: Fri Nov 06, 2009 10:43 am  

Playing mid season helped, and BARLA cancelling all fixtures did too

: Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:01 am  

Took a coach from Hull (collecting people the length of the M62 on route) and stayed at Canary Wharf for the weekend, it had just opened and we paid next to nothing. Great weekend, southerners didn’t know what had hit them.

: Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:10 am  

We also had a bloody good chance of beating them in 1990

: Fri Nov 06, 2009 12:20 pm  

Code13 wrote:

We also had a bloody good chance of beating them in 1990

A Mal Meninga obstruction away from winning the Ashes...

: Fri Nov 06, 2009 10:07 pm  

J. Willard Gibbs wrote:

I think Wigan and Leeds went full time pro at the same point as the rest of the UK clubs.

They may have had individuals who were full time, but I don't think the entire teams were - though I'm quite probably wrong!

Wigan went full time in 1992 or thereabouts but they did have a couple of full timers (Hanley for example) before that. Didn't think Leeds went full time till the superleague era. Could be wrong on that one but their performances seem to back me up.

: Fri Nov 06, 2009 10:21 pm  

Code13 wrote:

We played internationals regularly back then, against France, NZ and Aus and it was considered a big part of the game.

Plus it was the days when not too much RL made it to TV as well, so for the most part if you wanted to watch a game, you had to go see it live.

Totally different culture.

Oh, and they were on a Saturday afternoon when virtually anyone could get to it no matter where it was.

Evening kick offs kill the game at all levels.

Indeed

Didn't Open Rugby Magazine / League Express etc. charter their own train to Wembley too ?