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Message: [QUOTE="BroncsFan, post: 3685803, member: 9052"] Seeing the union results overnight with France beating NZ, Sth Africa beating England and Wales playing Australia as the favourites, it makes me want to see an actual effort put into increasing the competition of international rugby league. Tonga and Samoa are on the rise, but I think Australia are basically winning all their games in second gear, so they're far and away above the rest of the competition and it's more like Tonga and Samoa catching up to England and New Zealand, but competition at a World Cup stage is basically laughable and negatively impacts legitimacy of the sport. I think Australia being the top dog in league isn't a bad thing, because the All Blacks have basically been dominating union for decades now and represent the 'final boss' for union, so that can be Australia in league... but it seems like union countries have exploded over maybe the last 15 years or so with the rise of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, etc. as being legitimately competitive on the World Cup stage, and the rise of Japan, Canada, Argentina, etc. as the next countries behind them. Union internationally is really strong and is becoming a legitimate international team sport, potentially only under soccer, but I can't see any sport catching them. Is Union basically second place in terms of international team sports nowadays with cricket after that (carried mostly by India)? Not really sure what I'm rating that on, whether it's one or a combination of exposure, participants, revenue, international competitiveness, etc. but it feels like it is a legitimate team sport internationally nowadays, whereas only a few years ago it was basically Aus, NZ, SA and England... with England being down until Johnny Wilkinson appeared. So I wonder what league should be doing to increase the international game given union has basically exploded from where league currently is within the last 15-20 years? Wallabies being poor has left a hole that league can fill, so the time is right for them to put a real focus on it domestically... and I'd imagine increasing the international game benefits the game everywhere. The NRL competition, and by extension state of origin, is likely carrying the entirety of rugby league worldwide. I'd imagine it dwarfs revenue being made by ESL and international rugby league combined... but NRL is surely getting to a limit on its earning capacity? They are looking to expand to a 20 team competition, but there is only so much you can do when you're limiting yourself to the east coast of Australia and localised areas in NZ. The heavy centralisation around Sydney also limits what they can do domestically i.e. having over half the 20 team comp located in one area prevents them from having say 5 teams in NZ in the future. Increasing the competition internationally has to be the next step to increasing revenues for the sport. Has union exploded basically off the back of England in the early 00's?? or maybe off the back of Rugby 7's (pretty much a starter comp for minnow countries)?? [/QUOTE]

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