The sport of Rugby Union has been openly and fully professional for the last 16 years. This period has also seen significant growth of the sport of Rugby League where it is now played the length and breadth of the country across amateur, school and university clubs... If League was going to be “on its knees in England”, it would have happened in this period

Now, potential rugby players across the country have the choice of which code to play and it is ‘may the best game win’... I firmly that game is Rugby League

I'm sorry but that is just dillusional. Money will win, and money is on RU's side.

If I was an RL chairman, after recent embarassments in RL, Crusaders demise, Quins changing their name again, clubs going to the wall, the club call joke, and developing players only for them to chase money to the other side where there would be a pot of gold waiting for my club to watch the best players. I would be considering pushing for a merger to secure my club in sports long term future.

It’s not delusional at all. Your thinking of professional clubs – I am thinking of the game as a whole

The RFU have always had more money than the RFL and yet the recent expansion of our game across the country has been fantastic

Stop thinking about ‘my club’ and think about ‘my sport’

The only surprise to me is that the likes of wigan,leeds and hull have not already gone back to the mother code.

Aye those are pretty much the positives I elluded to and to add to that a lot of countries are starting to take the game up. I mean we just had Canada vs South Africa, Serbia vs Ukraine, Denmark vs Norway. Why would the people who are working tirelessely at grassroots level around the world suddenly want to merge with union. They obviously wouldn't as league is the game they've chosen to play!

Besides the premise of taking on football as a reason for merging is a pretty awful one. We don't need and can't possibly be the biggest sport in the world, we jsut need enough grassroots and commercial growth to sustain our game and keep it as entertaining as it is and continue to produce some of the most exciting and althletic players in world sport that sadly don't get enough recognition.

Basketball and Netball are to merge...

The answer to the title of the thread is "No"

What do you think they'll call it?.

Because we love League, Union in Hull is smaller than ice hockey. We have the greatest game of all. No need to merge with Union, how would it work anyway? No body would want to change the rules so vastly, there would be other break away codes.

No sugestion of a merger from me.
Some rl clubs will be like the players,they crave more wealth and prestige.Its been pretty obvious that rl can't give them what they desire.

RU in the North of England is at a very low ebb at the moment. Despite being 4th in the Premiership at the moment just watch Sale drop like a stone now that the international players of other teams are returning. Newcastle will probably get relegated at the end of this season (despite a new owner). Leeds will be nowhere near promotion this year, so that will leave 1 side in the North in the top flight.
Half the sides in RL make no effort to sell themselves and the game as a whole seems to look to evening everything up by not changing the SC for years, the strong get weaker whilst the weak just stay where they are. There needs to be a big effort to get the weaker sides up to the standard of the stronger sides, not the other way round.

I know this debate has been done to death but there is only room in sl for ten teams max.

Ridiculous post. You obviously don't remember the outcry in Wigan when Dave Whelan said a few years ago that if Wigan got punished for their SC problems he would consider moving the club to RU. Even when Orrell were at the top of RU they only got crowds of 1500. Leeds have had a RU team at Headingley for a few years and they've spent the last 2 seasons in the Premiership, they get low gates. There are 2 semi-pro RU teams in Hull, no-one watches them.

If we did go back to one code we would be swallowed up big time.

No thanks we stay on our own and watch the finest sport in the world.

Times change,people change.
SL is holding these club back from meeting there true potential.

If Union were to scrap lineouts, get rid of flankers, introduce the play the ball & the ten metre rule and then change the points system to 4 for a try, 2 for a goal and and 1 for a drop out then I'd be in favour of Union joining Rugby League.
Until that point, over my dead body. I'd rather gouge my eyes out with a dull spoon than watch the total and utter guff that pro rugby union is or would be in some kind of merged "Rugby".

Also, as Teesidewire points out, despite League failing to expand at pro level further south, it has expanded significantly at grassroots level. Which is a very good sign for the future. Also Union is struggling up north. So despite their massive financial and "social" advantage, they have struggled to make an impact up here. Leeds Carnegie for instance, constantly with poor crowds and getting relegated every other season. And this year doing poorly in what is almost an amateur league.

3 I think... Ionions ensians and hull ru.

I'll "accept it for what it is" only after a group of competent people has had an 8 year go at running the RFL and acheived nothing.

A lot of people in the game have just given up on the game's commercial expansion ( I don't even mean geographical expansion!) because they're just weary of failure ( or trivial, soon-reversed gains here and there ).

Too many people think we're doomed to be like this by some fundamental force of nature.

I don't know how far this sport can go. None of us do. But I do know, that we are nowhere *near* knowing what we could achieve whilst these muppets run the game. At least lets try, rather than assume that Wood et al represent the best we can do.

The problem I have with the 'expansion at any cost' policy is that 'any cost' is too high.

Until RL is strong and thriving in the heartlands, we simply can't afford to keep pumping money and resources at new and baseless enterprises. We only have a handful a strong viable clubs at present, with the rest juggling day-to-day and often treading water. With weak expansion clubs we're just adding more pending failures to the list.

Instead of creating new professional clubs with no fan base, legacy or tradition in non-RL areas, spend that money on top marketing teams at existing clubs to not only bring in new fans and rejuvenate casual supporters, but to also spread the RL word within that area. RL Development officers do what they can but it's generally not of the highest standard and of limited reach. Plus the pay is awful - you won't attract top-level people who can do the best job. If the RFL really want success, until each club can afford these people they'll have to muck in.

The RFL should also have internal targets of, say, 80% of SL clubs to achieve a 10,000 average, for all SL clubs to have competitive youth teams and a high standard youth set-up (scouts, coaches, development, etc), 90% of squad players at all clubs to be home-grown, to generate a certain percentage of income via merchandise & sponsors, etc. Once those standards are met the RFL can then divert funds to expansion.

Then help out amateur clubs; look to create new clubs and develop existing ones. Provide initial set-up funding and help with securing further funds and grants, sponsors, facilities, equipment, and with local advertising for players and to create local interest. Use RFL clout to negotiate use of established RU clubs - with the summer game growing there is plenty of scope in terms of facilities and players. Coordinate sponsorship on a national or regional level - I'm sure sponsors would be happy to pay a fairly decent sum for several thousand people (kids to open-age) to run around with their name on the kit each weekend. Employ national coaches available to clubs on a consultation basis - visiting each participating club several times a year and provide tips, drills, give talks, put together training and conditioning programmes, etc. You're building a much larger pool of amateur talent that might eventually filter through and you're creating RL followers.

The only collaboration the RFL and RFU should be considering would be to demand a dedicated rugby channel from Sky. Or even an 'oval ball' channel - RL, RU, AFL, NFL - similar contact sports. Somewhere we can escape the tedious avalanche of football, the never-ending tennis and golf tours, etc.

Lots of non-sportsmen would no longer be able to play professional sport without scrums or lineouts

On a serious note, my two sons play Union (they have to, theres nothing else).

12 year old is like a 16 year old, 5' 9" pushing 11 stone, and to be fair to him he's no sportsman, I wish he was but he just isn't. But he's big so he's good in the scrum and the lineout.

9 year old is small, skillfull, quick and competitive. All he ever does is complain about why he can't play league instead of Union (not that I've influenced him in anyway).

Should Rangers and Celtic merge?

They'd be guaranteed to win the Sunday Pub League up in skirt-wearing land if they did

When has the RFL spent any sort of significant amount of money doing this?

League is too strong and big a sport to merge with Union.

We in our Northern enclave being fed a constant diet of negative propaganda from the Southern Establishment media may fall for the trick of Union being this huge global sport. However the reality is that apart from New Zealand a country with a population smaller than that of West Yorkshire, no other country has union as its main sport. Union has only a niche sporting presence in the likes of Australia, South Africa, France, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

League on the other hand is arguably the most popular sport in Australia, certainly it is when TV is brought into things. Australia is one of the worlds richest and largest economies.
Papua New Guinea a country with twice the population of New Zealand also has RL as its official national sport. Its only failing its its extreme poverty, which will hopefully be alleviated now they have found vast oil reserves in the country.
The New Zealand warriors RL team are helping to boost the profile for League in New Zealand. Thousands travelled to Aus to see their grand final teams, while 20,000 fans descended on Mount Smart stadium in NZ to watch the three finals on the big screen.

Is the subtext to this a club version of Sam Tomkins' thinking - "Wigan fan thinks their club is being held back by the sport so wants to go to perceived brighter lights and bigger paydays of RU"?

A couple of setbacks on the field, perceived wrongs off it, a conviction that they have been hard done to = time to give away the sport built up over 116 years? Bewildering but then it is a Wigan fan.

The OP is delusional that RU wouldn't destroy everything that is good about Rugby League the moment it took control.