Re: Why has the Cup lost its romance? : Sun May 15, 2011 1:02 pm  

How predictable that this is slowly turning into another Wigan v Wire slanging match.

Wire fans need to stop being so senstive about accusations that the CC is easier to win than the Grand Final. It's quite obvious that it is, and there's no real argument to the contrary. That doesn't detract from the glory and honour of winning the CC, or having a great day at Wembley.

But the Cup is still of waning interest - not the final itself, but the overall concept. The purpose of this thread was not to decry Wire's achievement in winning it for the last two years, but to investigate why it's no longer the biggest fixture in the calender and maybe discuss possible solutions to that.

Re: Why has the Cup lost its romance? : Sun May 15, 2011 1:31 pm  

Cruncher wrote:

I think you're right. But I have another, not-unrelated theory about the CC, which I admit may seem a little bit fanciful, but just give it a try.

The BBC loved the CC because it was - in their words - the People's Final. It suited their socialist-tinted university view of the world that the working class should be given a day out, and that everyone should celebrate it with them. If you think about it, while Grandstand would preview the FA Cup Final with non-stop, carefully edited action sequences (which contributed to making the whole occasion seem a lot more exciting than it ever turned out to be), it would preview the Challenge Cup by wheeling Colin Welland out to talk about mills, terraced houses and men of iron made from muck and brass.

I can't help wondering if the image of cloth caps and brass bands hasn't actually held the development of the game back in this country. Now that all that's gone, it genuinely seems as if the BBC have completely fallen out of love with Rugby League and don't know what to do with it any more. The CC - as the BBC's main tournament - could be the biggest casualty of that.

Agree with most of what you say here, I'd just change the "socialist tinted" bit to "condescending tw*ts"

I'd definitely give the CC to Sky but then make BBC show it in it's entirety, including the build up, the day after.

Re: Why has the Cup lost its romance? : Sun May 15, 2011 2:24 pm  

Its funny how the challenge cup loses its romance once you don't make many finals, how long is it now since you last appeared at wembley ? How long is it since you last lifted the challenge cup at wembley ?

You can bet your last £ that if Wigan had been appearing in any of the recent finals at wembley then the challenge cup wouldn't have lost any of its romance.

This thread comes across as a thinly veiled attempt to big up your grand final win and to put the challenge cup down as a cup thats not worth winning these days.

Very funny, i could belittle your grand final win by saying that it was one of the best oppertunities for a long time for a team outside of the usual names to get to a grand final due to St Helens being in regression and having no half backs at the time, you then had both Leeds and Warrington having the fatigue factor after the challenge cup final but i won't go down that road and say that the grand final lost some of its romance that year due to the above.

Re: Why has the Cup lost its romance? : Sun May 15, 2011 2:29 pm  

Rob Wire wrote:

Its funny how the challenge cup loses its romance once you don't make many finals, how long is it now since you last appeared at wembley ? How long is it since you last lifted the challenge cup at wembley ?

You can bet your last £ that if Wigan had been appearing in any of the recent finals at wembley then the challenge cup wouldn't have lost any of its romance.

This thread comes across as a thinly veiled attempt to big up your grand final win and to put the challenge cup down as a cup thats not worth winning these days.

Very funny, i could belittle your grand final win by saying that it was one of the best oppertunities for a long time for a team outside of the usual names to get to a grand final due to St Helens being in regression and having no half backs at the time, you then had both Leeds and Warrington having the fatigue factor after the challenge cup final but i won't go down that road and say that the grand final lost some of its romance that year due to the above.

1/10

Re: Why has the Cup lost its romance? : Sun May 15, 2011 2:51 pm  

Bill Sonny wrote:

1/10

1/100 more like.

such a poor attempt!

Re: Why has the Cup lost its romance? : Sun May 15, 2011 3:06 pm  

just cos u get knowhere in it anymore

Re: Why has the Cup lost its romance? : Sun May 15, 2011 3:38 pm  

Rob Wire wrote:

Its funny how the challenge cup loses its romance once you don't make many finals, how long is it now since you last appeared at wembley ? How long is it since you last lifted the challenge cup at wembley ?

You can bet your last £ that if Wigan had been appearing in any of the recent finals at wembley then the challenge cup wouldn't have lost any of its romance.

This thread comes across as a thinly veiled attempt to big up your grand final win and to put the challenge cup down as a cup thats not worth winning these days.

Very funny, i could belittle your grand final win by saying that it was one of the best oppertunities for a long time for a team outside of the usual names to get to a grand final due to St Helens being in regression and having no half backs at the time, you then had both Leeds and Warrington having the fatigue factor after the challenge cup final but i won't go down that road and say that the grand final lost some of its romance that year due to the above.

Another reason for you not to go down that road would be that it's completely irrelevant to the thread.