A refreshing change – people are talking about rugby league

There is a steady rhythm to the news that provides the backdrop to my life as a rugby league fan. Monday mornings brings the trade papers, League Express and League Weekly. Tuesdays is Super League BackChat on Sky, Wednesdays Boots ‘n’ All, on Thursdays I seek out Rugby League Extra on Radio Manchester and then there is West Yorkshire Sport on a Sunday afternoon on Radio Leeds.

On the 13th of each month, the latest 40-20 magazine is downloaded to my i-pad and Rugby League World follows at the month end. The Super League Show on the BBC which I record, usually has a few minutes of debate each week.

And then there’s…. No, there isn’t. That’s about it. There is plenty of live action of course, with Championship, Super League and NRL, there are 11 full games on the TV each weekend to watch, plus the Wakey match that I take in live. But as for debate, dicusssion and opinion on the game, get off the internet forums and there’s diddly-squat.

We’ve got a small band of journalists who earn a crust from rugby league and they beaver away in their own little world and I, the customer, take what I’m given. There’s not much quality or variety and I tend to read, watch or hear the same old stuff over and over again. We operate in our own little rugby league bubble for much of the time and it’s rare to get a different perspective on things. The outside world doesn’t bother us, and we don’t bother them.

Then along comes the World Cup!

All of a sudden there are stories in the national press, by writers and journalists I’ve never heard of. Features in men’s magazines (not that sort) about Sam Tomkins’ fitness regime and a report on the launch of the World Cup on the main BBC News at 6pm by Dan Roan, their Chief Sports Correspondent, where was Tanya Arnold? She does all the Beeb’s league coverage! All this followed a great media turnout at Old Trafford earlier in the day, where Tony Hannan reported seeing several lesser spotted faces in the media pack.

There is a thread on one of the internet forums on media coverage of the World Cup and it currently runs to 24 pages. What’s even more unusual, for a rugby league discussion amongst fans, is that it’s almost all positive. League fans are lapping it up. There are articles on the players, on the history of the game and how tough the sport is. We normally only look at an international tournament through a single lens. How many empty seats will there be in the stadium as England inevitably lose to the Aussies again and prove how weak Super League is?

This time, yep, the Aussies are big favourites. Only three nations have ever won the cup, but hey, aren’t those Fijian blokes a big friendly bunch.

There is a superb ten reasons why you should watch the World Cup piece on the BBC’s website  as well as some really interesting stories on the history of the sport, including an article on how the Vichy Government in wartime France banned rugby league.

All of this is getting people talking about rugby league. At work the other day, I was leading a small team-building event where the people present were getting to know each other. To kick things off, I introduced myself and said my big passion away from work was rugby league. A lass from Worcester then piped up that she was going to the opening ceremony in Cardiff. Her husband apparently plays union, and had given league a go with the Gloucestershire Warriors in the Summer Conference one year and loved it. They’re off to the Millennium Stadium. “Well it’s on the doorstep”, she said.

Then on the way to the Italy fiasco on Saturday, a rather scary looking chap sitting opposite me on the train (how do they get those studs in the top of their head?) said “Is it next week the World Cup starts?” and even today, in town, as I politely declined the advances of a chugger, he called out after me “It’ll be tough against those Aussies next week”.

If they didn’t already sponsor rugby union, Heineken would have been a great partner for this World Cup, because it’s certainly reaching the parts that other tournaments don’t reach.

What the papers say

It’s been a pretty good couple of days for media coverage of the World Cup. The newspapers, TV and radio are usually swamped with soccer. Sky Sports News, might as well be called Sky Soccer News, as each half hour programme only has a tiny segment given over to non-soccer stories, so as I’m not really that interested in soccer, I don’t tend to watch it.

Evenings on Radio 5Live are better, as you do get some good debate and conversation about a broad range of sports. Though that can often be scrapped for a live soccer commentary instead. BBC local radio and the internet are by far the best places for rugby league coverage, and the BBC radio i-player allows you to access the different stations across the country. A big improvement on my childhood when I spent hours listening to a crackly radio reception, tuning in to some far away radio station when my favourite team was playing an away match.

Rugby league has certainly benefited from the way media has evolved in recent years with social media and the internet key places to get your rugby league fix. The World Cup team have made great use of Twitter and Facebook to keep fans informed and build interest in the competition. I check my news feeds several times a day, as a preferred way of finding out what’s going on.

When satellite TV took off in the UK, rugby league probably suffered as a result of the growth of specialist sports stations, such as Sky Sports. The money on offer from Sky, whilst not massive in comparison to the sort of crazy money thrown at Premier League soccer, was too good to turn down, and resulted in rugby league by and large becoming tucked away on satellite TV. The sport became hidden from the wider public, and coupled with the enormous growth and dominance of all sports by soccer, rugby league became wiped from the consciousness of many people.

Not only was rugby league out of the media spotlight away from Sky Sports, a number of journalists seemed intent on talking down rugby league. A lot of sports get ignored by the papers, but very few seem to attract seemingly deliberately negative attacks like rugby league has done. I’ve lost count of the number of “Rugby League is dying” stories I’ve read in the papers, when the reality is that the sport is now played by more people, in more places and is watched by more people than ever before and the quality of play at the top level, has never been higher.

After the 2000 World Cup, media coverage got so bad that a campaign was started by rugby league fans for fairer treatment in the press. There was even a book published on the campaign and a petition which was handed in to Parliament.

It was a curious time, but it was good that rugby league fought back. Things have improved significantly over the last ten years. There are fewer negative, almost vindictive articles printed about rugby league, but it still remains a surprise to see any decent articles in the printed press about the sport.

During the season, you might get a little snippet in a side column, or the odd brief match report in the Sunday tabloids, but that’s about your lot. The past few days though have seen some really good stories cropping up.

The Daily Telegraph have been a revelation. It was only a couple of years ago when a rugby league fan picketed the Daily Telegraph’s offices over their lack of coverage. They promised to up their game as a result of his campaign and boy have they delivered this year. Saturday saw a great piece by Daniel Johnson profiling the forthcoming World Cup. The same day, the Independent ran a story by Ashling O’Connor imploring sports fans to get out and watch the tournament. On Tuesday there was a wonderful article written by Tanya Aldred in the Telegraph on Fiji’s links to Rochdale and this was followed up the next day with a story by Oliver Brown on Sonny Bill Williams after the Kiwi star had decided to make himself available for the World Cup, the day after the squad had been announced. It was a story that made headlines here, in Australia and in New Zealand. Like him or not, he’s sure helped focus the spotlight on the World Cup.

Then there was an interview on Radio 5Live with England Rugby Union coach Stuart Lancaster, a former PE teacher at my daughters’ school in Wakefield. He couldn’t speak highly enough of the England rugby league team. That interview brought the World Cup to the attention of the country’s union fans.

With the Sonny Bill story and the Burgess brothers, there have been some great articles about the stars of our game, and the tournament is still a fortnight away. With a TV advert for the opening ceremony  due to be broadcast on ITV at half-time during next Wednesday’s England soccer international, the game is getting some great coverage at the moment.

It’s all helping to raise awareness of the tournament among the wider public and increase further the excitement levels among dedicated league fans.