As opposed to........I SPEND HOURS OF MY TIME WRITING INANE RANTS ON A RL DISCUSSION FORUM EVEN THOUGH I HATE RL

another thread Gutterfaxed.

On RU converts, a former SL prop forward (still playing last season) was seen playing at a very modest level of club rugby union against Ormskirk last weekend. Apparently he looked rather uninspiring. Perhaps its not as easy as one likes to think?

A current superleague head coach still plays the odd game of lower league RU too (or did last season anyway)

I don't really understand the question, but what I'm saying is after 36 years of being surrounded by ru culture, I am convinced that the vast majority of England ru fans have little to no interest in the club game and as such are not fans of the wider sport of ru, just fans of the national side.

And for me that isn't something I would want RL to aspire to as in my experience RL fans are very passionate about all levels of the sport.

I ran into a few rugby league Coaches and Players playing RU in the offseason. I presume the players were doing it for extra pennies. The results were always varied.

I remember speaking to a lad I knew who played for Liverpool St Helens RU. He's played in RU matches with two Saints players, the first, Mike Bennett, he described as a "machine" who scored a hattrick. The other was some winger who looked absolutely useless, his name was Anthony Sullivan. Not quite representative of their respective achievements in Ruby League.

Soccer fans are soccer fans....ask them to name a rugby player and the vast majority will give you a union players name.
Rugby league fans are more likely to be cross code supporters of their local soccer team......see th thread about magic weekends attendance being bit by hull FC making a final.
It's not contradictory at all to say soccer fans aren't rugby fans but rugby fans could or may be soccer fans.

Down here where there's less cross code bollox, we call them league and rugby union

Those that know me know that although an annoying w@nker at the best of times, I have dome more volunteer and charity work for RL than most....I simply don't subscribe to some of the more fanatical and narrow minded views on here and therefore, am branded a Unionite.

The truth is I rarely if ever give Union a second glance unless it's thrust in front of me, which down here is all too often. On the park, League tears strips off Union in so many different ways, but that is not to say there are not skillful Union players, not that any League player could walk into any Union side of their choosing in any position.



Threads with an opening gambit such as "I subscribed do I could watch a game I hate" invariably end up like this one, with name calling and highlighting of small errors in the hope that it will distract from the issue in hand. I haven't steered down this route, but instead simply responded to the lunatic fringe who claim that Sam Burgess walks on water, when in fact there were many RL fans who actually think he wasn't even the best player in the NRL Grand Final.

Back on Thread.

Burgess will probably be expected to take flat "crash" balls on Friday, at least until Bath have the game in the bag. If the game opens up, I am in agreement with the poster who says he thinks Sam will score a few tries, but if it's a close game, then it will be a battle of the players numbered 1-10 all night.

I see Sir Ian McGeechan thinks that Sams Tackling technique could be a problem, as it's not always about [url=http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/british-rugby-greats-call-for-sam-burgess-to-start-games-for-bath-so-he-can-adapt-quicker-to-rugby/story-e6frf4pu-1227148757255?nk=58d885d6117176be7736f8432243c9ac"the hit".[/url. I'd take on board what he says given he is one of the most successful Northern Hemisphere Union coaches of all time.....I think he even got Scotland a Grand Slam

I love this RU v's RL debate. One thing that the RU fans seem to forget is that for years and years RU has done everything it could to undermine and sabotage RL it could.

I went to Uni in the late 90s from playing academy RL, it was only in the third year of Uni that the rules of RU were changed to allow me to set foot on the pitch to play RU. Before this it seemed that the ex-pro was a problem for RU, despite people like Jonathan Davies openly stating there were plenty of "brown envelopes".

Look to France in the Second World War for an example of RU persecution of RL.

RL has had to evolve to become more entertaining to earn money with a dearth of wealthy backers.

Having played both, RU is definitely not my cup of tea. It's slow, ponderous, with rare ball movement to the backs. The learning to be a forward is vastly overstated by the RU world, it's learning not to run and follow the ball around the pitch for the next round of ruck/maul/scrum/throw-in with the occasional studs in the back for being in the wrong position. Tacking is light and any real collision is lacking. How people find a scrum than lasts forever with multiple restarts entertaining is totally lost on me.

Then there's the bit where the drop goal is three points?!? Imagine Pat Richards, get him to half way and why not? It's not like there's any lost field position, just get to half way, kick and if he got 50% over from there it's a lot easier than getting a try.

Well, normally I would criticise such cheating as that which reduced Liverpool to 10 men tonight but I now realise that any sport that gets a bigger crowd in any circumstance than RL cannot be criticised.

The fact the sport gets such crowds shows that nothing whatsoever is wrong with it and so any criticism of it is only from bitter, prejudiced, people who live in depressing northern towns.

HOUSE!





Go to the tube site we don't link to and type in The Crowd Goes Wild - Smashed em Bro Special. Admittedly its Samoa, but still....hardly what you call light.

So I assume that history doesn't make any sense to you in terms of explaining some of the attitudes of the RL crowd in relation to the RU sport? I would have though you may have taken the time to understand the problematic history that stretches all the way back to the very reasons the split happened rather than a pointless comment.

Your reference material could do with some work, going to an international where Samoa are much bigger than The Wallabies and presenting a few (often after the ball has gone) tackles that I would and do see in a typical club level RL game isn't exactly proving your point. Number one on the list is a great example of a hospital pass though.

Clear gouging of a players eye, must lead to a very lengthy ban...

However, what was that flailing arm about? And the player flapping on the floor needs a word in his ear, utter tripe.

Good example of how the RU dominated media overlook Sam Burges for recognition, again.

"Please try to be a bit softer in the tackle Sam, you're too tough for us."



McGeechan's got a lot to say for himself given that Sam Burgess has apparently only had to make three tackles so far for his RU club. And one of those it looks like that petrified guy tried to sit down when he saw Burgess coming at him

To blame all RL failings on other people or what happened decades ago are just excuses, RLs shrinking footprint is hardly ever blamed on RFL incompetence and yet is the primary reason {though even if RL started to attract masses of new fans, Tre Cool would only deride them as not being real fans} You don't see this type of self-pitying thread on any other sporting forum, just regularly on RL ones.

Don't talk rubbish, the RFL gets heaps of criticism and blame, far more then ru.

And where did I say new RL fans aren't real ones?

I was just making the point that just because ru gets huge international crowds it doesn't mean it has this awesome fanbase that loves the game. Don't twist people's words to suit your sweeping statements.

Oh hello, Dutoni's back.

Yes, that's exactly what McGeechan's saying. No, really it is.

Tackling in Union has a slightly different objective to League. It's an opportunity to compete for the ball and win possession, either by turning the ball carrier so he's facing the wrong way or standing him up in a "choke" tackle and preventing the ball getting to ground, thereby winning your side the put-in at the scrum.

Simply smashing someone as hard as you can - assuming it's done legally, using the arms rather than as a shoulder charge - and taking him to the floor isn't always the most effective tackling technique in Union. If Burgess runs around a Union pitch just lining people up to smash them, he's not necessarily going to be doing the best possible job for his team.

Given his record, I'm going to go with McGeechan and my interpretation rather than yours, if that's ok?

Tre cool, you prejudged 82,000 people on the few that you know, that's quite a sweeping statement and generalisation in itself. And I have asked you but you still haven't answered, if RL fans are as passionate as you claim, how come our international attendances have been generally very poor for a number of years?

Don't talk daft. It is obvious to any one eyed bitter moron that the 4 time lions coach and grand slam winning coach doesn't know what he's on about. Slamming Sam is your man....even playing in the front row

No I didn't I made a statement of opinion based on my extensive knowledge of rugby union culture. Do you disagree that the vast majority of England fans in a Twickenham crowd couldn't name all of their elite club league head coaches? That was my point. Do you disagree with it?

I also had already explained that the main reason for their big international crowds are historical and cultural, so I didn't need to answer your question.

RL international crowds are on par with our active club fan base, ru's are far far higher.

66,000 fans attend 6 aviva games at the weekend on average, 72,000,attend SL games.
82,000 will attend the opening of an envelope at twickenham paying £60 each but it takes double headers to get close to the SL average or it's normally about 36,000 paying £15 a pop.

Not disagreeing with you that many union international fans are not über fans but I think even the most narrow minded league fan would take 82,000 ax murderers paying £60 at a stand alone RL international.....decrying union for it is just being bitter

Talking of Union's fallen glitterati now trying to scrimp a crust from media work and pretending they understand Rugby League, it seems Clive Woodward is waxing lyrical about Sam Burgess. And quite rightly so.

[urlhttp://tvnz.co.nz/rugby-news/sir-clive-woodward-waxes-lyrical-over-sam-burgess-6199065[/url