This tone shows the blatant bias, the media are the controllers of popularity and they have no intention of flinging us into the limelight, that's not a chip that's a fact.
I'm surprised though seeing as Murdoch owns Sky?

Plus ask yourself why is it more popular?
More countries play the sport...well partly due to Union destroying us in any way it can France/Italy/UAE/Japan etc etc.
Marginalised into obscurity.

Oh and another reason for the Guardianista generation, Union is more inclusive, why you ask, well as a parent once said to me, me son isn't athletic enough to play Rugby League, there is a position for everyone in Union

Quite correct, biscuit

I go back to my post on page 4. People in this country are like sheep. They are TOLD what to do/like/watch, and like sheep, they obey. I'd lay a sizable lottery win, that the majority of people who've actually been to a match in this WC, haven't been to a Guinness Premiership game in years, if it all. It's just the "place to be seen at", or to drop in conversation in the work's cafeteria, the following day......"Hey. I went to Samoa v Uruguay, yesterday. It was awesome..." REALLY?

Biscuit recalls the Olympics. Evening Athletics events didn't have a seat going spare in the stadium in 2012. A year later, and top class athletes are invited back to compete at Birmingham, Gateshead and Crystal Palace. Guess what. Swathes of empty seats. You couldn't get a seat for Dressage/Basketball/Rowing in 2012. I've not seen a stampede for the grandstands when these sports have been televised, since. People get carried away in a whirlwind of hype.

Now, to me, Union is as dull as 3 hours of Soap Opera. It simply does nothing for me. I'll never understand why (in terms of entertainment) Internationals are ALWAYS packed out. BUT, matchday at Twickenham/Murrayfield/Cardiff is "where it's at". Media give it pages/hours of coverage, because people are told to like it. Will Mrs Brown of 23 Acacia Road, Tunbridge Wells, be reading match reports of Sarries v Bath, in a few weeks time? I very much doubt it. I bet a pound to a pinch of poop, that she was "glued" to the TV for the last couple of Saturday nights, though.

As a sport, RL hasn't got a chance, even if it had Alan Sugar's/Richard Branson's Head of Marketing in charge. Sky/BBC/The Press give it the bare minimum of coverage (particularly the press. I get the feeling they'd rather us not be here. We just take up a few column inches, that they'd rather give to other sports/teams). This is far from a "chip on shoulder" whinge, but they see us as little more than a parochial sport, that's got more punters than bog-snorkelling/cheese rolling/shin kicking etc. The media will NEVER change it's attitude to us. Sky see us as "filler". The BBC as an inconvenience. ITV don't see us, at all. And I'd be very surprised to see any RL coverage in any national newspaper, that has a printing press, south of Crewe.

I think we've got to put up with the media's love for international RU, and their disdain for League. It won't change within the next 20 years, bar a miracle.

Some great points made LG, I'm convinced most of the media still perceive RL to be not far removed from the one portrayed in 'This Sporting Life'

The reason why most people don't care much about RL is because they don't have a team of any note in their area - and suddenly franchising one in isn't the answer to that - and the international game is extremely weak. Their really isn't any more to it than that.

It isn't in our genes in Warrington, Wigan, St Helens etc that we will like RL, it's simply a fact that we grow up with it because it's been part of the fabric of our towns since the inception of the game over a century ago. Therefore we're exposed to it in the same way people in Leicester, Bath and Bristol are exposed to union. The reason why people who don't have local teams in either code might get involved at World Cup and Six Nations time is because RU has a strong international game that is relevant in all four home nations plus the three southern hemisphere powerhouses and then a handful of other countries as a bonus. It is a far cry from a truly global sport like football, but it absolutely dwarfs anything RL can muster and that's what captures the imagination of the more casual sports viewer who sees it as an event, because it most certainly is. Other sports like cricket operate much the same way - the international game completely underpins it. In RL we watch our clubs but no one can pretend the internationals are great. The best we've ever had has been the GB V Aus tours, but since both leagues started operating concurrently it has been impossible to truly get them back. Sad but true.

There will be plenty of people in Ireland who firmly believe GAA sports are "The Greatest", and similarly people in Melbourne, Perth etc will deem their " footy" to be superior to the codes played in the east of their country. For one reason or another the rest of the world doesn't agree with them though does it?

Personally I'm happy to just enjoy RL for what it is and not concern myself about what it isn't.

Let's see how many column inches and broadcast time is set aside for one of this countries greatest sporting spectacles, you know, the one on Saturday.

behave .....Sam Burgess ISNT playing for England on the Same day....England are sure to be world Class again and play like a rugby equivalent of the Harlem globetrotters on Supersize bags of whizz.... it'll be all over the news.....

League will jolly well get a column next to Chinese ladies baseball and be thankful for it....

No doubt the Royal diaries will already be full when the RL internationals come around.

parochial
synonyms: narrow-minded, small-minded, provincial, insular, narrow, small-town, inward-looking, limited, restricted, localist, conservative, conventional, short-sighted, petty, close-minded, blinkered, myopic,

Sounds about right for the RFL.

many years ago when i was a kid, there was a massive problem for league playing lads at my school.

My high school (lymm) didnt play rugby league.. the welsh PE teachers hated it infact.... There was a strong core of lads in my year that played rugby league. We all played for Grappenhall & woolston at the time. There were 6 of us... anyway we went to the warrington schools trials and all got in. Then when we were selected, it was town teams games on a saturday and Grappenhall games on a sunday.

The school blocked us playing league on a saturday for "warrington schools" saying that Lymm high school doesnt play league, so we had to play union for the school on a saturday... We were the best 6 union players in the school team had... 5 of us were forwards.. we were basically their pack... with us in the team it didnt lose in 3 years.. without us it won maybe twice... Basically the team was 6 very good league players, 1 or 2 union players and a bunch of lads that were scared of the ball and wanted to stand on the wing.

Kevin Tamati had to come into our school and try to reason with them to let us play rugby league... it was a right mess.

Even at junior level, Union is trying to put a spanner in the works.

It was reported on national news programmes earlier this year that the plan of the RFU was to establish their game in every school in the land.