Bring back the Kangaroo tour

Out of all the Kangaroo Tours moments,one stand out for me, in 1990. It was where the Australian & the Great Britain teams lined up side-by-side and walked out to the centre at Wembley, prior to the 1st Test. As they did so, the hymn, 'Land of Hope & Glory' was sung not just by the massed choirs, but also by the crowd as well. The atmosphere was incredible, even sitting 20,000km away. Great Britain went on to win the 1st Test.

In 5 years time what will International League be like? Answer is no one knows. The people that run the game have no Idea about long term planning i.e having an Idea and sticking with it.

sorry, meant to post it on the next thread down

"thats like me stating that the roosters, penrith, wests and the warriors should be kicked out of the NRL because obviously they cant be heartlands with teams not getting in the top eight in the last 5-6 seasons" What you said is completely irrelevant. It's stupid, too.

thats like me stating that the roosters, penrith, wests and the warriors should be kicked out of the NRL because obviously they cant be heartlands with teams not getting in the top eight in the last 5-6 seasons

"Ohhhh and austrlaia and New Zealand were knocked out by england and France respectivley" The British commentator who called the quarter-final between Australia and England referred to England's victory as the greatest upset in the history of the tournament. England lost 36-0 to South Africa during the pool stage of the tournament. Face facts buddy, the northern hemisphere teams are unreliable. They can grind out a victory over the southern hemisphere teams every now and then, but they lose to them -- sometimes by a fair few -- more often than not. New Zealand choked. Again!

"Realist you not very relistic are you. unknown in South America, played in Argentina, Brazil, Paragauy been to rugby world cup, Chile, Uraguay Asia, Japan, South Korea, Kazakstan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Asian 5 nations in fact if you watch the 7’s circuit there are many more teams so your statement is slightly inaccurate" -- J I never said rugby union wasn't known in South America and Asia! What I said is it's relatively unknown in most areas of South America and Asia. The fact you could only list a few countries from both continents -- most of which don't take the game very seriously -- proves my point! The sport is relatively unknown throughout most regions of China. There are only 4,200 players and just 10 clubs in China. There are over a 1.2 billion people living in China. Do the maths. You cited Uruguay, yet you failed to mention that it has less than 6,000 players. I know it's a small nation, but it would have more players than that if it was taken seriously by most Uruguayans. I've seen Chilean rugby union on Joost. I only saw about a dozen or so spectators at the games, though the coverage of the game was fairly good. The game's participation rate in Chile appears to be strong enough to suggest it has a future. Don't even mention rugby union in Brazil. The sport has been there since the 19th century, yet it only has 3,500 players and 10 clubs. When you consider that Brazil has a huge population, it is evident that the nation doesn't rate rugby union at all. Why am I citing these figures? To show you that rugby union isn't the global giant that its fans make it out to be. It does have a base to work with in many regions of the world, but it is still relatively unknown in most of them.

The 1967/68 was the first Kangaroos tour I ever heard of, while holidaying in Australia with my family. The man in the bowler hat obviously caught my attention. But I was 11 then, & strangely, more into soccer, cricket & tennis. Living in PNG at the time, I didn't know much about the big sports. Rugby league & union didn't really hit my radar until I attended boarding school in 1969. It would be good to see an abridged version of Kangaroos tours return, even like the one Jason suggested. There's no reason for the 4N comp to be held annually. Apart from the fact, they don't have much else internationally to throw at the public! Anyway, the 67/68 team was full of champions. Sadly, I never saw the captain Reg Gasnier play live. He quit the game through persistent injury still only 28. Johnny Raper, Graeme Langlands, Billy Smith, Ron Coote, Ken Irvine, John McDonald, Noel Kelly, Peter Gallagher, Elton Rasmussen & Les Johns are just some of the other great names from that tour. There were even some shock omissions - Bob McCarthy, Bob Fulton, Arthur Beetson & Dick Thornett. Another certainty, John Wittenberg sat the season out in a contract dispute.

Ohhhh and austrlaia and New Zealand were knocked out by england and France respectivley. Argentina beat France twice at the world cup, opening game and 3rd and 4th playoff.

Realist you not very relistic are you. unknown in South America, played in Argentina, Brazil, Paragauy been to rugby world cup, Chile, Uraguay Asia, Japan, South Korea, Kazakstan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Asian 5 nations in fact if you watch the 7's circuit there are many more teams so your statement is slightly inaccurate

Queensland and NSW v the M62[thats a motorway in Northern England}. Kangaroo tours , youre aving a laff. Stick to the NRL and SOO and give us all a break from your endless hype about "the Greatest Game"

the local area trust or local council i think were the ones who bought them.

"i think its a bad thing because they have basically adbandoned RL in the south of wales, which is bigger economically, and population wise." Gorganites South Wales Scorpions.

"thats a very narrow view. what about the 2007 semi finalist Argentina? Or 2009 Six nations champs Ireland (who drew with Australia and beat the Saffas last year). Or the 2008 six nations champs Wales?" -- Gorganites Wales and Ireland have never come close to winning the World Cup. In fact, I don't think either nation has made it past the quarter-finals. Argentina were thrashed by South Africa in the semi-final and, didn't didn't play New Zealand or Australia during the early stages? The only teams they played were the unreliable, beatable teams from the northern hemisphere. "Dont forget rugby is played around the world. RL is not." Gorganites Rugby union is relatively unknown in most regions of Asia and South America. Very few European nations rate it as one of their most popular sports. It isn't very popular in North America. For the record, almsot half as many countries play rugby league.

thats a very narrow view. what about the 2007 semi finalist Argentina? Or 2009 Six nations champs Ireland (who drew with Australia and beat the Saffas last year). Or the 2008 six nations champs Wales? Dont forget rugby is played around the world. RL is not.

6,700+. Snowing all week and up to a few hours before the game, people didn't know if it was going to be played. That fact alone would've turned people off going. But don't let the truth hold back your concern for RL in North Wales. I listened to it on BBC radio and the crowd was right into it (radio humberside) and the commentators said the crowd gave the Crusaders a standing ovation at the end of the match. I wouldn't worry about South Wales, the Scorpions will fill that gap in in no time, plus the fact the Bears (new team) are coming in 2013 to play in the championship. So from going to no pro/semi pro clubs playing in Wales 3 seasons ago, we'll have 3 in a short time. The Crusaders average right now is around 8,500 in a 10k stadium, I don't know what else they can do to shut certain people up, this crowd will drop next game because of the fact they play Les Catalans who will not bring many, but they still have big sides who have very good traveling support to come yet with Wigan, Warrington, St Helens and Hull KR all o play in Wrexham later on. The weather will hopefully get better as the season progresses, so that should help in regards to crowds, now if they can win a couple more games who knows how their average will end up. They also have 1 or 2 games to play in South Wales this year, so we'll see how well the support for them is down there, maybe the crowd have abandoned them down there, who knows, but we'll soon find out and I know you can't wait to post the crowds figures if they don't look too crash hot. And KOTG, the ground does not hold 16k at the moment, it holds 10k because one end (standing room only) is unsafe, so it's been closed for a fair while.

Gorganite, I was referring to the rugby union world cup. Well I will list the 5 teams then, England, Australia, Nz, South Africa, France. I like both codes.

When one thinks of Kangaroo Tours, the following come to mind: the 1967 tour featuring the 'bowler hat' incident involving John Raper; the 1973 tour, when the third and deciding test of that series was played on a frozen pitch; the undefeated tours of 1982 and 1986.

The 10K that they got for the match against Leeds was above the ESL average. And it is snowing. They were originally going to move to Newport but then the Wrexham FC owner or whoever offered to buy them, I doubt they would have survive in Newport and their crowds deinitely would not have been as good.

The ARL don't anyway, the RFL want this type of schedule but are being held back by the ARL. If a Kangaroo Tour is every 8 years then a player will most likely only be able to go on one, making the Tour a whole lot more valuable and exclusive.