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Remember all the predictions about RL dying... they all came not long after RU went openly pro..
Here is a reminder of one of them..
wasn't he wrong!
http://www.mysporttoday.co.uk/ViewA...icleID=1496931&sitecode=leed&sportcode=rugbyl
Here is a reminder of one of them..
wasn't he wrong!
http://www.mysporttoday.co.uk/ViewA...icleID=1496931&sitecode=leed&sportcode=rugbyl
Five years on... and stronger than ever
PETER SMITH INSIDE RUGBY LEAGUE
TIME to fulfil a promise. Five years ago yesterday, this newspaper's Inside Rugby League page reflected on comments made about the sport by journalist Frank Keating in his Guardian newspaper column.
Keating claimed: "To my mind, these last few months have seen rugby league doomed. It is only a matter of time – and not much of that either – before rugby league in Britain is forced to merge with a voracious union. I give it five years, and that is being generous."
This column promised then to return to the subject on the second Thursday in May, 2006. That time has arrived – and we're still here!
Keating could not have been much more wrong. Not only is rugby league alive and kicking, it's making genuine advances at both national and international level.
The substance of Keating's article was that league could not survive the loss of its best players to rugby union.
At the time, only Jason Robinson had made the switch. Since then, high profile code breakers have included Iestyn Harris, Henry Paul and Andy Farrell.
Harris and Paul both made the change, proved a point – and then came home. Injury-stricken Farrell has yet to lace a boot in anger in his new code, a year after he moved from Wigan to Saracens.
Exodus
Keating claimed money would not be the reason for the exodus. He said: "What players want is the thrill of the big time, the genuine international up-front occasion in packed-out stadiums; the experience of being watched by millions the year over."
Paul earned six union caps for England –- despite being a Kiwi, but that tells you plenty about the dearth of young, home-grown talent in the Guinness Premiership – and Harris starred for Wales in the 2003 World Cup. But still they prefer "insular, homely" – as Keating put it – rugby league.
Since Keating made his outspoken attack on league, the code has gone from strength to strength. Attendances in engage Super League are booming – up from an average of 7,223 in 2001 to 8,977 last season.
The Super League Grand Final is now established as one of the major events on the British sporting calendar and that Saturday night at Old Trafford in October has become a hot ticket – with sell outs for the past three seasons.
Rugby league is creating an event culture, with the past two Gillette Tri-Nations tournaments playing to full houses. Last year's Northern Rail Cup final was a sell-out and National League Grand Finals day also regularly plays to full houses.
Keating s




ed at rugby league's "low-key, dismal, unwatched World Cup on the back of mundane club contests against the same blokes you played a fortnight ago and three weeks before that..."
The 2008 World Cup, already in its qualifying stages, will be staged Down Under – and low-key and dismal it certainly won't be.
As for mundane club contests – this reporter hasn't attended many mundane Super League contests over the past five years, certainly none of the 21,000-plus sells-outs for a series of epic Leeds-Bradford derbies could fall into that category.
The top try scorer in union's Guinness Premiership is Leicester's Tom Varndell, with 14. Wasps' Tom Voyce, with 10, is the only other player in double figures.
After 13 rounds of engage Super League, Hull's Kirk Yeaman tops the try charts with 19 and there are already six other players in double figures – with an average of 8.71 tries scored per match. That says quite a lot about the relative entertainment value of the two competitions.
In 2001, Les Catalans were just a pipe dream. Now the new French club is up and running – and attracting crowds in excess of many of those pulled in by the heartland clubs and teams in union's Premiership.
French union outfit USAP's attempts to undermine Les Catalans have run aground in the face of resistance from Perpignan's mayor and local business people, whose takings have been swollen by the twice-monthly influx of English fans.
Sitting at his keyboard five years ago, Keating would have choked on his cocoa at the prospect of Harlequins – the very essence of the union establishment – taking an upstart league club under their wing.
It's happened and it is working. As Inside RL on May 10, 2001 pointed out – the obvious way forward is not merger of the two codes, but of closer working relationships between the rival sports.
Viewing figures on both Sky and the BBC are buoyant and an increasing percentage of league's audience on the satellite channel is from outside the heartland areas.
As this column noted last week, the Rugby League Conference now includes 86 development sides from all over England, as well as Scotland and Wales.
The Rugby League European Federation has 15 nations under its wing and new domestic competitions are springing up all over the world.
Who could have imagined five years ago that the West Indies Rugby League would be preparing for a second season? Sadly, league still finds itself the victim of unwarranted attacks from union apologists who, having nothing positive to say about their own sport, have to have a go at ours.
Not everything in the garden is rosy, but the sport is making real progress, particularly outside its heartland areas.
Keating and his like expected that when union went openly professional a decade ago, that it would mean an end to rugby league – on the basis that the only reason for playing the 13-a-side game was to get paid for it.
Anyone who thought that has obviously never set foot outside the Home Counties. In fact, professionalism in union has provided a huge boost for league as it means thousands of union players are now free to try their hand at the other code.
Clubs like Gloucester Warriors, St Ives Roosters, Somerset Vikings and the rest would never have existed had the old barriers remained.
League has been under attack for the past 111 years and has survived. Keating and his kind should get used to it, rugby league is here to stay.
PETER SMITH INSIDE RUGBY LEAGUE
TIME to fulfil a promise. Five years ago yesterday, this newspaper's Inside Rugby League page reflected on comments made about the sport by journalist Frank Keating in his Guardian newspaper column.
Keating claimed: "To my mind, these last few months have seen rugby league doomed. It is only a matter of time – and not much of that either – before rugby league in Britain is forced to merge with a voracious union. I give it five years, and that is being generous."
This column promised then to return to the subject on the second Thursday in May, 2006. That time has arrived – and we're still here!
Keating could not have been much more wrong. Not only is rugby league alive and kicking, it's making genuine advances at both national and international level.
The substance of Keating's article was that league could not survive the loss of its best players to rugby union.
At the time, only Jason Robinson had made the switch. Since then, high profile code breakers have included Iestyn Harris, Henry Paul and Andy Farrell.
Harris and Paul both made the change, proved a point – and then came home. Injury-stricken Farrell has yet to lace a boot in anger in his new code, a year after he moved from Wigan to Saracens.
Exodus
Keating claimed money would not be the reason for the exodus. He said: "What players want is the thrill of the big time, the genuine international up-front occasion in packed-out stadiums; the experience of being watched by millions the year over."
Paul earned six union caps for England –- despite being a Kiwi, but that tells you plenty about the dearth of young, home-grown talent in the Guinness Premiership – and Harris starred for Wales in the 2003 World Cup. But still they prefer "insular, homely" – as Keating put it – rugby league.
Since Keating made his outspoken attack on league, the code has gone from strength to strength. Attendances in engage Super League are booming – up from an average of 7,223 in 2001 to 8,977 last season.
The Super League Grand Final is now established as one of the major events on the British sporting calendar and that Saturday night at Old Trafford in October has become a hot ticket – with sell outs for the past three seasons.
Rugby league is creating an event culture, with the past two Gillette Tri-Nations tournaments playing to full houses. Last year's Northern Rail Cup final was a sell-out and National League Grand Finals day also regularly plays to full houses.
Keating s
The 2008 World Cup, already in its qualifying stages, will be staged Down Under – and low-key and dismal it certainly won't be.
As for mundane club contests – this reporter hasn't attended many mundane Super League contests over the past five years, certainly none of the 21,000-plus sells-outs for a series of epic Leeds-Bradford derbies could fall into that category.
The top try scorer in union's Guinness Premiership is Leicester's Tom Varndell, with 14. Wasps' Tom Voyce, with 10, is the only other player in double figures.
After 13 rounds of engage Super League, Hull's Kirk Yeaman tops the try charts with 19 and there are already six other players in double figures – with an average of 8.71 tries scored per match. That says quite a lot about the relative entertainment value of the two competitions.
In 2001, Les Catalans were just a pipe dream. Now the new French club is up and running – and attracting crowds in excess of many of those pulled in by the heartland clubs and teams in union's Premiership.
French union outfit USAP's attempts to undermine Les Catalans have run aground in the face of resistance from Perpignan's mayor and local business people, whose takings have been swollen by the twice-monthly influx of English fans.
Sitting at his keyboard five years ago, Keating would have choked on his cocoa at the prospect of Harlequins – the very essence of the union establishment – taking an upstart league club under their wing.
It's happened and it is working. As Inside RL on May 10, 2001 pointed out – the obvious way forward is not merger of the two codes, but of closer working relationships between the rival sports.
Viewing figures on both Sky and the BBC are buoyant and an increasing percentage of league's audience on the satellite channel is from outside the heartland areas.
As this column noted last week, the Rugby League Conference now includes 86 development sides from all over England, as well as Scotland and Wales.
The Rugby League European Federation has 15 nations under its wing and new domestic competitions are springing up all over the world.
Who could have imagined five years ago that the West Indies Rugby League would be preparing for a second season? Sadly, league still finds itself the victim of unwarranted attacks from union apologists who, having nothing positive to say about their own sport, have to have a go at ours.
Not everything in the garden is rosy, but the sport is making real progress, particularly outside its heartland areas.
Keating and his like expected that when union went openly professional a decade ago, that it would mean an end to rugby league – on the basis that the only reason for playing the 13-a-side game was to get paid for it.
Anyone who thought that has obviously never set foot outside the Home Counties. In fact, professionalism in union has provided a huge boost for league as it means thousands of union players are now free to try their hand at the other code.
Clubs like Gloucester Warriors, St Ives Roosters, Somerset Vikings and the rest would never have existed had the old barriers remained.
League has been under attack for the past 111 years and has survived. Keating and his kind should get used to it, rugby league is here to stay.

