Saturday 16 September 2017

RL Excitement

Some years back I befriended an elderly Danish man. He used to invite me around to his place to watch RL games on television. He would discuss the game quite analytically so he had really got into it. It used to fascinate me that someone with brief exposure to a sport later in life got to love it so much.

He should have gone to a RL game instead
More recently I worked for man who had not long arrived from Germany. He said he loved sport but was unfamiliar with the sports played in New Zealand. He spent time watching Rugby Union, then looked at Rugby League. He asked why was RU the more popular game when RL was so much better. I agreed.

So many immigrants who see RL get it quickly and like it, unlike RU or cricket, which are games you need to be brought up on to appreciate. In Canada RL has just started and straight away the fans are into it big time. Crowd numbers between 7-8,000 are the norm. RL has that ability to reach people in a short time frame.

So the game has huge potential, stifled mainly by lack of effort by the game itself. RL is crying out for international leadership which is now slowly happening. Lack of funds seems to be the issue now. The people behind the Toronto Wolfpack could do more for spreading the game than the sport has done for itself in over 100 years.

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