Talksport was on at work today and at one point they had Dave Whelan on and they were discussing how well Wigan did under his watch. They began to mention how even more remarkable it was given that Wigan isn't a massive place and it's also a "rugby town", and one of the hosts quickly commented that we are also a "rugby town" and have had similar success as them in recent years. I reckon that same pundit would smite me if I were to ring up and talk about how great the likes of Leicester and Leeds are doing given that they must be "rugby towns" too.
Wigan is a rugby town- their RL team dominated the game for many years to the point it was boring. Their football team was non league until 1977. Hull is a football city- it has had league football since 1905 and has had crowds the local RL sides can only dream of. The local RL sides have been perennial underachievers, and at the time of writing one has been demoted to semi-pro status. Both clubs have consistently failed for decades against small clubs like Featherstone, Castleford and Widnes.....places a fraction the size of Hull. Our success has also been modest, but we have been up against places of a similar size of bigger when in the top two divisions.
