I think from the late 90's when all teams went fully pro and had gotten to grips with the 10 metre rule (watching old videos of the first couple of years when it went from 5 to 10 is hilarious) to around 2015. Late 90's had the magnificent Saints, Bradford and Wigan sides who played tough and skillful rugby. Leeds briefly joined that group in 1998/9 then came back in 2003, culminating in 2004 being our year. The rugby played back then was brutal, fast and the English game had real superstars, plus we could still recruit top quality overseas players. I've seen the game since the very early 80's and back then Ioved it and there were some great matches but there were lots of mistakes, lots and lots of mistakes. That could result in entertaining matches as teams threw the ball everywhere, but constantly dropping the thing often gave dire and unwatchable garbage. Some of the worst games I ever saw were mixed in with some of the best during the 80's.
When the game went to 10 metres it was dreadful for 2-3 seasons. Wigan destroyed everyone in that period as nobody else could defend and their "money no object" squad of attacking players ripped the league to shreds.
So, if I was going to pick I would say 1997-2015 would be the era I would chose.

If Wigan are going to beat anyone in this dodgy patch you can bet it'll be us

I have very fond memories of 13 in a row in 2000, that was when I started going to home and away matches. But the mid 2000s was my favourite, when Danny McGuire was scoring for fun, the roar of the crowd whenever he was in clear air. I think he got injured and that pace he initially had was never back (he was still great though).
There was also that genuine belief that GB could actually beat the Aussies, I mean we never did when it mattered, but the last Ashes tour and the tri nations finals when we had beaten them in the group stage, it just felt so close.
When I look at the game today, we seem farther away from an important international win than I have seen in my time watching the game, and the quality of the Leeds squad when compared to the late 2000s is just absolutely pathetic. I just can't justify paying to see such a poor quality product, when it was so recent that we had a world class team.

This sounds up my feelings too.

Somewhere in the mid 2000s between when the games defences were like a dogs hind leg in the 90s and before(and Konrad Hurrell would have been considered structured and organised in his approach) and the overly sanitised WWE of the modern game.

Can we rename this thread "cognitive bias and rosy retrospection"?