Re: 6 Nations : Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:02 pm  

Am all in favour of a 6 Nations. Though I'd start with a 4 Nations of England, Wales, France & Scotland. I'd have each nation play each other once but don't have a final. So 3 games, every year.
We have to start relatively small and build over time. Even that 3 guaranteed top games every year would be a massive improvement on the current international calendar.
Establish a "home ground" for the other nations. So Wales, for instance, always play their home games at the same place and start to build. If nations and players both know there are 3 games every year they can plan and start to really develop a feeling of a proper national team, not just a bunch of randomly selected players who get together 2 weeks before the next one-off game.

Re: 6 Nations : Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:05 pm  

Though it cannot be a GB 2nd team masquerading as England, as mentioned that just devalues the international setup.

We don't always have to play all our very best players. We can rest 1 or 2 and obviously the NRL players but it can't be a GB u21's. It has to be players who would at least be in or very near to the squad for an Aussie tour.

Re: 6 Nations : Wed Apr 26, 2017 11:38 am  

Levrier wrote:

Last week Wigan U19s versus Leeds U19s was streamed live on social media and was seen/ accessed by about 40 000 people (According to the media). That is better than Sky and BT got/get for some RU matches. " If you build it they will come."

Viewing figures for the aviva premiership are much better than for superleague. Super league gets about 80,000 a game, massively down from the halcyon days when Saints and Leeds were wowing the audiences of 250,000 viewers. Who wants to tune in and watch a load of average players knock on for 80 minutes? no wonder the rfl just Bent over, spread its legs and took whatever deal Sky offered. The decline is terminal

Regards

King James

Re: 6 Nations : Wed Apr 26, 2017 11:49 am  

Lebron James wrote:

Viewing figures for the aviva premiership are much better than for superleague. Super league gets about 80,000 a game, massively down from the halcyon days when Saints and Leeds were wowing the audiences of 250,000 viewers. Who wants to tune in and watch a load of average players knock on for 80 minutes? no wonder the rfl just Bent over, spread its legs and took whatever deal Sky offered. The decline is terminal

Regards

King James

No ones fault but the clubs (including Saints and Leeds) If the chairmen didn't have their own self interest at heart then the game could have moved forward instead of standing still.

Re: 6 Nations : Wed Apr 26, 2017 12:54 pm  

Lebron James wrote:

Viewing figures for the aviva premiership are much better than for superleague. Super league gets about 80,000 a game, massively down from the halcyon days when Saints and Leeds were wowing the audiences of 250,000 viewers. Who wants to tune in and watch a load of average players knock on for 80 minutes? no wonder the rfl just Bent over, spread its legs and took whatever deal Sky offered. The decline is terminal

Regards

King James

NO they are not.

if you look at the BARB website you ill see that the Rah Ra figures are at best similar.

Rugby League has admittedly gone down but the Rah Rah certainly hasn't gone up. Who wants to tune in and watch a load of blokes kick the ball into touch for 80 minutes !

Re: 6 Nations : Thu Apr 27, 2017 11:48 am  

wigsey wrote:

NO they are not.

if you look at the BARB website you ill see that the Rah Ra figures are at best similar.

Rugby League has admittedly gone down but the Rah Rah certainly hasn't gone up. Who wants to tune in and watch a load of blokes kick the ball into touch for 80 minutes !

I did get my figures from BARB. 80k for super league the past 2 weeks. 142k for the aviva premiership, which is even more impressive given that there are less subscribers to BT sport than Sky Sports.

You obvsioulsy havent watched union recently. The days of kicking into touch vanished circa 2004. The game is much more skilful and exciting than rugby league is these days. But as the esteemed hull kr fan said above, its the chairmens fault for letting our game stagnate

Regards

King James

Re: 6 Nations : Thu Apr 27, 2017 12:26 pm  

Lebron James wrote:

I did get my figures from BARB. 80k for super league the past 2 weeks. 142k for the aviva premiership, which is even more impressive given that there are less subscribers to BT sport than Sky Sports.

You obvsioulsy havent watched union recently. The days of kicking into touch vanished circa 2004. The game is much more skilful and exciting than rugby league is these days. But as the esteemed hull kr fan said above, its the chairmens fault for letting our game stagnate

Regards

King James

BT sport happens to be free to a lot of users whereas Sky Sport certainly isn't as you have to pay the nancy ballers. Big difference that.

Touch kicking may have declined in yawnion but its being replaced by a pile of fat chaps, where one wobbles a couple of yards, falls down and the pile up forms again. Keep repeating and going nowhere until finally one of the multitude of rules is broken and we get a penalty kick. Real skilful and exciting, its a poor game getting worse because its far too easy to stop the opposition playing unless there is a horrendous mismatch in ability.