I've said something similar a few times and for some reason it' always gets overlooked? Why's football more popular than both codes, is it genuinely the best product?!

WTF are you on about?

Is a Union fan who criticises football a similarly bitter, prejudiced, conspiracy theorist? Or will you just ignore the question again and respond with meaningless, irrelevant crap?

Let's look at this a little deeper shall we?


Association football fans are loyal to country and club equally, refer to Rugby fans as "egg chasers" and view them as posh gits who are probably called Tarquin and married to Jemima. Other than that, your average soccer fan doesn't give "rugga" a second thought, other than when the International side are playing or Sir Johnny of Toulon is dropping another world cup winning last second .....etc...etc.

Rugby Union fans are split into 3 camps. Firstly, you have the week in week out attendees (currently 10,900 or so average). These are not dissimilar to your average RL fans and are probably affiliated to a club as well as maybe running out for an amateur side or have kids that do. 21,000 of these fans recently preferred to watch Leicester Tigers play instead of England v Australia, which was on at the same time.

Then there are the band-waggoners, who will attend internationals, pretend to be knowledgeable, but in reality, have only just bought their first England shirt because they got tickets through work.

Lastly there are the tail-gate partiers. These lot know their rugby, having attended a rugga school and because their father used to own half of Yorkshire, scotland, lancashire, cumbria (delete as required) and they married Jemima, whose daddy is the High commissioner of India, they can afford to spend thousands having their old school chum over for a bit of nosh at the back of the range rover before KO.
The first and third groups above probably don't give "sokkah" a second thought whilst the middle lot are all probably big fans of a London Premier League side.

Union and it's fanbases feel no malice towards football and it's the same the other way around.

Rugby League fans fall generally into 1 category. That is that they are fiercely loyal to their club side, which is steeped in tradition and has strong local ties to the community and the industry that is/was the heartbeat of their town. Past players from a bygone era would have worked locally, lived locally, played locally and are now probably running a pub locally. They are in the majority, situated along 1 road in England and are split in their opinion about the need for "expansion". Some welcome change and the chance to promote the greatest game, but others would rather see the game stay as it is, a local rather than truly national sport. They will attend home games that are included on their season ticket/pass, but need to be encouraged with "offers" to attend anything else other than finals, a FACT represented by the poor averages for their cup and play-off games.
They are probably soccer fans as well, given that most towns that have a pro league team have a better supported soccer team, but many detest Union and its fans with a venom that s quite disturbing. Often heard to cite events from France 70 years ago as the reason for all their woes, they suspect (but have never delivered proof of) their self proclaimed The Greatest Game is "kept in its place" by a Media that is controlled by Union group #3 (see above). The wail and gnash their teeth whilst pulling at their sack cloth clothes at the news that SBW or Sam Burgess has been signed by a wealthier sport, selectively forgetting the raids their game made into Union in the years prior to 1995.
In their blankets of insecurity, they cite "double headers, rounded attendance figures, fat overweight props and a plethora of other unsubstantiatable accusations to try and make Union look smaller, more foolish and "boring" in the hope that it will make the self proclaimed Greatest Game more popular. Alas, attendances continue to fall. I have to say, the claim that all 82,000 at Twickenham for an international have no idea what is going on is one of the more colourfully insecure claims I have heard in recent years on here.
They cite "bigger TV audiences" for Superleague, ignoring the smaller TV deal they have financially. The cry foul when the BBC doesn't run wall to wall promotion of their sport, write letters to the editor when a RL players is overlooked for SPOTY and brand anyone who doesn't agree with them a Union troll



So in a nutshell, Soccer fans know of but don't care about Union and don't know about League
Union fans don't care about soccer or League although they might know who's top of the premier league
League fans think the world hates them and everyone is out to get them. Some of them hate Union so much they will subscribe to a Pay TV channel to watch it though

Wow Gutters....you have way too much time on your hands!

I'll say it again...WTF are you on about? You really don't know do you?

OH! FFS!

Please let's not!

Tre Cool, so what you're claiming is the bulk of RL fans that don't turn up for internationals, or only go for a day out at the final are real fans? And to prejudge 82,000 people on the few that you know is laughable

I know exactly what I am on about. The very existence of this thread goes a long way to proving my point about narrow minded rugby league zealots trying to belittle a bigger sport in the hope of making them feel some misguided sense of achievement in pointing out its a different game with different skills required.....

Standard answer from a supposed fan of rugby league when faced with a harsh reality..
Sam burgess will play where he's told to and no amount of my dads bigger than yours rubbish from the insecure moonies will ever change that. I think what really es some of them off is that middle England sports fans will now hear of Sam burgess where as before, he was unknown. If he scores a winning RWC final try and wins SPOTY these boards may well melt

No, I just don't have the time or patience to read drivel!

I must be pretty unique then in that I just think Union is e and have no agenda.

Lol at the irony of the most insecure man regarding any mention of RL/RU comparisons calling other people insecure about the subject.

Nah.....simply put, you know that Sam's gone to a bigger and more popular sport to earn more money.


Nope. You are in the majority on here who rightly believe that Rugby League is by far the superior game. There can be little doubt.
What causes the "ripples" is the outlandish claims by some of the more "passionate" amongst us that include:
Sam could play in any position in Union
Sam could play in any position he wants in Union
It's really easy to pick up and play Union
Many top flight League players moving to Union have played in the forwards
The 328,000 at Twickenham over the recent 4 weekends were not there to watch the rugby/were not rugby fans
The BBC are on a mission to bury League, as proven by a Sam not being put forward for SPOTY
The British media are on a mission to bury league, as proven by their OTT coverage of negative stories.
The Aviva premiership only get's decent crowds because of event games (see Magic weekend)
Superleague get's more viewers on SKY proving it's more popular than union
The RLWC Semi-Final out drew viewers for the England Union international the same day......(personal favourite that from Wood. He neglected to say that the Union was on Pay TV and the RL on FTA, but hey, spin is good....isn't it?)
The British Public are stupid and will watch what they are spoon-fed.
Mcdonald's being a big chain of restaurants proves Union is rubbish.
My personal favourite.........I SUBSCRIBED TO A UNION BROADCASTING CHANNEL TO WATCH SAM EVEN THOUGH I HATE UNION










...the list is endless and some of the others are as funny as the last one, but they are all pointless

Fact remains Sam has gone to a sport that will get him more exposure GLOBALLY and more money than he would ever get if he stayed in the NSW centric NRL. This is a simple Fact.......it doesn't need to be embellished with "he's gone for a holiday" or "he'll die of boredom"....he's gone. Get over it.

I seem to remember when one of the greatest RL players of his generation and Golden boot winner joined the Auckland Blues recently, we were reliably informed that he was past it, he'd rip it in union and that he would show them how it was done......I think he's back at the NRL now playing first team footie?
I though you said he was past it?

Nice attempt, but I am quite secure in my belief that Union is a game that Rugby League could learn a lot from.....OFF THE PARK. They have managed to perfect the art of not only turd polishing, but turd polishing and then selling said turn for a massive profit.
The Answer from the RFL is to stack it high and sell it cheap.....and cutting your prices when you cant control your costs is a race to the bottom that always ends badly.

Now Sam's going to get a full game on Friday, I'm hoping someone will have the wit to give him a few passes that allow him to come onto the ball at pace (not the two or three hurried, short, flat hospital passes he's had to take on so far) so that he can show the other lot what he can do. Depends on what his 14 teammates can conjure up but, nevertheless, I'm predicting a couple of Sam tries if he really is on for the full 80 minutes.

He also still thinks the prev poster has paid up to watch RU on BT Sport whereas I'm fairly sure he'll just have switched it on for free

Wet weather forecast for Friday in Bath.....expect plenty of 10 man ruggah with little flair unless Bath get well ahead quickly.




Given BT sport didn't exist when I last lived in the UK, a simple mistake to make. I do see that you need to be a BT customer before you can watch their channels though and then there was the very first post in this thread.......



Still, I am sure you think tuning in to watch a sport you don't like in the hope of being able to post something witty on a RL forum is perfectly sane behaviour...free or otherwise

who cares....sam is a 'kick and clap' player now

Don't let on but Sams gone to Union to rest his body and prolong his career, he knows with the way he plays that he can't withstand the physicality of RL indefinitely, he'd be finished at 28/29. This way he keeps himself fit, returns to South Sydney after 3 years, plays till he's 33 and tucks away a few million from those nice accommodating Union types.

Yet every RU comparison made on these boards you rush to their defence every time and as seen just a few posts ago you record and list every nasty little negative view those RL moonies make about RU. If the comments and views made by others are so ridiculous then why can't your "secure" self let them go. How come when people make points about the on-field stuff you resort to list off field facts and numbers? You cry foul when somebody claims that ALL the 82,000 at Twickenham have no idea what's going on but then claim all RL fans who criticise RU in anyway do so because of insecurity and jealously. You categorised RU fans into 3 groups but then laughably said RL fans "fall generally into 1 category"......only to contradict that claim a few lines later by telling us that RL fans are split in opinion on many things like franchising and expansion. You whine that RL fans use "unsubstantial accusations" in the views about RU but then come back and with your great in depth profile on the typical RL fan as "probably" being football fans too.

In regards to this subject you're about as secure as an ar$e in a prison shower.

Not true. Comes free with my Virgin Media package. You're not doing very well on this thread, are you.

I fully expect you to quote a string of Twickenham attendances in response.

Lol. Another bitter, prejudiced, conspiracy theorist RL fan.

I refer the gentleman to the very first line in the very first post in this thread.

EDIT: Cat got your tongue? You were quick to poke holes in my lack of knowledge of who gets what for how much in British satellite TV circles.....how much did each European/anglo-european comp get for their TV rights...oh font of all TV knowledge.

You'll find most RL fans hate RU due to:
1. It being an inferior version of RL yet manages to be more popular (in some parts of the world)
2. RU has for over a century heaped sht on RL and done its best to deride it and turn public opinion against it (google Stephen Jones for numerous examples)
3. In England its been a traditional north v south/ class divide
4. its an inferior version of RL (did I mention that?)

At least in my part of the world the Aussies are more sensible on such matters and RU has slipped to a third tier sport for the most part

nope he pulled out the tv rights line this time lol

I refer the gentleman to his own, wholly incorrect, words: "I do see that you need to be a BT customer before you can watch their channels".

Keep digging.


Eh? What? Have you replied to the wrong person again? Perhaps it's time you took a break from tinternet.