Just been on the BBC sport website to see what pre-season information and news there is in readiness for the new Super League Season and the two main headlines are "Former Rugby League Star denies rape claims" and an even sillier headline of "Rhinos grow grass with cannabis lamps" Yet go to the Union page and all the headlines are positive and relevant with loads of information about the six nations, what the hell is going on isn't about time the leaders of our fine game grew a pair and started to address the BBC's continuous belittling of our game and poor coverage

The bbc is dominated by public schoolboys/girls and the Oxbridge set who have no interest in the success of RL and are delighted when something negative happens to the sport.

i think we are seeing the upping of the RU's campaign to see of our superior game once & for all . We have certainly been moved into the fringe sport department & now even the 6 nations is starting on Friday to clash with Saints opening fixture.

I think RL is ,and has been for some time, a victim of the old school tie culture ,especially since union turned pro, where most establishment organisations are urinating in the same pot.

Yeah BBC are definitely losing interest, Sky is the place to go for news on the sport now!

Paranoid. We have established that, on fan base, RL is on a par with the 3rd tier of English football. The 6 Nations dwarfs it in comparison. RL struggles to even differentiate itself as a sport with most BBC references to "rugby" meaning Union. We are a fringe sport watched by a total of about 100,000 people in it's entirety.

To be fair.
union has always been referred to as rugby, and they do have that right to market it so as it was the original game.

In the southern hemisphere the world union is rarely used.
Its either rugby or league.

I don't hold the BBC responsible for the lapses of league promotion over the years.
The RFL are the only sports body I know that constantly shoots the game in the foot by getting behind something and then walking away.

The BBC used to show by and large more rugby league than any other sport. For six months of the year Grandstand would almost weekly play RL games, only mainly not transmitting them when big events like the Grand National, Four Nations Rugby (ouch!) or for (coughs) The Boat Race etc.

The BBC were not responsible for the dropping of the John Player/Regal Trophy, The Lancashire Cup, The Yorkshire Cup and The Premiership competitions. Plus the RL Ashes tours of GB Lions v NZ or OZ.

That is a lot of terrestrial RL that we don't have any more!

(There was also the short lived BBC 2 floodlit competition too)

I think you are right when the RFL themselves do not appear to have the best interests of the game at heart, I think your 100,000 is a bit far of the mark but the sentiments you express I fear are all to true, think small and that is exactly what you will become, a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy.

Yes, you are being paranoid.

There isn't much RL news around at the moment, due to the season not having started yet, and no-ones bought any players recently.

Regrettably (for the sport), the Raynor story is news, and any media outlet will align Raynor with RL.
The Rhino's cannabis plant lamps story was also used in a similar story for one of the NW's football sides, and there was no throwing up of arms, then.
I see no problem with either story being on the Beeb's RL website, otherwise, there'd be nothing on it (the site), so there'd be whinging again.

I bet there'll be a pre-season preview on in a day or so, so we can all relax.

You do come out with some tripe!

Let's address what the Beeb have lost, not bidded for or snubbed

You say the BBC weren't responsible for the dropping of the Yorks/Lancs Cup.......They showed their last final in 1983, yet these comps went on til 1992 (ITV showed the finals from 1989 onwards). So yes, the Beeb were responsible for dropping them, as they had them, and then no-one showed them....that's the definition of dropping.

The Beeb showed their last live Premiership Final (or qualifying rounds, for that matter) in the early 90's. So they either dropped them, or got outbidded by Sky.

Likewise, International Tests. The last Tests shown live on the Beeb from memory were (iirc) the SL tests of 1997, and the Beeb didn't show another live International for over a decade. So they've again been outbidded or just couldn't be ar5ed.

...and you spout more claptrap about them dropping games in favour of the Boat Race/National/4 nations....absolute conkers. That's NEVER happened as long as I've been watching the game.

Why let the facts get in the way of a BAD argument, eh duckie?

A good amount of blame CAN be laid at the door of the Beeb, but it's their choice. If people weren't watching, they're going to drop them.....or maybe they couldn't be ar53d.

Just for clarity I am not advocating think small at all. Rugby League can be a brilliant, exciting, flair game with wider appeal. I suspect if we add up all the attendances at any weekend for the top 3 leagues we would get a total around 100,000 spectators.

What do we expect the BBC to do with this relatively low level of appeal ?

Well the BBC profiled London Broncos in their televised season preview, so

I have no problems with you using the boards to correct me and welcome it. However its not a place for personal insults.

Where lefty did I say the bbc "drop" Rugby league games for the boat race?