Thetownend.com

Didn't really know where to put this, so it could be a fairly short thread.  But does anyone have the slightest bit of interest in this?  Hasn't even registered for me, and I don't know anyone who has been following it either.

Seems to me that Rugby League used to have much more of a general following than it does now.  Household names like Martin Offiah and Ellery Hanley.  I can honestly say that I'm unable to name a single League player.  Does anyone outside of Wigan, Hull, Warrington etc care about it?  England playing today, apparently.

In a word, no. Only marginally more of a sport than NFL. All IMHO of course.

As entertainment, I prefer League to Union. I think the blokes playing it are mental and far more athletic too.

Its like rugby, but not proper rugby. And I barely have an interested in proper rugby.

So no, as a sport it rates as highly on my radar as poking zoo animals with a stick.

I've always liked RL in a kind of class warfare way...insofar as the norvern working class oiks wished to stuff it up to the toff rugger buggers of Twickenham. This is probably why RL is bigger in Australia...less hide bound by class.

Years ago when TV consisted of 3 channels, BBC2 used to run a tournament called Floodlight Rugby League, fronted by the inimitable Eddie Waring...it was compulsive viewing, proper dour norvern winter stuff of hard fuckers rolling about in mud.

Think Richard Harris in This Sporting Life, probably the best ever British film made with a sporting theme.

I took a shine to Featherstone Rovers, a team from a pit village a bit smaller than Bassett...it seemed that if they needed a player someone would shout down the mine and Stakhanovite hero would answer the call.

Unfortunately, like so much of our way of life...the likes of Featherstone could battle the British class system, but not the vicissitudes of global capitalism unleashed by Thatcher.

I wont be watching the match today..

For many reasons, some mentioned by Reg, I can't tell you how much I dislike union. The sport itself is ok to watch, but generally there be some toff nearby ruining it. For that reason I don't mind league at all. Not that I'll be watching.

Rugby League in the UK went downhill as soon as Union went professional. 'Super League' gets worse every year, and so do the crowds.

I did like watching in the late 90's with Jonathan Davies, Jason Robinson, et al. in their prime, but really the Aussies will win it, and the only countries that could really challange them are England and the Kiwis.

I used to watch it when Grandstand used to show the second half of a match live on a Saturday afternoon, presumably late 70's, early 80's time, that's when i think i remember watching it.

Like Ardiles, i couldn't name a single league player either.

I notice the Cook Islands appear to be in this. Now there's a real top level sporting nation.

Ramsbottom. Probably.

As some have mentioned, the decline in interest seems to have occurred parallel to a decline in prime TV coverage. I'm quite into RL, and it's still seen as 'proper rugby' in the North West and in Yorkshire. Had the TV companies hyped it up like they would a football, union or even cricket world cup then maybe a bit more interest would have been generated.

Enjoy Australian Rugby league, so the game as a concept is fine. However over here, it's rubbish. M62 sport. Yorks v Lancs on the whole, and their chip on their shoulder re: union is embarrassing. 

Possibly the worst world cup going, glad union won the war.