with the amount of channels the bbc now have they could easily show as many finals as they have on a weekly basis
my son watched it with me last night and that was his first viewing of the old type rugby and he loved it,

A few things occurred to me during the game.

i) The refs today are fantastic & under appreciated.

ii) Ball control today is a lot better.

iii) We should go back to the 5m distance at the ptb. I think it would speed the game up as defending teams won't have to slow the tackle down as much before their team mates are back on side and it would restrict the effectiveness of the dull scoot from the acting half back.

iv) Even forgetting about the improved fitness, I think every current team in the Super League would easily defeat both of those teams.

Watching that game back for probably the first time since I watched it live as a kid, I'm struck by the similarities in terms of leadership between David Ward and Kevin Sinfield.

Very much leading from the front by example and showing good understanding of the game.

Oh, and a fine example of why asking the press to cast their Lance Todd votes 10 minutes before the hooter is a worthless exercise.

Meh. They'd lose every scrum and have the ball hooked away at every play-the-ball.

Although if you could somehow teleport that Leeds team of 78 to the current date and they somehow kept their youth during the process and you then gave them a very healthy salary and a year to condition themselves and do nothing else all day long but study nutrition, fitness and the tactical aspects of modern RL, then this time next year you'd see a game played on a more equal playing field.

Don't ever lose sight of the fact that none of those players in that 78 final earned a living wage from the sport, many had a trade and all of them had to juggle jobs and training constantly.

And people call the likes of Bailey and Ablett thugs!!

Pretty much every tackle in that final was high or a grapple. Cheap shots galore, late shots. Todays game is played by choir boys in comparison.

Also the refereeing in general was shocking, the biggest prima donnas on the field were the refs in those days. The play the ball was also a total shambles.

However, it was far faster in those days than many would have you believe, and some of the rugby played by both teams was excellent, lots of set moves, variations in passing, and some quality running lines. Although the defensive line did seem alot less structured than it does nowadays.

Much as the technique at the play the ball was poor, how quickly did the tackle area clear with defenders knowing they only had to wait for their team mates to get back five yards rather than ten?

Very few examples of players being held down, or falling over trying to milk a penalty from the ref.

Competitive scrums meant both teams were prepared to push the pass and move the ball around, in the knowledge that if they did knock on they at least had a chance of getting the ball straight back at the scrum.

Really enjoyed it & the programmes b4
Started watching properly in 1980 , was 1978 when the team whose half you were in put the ball in & other team had 1st strike ?

Was there other changes b4 present head and ball to non offending team ?

looked faster than i remembered , few missed knocked ons at play the ball but better for less wrestling (although most included a facial)

re other thread on size of harrison , was a mountain wasn't he. Thought sammy sanderson had more of a perm , why wasn't alan smith playing and poor kicking from willie oulton. Kick offs from leeds were same standard as today.

Shame bout Eddie waring's illness shown in the previous programme

Excellent observation.

Typified earlyish in the game when Les Jones ran the ball out of his in goal area returned it 20 or 30 yards downfield before Graham Eccles forced him into touch (and the verbal afters were classic Eccles) and no-one batted an eyelid.

The scrummaging wasn't quite as bad as I remembered it, probably in part due to the conditions.

And a final thought how camp were Billy Thompson's signals?

Eddie Cunningham is Keiron's brother, thats some age gap. This is on Wikipedia so could be inaccurate.

It's entirely accurate.

In its day, that would almost certainly have been regarded as an example of the game being played in the right spirit.

That's it, just spoil a piece of happy speculation by bringing reality into it.

I thought it was very entertaining. There was more variation in skills than you see nowadays.

Did the heart good to see chubby props (Pitchford & Chisnall) battering each other for 80 minutes.
I agree with thos who said it seemed much quicker than current pundits would have us believe but I guess the time taken up with scrums instead of the handover after 6 tackles took time out of the game.
When did the handover replace the scrum after 6 tackles?
It was noticable how little airborne tactical kicking there was, particularly after the hash Leeds made of the 1st one.
Saints only stayed in the game in the second half due to Oulton's poor kicking on the day.
Watching Hynes puffing away on the bench reminded me of Laughton, how some things have changed for the better?
Interestingly I don't think Saints used either of their subs.
Let's hope the BBC show more repeats of these earlier cup finals.
Finally, how stilted were David Watkins comments?

I know, the players got "treatment" every tackle



As for the play the ball, it was actually within the rules most times in that game. The law [ustill[/u states that:

"The tackled player shall without delay regain his regain feet where he was tackled, lift the ball clear of the ground, face his opponent’s goal line and [udrop or place [/uthe ball on the ground in front of his foremost foot".

It should still be legal for the player to drop the ball on the ground and play it, but every time there is even a millimetre of air between hand and ball as it's placed, it's classed as a knock on and a scrum is given.

And that's in mud with a ball that doesn't have the latest scientifically developed sticky, dimpled coating. It wasn't NASA that discovered teflon, it was found on an RL ball by a man in a shed in Dewsbury.

1983-84 season it was introduced. A landmark year that saw the abolition (effectively) of competitive scrums, removal of the international ban and the handover came in.

If anyone recorded the game on DVD I'd love to get a copy.

83-84 was indeed a massive change to the game. It brought us the kick on the last tackle (and the only attacking kick in those days which was the bomb) and saw the end very quickly for most of the scrummaging props and hookers.

I suspect it did a lot of good very very quickly for the British game relative to Australia, as it forced the game to speed up (mainly by reducing stoppages) and increase fitness almost overnight. Its hard to believe that the 82 Kangaroos played under the old rules now, but they did and hammered GB out of sight. One of the most remarkable turnarounds in the game looking back was how just two years later, with many of the same Aussies playing (Meninga, Grothe, Kenny, Sterling, Lewis etc) GB were quite competitive on tour in 1984, whilst GB had a virtually completely revamped side. We lost all three tests but gave Australia a game in each one, with Schofield scoring some brilliant tries (one of which is the best try I've seen GB/England score).

God watched it yesterday what a great game. If the tackling and play the balls were done like that today old Lumpawood wouldve been on his 3 whistle by half time, blowing so many times lol

Australia suffered in '84 because of Queensland's domination of origin. There was no Sterling, Murray played 7, and no Kenny. The pack was dominated by Queenslanders as well, so frankly GB were lucky. We did do slightly better, although we still only scored 1 try in each test (better than one in the whole '82 series), but the wheels came off in NZ completely and we lost 3-0. We never looked like winning a single match to be fair, and that was a proper tour, where touring sides were supposed to have the advantage.
I don't think fitness was ever the issue with us losing to Australia, it was simply the excuse used for sloppy practice, ill discipline and out of date coaching. It was also the easiest thing for the British RL authorities to "put right". For me the Aussies simply out-think us and they benefit from having a much stronger game as a whole. Just my thoughts though.

Please let's not ever complain about referreing again either.

Given the more liberal interpretations at play in 1978, I'm not sure Billy Thompson got much wrong in that final to be honest.

His job was made significantly easier though by a lack of players trying to con the referee at every given opportunity.

Considering the players were semi-pros in those days the standard was very good. The advantages of a deeper line of attack and the lines of running and set moves should be studied by some of our current coaches who speed all their time on defence and little on attacking game plans.

It brought back many memories of visits to Wembley.

it was 1000% more macho than todays game
you gave some and got some back with no trying to con the ref or falling over at the slightest touch and yet the respect for each other and the officials was obvious