Another ill thought out argument I'm afraid: If there was no audience for the rugby, do you think ITV would spend the money on it? Look at the companies advertising in the breaks, these are serious budget companies. Either they've got it wrong, or you have. I know where my money would go if I was a betting man...
IMO, it was a struggle for us to get past the post, but certainly some positives came out of it. Youngs was very good when he came on, was trying to use the fast and slow ball at the right times, just nobody else seemed to be on the same wavelength. Tuilagi looked good again, the experience of the first few games under his belt will bode well later in the tournament. Haskell I thought also played reasonably. Unfortunately, too many big players went walk about Wilkinson, Aston, were they actually playing? We also weren't quite quick enough supporting going forwards and the defence struggled a bit....... We'll see.........
Erm nice start to your post, pity you have'nt read the others, I havent said union is not the biggest code at all, it sure is all over the world except australia, the league world cup is a bigger joke than the union one but it still is'nt a big world sport, as i said in an earlier post ask people in most of the countries about it and they wont even know its on, I watch it when it gets to the big matches like most will and it should have its own world cup for those who wanna watch it
It didn't need one. the club game has always been popular (unlike union) so there were huge club stadiums, even Swinton's ground used to hold 40,000. My father went to the Challenge Cup final replay in 1954 at Odsal, Bradford where the official attendance was 102,000 although police estimates had it at 120,000 (the organisers stopped counting at 102,000 for some reason) - then there was always Wembley. The Warrington v Leeds game last night was superb, end to end stuff with brilliant skills on display throughout. I didn't watch the england union game this morning (I can't bring myself to watch union) but the reports suggest it was the usual mess.
My experience of watching England suggests that we will either play expansive rugby and lose gallantly or grind out a boring result. I'd settle for a result against the French
League? Union? Now you've lost me. Ever watched or played Australian Rules football? It's rough. Brutal sometimes. Not for the faint hearted.
My enmity to union started in the 80s. My father went to Wembley to see Halifax v St Helens play in a superb Challenge Cup final in front of over 90,000 people. The following day the Times had a small column on it next to a full mage match report of Saracens v somebody played on a field in front of about 100 people. I also dislike how they try to rewrite history. For 100 years anybody who played rugby league was banned from playing union because they were deemed to be professional rugby players (even amateur rugby league players were banned) yet now I can often read in union articles that rugby only bnecame professional in 1995 - in fact you didn't even have to play rugby league to be banned, one bristol player was banned because he might have spoken about the advantages of rugby league and the current Lord Jopling was banned from union because he kicked off a rugby league game at Wakefield while he was a prospective tory candidate. Sale Sharks last season played a game at the Reebok in Bolton which got an attendance of just over 16,000 - they claimed it was the first game of rugby ever to be played there (it wasn't i have been to two previously) and it was the biggest ever attendance for a club rugby game in the north west (it probably isn't in the top 500 biggest attendances for club rugby in the north west)
