Rugby
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Rugby League is gradually taking over the whole shebang North of the Midlands.
Excellent post on another Forum & have included much of that here :-
`Sale have been the leading RU Club in the north west for 40/50 yrs, leading the great RU march in the region. In that time,the next senior Club,Orrell,has effectively folded and their ground is now used by Wigan RL. ,Waterloo have dropped down the national rankings, as have both Fylde and Manchester. So,in 40yrs,the north west region has gone from five national rated Clubs to just one.
They are losing money hand over fist at Stockport and are hoping to stabilise themselves at Barton - maybe they will be successful,maybe not,but many of their fans are against the move.
Incidentally,over the same time period, Leeds Carnegie( a merger of Headingley/Roundhay) have led a similar march for RU in Yorks. Guess what, Wakefield have folded, as effectively have Halifax,Morley are in a similar predicament to Manchester. , Otley and Harrogare are also dropping down the leagues. So much for the flagship RU clubs of Leeds and Sale! In the north east with Gosforth, now Newcastle does Anyone want to know where their next Clubs, West Hartlepool and Middlesborough now play their rugby? So,in the space of 40yrs,the north has gone from having 13 nationally ranked RU Clubs,to just three, including Leeds Carnegie! (attendance 1,052 at the weekend), whilst Newcastle are virtually certain to be relegated this season.`
Doesnt look too good for RU does it?
Excellent post on another Forum & have included much of that here :-
`Sale have been the leading RU Club in the north west for 40/50 yrs, leading the great RU march in the region. In that time,the next senior Club,Orrell,has effectively folded and their ground is now used by Wigan RL. ,Waterloo have dropped down the national rankings, as have both Fylde and Manchester. So,in 40yrs,the north west region has gone from five national rated Clubs to just one.
They are losing money hand over fist at Stockport and are hoping to stabilise themselves at Barton - maybe they will be successful,maybe not,but many of their fans are against the move.
Incidentally,over the same time period, Leeds Carnegie( a merger of Headingley/Roundhay) have led a similar march for RU in Yorks. Guess what, Wakefield have folded, as effectively have Halifax,Morley are in a similar predicament to Manchester. , Otley and Harrogare are also dropping down the leagues. So much for the flagship RU clubs of Leeds and Sale! In the north east with Gosforth, now Newcastle does Anyone want to know where their next Clubs, West Hartlepool and Middlesborough now play their rugby? So,in the space of 40yrs,the north has gone from having 13 nationally ranked RU Clubs,to just three, including Leeds Carnegie! (attendance 1,052 at the weekend), whilst Newcastle are virtually certain to be relegated this season.`
Doesnt look too good for RU does it?
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"So,in the space of 40yrs,the north has gone from having 13 nationally ranked RU Clubs,to just three"
What is a nationally ranked club? |
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Premiership
Sale Newcastle Championship Nottingham Doncaster Leeds Rotherham Morley National 1 Fylde Macclesfield Blaydon Tynedale Sedgeley Park Wharfdale I am not suggesting at the highest level the North of Eng is a force of RU - it isn't but there are plenty of clubs at the next two levels of the rankings. Also some of the teams you mention e.g Fylde and Manchester I don't think would ever have been rated that high nationally. |
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is this concern or schadenfreude?
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The Vis, Morley are in N3N, not the Championship (Moseley are thin the Championship thought).
Far from being an "excellent post", it is confused, lazy and inaccurate. As The Vis says, using the phrase "nationally ranked" as if it's accepted / understood parlance is confusing at best. If Leeds are counted as part of the famous three, then why aren't Nottingham who finished above them in the regular season or Roth and Donny who finished just below them? I would have thought that any club playing National League rugby could be considered "nationally ranked", therefore a great many more clubs could be added to The Vis' list. |
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Sorry, don't know where I got Morley from - as suggested must have got it in my head via Moseley.
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Still not impressed with the interest North of Leicester. Looks like Sale's 'derby' next season will be v the Tigers.
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Does it really matter? What about Exeter? Their nearest "derby" is Bath.
Does it matter that there is no SL club north of Leeds? Or that there are only two SL teams south of Widnes? Or that there are only two NRL teams east of Canberra? |
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Sorry, west of Canberra
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It's becoming a very global game these days, but it still looks like the north is a very tough market to crack. Best chance for union to dominate is to simply wait for the RFL to make one mad decision too many and bring down their own code. I can only see one team in the south in the top 2 leagues in Rugby League so union's heartland is under no threat, in fact popularity there seems to be increasing, which may explain why the likes of Sale are going nowhere.
Leicester regularly get 24000 for home games, Sarries play in front of nearly 90,000 this weekend. Tough to compete with that. |
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Added to which the sport has only been professional for less than 20 years, with some clubs embracing it more effectively than others. Whilst some clubs, the likes of the aforementioned Otley and Harrogate for example, making no attempt to. The amateur side of the sport is alive and well in Yorkshire, with towns like Otley, Wharfedale and Ilkley very much wedded to their most popular team sport. Furthermore, junior rugby still flourishing in both schools and clubs and is played to a much higher standard in Union to League - an example of which being that a lad who struggled from ages 11-13 to get into my lads team, went to League and was playing for Yorkshire within 2 months.
It's not all about the Premiership. |