Why does rugby league have trouble expanding internationally compared to other codes

[BODISGOD]

First WC winning captain was Scottish, as said before BOG, you are a bore.

And how many times did the GB team play in Scotland?

 

[Willow]

Bodisgod, not sure of why you bothered to reply to my post. You didn't address a single point that I made and went off on your own trollsome tangent.

I get it, reading what's in front of you and having a real discussion isn't on your agenda. Good luck.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

And how many times did the GB team play in Scotland?

Got nothing to do with anything, a player can come from anywhere and play in whatever pro comp he likes if he chooses to make a living in RL. That means a lot of players have to move and live elsewhere, that also doesn't stop them representing their nation. Scotland RL wasn't formed till 1995, so I find it hard for you to ask the question where they played their games when they didn't play any games at all yet they still had individual players earning a crust in other comps and coming together a few times a year to play representative rugby for Great Britain. I have no problem with that.

These guys played rugby every week for whatever club which employed them in whatever country, they got picked for rep teams if good enough. It seems it's only you and the lot you wholeheartedly back that have a problem with this.

You can't change history no matter how hard you try bog.

 

[BODISGOD]

Got nothing to do with anything, a player can come from anywhere and play in whatever pro comp he likes if he chooses to make a living in RL. That means a lot of players have to move and live elsewhere, that also doesn't stop them representing their nation. Scotland RL wasn't formed till 1995, so I find it hard for you to ask the question where they played their games when they didn't play any games at all yet they still had individual players earning a crust in other comps and coming together a few times a year to play representative rugby for Great Britain. I have no problem with that.

These guys played rugby every week for whatever club which employed them in whatever country, they got picked for rep teams if good enough. It seems it's only you and the lot you wholeheartedly back that have a problem with this.

You can't change history no matter how hard you try bog.

You are confused.

I never said that the GB didn't have players from Wales or Scotland.

Read my posts.

What I said was that despite there being numerous internationals from a place like Wales, where was the sustained efforts to build international rugby league in Wales? It's all very well to pick some players you've poached from Union, but back in the day what did that mean? The Wales Union team still played annually at home and were seen as a strong national symbol. The GB team played the majority of their fixtures in the north of England and in London, how many in Scotland or Wales? The Welsh RL team played no home tests for long periods, including 24 years between 1951-1975. The perception of course being that international RL didn't matter in those two countries.

 

[BODISGOD]

Bodisgod, not sure of why you bothered to reply to my post. You didn't address a single point that I made and went off on your own trollsome tangent.

I get it, reading what's in front of you and having a real discussion isn't on your agenda. Good luck.

Actually I did.

I don't care about you giving us a paragraph on shamateruism. This thread is about rugby league growing internationally. Boot money is all well and good, but there were dozens of dual code internationals from Wales still.

Look at the number of Welsh who went on to play for GB. How often did GB play in Wales? Ever?
There were no home Welsh RL international games for pretty much a quarter of a century.
As helpfully explained above, there was no Scottish team before 1995.

So you had this GB team, and I never said they weren't popular amongst existing rugby league fans in the heartlands, which didn't spread its wings to be inclusive of nations it purported to represent. Furthermore, you had half assed attempts at national teams in these countries. That isn't spreading the international game.

That is plucking talent from other countries and another code (by and large), playing them as pros and not bothering to try and put proper roots down in a country.

RL did make efforts of course. In France obviously. They did go on to call a 4 team competition a World Cup, but again, only haphazardly included a Welsh team. They looked at places like South Africa in the 50s and 60s, and tried to grow. There is no ignorance of this, there is only stating the obvious on the lacklustre and half arsed efforts at growing the game internationally. Lots of primed Welsh players went north, who did very well, but the effort wasn't there to really grow the sport there. Why? IMO as it was a professional game with narrow club interests. How often did Billy Boston play in Wales after he went north? How come after Dave Valentine was taken from union and went on to win a WC as captain, there were no games up in Scotland?

 

[Willow]

Still ignoring the facts.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Wales have been European champs quite a few times and was actually up there beating the likes of France and England when they were powerful enough to take on and beat Australia. Played in Wales quite a few times and had some decent crowds of 30k plus.

 

[Knownothing]

Wales have been European champs quite a few times and was actually up there beating the likes of France and England when they were powerful enough to take on and beat Australia. Played in Wales quite a few times and had some decent crowds of 30k plus.

What went wrong?

 

[PaulyTom]

Expansion is never supported by the governing body . AFL have invested 200 million dollars in to the Giants .

If you want to invest in new territories where the game has a small supporter base you must invest in all levels of the game . Rugby league just doesn't do this well when they expand.

 

[Perth Red]

RL will never understand the value of country over club and is destined for IRL to always be a season end footnote.

 

[LeagueXIII]

Actually I did.

I don't care about you giving us a paragraph on shamateruism. This thread is about rugby league growing internationally. Boot money is all well and good, but there were dozens of dual code internationals from Wales still.

Look at the number of Welsh who went on to play for GB. How often did GB play in Wales? Ever?
There were no home Welsh RL international games for pretty much a quarter of a century.
As helpfully explained above, there was no Scottish team before 1995.

So you had this GB team, and I never said they weren't popular amongst existing rugby league fans in the heartlands, which didn't spread its wings to be inclusive of nations it purported to represent. Furthermore, you had half assed attempts at national teams in these countries. That isn't spreading the international game.

That is plucking talent from other countries and another code (by and large), playing them as pros and not bothering to try and put proper roots down in a country.

RL did make efforts of course. In France obviously. They did go on to call a 4 team competition a World Cup, but again, only haphazardly included a Welsh team. They looked at places like South Africa in the 50s and 60s, and tried to grow. There is no ignorance of this, there is only stating the obvious on the lacklustre and half arsed efforts at growing the game internationally. Lots of primed Welsh players went north, who did very well, but the effort wasn't there to really grow the sport there. Why? IMO as it was a professional game with narrow club interests. How often did Billy Boston play in Wales after he went north? How come after Dave Valentine was taken from union and went on to win a WC as captain, there were no games up in Scotland?

Rugby League also expanded into Yugoslavia and Italy during the 50's and 60's with club competitions. However it was met with strong resistance from the union people who had influence with governments which resulted in it's demise.

Also to say Valentine was taken from union when he chose to come to league after accepting their offer is misleading. Rugby League never threatened anyone unlike union.

Union is great at playing the martyr going on about all the players league "stole" from them. Players like Michael O'Connor, Tana Umaga, Jonah Lomu etc were all playing junior league and it wasn't until they went to their private schools where league was banned (oh I wonder why that would be the case) that they took up union.

Even legendary soccer players Denis Law and George Best refused to go to a certain schools because they would have been forced to play union instead of the much more popular soccer which was their love.

Let's face it if it wasn't for the private school system union would have never have spread anywhere.

 

[Knownothing]

Let's face it if it wasn't for the private school system union would have never have spread anywhere.

Gee. Is that where the name "rugby" comes from?


You might as well say without the so-called private school system the UK would never have become the huge world power that it was in the days of Empire. As the Empire spread, it took its sports and pastimes with it. Cricket, polo, rugby, to name a few. Not all that surprising, really.


And of course rugby league would not have existed, had it not been for the development of the sport of rugby. So we can all thank the private schools system, can't we?

 

[taipan]

Gee. Is that where the name "rugby" comes from?


You might as well say without the so-called private school system the UK would never have become the huge world power that it was in the days of Empire. As the Empire spread, it took its sports and pastimes with it. Cricket, polo, rugby, to name a few. Not all that surprising, really.


And of course rugby league would not have existed, had it not been for the development of the sport of rugby. So we can all thank the private schools system, can't we?

If rugby union officials had had the common decency to look after the health of their players after injuries, and not vested all their financials into filling the pockets of administrators and spreading the code, the rugby league would not have moved to protect players and in the end, form another rugby code.

We certainly can't thank Vichy or Sth African sport officials.We can't thank Italian,Yugoslavian,Sth African union officials.
" Thank the private school system" surely you jest.If the private school system of the 20th and 21st century had included rl in its sport's curriculum,I dare say union would be a shadow of its current self.OH and I have been involved in the anti rl private school system.

 

[adamkungl]

Answering the title question: Because of things like this http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/rug...ion-is-in-the-air--again-20170222-guj4bj.html

The RLIF, either deliberately or through incompetence, sabotaging nations attempting to play RL.

 

[Te Kaha]

Union is great at playing the martyr going on about all the players league "stole" from them. Players like Michael O'Connor, Tana Umaga, Jonah Lomu etc were all playing junior league and it wasn't until they went to their private schools where league was banned (oh I wonder why that would be the case) that they took up union.

This is just a blatant lie, neither Umaga or Lomu where "forced" to play Rugby and neither were banned form playing League.

Let's face it if it wasn't for the private school system union would have never have spread anywhere.

Then how did it spread in places like NZ and Wales where there its played predominantly in no private schools? just because you are Aussie centric doesn't mean its the same everywhere.

 

[taipan]

This is just a blatant lie, neither Umaga or Lomu where "forced" to play Rugby and neither were banned form playing League.


Then how did it spread in places like NZ and Wales where there its played predominantly in no private schools? just because you are Aussie centric doesn't mean its the same everywhere.

I'd suggest the latter sentence being, rugby league did not receive the go ahead into many of these non private schools in NZ and Wales and .And it still exists today.

 

[Te Kaha]

I'd suggest the latter sentence being, rugby league did not receive the go ahead into many of these non private schools in NZ and Wales and .And it still exists today.

And yet the VAST majority of schools allow for and cater for a League team, if there is or was any interest, the lack of interest is not the fault of the school.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Are these the NZ schools who used to punish children who played RL on weekends?

Why did people like Sam Stewart have to register for RL under a fake name because he knew he'd be punished by his school for it?

Children FFS! That's naziball for you.

 

[taipan]

And yet the VAST majority of schools allow for and cater for a League team, if there is or was any interest, the lack of interest is not the fault of the school.

The vast majority? Would appreciate a breakdown if that's the case.

 

[Te Kaha]

The vast majority? Would appreciate a breakdown if that's the case.

Given there are only a handful of "rugby" schools and only a handful of "League" schools it would be most of them.