of merging League and Union (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article6916206.ece). We’re practically two different sports with a few similarities. Rugby Union fans won’t want to give up their boring kicking and “tactical” scrummaging for the faster pace of Rugby League.
It’s all well and good being ahead of other sports in terms of refereeing and being forward thinking with your sponsorship but now is exactly the right time to push rugby league. Rugby Union is undoubtedly our biggest rival in terms of spectators, as a sport we can’t compete with football and I don’t think we ever will.
But at the moment Rugby Union is struggling with a game becoming ever more bogged down by a slow boring rucking game interspersed with the tennis style kicking that has plagued the game for such a long time.
Now is exactly the right time to have a Super League club in a rugby union heartland such as Wales. Whilst die hard union fans aren’t going to come flocking to watch Celtic, fringe supporters bored by the slow pace and boring play may well be enticed by the 13 a side game.
Rugby League on the other hand is buoyant, there is a growing international game - Australia are no longer world champions and England have finally shown some promise of gaining ground on them. France are slowly becoming a competitive force and making the step up from being the customary whipping boys of the international scene and many lesser nations are embracing the game (even if it is with a handful of Aussies in the team)
Personally I think the time is right to establish a global governing body for the sport to help with the on going international growth and to iron out the differences in play and refereeing between the two major leagues.
This season has also seen a competitive Super League with many exciting games where results were far from guaranteed and predictable. Even though we did see Saints and Leeds contest the grand final again, you certainly wouldn’t back that as a certainty for next seasons Old Trafford show piece.
This will all make the next round of licensing for Super League very interesting. I personally would love to see Widnes in the Super League and I think there may well be a casualty or two from the current list of top flight clubs. However the argument for a club in Cumbria is massive, it’s seemingly unbelievable that the county has not had a top flight club for so long.
The future of Rugby League looks positive but it may well ask hard questions in the heartlands of the game, nobody wants to see the traditional, historic clubs out of Super League but there simply isn’t room to accommodate everybody and expand the game into new areas.
Comments
4 comments for Why the time is right to promote the growth of RL. Why not add your comment now?Rugby union is just as exciting to their fans as rugby league is to us. This is why league ain't spreadig because we all think our game is better than theirs and everyone else. Grow up is the only way our fans, media and administaion would move our game forward.
Rugby Union is growing that's true but they are struggling with the game being bogged down at the breakdown. You only have to open some recent newspapers to read talk of the possibility of more rule changes and even suggestion like having less players on the field to increase the pace of the game and put more of a priority of a flowing ball in hand game.
You're right that many Rugby Union fans still find the game exciting and we aren't going to win many, if any, traditional rugby union fans over to watching the 13 a side game at the weekend, but fringe fans fed up of the problems that are in rugby union and those new to rugby as a sport would certainly be worth targeting. We have so many facets of the faster, ball in hand game that many Union fans want.
Rugby Union's wildly successful Rugby Sevens format is now in the Olympics. The IRB are spreading Sevens across the globe - and Sevens fans usually graduate, eventually, to RU.
My point: RL should look seriously at the proposals to unify with RU. After all, if a bunch of kids in China are learning the game tomorrow, do you wanna bet which format they are learning?
Don't have an account yet? Click here to register. Only takes a few seconds.
Author
More Blogs
Barrow look to Super League in 2012
Crusaders, crowds, WCC and new signings
Ones to Watch: The emergence of youth
Ones to Watch: The import factor
Keep Challenge Cup memories on free-to-air TV
Others
Under the Posts by Mark Fullilove
The Final Hooter by Alison Whitfield
Championship View by Stewart McCullough
Common Sense by M Cheshire
Eye on Rugby League by Tony Williams
In to Touch by James Gordon
Rugby League Outlook by Kevin Finney
Verney's Voice by Joseph Verney
Raising the Bar by Tom Coates
40/20 blog by Matt Ireland
Interact
Stats
vs |
||
| Round: 27 Fri 3 Sep 20:00 | ||
vs |
||
| Round: 27 Fri 3 Sep 20:00 | ||
vs |
||
| Round: 27 Sat 4 Sep 16:30 | ||
vs |
||
| Round: 27 Sat 4 Sep 18:45 | ||
vs |
||
| Round: 27 Sat 4 Sep 18:45 | ||
vs |
||
| Round: 27 Sat 4 Sep 18:30 | ||
18 - 38 |
||
| New Craven Park Sun 22nd August | ||
52 - 4 |
||
| The Galpharm Stadium Sun 22nd August | ||
38 - 28 |
||
| Grattan Stadium Sun 22nd August | ||
40 - 28 |
||
| The Jungle Sun 22nd August | ||
10 - 36 |
||
| Racecourse Sat 21st August | ||
36 - 18 |
||
| Halliwell Jones Stadium Fri 20th August | ||
| Pos | Name | P | W | D | L | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wigan | 26 | 21 | 0 | 5 | 42 |
| 2 | St Helens | 26 | 19 | 0 | 7 | 38 |
| 3 | Warrington | 26 | 19 | 0 | 7 | 38 |
| 4 | Leeds | 26 | 16 | 1 | 9 | 33 |
| 5 | Hull FC | 26 | 16 | 0 | 10 | 32 |
| 6 | Huddersfield | 26 | 15 | 1 | 10 | 31 |
| 7 | Hull K R | 26 | 14 | 1 | 11 | 29 |
| 8 | Castleford | 26 | 11 | 0 | 15 | 22 |
| 9 | Crusaders | 26 | 11 | 0 | 15 | 22 |
| 10 | Bradford | 26 | 9 | 1 | 16 | 19 |
| 11 | Wakefield | 26 | 9 | 0 | 17 | 18 |
| 12 | Harlequins | 26 | 7 | 0 | 19 | 14 |
| 13 | Salford | 26 | 7 | 0 | 19 | 14 |
| 14 | Catalans | 26 | 6 | 0 | 20 | 12 |
vs |
||
| Round: Play Offs Thu 2 Sep 19:30 | ||
vs |
||
| Round: Play Offs Sun 5 Sep 15:00 | ||
vs |
||
| Round: Play Offs Thu 9 Sep 19:30 | ||
vs |
||
| Round: Final Sun 26 Sep | ||
26 - 12 |
||
| Recreation Ground Sun 22nd August | ||
24 - 32 |
||
| Cougar Park Sun 22nd August | ||
72 - 20 |
||
| Bigfellas Stadium Sun 22nd August | ||
24 - 38 |
||
| Sat 21st August | ||
29 - 28 |
||
| Don Valley Stadium Thu 19th August | ||
14 - 32 |
||
| Craven Park Wed 18th August | ||
| Pos | Name | P | W | D | L | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Featherstone | 20 | 18 | 0 | 2 | 56 |
| 2 | Halifax | 20 | 16 | 0 | 4 | 50 |
| 3 | Leigh | 20 | 12 | 1 | 7 | 43 |
| 4 | Barrow | 20 | 12 | 1 | 7 | 39 |
| 5 | Widnes | 20 | 11 | 0 | 9 | 38 |
| 6 | Sheffield | 20 | 10 | 1 | 9 | 35 |
| 7 | Batley | 20 | 7 | 0 | 13 | 29 |
| 8 | Toulouse | 20 | 8 | 0 | 12 | 27 |
| 9 | Dewsbury | 20 | 6 | 0 | 14 | 26 |
| 10 | Whitehaven | 20 | 4 | 0 | 16 | 16 |
| 11 | Keighley * | 20 | 4 | 1 | 15 | 10 |
vs |
||
| Round: Play Offs Sun 5 Sep 15:30 | ||
vs |
||
| Round: Play Offs Sun 5 Sep 15:00 | ||
vs |
||
| Round: Play Offs Sun 12 Sep 15:00 | ||
vs |
||
| Round: Final Sun 26 Sep | ||
18 - 48 |
||
| New River Stadium Fri 27th August | ||
32 - 24 |
||
| South Leeds Stadium Sun 22nd August | ||
16 - 26 |
||
| Spotland Stadium Sun 22nd August | ||
94 - 0 |
||
| Sedgley Park Sun 22nd August | ||
46 - 12 |
||
| Keepoat Stadium Sun 22nd August | ||
16 - 18 |
||
| Sun 15th August | ||
25 - 24 |
||
| Bloomfield Road Sun 18th July | ||
18 - 48 |
||
| Cougar Park Sun 20th June | ||
4 - 25 |
||
| Leigh Sports Village Thu 17th June | ||
6 - 42 |
||
| South Leeds Stadium Sun 6th June | ||
26 - 16 |
||
| Mount Pleasant Sun 6th June | ||
32 - 6 |
||
| Cougar Park Sun 6th June | ||
| Pos | Name | P | W | D | L | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dragons | 23 | 16 | 0 | 7 | 205 |
| 2 | Wests | 23 | 15 | 0 | 8 | 37 |
| 3 | Panthers | 23 | 14 | 0 | 9 | 118 |
| 4 | Titans | 23 | 14 | 0 | 9 | 19 |
| 5 | Roosters | 23 | 13 | 0 | 10 | 39 |
| 6 | Warriors | 23 | 13 | 0 | 10 | 39 |
| 7 | Sea Eagles | 23 | 12 | 0 | 11 | 41 |
| 8 | Raiders | 23 | 12 | 0 | 11 | 4 |
| 9 | Rabbitohs | 23 | 11 | 0 | 12 | 31 |
| 10 | Broncos | 23 | 11 | 0 | 12 | -25 |
| 11 | Knights | 23 | 10 | 0 | 13 | -40 |
| 12 | Eels | 23 | 10 | 0 | 13 | -64 |
| 13 | Bulldogs | 23 | 8 | 0 | 15 | -51 |
| 14 | Sharks | 23 | 7 | 0 | 16 | -217 |
| 15 | Cowboys | 23 | 5 | 0 | 18 | -232 |
| 16 | Storm | 23 | 13 | 0 | 10 | 96 |







