Depends on your definition of 'failure'. The concept as a 'whole' has certainly not failed. The youth development (mentioned previously) is THE most important aspect of having the game in London and that is finally working. Although attendances need to be improved to help us market the game better having the necessary playing roster is the most essential aspect of the game moving forward IMO.







Again your simply concerned with the crowds and not the bigger picture.







Whether your right or not, there should be no bending of the rules to accommodate them at the expense of everybody else. They already have immunity from relegation so they shouldn't be fast tracked when rules are set in place for everybody. It makes a mockery of the game, far worse a mockery than the perceived image Harlequins RL convey.

Why?

Beacuse if you have 20 team, a home and away and then split up the rounds with cup ties like now it will be far too long and add that to the international scene and there will be no off season.



So something has to give and the only logical thing will be the cup as you cannot get rid of the international scene.

First of all we do need to expand the game outside the heartlands and another team from France, whether it be Toulouse or another, can only be good for the game as long as they have a sound business and development plan. Problem with Celtic Crusaders is that they did not have that. Another team in South Wales could work as long as everything i.e. financials etc where in place. However, teams such as Widnes, Halifax, and maybe a team from Cumbria need the chance to get into Super League or their is no point in them striving to be succesfull etc. I think those team as long as the necessaries are in place can add value to the Super League unlike teams such as Salford who have poor attendances and dont seem to be able to add much on the pitch and with no sign of a new stadium anytime soon. Having worked in London developing the sport in the community there are a lot of schools etc playing the sport but there is much more interest in other sports such as football and cricket and even basketball. Quins are doing a lot of work trying expand and develop the game down there but for whatever reason it doesnt seem to be working. They even gave out free season tickets to every registered player both junior and senior, coaches, club volunteers etc and they didnt have any effect on their attendances. Whether having all these players and schools playing the game will pay of for the Quins in the long run I dont know.

another point to make is that a 20 team league could work if we brought in an elite international squad who were paid centrally or part centrally by the RFL and did not count on the salary cap. These players could only play in a certain number of games in the season i.e 25 games. It would be up to the clubs which games they played but they couldn't play more than the set amount. This would combat the elite players who play in the trinations and european nations from suffering burn out. Hopefully this would benefit the clubs and the international game. Thoughts????

I'm sure you'd be made welcome.

sounds great in concept but you would need to worry about how many of those per team to keep it fair. Imagine if for 25 games 1 team had almost a full 13 of these elite players then had the whole cap to get the back up for the rest of the league. Add to this how many quality players would come in as back up for the other 13 games? I like the 20 team league though would need some mid week games plus saturday and sunday though to accomodate the cup.

s

First let me admit to a little bit of bias. having been born and bred in Cumbria I would like to see a cumbrian team in superleague. I have also had a look back at the 95/96 season just before superleague and note that there were 16 clubs in the old first division. i do not think that it it is to much to accomodate a superleague of 16 clubs ie a further 2 clubs. By doing this it would be possible to accomodate 2 more clubs. as I understand the criteria for chapionship teams to get a licence was to win the Northern rail cup or get to the grand final in the 3 years prior to recieving a licence. Therefore as it stands this would be Halifax and Barrow( grand finalists last year) and Widness Northern rail winners. If Toulouse do not need to achieve this criteria I think it makes a mockery of the licencing, they new the rules!! Personaly I would like to see Barrow and widness in the next superleague and achieve this by going to 16 clubs. I also think that there ought to be some criteria layed down for keping a licence so that we do not have a repeat of Celtic and Salford ground. This would still leave the door open for Championship sides to progress as well as FORCING superleagu clubs to keep to their licence aplication.

at the moment if stadiums ect dont start to be built then barrow, halifax, widnes in for salford, wakey, quins

Why? Whats wrong with quins stadium. What makes Barrows ground any better than salfords?

I know this post is old but whatever. The problem with Quins probably isn't their stadium it's the fact that their fanbase is pretty low. However I think that we should have a London team in the league providing they are competitive as it would be a bit wrong to have French and Welsh teams but not a London team. What I don't understand though is why people are looking at another French side rather than for example Barrow or Whitehaven? Or Widnes. I think Salford may be a lost cause also. I have a friend who is a student at Salford University and she cannot find a pub in Salford which shows Rugby League EVEN IF SALFORD ARE PLAYING! I am not sure how well she has looked but I know she has rung in excess of 10 pubs near to the uni and all have said they don't show any.

its surprising but lots of eareas around here dont put the rugby on . southport for one

i know we need to expand it but for me france is not the way to go