Unlocking rugby league's global footprint

because rugby league actualy has some power now, its not like before ww2, when rugby shut down league at every attempt in europe, prime examples would be france russia and italy, where unions influence shut down league, but they couldnt do it know cause league actually has some influence.

but there are plenty of good rugby league players in the nrl who were born and raised in fiji.

champ .If you think you know more than the administration of the Welsh and English Rugby league,then be my guest,good for a laugh.I have a fair idea who is the more reliable.It has nothing to do with touch,when we are talking schools rl ,club junior registrations and the Carnegie champion schools. I personally don't give a rats tail what you suggest CEOs from various clubs have to say and Tallis for that matter.Sometimes I might actually agree with them,especially when it is a return serve to comments made against their code.Maybe you should have read david campese in the past,or Brendan Cannon at times. You continue to avoid my request to say whether you support the CEO of the ARU talking about rl being relegated in oz,after ru,and the RL will wither and die by the former Wallaby coach. On 15/2/2001 o'Neill procalimed in RU will soon relace league as the number one rugby code in australiaARU boss said today.And in another bold prediction it would become Australia'spremier winter spport within 5 years".Now Mr kovana/Dave.are these the truths provded by a leader of a ru code,not one down the line.? Please you going on about predictions etc.You stated the RLWC wouldn't make a profit,before that it woudn't go ahead. Who cares about whether ABs want to switch or not,there are plenty of Polynesian kids playing in the under 20 ,under 18 comps.They are getting an opportunity,which you seem to want to deny them,by crapping on about rl can't do this,have no chance of doing that. I will let you into a secret I have close friends,who do not disclose things to me,they want to keep a secret at times.I have relatives who have done this.Cooper may well be keeping his cards close to his chest.He may have committed to France or dread the Eels. You have just shown to me and the world that you have absolutely no idea of what the Sport England grant is for.It is for development work,and was gauged on the result of development undertaken,and ihe RFL have to show based on their forward estimates of development,else their future funding is dropped .You have no understanding of what I have written :it is not based on participants as is,but on the increase in participation as a growth percentage.eg a sport may have 1 million players,but have little increase over the years.RL has had a large percentage increase in participation. eg What the RFL has to achieve by 2012 Benchmark Current figure 2012 target No of secondary schools 1678 2370 in champion schools No of junior (5-190 amateur teams 1118 1478 No of open age teams 2308 3708 No of activematch officials 753 1203 No of registered volunteers 10953 16000 No of 5-19 yr olds registered with clubs 22370 29570 No of registered adult players(16+) 57722 92722 Are you saying these offical requirements by sport England are bunkum?Please advise immediately. So please stop telling absolute untruths that the money is to prop up the RFL,because they are struggling.This is for development first,second and third. .To suggest it is to prop up the game (it helps the game in development no doubt) is an outright untruth.because my friend the RFL was able to show the percentage increase in development in that country and the work done in poor areas of london,that they were able to achieve such growth.Sport England is not in the business to grant money to ailing clubs else gateshead et al,would be a lot better off,one suggests. Again and it is becoming tiresome,my point,was and still is,for someone to come on board and point fingers at rl for anti social indiscretions,when their code are hardly whiter than white,is hypocriticial. RL writers do at times bag ru, but all the time BS.You write anything and expect people to believe it. The RU gent wrote that comment in 2003 WC time about the Storm,he had no idea about salary cap breaches.Again you are talking rubbish.The reasons he wrote the articles are many he dislike rl(his weekly rants confirm this) ,he dislikes News who own the Storm,the thought of the storm in melbourne before the Rebels upset him. You champ were the one who put in print on this thread the fact rl had not grown over 100 years.I have just given an example where the game has made inroads and is now available in the Br Armed Services.If it wasn't there before 1990 and is now.that is growth.Geez my 12 year old would know that. I happen to agree with Sean Fagan ,and the fact the pro side,negelected the amateur side.The code realised that,hence the higher participation rates in the later year.He would also acknowledge the effect of the prevailing situation in France during and after the WW2. Do you actually realise that the overwhelming majority of players who play rl are amateurs for heaven;s sake.Amateurism is hardly unique to union. Because rl was not the officially sanctioned rugby code in SA,and intertwined with the govt'.Rugby league was so small anyway and had no impact.Not having a ru tour of the boks would have had a huge impact,that is the big difference. Did I say anywhere Mandela did not like ru.Fair crack you are going off at a tangent and putting your word into people's arguments.I will spell, it out he was a victim of apartheid an official racist system,which was part of the selection process in ru teams ATT.Don't fob things off and blame rl. You just don't read what people write.I stated that all codes have their anti social elements,and those who continue to point the finger at rl players,whilst inferring their code is lilywhite is Olympic class hypocrisy.When people throw up names,they get a response such as the bloke from SA and France.I am not naive enough to believe that there are no rl players in jail.We have our share of Paul Haywards,John Eliases/.I was taught at an anglican school:""He who is without sin cast the first stone".Just had a few boulders tossed my way,they were returned promptly.. "The ""cumulative" figue of 4.5 billion is still laughable.The final had 33million acccording to the official IRB reports.The SOO series would have 20 miilion listed instead of about 5-6,based on those figure. The RLWC does not work on cumulative figure but what is availlable to view,and the actiual figures not cumulative. Funny you should mention Damien Irvine.(Sharks)about Taupo,nothing about him declaring Taupo a rugby union town,on theSharks websiet..nothing about that on stuff.co.nz except that Frano botica was working with the events spokesperson,nothing about that statement on the D.T.The only thing I could come up with'they are very enthusiastic about rugby league over there".Damine Irvine wouldn't have a clue as to the number of rl players there.It sounds as if you are confusing him with thefellow Johnathon Irvine of Real fun Events behind Taupo promotions.Of course journos can put their interpretation on a statement that rl is popular,meaning it has larger participation.You are guessing champ.You believe that and you knock some fan sites LOL.

I wonder what crosscoders excuse for this Cronulla Sharks Chairman's declaring a rugby town and a rugby province in NZ has more rugby league players than rugby. What do you call this lie? Just like the Fijian rugby league coach during the RLWC said league was number on e in Fiji and its the national sport. Lies Lies. http://www.rotoruadailypost.co.nz/sport/news/sharks-sign-to-face-warriors-in-taupo/3923903/ We know that there are more rugby league players here than rugby players so we want to reward those league players," Irvine said.

The constant arguing between League & Union fans has become a joke, just show a little mutual respect for once.

Now your trying to make excuses for them NRL CEO's and Tallis for saying rugby is dying in NZ and Australia when they mention it in the media it was a totally different time and year from when John O'Neil open his mouth. Why would a CEO of the NRL or any NRL clubs said rugby league is going to overtake rugby when league was the number code in NSW and Queensland where is also rugby heartlands as well? But saying rugby is dying and boring is very much damaging and not good for those involve like O'Neil and Fitzy. Let me explain something to you. I know Cooper because he attened a private school and played 1st XV together with my son Brisbane and still good mates. He and Jarryd Haynes aren't mates but Hayne was invited by Paramatta to come and talk to Cooper about playing for the Eels and thats where its start and ends. You have alots of ifs and dreams and "I can see the future" but never anything solid about your posts. Many All Blacks have also said they watched the SOO and like to play in the NRL. But when was the last time you saw an All Black switch to the NRL apart from Thorn? Many rugby league writers in the Daily Telegraph, SMH, NZ Herald, Couriermail and others baggs rugby all the time. That Gent is right about the Storm since if they didn't cheat they would have probably gone under by now. Yes I forget you were around 1908 and you saved all those articals from 1908 to 2003 RWC in your hardrive. By the sound of things you were talking about rugby and league in Australia but as I can remember rugby in Australia from 1908 to 1985 was barely on its feet and had no money so nobody from rugby media or adminstration would have the guts to said league is dying because rugby at that time was almost dead. You seem to have a short memory of eague raping rugby of its best players for over 100 years and flashing money in front of their eyes because they didn't want to do the hard work and develop its own players. I know what the Sports England funding is all about and you don't have to tell me that the money is for the sport to survive because without it they won't be able get out of northern England. You claim its based on participants then why wasn't rugby, cricket and soocer got twice or four times as much as league because they certainly have more participants than league. I won't go into details regards England and Wales league just as I won't mention the development of touch rugby in both regions and where is touch internationsl. And won't mention any John Doe and Jane Doe of the armed forces because one person doesn't speak for over 200,000 members of the British Force but I see you find their bias comments music to your ears. You keep banging on about the British Forces and developments but Sean Fagan said to me that rugby league was his worst enemy because they concentrated on the professional side of the game for over 100 years and thought rugby would take care of the amateur game. Because those in rugby league had no idea or didn't see that rugby will one day go professional. While they looked after the few professional clubs the IRB and rugby took the amateur game to the people and from there it just grow. This is probably why for almost 100 years rugby league was looked after by the RFL, NSWRL, QRL and others instead of a international body like the IRB who decided everything in rugby. You still haven't answer my question. Why didn't rugby league stop its tour of South Africa during the apatheid era? I know Mandela was a champ. He played rugby with alot of his ANC prisoners and also love the game. You got that champ? He loved playing and watching rugby. There you go with your 4 billion again when we told you its cumulative audience. Don't go on about rugby players who murder or killed. NZ and Australian prisons is full of amateur league players who did the same and worst. I know there are more league players in NZ jails than rugby and the same in Australia. Noone is in denial but if you think NZ having 40.000 players in 1990 and then down to 15.000 in 2011 even after winning the RLWC final and the Warriors making the final and top 8 is growth then you must be the one in denial. Remember 40.000 down to 15.000 growth or failure? You really are a dork finding anything to blame rugby. How is rugby players in SA suppose to stand up against the government? But they did try and even Craven was instrumental in telling the apartheid government that the Springboks will not support the government.

OK champ time for me to settle down and respond to your comments,which at times I consider unfounded and just plain wrong. Tallis has never stated rl will take over ru in NZ,a couple of former CEOs did once in the excitement of the Warriors getting into the semis.I mentioned the CEO of Souths.In both occasions both Tallis and Richardson and the parra CEO ,were responding to cynicism from journos ,who predicted rl's demise at the hands of ru.They responded as anyone would. I will repeat nowhere has the head CEO of the code(repeat the code rl) stated a code will overtake ru in oz.The CEO of the ARU did in respect of rl.He was unprompted ,as was the former wallby coach ,as is the SMH former Wallaby who relishes in it.Show me where Gallop or Quayle made such a point,Waiting.. Interesting about Q Cooper ,he may well go to France but he is very good mates with Hayne and loves SOO.Maybe he will do a Gasnier,or Gower go over to France, milk the French ru clubs and come back to the NRL.You know it makes sense. The gent who writes in the SMH on a weekly basis,usually bags rl .He rarely bags his own game,in fact there are fluff pieces every week on a ru club doing this and a player doing that ,all in the good name of the code.And if you are lucky a fluff piece on rl.The same gent predicted te demise of rl and the Storm. Suggest the tired old "by a current or former union player or official"Play rl and see Wigan,play ru ands see the world",makes us want to applaud them hey what. Do you realise my friend you don't have to buy Qld newspapers,you can actually read them on the web.I am acquainted with comments made by Tallis(also when SBW went to union).The number of ru people that came on board in the media ,saying this was the start of the demise of rl ,is legendary.It has been going on since 1908 and since the 2003 WC.You see what you want to see. You made a comment completely erroneous I might add ,about the 29.4 million poiunds the RFL got from Sport England,stating they were desperate for funds.Reality check,the money cannot be used to prop up clubs.The reason and only reason the funds were made availbable,was due to the huge impact the code was making in grassroots growth. It was based on the number of particpants(and yes ru is well ahead there),previous success and the ability to deliver to strict targets set by the govt.Yet they received almost as much as union. eg 10 years ago the RFL D/O had 2 fulltime employees according to Ändy Harland". (nat Dev mgr),now there are something like 2000 people employed fulltime by the Community dept.Since 2009_80 new positions-mainly community coaches but also regioanal dev mgrs have been created thanks to Sport England.20 new appointments were made in London and the south alone."" Go into the RFL official website and check the number Pro and amateur operating in London and the South of England now. Over the past 5 years Youth Junior and mini rl in london and the south East has grown rapidly to Span GreaterLondon and 6 other counties 25 clubs and over 60 teams.In 2010 the region will have over 1900 club players-6-21(registered) in its development system,stemming from primary and secondary schoools programme,that engage in excess of thousands of participants annually .the adult game there continues to grow with an estimated 1,600 players going forward to compete in league comps. You appear to have limite knowledge,that rl is played in every county in England,and the majority of tertiiary institutions the overwhelming majority amateur leagues.Ttherefore to have pro teams in rl,will take a long time,if at all. I could spend some time taking about Wales with now over 150 schools involved in the Carnegie Schools comp,and the 16 conference clubs: 13 with seniors and 3 with juniors.the Scorpions currently have 29 players on their books of whom were born in Wales some with juniors. Might I impose,by bringing on board the British armed services rl.About 20 years ago,you couldn''t even play the code in those institutions.,now it is part of the sporting culture. To quote Lt Col Jeremy Bethell (referee),whose original first love was ru"there are a growing number of our players from traditional non Rugby league areas.They spread the word.There are clubs being set up all over the country ,in places like Weymouth largely through the input of ex army players and coaches..Rugby league missed out on the growth of the sport in the outposts of the Empire(my arguemnt also),that the armed forces were very influential in". You throw up a couple of rl fans,who made outlandish claims re venezuela and other exotic locations.I don't and very few rl fans take notice of these claims.Just like 4.5 billion watching a RWC.Pie in the sky stuff. Your argument that rl has stayed the same as in 1908 ,is pure and utter garbage.If it is played in more places than any time in its history,has more participants,it is growing.Unless you have a dictionary, that has another interpretation of the meaning of growth. I could also mention those teams you delighted in banging on about Gateshead Thunder and Sheffied as disasters ,because they c0uldn't hack it in the top comp,are still playing.Sheffield in the co-op championship and they now have on board 2 young players from Ireland in the club. Gateshead thunder plays in the Co op 1 championship.So buddy they are still playing ,allbeit at lower levels.unlike the ARC comp in Oz,which went down the gurgler.Short memories. As far as offfield incidents,i have never shied away from the fact rl has had more than its share.What i will not shy away from the fact ru,has had its share and some in ru don't believe it,yet a ru journalist Growden stated many incidents were shoved under the carpet(he obviously has a cmptr full). RL ones have made front page news ,not hidden .It is not me making the claim.The S14 SA player charged with murder recently.Is that an offield incident or just a Thurston hiccup.Or the former French ru intnl,who shot his wife.Eevn Mr Cooper had his moment in the sun. I don't care how many players are involved in a code,anti social behaviour is not acceptable whether it is played by 2,22 ,0r 2million and 2. What I find unpalatable are pretentious people pointing the finger at a code,claiming a culture of bad behaviour,when their own code has had issues over the years,sometimes hidden.Your comment that as ru has over 1 miilion players on this planet and has had less incidents than rl is laughable. Why? Because neither you or me have a clue,unless you know every ru club that exists on the palnet,and have files on indiscretions.That is one of the best pieces of nonsense i have read.RL has definitley had its fair share,but please you got me rolling in the aisle from laughter. It is bleeding obvious that not everyone was involved in apartheid in SA,many were not and opposed it.Saying that the Govt was the author and protector of the system,and the officials within the code(as a whole)and some players,did not stand up to the Govt .There would have been no need to have a trade embargo. You still live in denial.Denial that rl has finally got off its backside and is growing(you nit pick for a failure here or there).When rl in NZ gets off its backside and follows the Sparc recommendations,you predict a failure.When you are given the 2002 findings into Sport under vichy ,you call it BS.You are in denial that apartheid had an impact in ru ,during those years.The tests should have been cancelled in both Oz and NZ,simple as that.Some players took a stand,offcialdom didn't,fullstop. Mandela is a champion,and he can forgive .That raising the cup symbolises reconciliation(which was marvellous), but doesn't hide the fact that the code at one stage was up to its eyeballs in a system, that was intolerable.You can't deny history champ. The all stars match is a receonciliation recogniton,and a reminder of what happened in the past,should never happen again.if you can't get my point,i am sorry. You were give RFL details of rl in London not that long ago and called it BS,or coming off a fan website(your usual throwback line) ,that is denial.. BTW you are prone to exaggeration ëvery leaguie said the RLWC was going to make huge progfit and change the game'.'.They expected a decent profit,and did in fact get a profit in order to pay the Aust/NZ/English for the cost of travel ,prizemoney etc,but the poor others namely the PI and Sth Africa missed out leadin"g to the demise (temporarily of the game in SA.) Anyone knows(you apparently not) it was badly planened in 2000 by using untried areas,a rail strike and the worst weather ATT for decades hardly augured well. for the event. Anycase friend the 2008RLWC made at least $5m profit(you predicted it would lose money) ,which is being channelled into overseas development,eg Fiji There will be one in 2013 in England,better resourced and lessons learnt. You in your last para sums up what rl is up against,when you get back to deathriding rl intnlly.No one is suggesting ru is going to die,no one is suggesting rl will take over ru ,it won't union will always be the big un.Please just accept the fact ,rl is growing ,it will have its failures(just as businesses do) just as ru did with the ARC. 'What ru does,what soccer does,what farnarkling does intnlly is their remit. This thread is concerned with intnl rl believe it or not. Please remember countries like sth africa with their 20 plus clubs and junior development,are aiming to get into the 2013RLWC.You would not want to deny them the pleasure,would you? Keep up your deathriding of rl,it makes you look very immature.Developing any code in new areas,is no iron clad guarantee of success ,there will be failures and resurrections.RL is well aware this will happen,you seem to delight in the failures.

you want to see hysterics and paranoia then go to rugby league forum or just read the daily telegraph or smh herald. you got something right. rugby is superior to league on this planet.

Dave or Kovana whichever is in vogue ATT.. I will get back to you tomorrow to respond to some of your outlandish and incorrect claims,as today i will be meeting up with a couple of friends(,ru and wallabyfans) who do not share the bitterness,that comes out in your posts toward rugby league

league will piggy back off of unions infrastructure. Since becoming Pro, Union players were alowed to play league without being booted from the game. This allowed the game to develop in places like South Africa where rugby is so hevily entrenched in the physche of the people that they will try league because it has rugby in its name. League is very much like sevens in that Union players want to play it but they know that Union is the real thing. Australia is very american in its view to being individual and like NFL and Baseball aussies prefer AFL and League, they just need to validate their importance by being unique, also they can argue till the cows come home that Beji Marshall et al are better than Pierre Spies and Dan Carter and could tear union to shreds but like Gasnier found out its not always the case

HAHAHA go have a lie down Dave or should I call you siva, which alias are you this month champ? your getting yourself all worked up there mate. If union is so superior to league why all the hysterics and paranoia? Go have a nap ol mate, and don't forget to pick up the dummy on your way out LOL!

Dave It's pretty obvious you hate league so we get your point union>league internationally, we get it. I'm all for both codes expanding internationally, what's wrong with league expanding internationally it has every right to do so. I'm sick of the death-riding between the two codes mainly from people such as yourself.

You haven't been taken any notice but those are just some of the CEO's and other paranoia former rugby league players like Tallis and others who claim rugby is dying in NZ and Australia and also claim league would take over rugby as national sport in NZ. They normally come out of the woodwork everytime the Warriors makes the playoff. Well your not the rugby league fan we all believe you are since you haven't read all the pieces that Titans CEO have wrote in many newspaer here in Queensland. You can't all see everything thats written about league and rugby in Queensland, New Zealand, Wales, France from your little suburban home in Sydney. I have never see that one from the head of ATT or FBI or whatever you call it but it seem to me he's right. Five tackle and kick is pretty much on the money there. There won't be enough spaces on here if we add all the things the leaguuies have said about rugby in the papers. Like I said buddy I've been in many forums for a very long time to know who's lying and who's real. I've met a few leaguies who design rugby league websites just so they can add countries into the international league game. I've also seen other leaguies design websites just say that a certain numbers of people were watching the rugby league world cup finals in NZ. Not one newspaper or website in NZ put up the ratings for the RWLC final but this league fans found one in a suburban newspaper in Canada. The Oscar has to go to the league fan who design www.worldfootballrankings.com that had rugby league clubs in Venezuela, South Africa, Fiji, New Caledonia, Tonga, PNG, New Zealand and France having the same crowd averages as the French rugby Top 14 and Superleague. The former Wallaby your talking about writes for the paper and he also bagged rugby and other sports. Gordon Tallis and many rugby league writers makes a habit of it every year. Sheesh Cooper is not stupid and will follow many Wallabies, All Blacks, Springboks north when the rugby world cup finish to make more money than he ever dream off. So soccer, rugby and cricket who are major sports in South Africa are bad now. Why didn't rugby league refuse to tour South Africa when it had the chance to do so? If you read a couple of rugby books from the Republic then you will know that rugby played a huge part in ending apartheid and Nelson Mandela had no problems with rugby in 1995 rugby world cup. The biggest moment in South Africa's history to this day is not rugby league but the day Mandela and the Springboks captain stood next to each other wearing the same rugby jersey and holding the William Webb Ellis trophy. Even history can't beat that. I do know that South Africa rugby league also had as many clubs and qualified to the fail rugby league world cup in England before and then went up in smokes and league wasn't played in SA again. Again it can happen as it ahd happen to Samoa and other countries. Please don't talk about off-fields incidents in either codes. There's is no room big enough in this computer to comment about rugby league incidents all over the world. There are over than 1 million rugby players than league players on this planet but league has more incidents and indiscretion. Typical rugby league players instead of owning up and apologise they always blame others or find excuses to make their crminal activites looks small. Too bad Nuuausala wasn't there when Four Corners video tape those under 20's players who thought "It's not during the act, it's the way you treat them after it. Most of them could have been avoided if they had put them in a cab and said thanks or that sort of thing, not just kicked her out and called her a dirty whatever. It's how you treat them afterwards that can cover a lot of that sort of stuff up.". More excuse why there's only two rugby league professional competitions. Do you listern to your self? NZRU could have done a rugby league development and makes super 14 teams professional and the rest amateur but the didn't. England rugby could just said we'll have four teams and join the Scottish, Welsh and Irish in a Britain & Irish championship but they didn't. Why would Australia and England RL get teams from other countries involved when they don't even have teams in other regions in their own country? thats rugby league developments. i don't know about profits because every leaguies said the 2000 RLWC was going to make a huge profits and change the game. Were they wrong. I know which football codes I can bet my house on that it would make a huge profits in their world cup. Just like I can bet my house on which rugby code would most likely die again in South Africa, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Argentina, USA, Canada, Italy, Serbia and others. The IRB 7's world cup made a bigger profit that the RLWC.

"For a rl thread ,it sure has its share of ru knockers(raiders),who have still not forgiven rl for splitting ,and use as many disparaging remarks or comments to continue their dislike for a code." Yes.. And Rugby has to put up with the innate # of RL knockers as well on INTERNET sites... RL seems to take it upon themselves to keep an archived list of match attd and crowds for Rugby union comps.. :lol: RL seems to want to see Rugby fail. Which is pathetic. Instead of taking time to grow RL.. They would rather knock Rugby Union.

This is another word that ticks me off.. Rugby fans being 'elitist', thereby implying they are rich snobbish people. Tell me, what is the national sports of Tonga, Fiji and Samoa? Who by the way make up a healthy % of the NRL. Are these 3 islands completely elitist?

"Union has a good headstart and it will be tough for league to make up ground" Sorry, But Rugby league turned fully professional almost 100 years before Rugby. Remember.. Rugby Only became pro in 1995. Sorry.

"but the fans who hate rugby with passion and talk up league as if its the best thing since slice bread. It isn’t." Completely agree. I played and watched league when younger but when i started seeing the absolute seething venom from most of the league fans towards rugby.. Wow... I still watch league because of the number of samoans in the NRL.... But as a sport overall, the fans seem to have made up some deluded theories as to why they hate league. Its only in Australia that you witness this. No where else because rugby is far more dominant.

So these former CEO s stated that rl would take over in NZ, BS champ. The CEO of Souths formerly of Penrith noted when a rl player went to ru,he stated the game was a pimple on the bum of rl ,in this country.He responded when prodded by the media ,that league was losing its best players to ru,and would be in trouble.That is also BS about the Titans CEO Searle he never stated rl was taking over from ru.He was protecting his turf ,with the new AFL licence.He stated the Titans has spent a lot of money,time and it took years to get the club up to speed.he also stated that losing players to ru,was not the end of the world as we keep producing the production line.Mate you really need to suss the subject. The former head ATT of the ARU stated rl was 5 tackles and a kick,the RLWC was mickey mouse and ru would be the no 2 sport.Read Gregor Paul from NZ,and ask yourself waht real rubbish is all about. I don't know of any Kangaroo coach predicting ru's demise.I certainly know of a fomer Wallaby one. I repeat one more time show me where a CEO of the NRL made a similar statement about ru. A former Wallaby makes a living out of bagging rl,on a weekly basis in print in, a respected newspaper. I rarely go into union,although I used to, threads champ.You seem to spend you lifetime here bagging rl on a rl thread.That is the difference. BTW I am aware that NRL clubs lose money ,never stated otherwise.But I responded to some gent who stated possibly the IRB would take over the Broncos.You expect me to sit back and accept the notion? sheesh!. Cooper signed for 1 year champ.You go figure. WTH has a sport being no1 ATT to do with apartheid.All any sport worth its salt, had to do was refuse to be part of it.Some players did refuse,but the governing body there did not.Don't bring rl into the equation. It is hypothetical rl was not the no1 code in SA union was.They stuffed up ATT. I do know rl has 20 odd clubs in SA,has a rl academy ,and will try to qualify for the RLWC2013 in England.That would not have happened 30 years ago. Yes mate I see a pattern,rugby league is growing.You grow from grassroots if possible and preferable or you give players from other codes a choice.Its called democracy. I suggest you have a quiet chat,with Greg Growden the ru writer for the Herald,who a few years ago,noted that many offfield incidents were swept under the carpet by rugby officials.Just like they were in rl. So when I see some ru fan,giving his code the purity award,he has to expect a reality check. Yes there are many kids from poor backgrounds who have ended up behind the bars.In some cases they did not have the facility or money to pay for lawyers nor the opportunities,nor the education.Ask Frank Paul Nausula(spelling?) he could have ended up there ,he stated. I was fortunate enough to come from a diffferent background,but let me tell you champ,coming from a middle class or wealthy background does not preclude one from getting involved in anti social or even criminal behaviour.I have seen it first hand, from so called educated types.Rolling his dad's Jaguar,was a classic not. .Give some people a few beers or stronger and they carry on like loons,from all walks of life.Look at some of the high profile people with DUIs. Let me add a further note,rl is one of the most forgiving codes.Some codes would have cast Carney to the wolves,after his past efforts. As Wayne Bennett stated on monday evening rl players now are far better behaved than they were a decade ago and longer. Yes 2 pro rl comps involving teams from England/Wales/France and NZ/Australia.And Toulouse wanting to become involved in the ESL.Considering the game has had a SL war,poor admin at times ,and limited resources overseas,a reasonable start. Plus they will have a RLWC in 13,that has the Englsih govt backing,anmd no doubt be more profitable than the one held here..Time will tell.. Anycase I am setting the record straight. Neutral Fan It is pointless arguing with Dave or ru fans when they swamp and troll a rl forum .It is a rl forum,and he is prepared to make statements that are incorrect or negative predictions as to rl or plain wild guesses.. He can't handle the fact rl is growing,and wants to believe otherwise.Are we supposed to sit back and nod in agreement,when at times it is untrue.I think it is rather ironic ,when he describes rl people who post as having paranoia. He suggests he knows more than the ESL/RLIF/RLEF/NRL/French commission into sport,that Sparc will not work,that rl has no chance overseas.Sorry he can't be left unanswered,and he doesn't like it.

Dave It's pointless arguing with these rugby league fans it's just going around circle and circles to no conclusion, so don't bother anymore. I see nothing wrong with league expanding internationally because there is room for both rugby codes globally I wish that all this bickering,name-calling and slandering between the two codes stop.

Good to see another paranoia league fan coming out of its shell. I think rugby fans are more than happy with rugby in Australia than say back in the 70's or 80's. If you asked me in the early 90's that more than 500,00 will watch the Wallabies on free to air tv, 50,000 will attend their games and five professional rugby sides I'll be laughing at your face. Not so funny now is it?