Rugby League World Cup 2017

[RoosTah]

Was going to say the same thing - 6N games get between 4.5 and 6 million generally, depending on who's playing.
If the England vs Argentina game was on BBC1 it would probably get at least 3-4 million I would guess.

Just to put the 2.2m number into context - the 30th most watched program on BBC1 in the week of that Eng/Fiji game drew just under 4million viewers.
If you put anything on BBC1 during the daylight hours, you're pretty much guaranteed a couple of million viewers.

Again - not trying to be dismissive - but that sort of stuff, is just PR dribble.

Fair points fellas, but most of those quotes did come from the tournament organisers, so I suppose you're going to get a bit of PR drivel.

All the same, 2.2 million for a game against a minnow like Fiji ain't bad, even if the semi final against New Zealand only did marginally better with around 3 million.

I suppose that just shows how minor the game is over there though... you lot have 3 times our population, but over 4 million have tuned in to watch each of the first two Rugby League State of Origin matches over here, while the figures for the Wallabies tests against France were a fraction of that from what I hear (tried to look them up for an exact figure, but a bit tricky).

Either way though, it's good to see League getting a little bit of notice in the UK given how poorly managed it has been. It's gotten the point where I'm almost going for England when they play us now because it'd be good for the game if we had a genuine rivalry like we do in Union. But for whatever reason the Super League just doesn't produce halves of the same standard as those in the NRL and England generally never looks like beating us.

 

[goodNumber10]

Yeah, don't get me wrong, is still good but the comparisons are a bit pointless.

They'd have been better illustrating it against previous viewing figures to show an increase in interest.

As for the standard of SL, I don't know. I don't follow it closely enough to offer an explanation on that one, I enjoy watching it but there are only so many hours in the week (which roughly translates as "the Mrs won't let me watch even more rugby")

 

[RoosTah]

Hahaha yeah, the girls get a bit of say don't they. I'm sorta lucky in that my girlfriend at the moment has cousins playing for both the League and Union teams I support (Tatafu at the Tahs and Michael Jennings at the Roosters), but she still gets sick of it if it's on too long.

On the viewing figures though, I wonder what the average figures are for England games against Australia and NZ when it's played in the 3/4 Nations. Would be interesting to see... That said, I think the way they organise the current 4 nations is just plain stupid... should just have a straight Tri Nations again with 2 tests H&A against each opponent like the old Union TN system. Would make so much more sense than the nonsensical system they use now where they have some minnow in there getting flogged and play a 'final'. Seriously, a comp with 3 or 4 teams doesn't need a final...

 

[goodNumber10]

I don't think they need a tri-nations...

What i'd like to see is them back GB and play test series in their respective countries.

Australia or New Zealand come to the UK, play England, Scotland, Wales etc... as a warm up then 3 tests. In reverse GB goes to Australia or New Zealand, or play two and 1 every other year.

 

[RoosTah]

I don't think they need a tri-nations...

What i'd like to see is them back GB and play test series in their respective countries.

Australia or New Zealand come to the UK, play England, Scotland, Wales etc... as a warm up then 3 tests. In reverse GB goes to Australia or New Zealand, or play two and 1 every other year.

I don't really think there's much point to doing that, for the same reason that it's silly having a 4N where there are 3 strong teams and one punching bag of semi-pros and rejects in the form of a team like Wales or PNG.

The place for teams like that is the world cup and other tournaments against opposition like themselves.

Rugby League isn't like Union - it doesn't have a strong presence throughout the UK, being limited almost exclusively to that M62 corridor. So it doesn't make sense playing against the "home nations" individually or as the Lions. The likes of Ireland, Scotland and Wales have the barest professional presence, and so they're always going to just play the roll of warm up match for the big 3.

A home and away Union style Tri Nations would be perfect in so far as it would give each major team home games against the other big two each year in a competition all three sides could realistically win. That way the game could have a yearly competition that focusses on its genuine heartlands and redevelops interest in the international game.

For development, there ought to be a concurrent Pacific and Euro series that pits the best of the developing Island teams in the Southern Hemisphere against each-other while the likes of France, Scotland, Wales and Ireland play in their own developing 4N type tournament.

 

[goodNumber10]

I don't really think there's much point to doing that, for the same reason that it's silly having a 4N where there are 3 strong teams and one punching bag of semi-pros and rejects in the form of a team like Wales or PNG.

The place for teams like that is the world cup and other tournaments against opposition like themselves.

Rugby League isn't like Union - it doesn't have a strong presence throughout the UK, being limited almost exclusively to that M62 corridor. So it doesn't make sense playing against the "home nations" individually or as the Lions. The likes of Ireland, Scotland and Wales have the barest professional presence, and so they're always going to just play the roll of warm up match for the big 3.

A home and away Union style Tri Nations would be perfect in so far as it would give each major team home games against the other big two each year in a competition all three sides could realistically win. That way the game could have a yearly competition that focusses on its genuine heartlands and redevelops interest in the international game.

For development, there ought to be a concurrent Pacific and Euro series that pits the best of the developing Island teams in the Southern Hemisphere against each-other while the likes of France, Scotland, Wales and Ireland play in their own developing 4N type tournament.

yeah, that's all fair enough, i just like the GB element.

 

[Saints1]

It worked pretty well if their goal was to move the thrashings from the group stage to the quarters stage. Hiding the weaker sides away also makes the RLWC loose credibility. I have seen on a RL forum the RLWC only turned over about 15m GBP ) Fake teams + farcical group stages = fail.

"Only" turned over £15m? That's a fortune to this sport.

The tournament did very well and was enjoyed by record crowds. Just because you don't like something doesn't constitute failure.

 

[RoosTah]

yeah, that's all fair enough, i just like the GB element.

So do I, and I love the Lions in Union because it's such a unique thing in Rugby, but even though we've long been playing "Great Britain" in League, it's always really just been England with the odd Irish/Welsh/Scottish born Super League player through in, so making England the primary rep team makes a lot of sense. It would be different if the Super League were a dual conference system where you had a league of Celtic teams throughout Wales, Ireland and Scotland of course, but anything like that is a long way off (would be awesome if it could happen of course).

"Only" turned over £15m? That's a fortune to this sport.

The tournament did very well and was enjoyed by record crowds. Just because you don't like something doesn't constitute failure.

Precisely. Context is everything, and in the context of where League sits at the moment, it was a fantastic result. The entire tournament was effectively one big exhibition for the game, and in it provided some brilliant games along the way.