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RWC in England
- Thread starter mark1l
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Every country that hosts the RWC sees a massive increase in interest in rugby among the population. It happened in France in 2007 and will be the same in England. These massive events bring that attention to people who otherwise never watch rugby. For England it could be a massive boost with youngsters picking up rugby in stead of the more popular football. Long-term that could give England more depth.
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Ah, my mistake. Sorry. The rest of my point still stands though 
Whether it's Union or League, hosting a World Cup always increases interest in the sport.
Whether it's Union or League, hosting a World Cup always increases interest in the sport.
j'nuh
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Yeah, I agree. World cups generally gain some interest in a sport, but I think this one will fall a little flat, especially compared to 2015. A few reasons:
1. It's one of the least competitive international team sports I know. There are three serious teams that can make the final, and even those teams are barely competitive between them. It's like making a union world cup out of South Africa, Ireland and Samoa with loads of copies of Fiji as filler. There'll be three meaningful matches in the whole world cup, that might engage a large audience: Australia-England in the pools, the semi-final that contains two of Australia/New Zealand/England, and the final. This cannot hope to sustain the public interest when the tournament is done over a number of weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if even league fans tuned out of most of it.
2. It's a regional sport in the UK, which gathers the interest of only a select part of the North. The modern world strives on connectivity. Close community sports, like league is in the UK, I can't see growing very well. Union also has its hotspots in the UK, but they're much bigger and there are many more of them, making it easier to gather the public attention.
1. It's one of the least competitive international team sports I know. There are three serious teams that can make the final, and even those teams are barely competitive between them. It's like making a union world cup out of South Africa, Ireland and Samoa with loads of copies of Fiji as filler. There'll be three meaningful matches in the whole world cup, that might engage a large audience: Australia-England in the pools, the semi-final that contains two of Australia/New Zealand/England, and the final. This cannot hope to sustain the public interest when the tournament is done over a number of weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if even league fans tuned out of most of it.
2. It's a regional sport in the UK, which gathers the interest of only a select part of the North. The modern world strives on connectivity. Close community sports, like league is in the UK, I can't see growing very well. Union also has its hotspots in the UK, but they're much bigger and there are many more of them, making it easier to gather the public attention.
Mr Majstrovic
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Good point j'nuh.
I've got a sneaking suspicion Mark's talking about the Rugby World Cup in 2015. Mark - is that the case?
You've both raised some very good points though - I wonder what Mark thinks of this...
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Who's Mark?
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Ah, I see Yeah, it was just me who made the mistake. I think Mark was talking about the RL WC
Yeah, it was just me who made the mistake. I think Mark was talking about the RL WC
Thingimubob
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Isn't the England vs Australia opener in Cardiff too? Be interesting to see what kind of crowd that pulls, if there's still relatively cheap tickets left come the time that I actually have money, I might go down and see it. Doubt many will stick around for the Wales vs Italy game afterwards.
