Pretty jealous of Union right now

[adamkungl]

Getting worldwide attention from a game that is closer to Oztag than 15 man Rugby.

If Rugby League has any smart administrators with money or power they would take advantage of this worldwide publicity around Rugby and get people playing in new places.

But it won't happen. A few lone pioneers will try their hearts out with little support from the RLIF and none from the NRL or RFL. And so it will continue.

Someone prove me wrong please.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

The difference between Rugby League and Union is that Rugby Union has a vision for the future. Rugby League only cares about the next tv deal and state of origin. Whilst we are making money in the now, no one cares about building for the future.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

The thing im far more worried about is (thanks to RLs stupid f*cking name) if RL ever does make it to the ComGames or the Olympics, Union will get all of the credit.

"Rugby 7s AND Rugby 9s??? World Rugby has done well getting TWO competitions recognised"

How about, instead of riding RUs coattails, we get ourselves out from under its shadow and actually try to grow the game in its own right...

(And who knows, maybe when ever single piece of good news DOESNT immediately go off and benefit our main competitor, the sport will actually begin to grow)

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

We aren't going to drop the name Rugby. It won't happen. A couple of states of Australia and that tiny country over to the east of us that won silver in the womens 7s are the only places that get antsy about calling one of them "Rugby" and the other "Rugby League".

Maybe this is because RL has never become more than a niche sport in 2 Aussie states, the north of NZ and a few suburbs is north England...

RL has struggled for growth in its 120 years, and most f the world doesnt even know it is a separate sport.

Hardly a compelling argument for the status quo...

If we have the better Rugby competitions people will play in and watch them. 7s looks more like League than full Union, we have as much chance of advantaging from any added interest in Rugby as the other mob, as long as we actually have the people and structures in place to do so. Just a matter of being visible.

As for Hayne, everyone who goes to watch him run around in the Rugby will be watching NRL now that he's signed with GC. There's another opportunity.

Your still saying that the best RL can do is sit on the coattails of RU and pick up the scraps...

This is like someone starting a computer company and calling it IBN or Ampple. These are scam companies that hope to trick people into buying the wrong thing and they have no hope of ever growing because any positive coverage that THEY earned benefits the rival they ripped off.

RL will never go anywhere while it sits in the shadow of RU, because by definition we would ALWAYS BE BEHIND THEM!!!!!

I want to see RL finally step out and stand up on its own two feet. I think we can do better than live off the scraps RU doesnt want...

 

[adamkungl]

How is it scraps? People say "That was cool, I want to know more about Rugby." We provide them with the best Rugby comp in the world.
To me that's not riding on the coattails, it's providing a better product than the competition.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

So the challenge for 9s is not only to get a men's world circuit up and running, but to do the same for a women's circuit.

I wonder how it would go if, rather than pushing 9s, we pushed Touch Footy. It already has a pretty major WC and gender diversity is up with soccer...

Sure, the Touch body in some places are controlled by Union, but surely a few coups couldnt be that hard.

How is it scraps? People say "That was cool, I want to know more about Rugby." We provide them with the best Rugby comp in the world.
To me that's not riding on the coattails, it's providing a better product than the competition.

Your entire plan is:
- trick people into coming to the wrong game
- hope they actually realise this is a different sport (not certain as they look broadly similar and they have the same name)
- Hope they are so enthralled by this single event that they become life-long fans.

And that last one is the most important. We cant put ads on tv saying "play Rugby/watch Rugby", it would be useless to us. There is absolutely no way of reenforcing the brand recognision or pushing people into watching the game.

Your entire plan is to live off the scraps of Union and HOPE this blossoms into something not pathetic...

 

[adamkungl]

It isn't the wrong game. It's a type of Rugby. Rugby Union is as much a different sport to 7s as League is. There are multiple different sports under Rugby. Touch included. Being run by the same world body doesn't make it the same sport.

Your entire plan is to complain loudly that "we're LEAGUE! (or some other worthwhile name suggestion that no one has ever come up with) Not RUGBY" while the rest of RL playing world, small though it may be, just goes right on calling both of them Rugby without caring.

Step 1) Change the name to Topball
Step 2) ????????????????
Step 3) Profit

 

[adamkungl]

We cant put ads on tv saying "play Rugby/watch Rugby", it would be useless to us. There is absolutely no way of reenforcing the brand recognision or pushing people into watching the game.

Any why the f**k not?
If hypothetically we were to televise NRL anywhere, we could and should definitely say "The world's best Rugby, live on ESPN".
I'm 100% sure at least some of the growing RL expansion comps around the world recruit by saying to come play Rugby.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Bah leave the little 7's to the Olympics, those games are becoming more irrelevant as each 4 year cycle comes up, if they truly want the OG to continue and succeed, they need to rid it of all the shit boring sports and put all the real SPECTATOR sports in the games, you know, sports that are popular and people play in big numbers.

Not something that gets a government grant even tho no one plays or does the sport outside a handful of nerds to do some stupid dance in the water that no one gives a flying fig about even when the damn Olympics is on. That and about another 200 sports in the games. The only thing worth anything about it is the money the Governments give to each sport, the TV ratings and crowds look as if they couldn't care less.

 

[Knownothing]

Funny thing, though, an Olympic medal of any colour seems to be worth a lot.

 

[Craigo]

Unfortunately touch football has been hijacked by Union in some countries, England being one, have threatened to ban players for life for playing League (Canada in 2011 according to Eric Perez), been arrested for fraud for using the word "Rugby" in the UAE 2 or 3 years ago and the list goes on. The IRB even changed their name to World Rugby ffs!! Calling the game League 13's or League 9's might solve a few issues IMO.

 

[hutch]

I cannot believe Union can run touch. It is a non contact version of rugby league, invented by rugby league using similar rules to rugby league. Wtf is wrong with us?

 

[BODISGOD]

Unfortunately touch football has been hijacked by Union in some countries, England being one, have threatened to ban players for life for playing League (Canada in 2011 according to Eric Perez), been arrested for fraud for using the word "Rugby" in the UAE 2 or 3 years ago and the list goes on. The IRB even changed their name to World Rugby ffs!! Calling the game League 13's or League 9's might solve a few issues IMO.

The International Rugby Board changed their name to World Rugby...what's the problem here?

 

[BODISGOD]

Any why the f**k not?
If hypothetically we were to televise NRL anywhere, we could and should definitely say "The world's best Rugby, live on ESPN".
I'm 100% sure at least some of the growing RL expansion comps around the world recruit by saying to come play Rugby.

This is just delusional and for so many reasons.

If we have the better Rugby competitions people will play in and watch them. 7s looks more like League than full Union, we have as much chance of advantaging from any added interest in Rugby as the other mob, as long as we actually have the people and structures in place to do so. Just a matter of being visible.

lol what?

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Yeah, I saw some of the Olympic union. It's just as slow and shit as normal union so not like league really. Even in this supposedly faster version they still stop the game and waste time constantly.

 

[hutch]

The International Rugby Board changed their name to World Rugby...what's the problem here?

The sport is rugby union, they don't own the name rugby. They don't control all rugby.

 

[Evil Homer]

This is just delusional and for so many reasons.

The idea that fledgling RL nations and comps use the 'rugby' name to recruit is not delusional at all, in fact I'm pretty certain that's the case in Ireland for example, I doubt you would've ever heard of RL if it wasn't for RU. Not sure if it's a good or bad thing TBH as it probably does boost interest and participation but it also means we get people like you who don't take RL seriously as a standalone sport and see it as some sort of inferior offshoot of RU.

 

[adamkungl]

This is just delusional and for so many reasons

Lol, NRL is the best club Rugby comp in the world of either code. Not delusional at all.

 

[adamkungl]

We should tell him not to bother, it's actually the other Rugby he wants..

 

[Evil Homer]

Did a little research with Wikipedia pageviews.

Average pageviews per day in July 2016:
Rugby union: 1,170
Rugby sevens: 849
Rugby league: 653

Average pageviews per day since the start of the Olympics:
Rugby sevens: 24,691
Rugby union: 5,316
Rugby league: 1,831

So we've had around 3x the amount of people looking up RL that we did before, compared to around 5x as many for RU (and obviously a huge increase for 7's). This is just for the English language version of Wikipedia, I'll check out some other languages later on.