Rah rahs OZ v NZ was on in HK(the Bleedslow cup) this week and I watched it, analysing the entertainment value.The stadium was packed with honkies,when the teams ran out on the field was one of the few times thay ran the ball.There were 220 penalties(seemed like it) including offside,onside, upside and downside,ass sniffing,blowing your nose and anything else you could imagine..The ref talked down to the players(probably a barrister) while playing Beethovens Ninth on his whistle! I saw fullbacks getting the ball kicking it up in the air and following through,amazing how nothing ever comes from this clever,play???

   I looked at the crowd and asked myself are they serious,after about 30 mins of this drivel I went out into the back yard and turned the light on,the grass was very green and I could see it springing up everywhere!!!

  That night I went to bed and had a nightmare,I woke up in a cold sweat after dreaming that I was going to heaven,and......yep you guessed it they only allowed R.U.there !!!

  Seriously though people we must make a choice..... back RL all the way or die of boredom watching the scintillating Ruggers World cup????

lol...the crowd numbers were fantastic but the ratings were not...even the lions v kangaroos game fetched more ratings...i watched the game the only thing that saved me was dan carter...freakin hot....but for the lions/kangaroos game...ratings dropped midway big time cause of you know...

Remember that Union is dependent on International games. Actually believe it or not World Rugby Union is in a massive crisis at the moment because basically with their seasons no one is sending full teams anymore and basically they are only getting menaingfull games every 4 years.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/nov/06/autumn-internationals-rugbyunion

You are right, the Bledisloe ratings were a complete and untter disater, less than 500,000 tunned in while despite England debacle, at its peak 900,000 watched the Kangaroos game.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24613508-5015651,00.html

Like I mentioned, Union is very dependent on the international game... but what many league fans dont realise is the way Union is billed to its fans... its not a sport but and event. Its something that the corporates can go to and do business deals etc... most dont go to the game to watch the game but to have something to do on a weekend evening... this is straight from a die hard union fan who hates that aspect of the game. The game is starting to loose its apeal money is scarce and becoming harder for Union to get at due to the competitiveness of the sports market.

Union is getting desperate with games like the HK one, the Wembley one in a few weeks and their daft version of a WCC that was announced recently  http://www.planet-rugby.com/Story/0,18259,3551_4461672,00.html there are all just cash cows to try and keep the sport afloat. Union rates hopelessly in the UK as well and In france if it wasnt for the sugar daddys it would be semi-pro at best.

But don't be fooled into thinking League is not about money... but... its always been about the money in the sport, and its developed in order to keep the fans and interest in the sport. The sport makes the money on the passion, the enetertainment of the sport and you go and pay your moeny to watch the sport. League fans at least go to watch a game and appreciate what the game is about because of that, you dont go for an event, you got o support you town, state or country, to ignite your passion for a sport.

Anyway there are heaps of other things that go against union as well in terms of a sports/entertainment package but most people can figure them out.

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Druzik:

 Its something that the corporates can go to and do business deals etc... most dont go to the game to watch the game but to have something to do on a weekend evening... this is straight from a die hard union fan who hates that aspect of the game. The game is starting to loose its apeal money is scarce and becoming harder for Union to get at due to the competitiveness of the sports market.

 

That's certainly true in the UK. Corporate "hospitality" accounts for half the crowds.

 That said, the Six Nations is bigged up by the media as a major sporting event. Even lukewarm sports fans watch it on TV and discuss the games, even if the entertainment is usually objectively quite poor. Whereas Superleague is only watched by die-hard fans. Again, it's all about marketing.

Personally, I can take or leave RU. For me, the two international teams who can usually be relied on to attempt to play something remotely entertaining are the All Blacks and Wales. Club rugby is seldom a good spectator sport.

We need to market our game better!

magaoidh:

Rah rahs OZ v NZ was on in HK(the Bleedslow cup) this week and I watched it, analysing the entertainment value.The stadium was packed with honkies,when the teams ran out on the field was one of the few times thay ran the ball.There were 220 penalties(seemed like it) including offside,onside, upside and downside,ass sniffing,blowing your nose and anything else you could imagine..The ref talked down to the players(probably a barrister) while playing Beethovens Ninth on his whistle! I saw fullbacks getting the ball kicking it up in the air and following through,amazing how nothing ever comes from this clever,play???

   I looked at the crowd and asked myself are they serious,after about 30 mins of this drivel I went out into the back yard and turned the light on,the grass was very green and I could see it springing up everywhere!!!

  That night I went to bed and had a nightmare,I woke up in a cold sweat after dreaming that I was going to heaven,and......yep you guessed it they only allowed R.U.there !!!

  Seriously though people we must make a choice..... back RL all the way or die of boredom watching the scintillating Ruggers World cup????

This topic seems to always re-appear

I guess where you live always has a big influence on what sport/sports someone leans to etc…

Coming from Auckland, NZ… rugby is in the blood here man… and ofcourse it’s very strong in the schools (which is where it all starts!) so growing down here ya play union at school, but we also played RL for the local clubs as well.

I love my rugby, but also consider myself a league die hardas well…

You can have the best of both worlds…

 

Seluman,In my experience I could play R.L. at primary school and had to play R.U.at high school.If it was the other way around NZ would be renowned for its great RL teams! Your exposure to R.U.at an early age is indicative of the politics!

My thread is tongue in cheek but Druzik etc. are dead right that R.L.needs to be marketed more forcibly.IMOP both games are good to play but R.L. is a far more exciting game to watch (on average)!

magaoidh:

Seluman,In my experience I could play R.L. at primary school and had to play R.U.at high school.If it was the other way around NZ would be renowned for its great RL teams! Your exposure to R.U.at an early age is indicative of the politics!

My thread is tongue in cheek but Druzik etc. are dead right that R.L.needs to be marketed more forcibly.IMOP both games are good to play but R.L. is a far more exciting game to watch (on average)!

Hey Maga…

Where you based at mate?

No doubt man… if it was the other way around over here, I’d say NZ would be ruling the RL world! Haahaha!... hence the reason NZ has always been the rugby union super power, best winning record/percentage against every nation (similar to Aussie’s Kangaroos, but on a much grander scale), best coaches, pleyer exports etc… of course it’s no coincedence NZ has always had the bonus of it’s Maori & Polynesian resources… it’s our fault Auckalnd is the world’s largest Polynesain city right?

It comes down to grass roots, being played in the schools starting from primary right up to college etc… hell, you walk down to the local parks on Sat mornings and you see under 5’s running, passing etc..

I envy Aussie’s depth in RL… NZ will never have the same depth etc, but we will still  produce RL super stars, who every now and then will tip the Kangarros over! (way over due haha!)

Peace!

Sydney,OZ sport!

When it comes to rugby union I can only watch the NZ domestic competition and All Black games. It's more free-flowing. Not all games but most are.

League is the greatest game on earth yet the people who are promoting (or not) internationally are letting it done big time.

If I had a choice of what game to watch. Rugby league wins hands down!  

yayyeah RL is the best (in my opinion) but just imagine if we actually had passionate, top quality, movers, shakers and thinkers at the top....hmmmmn.....

There's a typical example of what I was saying upthread about the UK media this afternoon in England.

BBC TV schedule: 1.0pm - 2.0pm: Rugby League World Cup Highlights

                     2.0pm - 4.30pm - Rugby Union Friendly match: Wales v. South Africa.

So, one hour of highlights of the RLWC, covering England v. NZ, Scotland v. Tonga, and Ireland v. Samoa, followed by live covverage of a RU friendly games, spread over two and a half hours, filled in with analysis, interviews, etc.

OK, it's not the scheduler's fault that the live RLWC games are being played at breakfast time in the UK, but it shows the relative importance attached to the two games. The RU friendly match is the "main event" of the afternoon's schedule, the RLWC is a brief "warm-up" item.

 moto748,.......Its called conditioning,the establishment serves up this crap and millions of people watch the most boring game in the world(apart from Ludo) probably because its played by lawyers and barristers??? The greatest con job ever!

Rugby Union's link to the upper class is derived from its former status as an amateur sport.  Only the rich could afford to play it because they the prospect of needing to take time off from work to recoever from an injury didn't have much of an impact on their lives.  A poorer person needed to work in order to pay their taxes and buy food.  The poorer folk associated themselves with football because it was the only profesional code around until 1895.  To them, it was better to play a sport that gave them compensation when they were injured.

The upper class assigned themselves to Rugby Union because they saw it as an elite man's game.  They loved the fact it wasn't popular among the lower class.

Without the rich businessmen propping it up, Rugby Union would die a quick death.  The complexity and messiness of its ruck and maul system makes it boring to watch and damn near impossible to officiate.  The whole game is based around the ruck and maul system.  Not being able to see what happens at the bottom of the ruck and in the maul means the supporters miss out on a large slice of the game.

A person can understand a Rugby League match because its action is open.

The idiots from the IRB ought to realise that the best thing they could do is merge with the Rugby League International Federation and adopt the rules of Rugby League.  It's the only way the game will ever gain a foothold in North America, South America and Asia.

TC Lilo-Vaisau:

i watched the game the only thing that saved me was dan carter...freakin hot.

You bothered to watch that crap?  I would never watch an RU Test match when there's a RL Test on TV!

I LOVE RUGBY LEAGUE...I WAS WRONG