Popularity
Rugby league may have fewer than 5,000 registered players but details are sketchy. The players lacked finesse during the early days due to a lack of expert coaching and development, which initially lead to a poor image for the rugby league. However, the game has grown steadily since its formation in the 1980s despite a chronic lack of funds that has hindered the game's expansion and development.
The Russian Rugby League supports the game in Moscow, but in the provinces there is little money or infrastructure for the game: it relies on the enthusiasm of coaches and players alone. There is plenty of talent, and the players are keen to make both domestic and international tours, and also play overseas in order to raise their standards.
Read more about this topic: Rugby League In Russia
Famous quotes containing the word popularity:
“A more problematic example is the parallel between the increasingly abstract and insubstantial picture of the physical universe which modern physics has given us and the popularity of abstract and non-representational forms of art and poetry. In each case the representation of reality is increasingly removed from the picture which is immediately presented to us by our senses.”
—Harvey Brooks (b. 1915)
“The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom.... He was fixed in the house of lords, that hospital of incurables, and his retreat to popularity was cut off; for the confidence of the public, when once great and once lost, is never to be regained.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“In everything from athletic ability to popularity to looks, brains, and clothes, children rank themselves against others. At this age [7 and 8], children can tell you with amazing accuracy who has the coolest clothes, who tells the biggest lies, who is the best reader, who runs the fastest, and who is the most popular boy in the third grade.”
—Stanley I. Greenspan (20th century)