Rugby League in Georgia takes off

[Copa]

http://www.messenger.com.ge/issues/0785_january_21_2004/news_0785_7.htm

Today, there are already four Tbilisi-based clubs which will compete for the Georgian club championship in March or April; and Tsintsadze hopes that more clubs will emerge over the coming months, including regional teams in Kutaisi, Batumi, and Guria, which has a strong tradition of rugby union.

Furthermore, a national squad, comprised for the most part of rugby union converts such as Nodar Andguladze, who last year was playing rugby union for the national team but is now Chief Executive Officer of the newly-formed Georgian Rugby League Federation, is currently preparing for matches against two French clubs in February, followed by their first international fixture in May against the Netherlands.

 

[ruggabugga]

Holy Cow, this is unbelievable, the League strongholds of 1/10000th FRANCE & 2 towns in the NETHERLANDS ARE CONDESCENDING TO PLAY THE 2 TEAMS IN GEORGIA. WOW, DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS. I think something of the occassion is missing......oh that's it.....there is no occasssion.

 

[Copa]

Wow!! Where did that come from??

It's an honest article about the start up of the game in Georgia and the obstacles ahead.

Why the reaction??

 

[YANTO]

Ignore him copa.
He seems to forget that the IRB had Georgia in their showcase world shattering event in Australia.
Along with the some of the brillant union playing countries like Finland the IRB can boast about their world wide sport but when after only a few months league starts to make a little progress its a laugh.

Oh I forgot union was never developed in place like Finland,Bosnia or even the Netherlands it was always there played by thousands and thousands.
Ruggabugga you clown how do you think union is wide spread ??
because ,now listen carefully, Once upon a time people in these countries decided to take up the game and over the years it has grown (well in some places).

Strange then when people decide to take up the game of League in smaller countries you laugh.

Maybe in another 50 years when your old and grey League may be played in 100 countries world wide and never say never.
Holland,Italy,Greece,Malta,Germany,Georgia,Estonia,West Indies,Singapore,Serbia,Ireland all in the last two years are now playing the game.
yes playing thats eleven new nations,never mind the standard they are playing mate and can only get better.
Anyhow the standard of League in these countries is proberbly as high as the middle ranking IRB nations.
I know for one that after less than two years the Dutch RL boys could proberbly beat their Union counterpparts at BOTH CODES and Holland are ranked 31 in the world at union.

Oh where do all these new countries get the players to initially set up.
Of course from Union.Does that not show you that people are begining to see what a load of bull they have been fed over the years about how good union is.
Since they can no longer be BANNED by the IRB for playing League people world wide are taking a look at the game and you know what they seem to be enjoying the running handling and tackling of a superior sport.
If I was a union official outside the top half dozen countries I would be afraid very afraid.

Lets go back to Holland ranked 31 in the world.
Want to know what standard their club rugby is?

PUB TEAM and thats it.
They have two teams who dominate year in year out for the last ten years and both are filled with ex pats.
For the Dutch cup final they will be lucky to get 300 spectators.
The same for their International games.
Now LEAGUE in Holland attracted DOUBLE that for their first international.
Clubs get no more than 50 watching union.
League games can double that.

Why is union higher than League in Holland?
Because they have 70 years start and are funded by the IRB.

All the guys that have sampled league in Holland have taken to the game so again all you union officials outside the top six in the world be afraid be very afraid.
The best thing you did for League was to go proffesional so now anyone can play and you betta watch then turn to league in droves ............
You lot were like dictators for over 100 years telling people what they could and couldnt do.
Now like when the Berlin wall came down the people have the choise and boy are they loving this freedom.

 

[winnyason]

Holy Cow, this is unbelievable, the League strongholds of 1/10000th FRANCE & 2 towns in the NETHERLANDS ARE CONDESCENDING TO PLAY THE 2 TEAMS IN GEORGIA. WOW, DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS. I think something of the occassion is missing......oh that's it.....there is no occasssion.

here you go again just tell me idiot why did you join this forum
if you bag league
this bloke has alot of idea he thinks france joining th tri series is pie
in the sky stuff .... hmmm well after they utc beat london and the emerging
talent out of france the majority of people are confident this will happen
even if union tries to poach all the talent :evil: :evil: :evil:

like the last post said outside mainstream union is in trouble

serbia,holland,usa,lebanon,malta,west indies,georgia,russia,germany

oh that's right aregentina(union stronghold already 1000 enroled juniors)

that right now estonia, expect other countires to follow

all turning to league beacause IT.......IS.........A............BETTER.........GAME

these kind of coments will become regular because league's growth is
at it's highest ever internationally rougly 30 nations now play league

we will chip away at the pillars and eventually get to the base :evil: :evil:

 

[taipan]

Holy Cow, this is unbelievable, the League strongholds of 1/10000th FRANCE & 2 towns in the NETHERLANDS ARE CONDESCENDING TO PLAY THE 2 TEAMS IN GEORGIA. WOW, DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS. I think something of the occassion is missing......oh that's it.....there is no occasssion.

Thats your best shot ? Pathetic ,typical and indicative of someone who is unhappy at any progress no matter how small, is made by rugby league.
An ideal candidate for union journalism. :roll: :roll:
Anycase good on Georgia for giving league a go.

 

[griff]

It is an interesting article.

Good to see that they have been given the rights to the NRL for free, but unfortunately will have to come up with some money to get it on TV. This may be sort of thing where us rich countries with the benefit of a good exchange rate could put up a small amount of money but that would greatly benefit the game.

I don't know if anyone has seen the show Western Union World Football but something like that for Rugby League would be of great benefit to the game internationally. Some form of highlights/magazine show (say half an hour a week) would be easier to get on some of the sports channels internationally than full games.

 

[playdaball]

Good stuff. Having watched this nation plau RU they may well be more suited to RL as they haver some powerful hard running players.
Wasn't true that some players saw NRL games / tapes during the WCRU and were blown away? RL may have missed the boat as there was a golden opportunity to showcase RL to the many RU supportes and players in Aust at the time.

 

[rugged]

I don't believe in bagging league's efforts at development internationally.

BUT, why would you bag the level of union's international competition? It is this sort of level that league would strive to be like, and has no hope of reaching within the next 30 years.

 

[griff]

Wasn't true that some players saw NRL games / tapes during the WCRU and were blown away?

The story originally was that they saw the grand final and were amazed. Some thought that this meant they were actually at the grand final, which wasn't true. However they did arrive in Australia in the week leading up to the NRL Grand Final so in all likelihood would have seen the game on TV.

RL may have missed the boat as there was a golden opportunity to showcase RL to the many RU supportes and players in Aust at the time.

I agree, there should have been more of an NRL promotional and PR campaign. Whenever there is a major RL event like Origin, the ARU always tries to play off RL's publicity by talking about which RL players should be signed etc. The NRL should have done this sort of thing during the RUWC as it would have got them international as well as domestic exposure.

But instead of running interference or basking in the reflected glory like RU do the NRL just seemed to close down for 7 weeks.

 

[YANTO]

Holy Cow, this is unbelievable, the League strongholds of 1/10000th FRANCE & 2 towns in the NETHERLANDS ARE CONDESCENDING TO PLAY THE 2 TEAMS IN GEORGIA. WOW, DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS. I think something of the occassion is missing......oh that's it.....there is no occasssion.

 

[hgfds]

They seem to believe there will be a 16 team wc when all the news points to 12,a 16 team wc would present league on the international stage whereas 12 teams would be the home nations +oceania.
erlf meeting on feb 18th will they release some of the profits from the trinations if so what programme will the erlf have for 2005.

 

[griff]

They seem to believe there will be a 16 team wc when all the news points to 12,a 16 team wc would present league on the international stage whereas 12 teams would be the home nations +oceania.

As much as I think a 16 team WC would be better at presenting rugby league on the global stage, a 12 team WC need not just home nations + oceania.

But they would need to have a regional qualifying tournament that gives a good geographical mix of countries rather than just the 12 best nations.

 

[Copa]

I don't believe in bagging league's efforts at development internationally.

BUT, why would you bag the level of union's international competition? It is this sort of level that league would strive to be like, and has no hope of reaching within the next 30 years.

You just did bag league... for no reason at all ... 30 years is a very long time.

 

[taipan]

I don't believe in bagging league's efforts at development internationally.

BUT, why would you bag the level of union's international competition? It is this sort of level that league would strive to be like, and has no hope of reaching within the next 30 years.

You just did bag league... for no reason at all ... 30 years is a very long time.

Unfortunately mr ruggabugga does continually bag international development of rugby league,and made the mistake of mentioning in another thread that no rugby league comp existed in Ireland.He was promptly corrected with details of the Munster and Leinster conferences,so his Celtic background is no guarantee of knowing everything that goes on in ones homeland.

 

[Copa]

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/search.php?search_author=ruggabugga


Ruggabugga's posts..... his anti-league agenda is clear. He is just a low grade troll. Not even a clever troll... just a rubbish troll.

 

[yakstorm]

I don't believe in bagging league's efforts at development internationally.

BUT, why would you bag the level of union's international competition? It is this sort of level that league would strive to be like, and has no hope of reaching within the next 30 years.

No doubt we would love to have our international scene with the reach of Unions....but as for equalling it who knows it might take less or more than 30 years for League to achieve that, who knows there might only be one code in that time, that doesn't matter.

What has annoyed many of us is Ruggabugga's remarks almost belitting the efforts of Georgia to get League going. Starting a new sport in any country is a difficult task, and full credit goes to the Georgian RL.

I bet when Georgia RU achieved a similar thing when they first started off, no one adopted Ruggabugga's stance and belittled the efforts. I'm sure the Rugby Union community was quite supportive.

 

[LeagueXIII]

Remember union has been spread through private schools, universities and the army, league has not enjoyed this privilege (no coincidence that league until recently was banned in all 3).

 

[ali]

This is good news for us. The International appeal of union is often over stated but Georgia vs Russia matches are fairly big in that part of the world, particularly Georgia. So not only have we gained a new country, but also a local rival for the Russians. Now that their problems are supposedly behind them, this could be a catalyst to help Russia step up to a higher level, in terms of league popularity.

I think if we have a 16 team world cup, and things go to plan in Georgia they would have to be a fairly good chance of qualifying. It is also a good reason to hang on to the 16 team format. Teams such as Russia, Georgia and Lebanon may get smashed by the big 3, but at the same time get far better recognition and government support back home, than if they didn't qualify for the world cup.

In many countries its all about the Olympics and then World Cups. We need to find a way to have as many teams as possible involved, and still have a lot of top quality games. Off the top my head maybe we could have a 15 team world cup with 5 groups of 3. That would mean only 2 pool games, and maybe we could follow that up with some sort of NRL style final 6 (with the best 2nd place getter included).

 

[bobbis]

One way to really kick off Georgia RL would be to have the Russian team play them in Tiblisi, given RU is the second favourite sport in the country and matches vs Russia attract the biggest crowds despite Russia not being the best team Georgia plays. It could get a decent crowd and really kick the game off.