Meanwhile another Hull rugby derby was played today: English National L2 North Hull 25-30 Hull Ionians
Club rugby union isn't that popular spectator sport in England either - despite Saracens and Harlequins playing within the M25, the crowds are tiny compared to London's population indicating very little interest in the capital, second city Birmingham doesn't even have a top level team. Sponsorship contracts have reduced massively over the last decade. Leicester and Gloucester are the outliers regarding attendances. Sale, Newcastle and Exeter get around 5000. It's being kept alive by the popularity of the national team, and even that has been on the wane. So not sure why Union fanatics feel superior to League. It's been equally badly run.
The average Rugby Union Premiership attendance is higher than the average Super League one. How many watch the London RL teams? Birmingham, the second city, don’t have an RL team at any level.Agree union has been badly run. Though throughout the country there are more clubs with local RU set ups than league ones, like Driffield, Pocklington and Brid for example, it has declined a lot over the last few years. Parents worried about injuries and too many kids more interested in sitting in front of screens. Same with football, there has been a huge decrease in the number of divisions locally.
Still off it, nearly 2 years. A choice. I do have the odd 0% beer, the equivalent of a vegan having a chicken free chicken nugget. For context, the majority of this bollocks has been moved from the England football thread. Old Compo rambling on about one or more of the same old tedious **** - HDM, RL, RU, Anti-Hull, the youth of today, the good old days, etc. Sometimes he needs telling, in a round-about way, that he’s boring & it would be a better choice for all if he were to shut the **** up. A bit like a pissy old uncle at a family gathering that everyone avoids but he still insists on being the centre of attention. Thanks for your concern, but all good & weird free.
Injuries are definitely a concern for parents and with all the extra rules in the national game, the highest levels also. I think it all hinges on the players legal action outcome - if they win, then the game will have to change for good. It's been a couple of decades since i was involved with training in grass roots rugby, so can't comment on the popularity now. The big issue has been clubs wasting RFU money on player contracts, rather than using it to promote the sport enough. Richmond can't survive in the Championship because they pay a flat appearance fee to players, so the better players are poached by rivals, the only way they can stay afloat is to have one full time employee. Pretty much every other Championship team haemorrhages money and is in a loss to pay players to compete (just Ealing is fiscally ok because their owner funds it). Regarding children and screens... it is an issue but the main problem is that amateur and youth sport needs, and can only survive, with parental help - children need to be taken and picked up from training, taken to games and help with the organisation and infrastructure. Because of economic and political circumstances, adults are working so many hours, there's many single parent families with reduced time and a multitude of other good reasons why parents struggle to be involved and encourage their children to keep up with activities, it's not just lazy kids.
The average attendance in union is misleading though, they play 2 or three games a year at Twickenham or Wembley and then count those in the averages, Quins had an average attendance of 21k despite their stadium only holding 15k! Attendance is still higher in union though, the gap just isn’t as big as you might think, it’s helped by a few big midlands / southern teams. The club union game is dead up north, big city teams like Sale and Newcastle get fewer fans than the villages of Leigh and Castleford do in league.
I went to watch Rervers play at Huddersfield on Friday night - about 2000 Rervers were there - excellent, very loud turn out - you couldn't pay me to watch Union - didn't even realise the world cup was on until I saw England's half time score flash up on my pc - to be honest I hardly know what teams play in their top division or any of the names of the players who play for England - it's in the same pigeon hole as women's football, cricket 100, kabaddi and synchronised swimming - ie zero interest
There seem to be a lot of people claiming no interest in Rugby Union that have a burning desire to comment on it...or even to try and create an opportunity to comment on other totally unrelated things. I thought that there were a lot of positives to be drawn from a game that I feared the worst from before kick off, and thought it had been confirmed by the sending off. My question on that is, doesn't the 'victim' have a responsibility to be mindful of where their head is going too? I think Farrell will be wondering about his position if the games where he's sitting out due to his ban play out in a similar way.
Saying that club rugby union is dead up North depends on how you measure ‘life’ really. I certainly agree that you won’t get that many fans turning up for lower level matches, but what small rugby union clubs do very well, I think anyway, is build a community of players that feel an affinity to the club and obviously eventually become ex players. I don’t know about most club finances tbh as I’ve never had any involvement, but if you take Hullensians as an example. They’re in their centenary year this year so there is some longevity, They do get a much bigger crowd than similar local RL teams (I’ve played and attended both) even if not huge. They have their own clubhouse so those thirsty fans help the club unlike most, if not all?, local RL teams (and they tend to be a thirsty lot!) They also use that clubhouse for events from birthdays to funerals. A wake for an ex player there is likely to extremely well attended. They have a Vice Presidents club with dozens and dozens of members who pay a small monthly fee to support the club (it paid for a small stand to be built there last two seasons) Those same VPs then attend for matches that they sponsor…and drink the bar dry! There is a definite feeling of community there I think, and there is definitely young players being brought through who will also feel part of that which is why they’re happy to leave their screens to play. No idea what that looks like on a balance sheet, and although I know you weren’t suggesting it I’d say it’s definitely not dead.
