It's a sad indictment on the game, and a rather embarrassed looking Jerome Kaino knows it. The big All Blacks flanker packed down for the Blues in their romp over the Cheetahs on Friday night. But for once his most loyal fans, his two sisters, didn't go to the game. The reason? They're sick of rugby. Tired of all the aimless kicking.SOMETHING WE ALL KNOW. "They actually can't wait for the league season to start," Kaino said rather sheepishly. www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/opin ... ent-issues Union is dying in NZ ,while League is Flourishing....

It's a sad indictment on the game, and a rather embarrassed looking Jerome Kaino knows it. The big All Blacks flanker packed down for the Blues in their romp over the Cheetahs on Friday night. But for once his most loyal fans, his two sisters, didn't go to the game. The reason? They're sick of rugby. Tired of all the aimless kicking.SOMETHING WE ALL KNOW. "They actually can't wait for the league season to start," Kaino said rather sheepishly. www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/opin ... ent-issues Union is dying in NZ ,while League is Flourishing....

its inevitable that RL will become dominant over RU in the pacific islands and eventually NZ.

we need a 2nd NRL side to take advantage of the growth in interest in spectators and players

today kiwi isaac luke had another blinder of a game. i rate him the best hooke rin the competition

they just keep producing very talented RL players the kiwis.

Thats why they are the best national team in the world!

No need to wink,they're.

no sherlock

its because the warriors play in the NRL

the WC final was one team of nrl players playing another team of nrl players (except one)

perhaps an english team should also join the nrl to help your national side

Quote ="manly4ever""They actually can't wait for the league season to start," Kaino said rather sheepishly. www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/opin ... ent-issues Union is dying in NZ ,while League is Flourishing.... '" good article but dream on

Quote ="manly4ever""They actually can't wait for the league season to start," Kaino said rather sheepishly. www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/opin ... ent-issues Union is dying in NZ ,while League is Flourishing.... '" good article but dream on

union is getting crowds of 4000 - 6000 for some games

the warriors got close to 18,000 last night

how would you define that?

mate, i'm all for league growing in any country but i just can't see it taking over from union.
the thing is that union will just change the rules and move even closer to league.
the union world cup in 2011 will again be boring but i guarentee it sells out. corporate tickets will take care of that

they just brought in the ELVs and its still going backwards

meanwhile the quality of the nrl just improves.

as the article says, RL is gaining loads of new fans bored from union

union is dieing out . beleive me

id love to believe you and dally but im a sceptic when it comes to this.
union fans are funny folk and will sit on their backsides rather than go to a league game.
over here in europe is a class thing to a certain degree and when i was in australia it was a social and intelectual thing.

the favourite joke of my union loving workmate in sydney was:

what's the difference between a league player and a rugby player?
a degree.

class is very relevant in australia too

RU comes from the private schools where league isnt played

look at the success of the nz warriors since they came into the nrl, and their impact on the Kiwi RL team (WC and tri nations winners)

there are loads of talented kiwi players now.

and remember RL wages are still fairly low compared to ru.

the next TV deal will sort that out

fingers crossed

if you get a chance, watch some nrl to see what its like this year.

its been brilliant.

union is going to have a tough time competing with it

edit : some australian commentators think the warriors will win the NRL title.

can you imagine what that would do for RL in NZ?

Yes they will they have no choice but too,there game is crap as we speak .There only way of survival is merging with the greatest game of all.

surely winning the world cup is as good as it gets!
if they can't capitalise on that for the next 4 years there's no hope

the club game means more

as an example, when the warriors made the semi finals in 2002, their TV games were getting as high ratings on TV as All blacks test.

when the warriors beat the storm in the semi final last year it made the front page of the NZ papers, whilst an All Blacks win got the back page

winning the NRL is a much higher achievement that the WC imo

well that's a sad state of affairs in my opinion.
league really has to push the international scene. not wanting to blow our own trumpet but there is an impressive international calender in 2009 in the northern hemisphere.
[urlhttp://www.rlef.eu.com[/url

being honest, the credibility of it is poor

winning it isnt as big as it should be

its been neglected for too long.

we need more strong teams.

france and wales should improve a lot over the next decade and hopefully PNG will get an nrl side to help them

even winning the WC NZ still need much more development to match australia. a 2nd NZ NRL side is needed.

the NRL is very credibile in comparison

to win it you have to be good for so much longer than the World Cup where New Zealand werent that good until the final.

nz were good enough too win the tri nations aswell

now its funny you should mention that i was arguing the same point a few years ago with two very high level RU referee's with the new ruck laws they have with people not reay contesting (very hard to turn over a ruck now) there is almost no pointin contesting as you lose men on your defensive line.

i said to them you give it 15 years and there wont be two codes there will be 1 and it'll look like the 13 man version. funnily enough they looked thoughouly unimpressed but failed to give a decent response.

if that does happen it will be called rugby union and league will have been relegated to an amateur sport

Yawnion is having a bit of a tough time of it recently in NZ but mainly because of the overall poor performance of their teams in the "super" 14. If they were winning, even winning in a boring manner, there would be far less grumbling amongst their followers. What the ignorant bigots in the Australian RU press failed to mention when they were gloating about Gasnier and SBW chasing the money laundering Euros in France was that the All Blacks were losing far more players along the same route. If you were recruiting for French RU in any case it is far more sensible and risk free to chase successful players from the the same game, hence the talent drain from NZ.

I wouldn't under estimate the considerable support for yawnion in NZ, especially in the South Island - but lets hope RL can take advantage of the current situation and make some big steps forward.