Rugby league world cup

Frank the tank
Frank the tank Posts: 6,553
edited November 2013 in The cake stop
England qualify for the quarter final and on BBC news priority is given to the England union side beating the Argeninians. Whereas ITV never mentioned it at all but reported on the rugby union.

I can't understand the favouring of the union code over the league game.
Tail end Charlie

The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.

Comments

  • joelsim
    joelsim Posts: 7,552
    Maybe something to do with the people who run the TV networks being public school educated as opposed to being working class northerners.
  • jimmythecuckoo
    jimmythecuckoo Posts: 4,716
    Agree with that. I know which game I prefer so come on Kevin Sinield and the lads.
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    Beers of Belgium Cycling Club UK
  • jawooga
    jawooga Posts: 530
    No doubt this world cup should have had more exposure on BBC website, but I think in general coverage of rugby league is in line with interest. Terrestrial TV shows challenge cup matches, international friendlies, and every English game in this world cup.

    The flip side is that our 'national sports' of football, union and cricket are flogged to sky so the average Joe can't watch. Though admittedly union and football are covered during tournaments.

    I don't think there is as much of a culture divide as a lot of league fans believe though. Terrestrial TV seems determined to show us distance running for example, whose cliched stronghold is in the north east, and I've read people on here talk about what a working class sport cycling is, which now gets much higher coverage than in the past.

    I think live coverage (of which league does okay) comes down to whether the BBC can afford it. Column inches (given it is free) surely comes down to supply and demand. Id be interested to see their website traffic to different sports.
  • Frank the tank
    Frank the tank Posts: 6,553
    Union is possibly more watched than league but I don't think there is that much in it.

    To me it's about the gravity of the respective fixtures and on this occasion the English qualifying for a world cup 1/4 final if far more news worthy than the England union fixture,and, as such should have been higher up the news schedule.
    Tail end Charlie

    The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.
  • lucan2
    lucan2 Posts: 293
    Is it newsworthy though? England into the quarter-final is pretty much a given, isn't it?
  • Frank the tank
    Frank the tank Posts: 6,553
    Lucan2 wrote:
    Is it newsworthy though? England into the quarter-final is pretty much a given, isn't it?
    Perhaps at football.
    Tail end Charlie

    The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.
  • joelsim
    joelsim Posts: 7,552
    Nice to see the Cook Islands beat Wales today. Population 19,569 according to Wiki.

    Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    Not really got this in my conscious yet. For me there's so much variety of world class sport at the moment with footsie, cricket, rugby and tennis ... Not sure I have room for any more
  • sniper68
    sniper68 Posts: 2,910
    Joelsim wrote:
    Maybe something to do with the people who run the TV networks being public school educated as opposed to being working class northerners.
    I'm a working class Northerner and although I'm not a "proper"(I just tend to watch Internationals) Rugby fan I much prefer Union :D
    Lynskey R480

  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,154
    Joelsim wrote:
    Nice to see the Cook Islands beat Wales today. Population 19,569 according to Wiki.

    Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

    Could that be something to do with the fact that now Union is professional no-one in Wales is enticed to play League anymore whilst the Cook Islands team is probably chock full of Aussie and NZ based / born players?
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,154
    Frank the tank wrote:
    England qualify for the quarter final and on BBC news priority is given to the England union side beating the Argeninians. Whereas ITV never mentioned it at all but reported on the rugby union.

    I can't understand the favouring of the union code over the league game.

    Is it really newsworthy that England have made the quarter finals in a sport which is only played seriously in 3 countries (and in 2 of those it plays second fiddle to Union in terms of participation)? It is about as surprising as hearing that an American baseball team has made the finals of the World Series.

    Much as I like League (I regularly watched the Crusaders on the two years they played Super League down in South Wales) it has a far more limited following than Union both in the UK and worldwide (even acknowledging that Union isn't exactly a major global sport).
  • secretsam
    secretsam Posts: 5,120
    ibbo68 wrote:
    Joelsim wrote:
    Maybe something to do with the people who run the TV networks being public school educated as opposed to being working class northerners.
    I'm a working class Northerner and although I'm not a "proper"(I just tend to watch Internationals) Rugby fan I much prefer Union :D

    That's because League is utter, utter shi'ite, a bunch of ballet-dancing northerners flouncing round a ploughed field, not tackling properly, scrumming like 12-year olds and running like Mr Benn.

    That is all.
    It's just a hill. Get over it.

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