That fake northern rugby want to charge holders to enter their competition?

[tugglesf239]

No doubt your coaches have some of the best defensive patterns going and that’s why union wants them. They also move though don’t they? Money and the big stage help in that regard?
League players are also fitter on the whole I think.

Money and fame are unfortunaly something limited to very few Super league players, hence why the NRL is pillaging our players. It’s also why your lot pop up now and again basically promising an International cap and mega cash to anyone remotely high profile.

It makes me sad because the lads that play our sport are some of the most elite athletes in ALL of world sport. Some are also as technically able as any of your messi’s or Ronaldos.

Yet the salary cap dictates that their earning ability should be much less than their NRL or Union counterparts.

All that for a sport that is as brutal as anything in the planet.

Sad times and destined just to get worse as the tail wags the dog in this code.

Not to mention the cash the disgusting RFU is throwing at league heartland schools to promote the playing of rugby union. Fair enough I suppose, however when the cash regards has caveats that NO league is also allowed. Well...

They are strangling us from within.

I totally agree that in terms of presence, RU is currently miles beyond league.

It’s a middle or upper class sport that’s benefited hugely from its participants being better educated and connected.

The media bias of the southern media just helps to squash any good news story out game produces (and we are a ground breaking sport in so many regards?

Telling that the first RL story I’ve read on here in maybe a year is focused on a negative.

Don’t take this the wrong way Cam but you are operating in the same way as a southern Journo would 😉

On the pitch though, it’s different.

Some prefer Union, some prefer league

Now..

I’m not even going to spout of about league players being ‘fitter’ as these days union players are also fit (apart from some of the big Fat gets you still see even at international level)

Just different types of fitness.

Pound for pound though. Your average league player puts most Union players to shame regarding core competencies. I’d argue they also have generally much better understandings of actual Rugby.

Everyone’s a playmaker in our sport and there is no room to hide.

I don’t mind Union really. I do find it very amateurish at times though.

Most of all I’ll never, EVER understand a sport whereby you would surrender possession so easily. 🤔 it has me scratching my head.

All the booting downfield to the enemy??

Sod that. Get the ball and put on a full scale attack on the opposition and if needs be give them a good old fashioned biff. 😂👊🏻

 

[tugglesf239]

Oh and I call ballax on the outperform part of your argument.
Very very few league players have made it at international level

I make it 3 that have actually set the world alight

Robinson
Falau
Sonny Bill

Too many flops to name but two stand out donkeys were

Burgess and old man Farrell (but he is a good coach)

May I ballax in retort big yin?

These ‘donkeys’ still made it into the international team 😂😂

The international side.

What does that say about the talent pool of the union lot when some donkeys play for the bloody NATIONAL side.

Can’t be that bad eh?

Better than the other 2 million registered kick and clap players

 

[Captainron]

May I ballax in retort big yin?

These ‘donkeys’ still made it into the international team 😂😂

The international side.

What does that say about the talent pool of the union lot when some donkeys play for the bloody NATIONAL side.

Can’t be that bad eh?

Better than the other 2 million registered kick and clap players

They were both awful. Burgess can’t pass a ball! Tackles like a rhino though 👍

 

[Captainron]

I don’t mind Union really. I do find it very amateurish at times though.

Most of all I’ll never, EVER understand a sport whereby you would surrender possession so easily. 🤔 it has me scratching my head.

All the booting downfield to the enemy??

Sod that. Get the ball and put on a full scale attack on the opposition and if needs be give them a good old fashioned biff. 😂👊🏻

I love the fact that you can compete for the ball in every phase. You lads kick the ball away to a formula though don’t you. 1,2,3,4,5 and kick. Repeat for 80 minutes. Ironic that you have a rule which rewards a well placed kick though 😂

Union is far more diverse that league in that it’s a sport for all shapes and sizes.

Scrums do get on my nerves though with all the restarts.

Best rugby advert is the Super Rugby competion which kicks off in a few weeks.

By the way. Do you know what the best attended sporting event by average crowd size is in sport??

It’s the 6 nations with an average of 72000 punters per game. 😳😳 Who knew!!

 

[tugglesf239]

They were both awful. Burgess can’t pass a ball! Tackles like a rhino though 👍

The lad as an absolute specimen

Knew that when I saw him poleaxe Fui Fui Moi moi as a 17/18 year old.

 

[Vikingman]

Oh and I call ballax on the outperform part of your argument.
Very very few league players have made it at international level

I make it 3 that have actually set the world alight

Robinson
Falau
Sonny Bill

Too many flops to name but two stand out donkeys were

Burgess and old man Farrell (but he is a good coach)

Sorry but what part of it was ballax.

If a guy holds down a first grade place in a premiership club he's in the top 180 or so players in a sport that claims god knows how many 100,000's players.

I reckon the maths will not be too far out.

Tbh I purposely played down playing for England because we all know most of them were failures, you union fans keep telling us.

As for Farrell and Burgess being donkeys.

Much as I hate to admit it Andy Farrell was a magnificent footballer but his body was busted.

Also, were the hell did they expect to play him, he was a ball playing loose forward, hardly a position that can transfer.

As for good old Sam Burgess, the man that cost England the World Cup.

Remember when Bath signed him, the Southern media were masturbating themselves senseless.

All of a sudden a man they have studiously ignored is back page news.

So having signed him it dawns on them that they don't know what to do with him.

Still they pick him for England in the centres (he lacks pace) but he still manages to bottle up Wales biggest threat.

England are leading late on and they take him off, we all know what happens next.

They don't pick him to start against Australia, get pummelled and guess what.

Its all Sam Burgess fault.

The media piles in, Sam decides he's had enough and the same media who lauded him for leaving league slaughter him for leaving union.

You really couldn't make it up.

Personally I think he was bored in union.

He'd gone from touching a ball maybe 40 times in a game and making 30 odd tackles to what, 4 or 5 touches and half a dozen tackles.

He was too slow for centre so what did that leave him, scrambling about as a flanker and lifting a tall guy in a line out?

Do you really blame him.

But having done what he's done in the NRL to call him a donkey is quite frankly, laughable.

 

[tugglesf239]

I love the fact that you can compete for the ball in every phase. You lads kick the ball away to a formula though don’t you. 1,2,3,4,5 and kick. Repeat for 80 minutes. Ironic that you have a rule which rewards a well placed kick though 😂

Union is far more diverse that league in that it’s a sport for all shapes and sizes.

Scrums do get on my nerves though with all the restarts.

Best rugby advert is the Super Rugby competion which kicks off in a few weeks.

By the way. Do you know what the best attended sporting event by average crowd size is in sport??

It’s the 6 nations with an average of 72000 punters per game. 😳😳 Who knew!!

I’m not suprised by that.

72000 punters and about a billion pints sold at each game with only one or two

I know that super league is (or was) the second most watched televised sport on television after the football. Was for a good number of years. Might still be?

Forget the name of the people that pull the stats together but I was suprised when I read it.

Our domestic game does pull in plenty of punters.

Your international game is sickeningly well viewed live.

All those freebie hob non tickets the RFU dish out obviously helps 😉

I do understand your point about RL being formulaic, although what’s better?

A boxing match where both fighters size each other up for 11 rounds tactically. Or when two boxers go toe to toe and knock seven bells out of each other Rocky vs Drago style 😂

The over all tactics are are more predictable yes. Because it’s an easy tactic.

Physically destroy and hurt them them when you are defending and confuse, batter and dazzle them with ball in hand.

yes you can predict what a team will do in league much easier. But predicting what a good league player will do when he’s got the ball in hand

Much more difficult. These lads are absolute craftsmen.

Hope that makes sense. I’m about 6 cans and Alf a bottle of glenmotangie in...

Ha

 

[tugglesf239]

Sorry but what part of it was ballax.

If a guy holds down a first grade place in a premiership club he's in the top 180 or so players in a sport that claims god knows how many 100,000's players.

I reckon the maths will not be too far out.

Tbh I purposely played down playing for England because we all know most of them were failures, you union fans keep telling us.

As for Farrell and Burgess being donkeys.

Much as I hate to admit it Andy Farrell was a magnificent footballer but his body was busted.

Also, were the hell did they expect to play him, he was a ball playing loose forward, hardly a position that can transfer.

As for good old Sam Burgess, the man that cost England the World Cup.

Remember when Bath signed him, the Southern media were masturbating themselves senseless.

All of a sudden a man they have studiously ignored is back page news.

So having signed him it dawns on them that they don't know what to do with him.

Still they pick him for England in the centres (he lacks pace) but he still manages to bottle up Wales biggest threat.

England are leading late on and they take him off, we all know what happens next.

They don't pick him to start against Australia, get pummelled and guess what.

Its all Sam Burgess fault.

The media piles in, Sam decides he's had enough and the same media who lauded him for leaving league slaughter him for leaving union.

You really couldn't make it up.

Personally I think he was bored in union.

He'd gone from touching a ball maybe 40 times in a game and making 30 odd tackles to what, 4 or 5 touches and half a dozen tackles.

He was too slow for centre so what did that leave him, scrambling about as a flanker and lifting a tall guy in a line out?

Do you really blame him.

But having done what he's done in the NRL to call him a donkey is quite frankly, laughable.

He only dislikes Faz because Faz junior put in a massive hit in on some big soft Saffa recently. 😂

Some 25 stone south African put on his arris by a 15 stone Wigan lad

😉

 

[Captainron]

Sorry but what part of it was ballax.

If a guy holds down a first grade place in a premiership club he's in the top 180 or so players in a sport that claims god knows how many 100,000's players.

I reckon the maths will not be too far out.

Tbh I purposely played down playing for England because we all know most of them were failures, you union fans keep telling us.

As for Farrell and Burgess being donkeys.

Much as I hate to admit it Andy Farrell was a magnificent footballer but his body was busted.

Also, were the hell did they expect to play him, he was a ball playing loose forward, hardly a position that can transfer.

As for good old Sam Burgess, the man that cost England the World Cup.

Remember when Bath signed him, the Southern media were masturbating themselves senseless.

All of a sudden a man they have studiously ignored is back page news.

So having signed him it dawns on them that they don't know what to do with him.

Still they pick him for England in the centres (he lacks pace) but he still manages to bottle up Wales biggest threat.

England are leading late on and they take him off, we all know what happens next.

They don't pick him to start against Australia, get pummelled and guess what.

Its all Sam Burgess fault.

The media piles in, Sam decides he's had enough and the same media who lauded him for leaving league slaughter him for leaving union.

You really couldn't make it up.

Personally I think he was bored in union.

He'd gone from touching a ball maybe 40 times in a game and making 30 odd tackles to what, 4 or 5 touches and half a dozen tackles.

He was too slow for centre so what did that leave him, scrambling about as a flanker and lifting a tall guy in a line out?

Do you really blame him.

But having done what he's done in the NRL to call him a donkey is quite frankly, laughable.

Burgess was part of a team that failed. He was the most terrible player in a terrible team and he wasn’t solely responsible for their exit.

Farrell was an excellent league player and I saw him play a few times at Headingley and he was immense.

Both however didn’t cut it and as shining beacons from the League set up were under a microscope when they played.

I agree that Burgess was a massive mistake for the game. He had all the physical attributes to be a success but wasn’t.

 

[sev112]

I think the very very best players will succeed in both forms
Lots and lots of very good examples over the last 30 years in both codes

The best coaches also

And I believe it was proven several times that rugby union teams wipe the floor with rugby league teams at union
And rugby league teams wipe the floor with rugby union teams at rugby league.
Not just win, but put 70 points past each other I recall.

Skills from both codes transferred to each other too



Middle East peace anyone?

 

[Robster59]

When Farrell and Burgess moved to Union they put them in unfamiliar positions. Two bursting prop forwards put at centre. No wonder they struggl,d but still got picked to play for England.
When players have moved from one code to another is always the forwards who find it harder to make the transition, either way.

Back on topic, I do despair at the people who run Rugby League as they would have trouble finding their backside with both hands. They keep changing League formats, relegation/promotion rules, who can join the league. Theirs no continuity and so clubs struggle to plan for the future.

 

[tugglesf239]

I think the very very best players will succeed in both forms
Lots and lots of very good examples over the last 30 years in both codes

The best coaches also

And I believe it was proven several times that rugby union teams wipe the floor with rugby league teams at union
And rugby league teams wipe the floor with rugby union teams at rugby league.
Not just win, but put 70 points past each other I recall.

Skills from both codes transferred to each other too



Middle East peace anyone?

From memory Wigan pasted bath 80 - 8 at league and only came up short by 20 odd points at Union.

I was only 14-15 though.

We (I’m a huge Wigan fan) also silenced the singing of ‘sweet chariots’ when we humiliated all the Union teams at the Middlesex 7’s comp

It was embarrassing to see Full time England proffesionals getting battered physically by our lads and I won’t for a second listen to the old ‘we were only part time amateurs clap trap)

That said. That particular Wigan team were absolute world beaters. Maybe (maybe) the greatest British side ever assembled.

That was 25 years ago though and the differences in conditioning for the Ra Ra’s is massive. I think a game now would be much much closer (for the Union lot 😉)

 

[Blue in Munich]

From memory Wigan pasted bath 80 - 8 at league and only came up short by 20 odd points at Union.

I was only 14-15 though.

We (I’m a huge Wigan fan) also silenced the singing of ‘sweet chariots’ when we humiliated all the Union teams at the Middlesex 7’s comp

It was embarrassing to see Full time England proffesionals getting battered physically by our lads and I won’t for a second listen to the old ‘we were only part time amateurs clap trap)

That said. That particular Wigan team were absolute world beaters. Maybe (maybe) the greatest British side ever assembled.

That was 25 years ago though and the differences in conditioning for the Ra Ra’s is massive. I think a game now would be much much closer (for the Union lot 😉)

Perhaps the biggest statistic from that was that Bath only got across the whitewash once at Central Park.

Wigan ran in 3 at Twickenham, 2 of them starting from behind their own line.

Tells me all I need to know about which is the more skilful code.

 

[User20205]

League always strikes me a more marketable game. It’s faster, less nuanced and on face value more skillfull. It’s not however backed by any corporate cash, & it’s not the game of the establishment.
look at the respective ads around the pitches, look at the headline sponsors. Union is sponsored by hedge funds, league by farm foods😱 the player drain from league to union is pretty much inevitable.
To me league does seem poorly administered but it must be hard to compete for sponsorship in a game with such narrow horizons. The Catalan thing seems like a joke, but it’s underwritten by the need for cash.

For me, Farrell senior was past his peak, Burgess was completely mishandled, it was criminal really.

 

[User20205]

Perhaps the biggest statistic from that was that Bath only got across the whitewash once at Central Park.

Wigan ran in 3 at Twickenham, 2 of them starting from behind their own line.

Tells me all I need to know about which is the more skilful code.

It was 1996. 😱😱 they aren’t really different codes, different games really especially in the pack. It’s a bit like squash and tennis players playing each other, it proves nothing.

 

[User20205]

This is my favourite rugby league thing ever

🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[Blue in Munich]

It was 1996. 😱😱 they aren’t really different codes, different games really especially in the pack. It’s a bit like squash and tennis players playing each other, it proves nothing.

I was at Twickenham for the match, it proved an awful lot to me.

 

[User20205]

I was at Twickenham for the match, it proved an awful lot to me.

Pointless spectacle, only played because Wigan were skint. I watched it recently, Bath went easy in the scrummaging otherwise someone could have been really hurt, it was irresponsible to play it IMO.
It proved that 20 years ago the best rugby league team ever had a better appreciation of attacking space than their recently professional union counterparts.

That Wigan team tho was a freak!!!

 

[bluewolf]

This is my favourite rugby league thing ever

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Pretty sure I was at that game with my parents. I might be wrong but isn't that Mick Ford right at the end?

 

[Blue in Munich]

Pointless spectacle, only played because Wigan were skint. I watched it recently, Bath went easy in the scrummaging otherwise someone could have been really hurt, it was irresponsible to play it IMO.
It proved that 20 years ago the best rugby league team ever had a better appreciation of attacking space than their recently professional union counterparts.

That Wigan team tho was a freak!!!

So just to clarify; Wigan knew nothing about a skill they didn't need in their code and Bath knew nothing about a skill that they did need in their code Thanks for confirming that what I worked out all those years ago was correct