Quote Originally Posted by Arblasterfromthepast View Post
I'm sure you're right animal regarding the catchment area; it has to be 90% of the problem. It also seems it's a difficult sport to transfer to other areas, thinking mainly of the London and Toulouse teams. Their individuality in terms of sport in their geographical areas would lead you to think that there's the potential for large followings. However , that doesn't seem to have been the case and doesn't seem to have been anything like the support in rugby league's heartlands. Neither has the sport caught on in much more geographically closer areas in the UK. I find that odd as it is a very entertaining sport, in my opinion.
To be fair to Catalan they do attract 10k for their Super League home games , Toulouse would probably attract similar with a sustained Super League period .

Again as with the UK the rest of France is a huge Rugby Union country with a very good and well paid domestic competition .

The marketing men still believe there's a London market for Rugby League in the capital , this pre dates Super League in fact , the London Broncos were formed in 1980 as Fulham and we still await the great leap forward in terms of crowds and Super League establishment .

The truth is Rugby Union is engrained in English culture in a way League never will be , it's always the code to play in schools and universities and enjoys the establishment backing .

Rugby League was never forgiven for breaking away from Union in 1895 and forming a semi professional game and that still exists today despite Union also going professional .

However every now and again we've rubbed their noses in it , in the link is the final of the Middle*** sevens played in the early 2000's at Twickenham .

There's was a little bridge building getting done at this time and the Bradford Bulls were inviting to compete in this annual Union tournament , I suspect there was also some " putting the league boys in their place " as Union had become fully professional by this time .

The Bulls travelled down to Twickenham having played St Helens the night before and didn't arrive at their hotel until 3 in the morning .

They successfully despatched a very good Army side and Leicester Tigers before facing Wasps in the final .

The League club's haven't had an invite to the Middle*** sevens since .

Enjoy Arby .


https://youtu.be/Y4piQYfzAzI?si=EO28XpWjK6tR6LJ-