{"id":531270,"date":"2026-04-15T00:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/531270\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T00:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:53:10","slug":"talksport-host-slams-rugby-leagues-cumbrian-disrespect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/531270\/","title":{"rendered":"TalkSport host slams rugby league&#8217;s Cumbrian &#8216;disrespect&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  TalkSport\u2019s Adrian Durham launched a passionate defence of the county\u2019s historic clubs as he slammed the way the game has looked elsewhere for growth.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He feels more attention and support should be given to clubs like Workington Town and Whitehaven in one of the sport\u2019s traditional heartlands.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Durham spoke out as he interviewed author Rob Watson about a new book on rugby league.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The broadcaster said: \u201cI am not a fan of expansionism..\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI don\u2019t get it \u2013 you\u2019ve got a game dying to an extent in its heartlands, but we want to create teams for Super League in South Wales, but that doesn\u2019t work, so let\u2019s go to North Wales, let\u2019s go to Canada, let\u2019s have two teams in France\u2026\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI\u2019m absolutely baffled and bewildered by it. I would rather they made the heartlands as strong as possible.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cActually, I think the whole expansionism thing is so disrespectful to the county of Cumbria. It actually upsets me.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cYou [Rob] talk in the book that the only stadium [in Cumbria] that [would be] fit for Super League is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsandstar.co.uk\/local-news\/carlisle-news\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Carlisle<\/a> United\u2019s Brunton Park \u2013 a football stadium. And they don\u2019t play rugby league in Carlisle as such.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>Durham believes there should be a place in the Super League for Cumbria&#8217;s top teams (Image: PA)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThe hotbeds for rugby league are Whitehaven, Workington, out on the west coast.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI took a trip to both those stadiums on the same day, and I was seriously impressed with both.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI\u2019m thinking to myself, there should be ideally both these clubs in Super League to represent the whole area of Cumbria.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThat to me is a bigger issue than trying to start up a club in Canada\u2026that whole project left me bewildered.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Durham went on to speak of his admiration for the two west Cumbrian clubs\u2019 stadiums, Derwent Park and the Recreation Ground.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThose grounds are uninviting but warm at the same time,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThey are traditional, not modern in any way, harsh in some ways \u2013 you imagine in one of the coldest days of the season it would be horrible to go there.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cBut those are the things I love about it.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI don\u2019t see anything wrong with either of those grounds, Workington and Whitehaven.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The full discussion, via the William Hill Sports Book Club, can be viewed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ngnEE7UX1E0&amp;ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HERE.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Rob Watson\u2019s book Fighting For Survival: A manifesto for the future of rugby league, is available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pitchpublishing.co.uk\/shop\/fighting-survival?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TalkSport\u2019s Adrian Durham launched a passionate defence of the county\u2019s historic clubs as he slammed the way the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-531270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}