N2022

To you maybe, but that's not the intention. We could go all in with 'we've got the 4 best club sides in the world and we're ready for the Aussies', and then lose on a fine margin, half the squad go down with a bug, or they don't even bother running RLWC or the Ashes, deciding instead to take various NRL or Pacific fixtures in a circus somewhere lucrative. And in the meantime, every SL club below that 4 club league has sacrificed it's beat players into the project, nobody wants TV rights, the fans are disillusioned because they don't get to see the stars come to their ground anymore. You get the idea.

I get that's an ideal on one level, but those games come round every few years and sometimes come down to moments and mindset. I'm not sure building a whole domestic structure with that in mind is (a) advisable or (b) likely to be effective. Because the optimal for nwating Aus might be to have a highly selective SL with just maybe 6 or even 4 teams and a hyperconcentration of talent in them, but this risks (1) generating too much gap for others to get into that elite (2) becoming repetitive for spectators and (3) damaging visibility of the wider game. To beat Aus you'd maybe say the elite don't have to spend time visiting schools, hospitals, signing shirts etc but what does that do for game image and future recruitment. I'm going on now, but you see my thinking, it's complex.

If you have a 5% abv beer sponsor, but play zero games, is that OK?

Catalans now UWCC, meaning Huddersfield get the chance next weekend to prove they are the world's top club XIII.

Catalans are now Unofficial World Club Champions. See other thread on this forum for how that works. Interesting to see if Huddersfield or Hull KR can take that crown from them in the games ahead.

Going back to the undermarketing of this game on BBC. I follow union as well as league, but putting the live text and radio coverage of European RU game above live TV coverage of this is just really unfair. Ridiculous.

But Saints haven't put it out of reach.

So, with minutes left, still not clear who the unofficial world club champions will be at the end of this.

Which is great for those people watching BBC at 10 last night, but I'd have thought having some promotion and a link through BBC sport website today would be a better way of reaching sports fans.

Not sure if this is a reference to my post. If so, I am grateful for the coverage but don't think it's unreasonable to be dismayed at the virtually non-existent signposting of it, especially given the missed opportunity this represents to bring an entertaining sport to a wider public.

Get Derek B to tweet them...

I understand where the money comes from. Doesn't seem any fairer.

News to me. Helpful to know.

7.58pm, BBC sport homepage, I can click links to text and radio coverage of RU, televised swimming, articles on cycling, snooker and German football, but only one RL story, despite it being a sport I have chosen to follow with them. Nothing for SL TV game.

Would have expected the BBC RL page to have some sign of the live coverage for this by now but it's still pretty much hidden unless you happen to read yesterday's match preview article. In my opinion that is so poor. Think I predicted 25 mins before KO for something prominent to appear or live feed to start but we're basically at that now with nothing. How is that going to catch people getting back from their own sports and looking for something to watch tonight?