Rugby Union club converts to rugby league

profitius

RUGBY LEAGUE CONVERTING UNION PLAYERS TO “THE GREATEST GAME"



Rugby League is growing in the land of snow and ice. “The Greatest Game of All” is becoming so popular that now even Rugby League’s age old rival Rugby Union are starting to see the light. The Flekkefjord Tigers are the latest club to join the sport of Rugby League after the former Union club decided to make the switch to Rugby League in 2012. Founder and President of Flekkefjord Kristoffer Milligan said “I’m thrilled to finally announce publically that Flekkefjord Rugbyklubb are now officially a Rugby League club. We’ve had a massive increase in members the last few months, and lately we’ve been averaging an awesome amount of people at training. We’re a very young club that has a long way to go still, but I’m amazed and how quickly the new players are learning. They are an eager bunch and we have players ranging from the age of 15 to 35 of both sexes.
The Flekkefjord club are a great boost to the game in Norway not only because they have made a choice to play Rugby League over other sports but because they bring with them a host of new members including a great number of junior players and women. RLNorge CEO Warren Heilig said ” It’s great to see that our sport is making progress. Myself and all the Heads of all our clubs have worked extremely hard to grow the game and to have a Union club switch over to League is a nice reward for all the sacrifices all our guys make”. He went on to say ” It is great to not only have union players converting but the enthusiasm shown by not only Kris Milligan but the Head of their youth section Kim Andre Seglem who has some big plans to grow the game not only in Flekkefjord but throughout Norway”.
The Tigers club may be new to the game but they already boast 2 National Team players and after a big off season they are looking to try and get more players into the “Vikingene” squad. The club will start 2012 in Norway’s Division 2, but they will also be fielding teams in the under 16s division and the Womens division. We look forward to seeing these brand new converts blossom into awsome athletes through taking part in the great game of Rugby League!



http://www.rugbyleaguenorge.com/2012/01/rugby-league-converting-union-players-to-the-greatest-game/

It looks like Rugby league is being very active in trying to grow their game. What does that say about Rugby union?

themont85

profitius wrote: »

It looks like Rugby league is being very active in trying to grow their game. What does that say about Rugby union?

Rugby league have no money to grow their game whilst rugby does.

Is one club switching over an example of the sport of rugby league having a better growth strategy? Only to a few insane Rugby Union hating league fans I think...

Amazotheamazing

profitius wrote: »

It looks like Rugby league is being very active in trying to grow their game. What does that say about Rugby union?

Meh, league is ages away from the type of International game Union has.

JustinDee

I lived five years in Norway (playing rugby union in Oslo, after having played league in Australia) and had never even heard of Flekkefjord until seeing this thread. Is this switch a problem? Hardly indicative of lack of development.
Its an absolute b*tch of a country to organise a league in as the distances between the main clubs are so great. Its a seven hour drive from Oslo to Stavanger or Bergen, for example. This is why the one-day sevens and 10s comps work the best.

The main rugby club in Oslo also play in some rugby league one-day/weekend competitions and have no qualms or issues with inter-code bullsh.

A non-story really except to those involved in rugby league taking place in Norway.

bilston

profitius wrote: »

It looks like Rugby league is being very active in trying to grow their game. What does that say about Rugby union?

How on earth will Union ever survive?

tolosenc

Oh no! Not rugby union superpower Norway!

irishbucsfan

tolosenc wrote: »

Oh no! Not rugby union superpower Norway!

Have you never heard of the domino effect?!

28064212

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Have you never heard of the domino effect?!

Have you seen what happens when a single domino falls over and doesn't hit anything?

Podge_irl

profitius wrote: »

It looks like Rugby league is being very active in trying to grow their game. What does that say about Rugby union?

That Rugby Union is far more effective at growing the game.

At the RWC we had Canada beating Tonga who beat France who lost in the final to NZ in a game they should have won.

At the RLWC we have Australians living in a few different countries losing heavily to Australians who live in Australia.

profitius

Well folks its an article I saw. The reason I brought it up was because every now and again I check to see how rugby is progressing in other countries. A large percentage of the time I see articles highlighting rugby leagues growth in various countries.

Rugby union is far bigger so you'd have to wonder why any club would switch to league from union. The simple answer is the league crowd are probably putting more work into developing rugby league in certain areas. Nothing against league but union should be trying to promote the game better. Its not like theres that many top class countries playing union to ignore countries.

Podge_irl

profitius wrote: »

Well folks its an article I saw. The reason I brought it up was because every now and again I check to see how rugby is progressing in other countries. A large percentage of the time I see articles highlighting rugby leagues growth in various countries.

Rugby union is far bigger so you'd have to wonder why any club would switch to league from union. The simple answer is the league crowd are probably putting more work into developing rugby league in certain areas. Nothing against league but union should be trying to promote the game better. Its not like theres that many top class countries playing union to ignore countries.

Really? I have the exact opposite view. Rugby is clearly growing in plenty of minnow countries. A massive amount of money from the RWC goes into developing tier 2/3 countries. It's the reason they are closing the gap at the RWCs. The IRB pays for their players to take several months off and train together.

There is a fully professional league in Japan and the RWC is going there in 8 years. A semi-pro league in Russia, where it just became a sport that they teach in schools (the same position tennis was in 20 years ago). They've just for their first European pro players. Georgia gets crowds of up to 40,000 for some games.

Could the IRB do more? Sure. But, to be frank, they're not wasting their time on places like Finland. They're currently working on countries where rugby can really take hold.

twinytwo

profitius wrote: »

Well folks its an article I saw. The reason I brought it up was because every now and again I check to see how rugby is progressing in other countries. A large percentage of the time I see articles highlighting rugby leagues growth in various countries.

Rugby union is far bigger so you'd have to wonder why any club would switch to league from union. The simple answer is the league crowd are probably putting more work into developing rugby league in certain areas. Nothing against league but union should be trying to promote the game better. Its not like theres that many top class countries playing union to ignore countries.

If rugby union were chess.... league would be checkers.... ie a simple mans chess... that is all

JustinDee

twinytwo wrote: »

If rugby union were chess.... league would be checkers.... ie a simple mans chess... that is all

To break a league defence, you need speed, smarts, strength and skills. All with only a set of six to score in. Martin Johnson wasn't joking when commenting on Origin saying there's nowhere to hide on the league field.
Instead of silly slurs on each code by the other, both can learn off each other and actually do at the pro level.

JustinDee

profitius wrote: »

Well folks its an article I saw. The reason I brought it up was because every now and again I check to see how rugby is progressing in other countries. A large percentage of the time I see articles highlighting rugby leagues growth in various countries.

Rugby union is far bigger so you'd have to wonder why any club would switch to league from union. The simple answer is the league crowd are probably putting more work into developing rugby league in certain areas. Nothing against league but union should be trying to promote the game better. Its not like theres that many top class countries playing union to ignore countries.

It is only played in summer in Scandinavia so competes with soccer which is infinitely bigger. Another problem is the 'soccer mom syndrome' where parents are steering kids away from full contact sports. This is why, for example, ice hockey is on a worrying slide in the three Scandinavian countries (no pun intended).

Shelflife

JustinDee wrote: »

To break a league defence, you need speed, smarts, strength and skills. All with only a set of six to score in. Martin Johnson wasn't joking when commenting on Origin saying there's nowhere to hide on the league field.
Instead of silly slurs on each code by the other, both can learn off each other and actually do at the pro level.

I enjoy watching both games, prefer union but hate the bickering between fans that say ours is best.
two cracking sports and as JD has said each sport can and do learn from each other.

Amazotheamazing

profitius wrote: »

Well folks its an article I saw. The reason I brought it up was because every now and again I check to see how rugby is progressing in other countries. A large percentage of the time I see articles highlighting rugby leagues growth in various countries.

Rugby union is far bigger so you'd have to wonder why any club would switch to league from union. The simple answer is the league crowd are probably putting more work into developing rugby league in certain areas. Nothing against league but union should be trying to promote the game better. Its not like theres that many top class countries playing union to ignore countries.

There will always be more to be done, but after the RWC we're seeing more Russians playing pro rugby in the AP, a Georgian secondrow is due to join Edinburgh, most of Georgia's pack play in France and Russia are looking for two teams in the Amlin. Let's be realistic, it's not easy to grow a sport, especially one like rugby with set pieces wtc.

Over the next decade, I would hope the professional league in Russia gets established in the HEC and Amlin. That alone would bring up the neighbouring teams like Romania etc. Maybe add more Italian teams to the Pro 12, etc.

themont85

profitius wrote: »

Well folks its an article I saw. The reason I brought it up was because every now and again I check to see how rugby is progressing in other countries. A large percentage of the time I see articles highlighting rugby leagues growth in various countries.

Rugby union is far bigger so you'd have to wonder why any club would switch to league from union. The simple answer is the league crowd are probably putting more work into developing rugby league in certain areas. Nothing against league but union should be trying to promote the game better. Its not like theres that many top class countries playing union to ignore countries.

There are a hardcore of league fans who put a lot of effort into bigging up any kind of growth i.e. a four team league is started and it's hailed as a semi pro league because the lads get 20 euro for playing a game.

There are articles that I've read about USA Rugby League which make it sound as though the game is about to explode there. Talk of Super League USA and the likes. The reality is that RL is a mess there.

It's just a bit of PR there from them and there's nothing wrong with it but you have to take it with a pinch of salt.

RL have no real cash cows which can drive expansion. The NRL is the only real beast of a competition that they have and the Aussies aren't that fussed about growth around the world. Super League and their International Game do enough to get by.

Union in contrast have a lot more money to put into growth where as league have pretty much nothing.

I quite like League these days but it will always struggle to expand with a bigger brother with the same name and more money.

justsomebloke

a reminder that the knocking of ANY sport is not welcome here.

skregs

League is more popular in Australia now, I believe. And obviously Northern England has its hardcore supporters. I didnt think it was played anywhere in the world though

JustinDee

If anyone would like an interesting and eye-opening read about rugby league, get your hands on the book 'Forbidden Game' by Mike Rylance. Its excellent.

Dodge

skregs wrote: »

League is more popular in Australia now, I believe. And obviously Northern England has its hardcore supporters. I didnt think it was played anywhere in the world though

I remember reading that its the national sport in Papa New Guinea

State of Origins has always been the highlight of the Australian sporting calender too

As has been posted, its really of no concern to anyone what game/sport any one else likes or plays

Luckycharm

skregs wrote: »

League is more popular in Australia now, I believe. And obviously Northern England has its hardcore supporters. I didnt think it was played anywhere in the world though

Its always been more popular in Australia but given the game is about 100 years old it hasn't really progressed much at all - worldwide.
USA play South Africa in a RLWC qualifier in front of 30 people last year.
The league here struggles every year in the summer to fulfill its fixtures and relies on Union players or Expats generally to play the game.
Look at union or 7's by comparison with teams like Kenya able to compete with the best teams.
RL there are Oz, Nz and GB with PNG just below that every one is basically a minnow - Lebanon played in the last RLWC wonder how their league is getting on over there :rolleyes: In GB nearly all the teams in Northern england with League failing for nearly 100 years to break it in london - broncos disbanded, London harlequins struggle so would hardly say the game is exactly expanding worldwide.

themont85

JustinDee wrote: »

It is only played in summer in Scandinavia so competes with soccer which is infinitely bigger. Another problem is the 'soccer mom syndrome' where parents are steering kids away from full contact sports. This is why, for example, ice hockey is on a worrying slide in the three Scandinavian countries (no pun intended).

Is hockey's popularity decreasing there?

Third_Echelon

I find it difficult to sit through and fully watch a game of Rugby League... it just doesn't have the same level of interest or excitement for me. It's pretty much repeating the same phase of play over and over again....

Cool_CM

skregs wrote: »

And obviously Northern England has its hardcore supporters.

I work with a die hard Warrington supporter. His level of hatred towards Union and Chris Ashton is fairly impressive.