Entirely a matter of opinion.

I find Union far, far more repetitive and samey than league. Kick, set piece that ends up with pile of bodies on the floor, ref blows his whistle, kick.... and so it continues zzzzzzzzz

League is much faster paced, there are massive collisions in the tackle, tactical kick every set. A big part of it for me is the knowing that if a mistake is made, it is a massive deal, so players have to be skilful, physical and get it right 80 - 90% of the time.

And I'm not one of these "I love RL so I must hate RU" types, but I genuinely struggle to sit through a Union game.

I`d much rather visit B&Q and I think that`ll be far popular.

It wouldn't be a RU match report if unionites weren't blaming the weather and parroting that hilarious 'well it's usually more attacking and entertaining' fallacy.

I agree that RU clubs are (in my experience) more welcoming. I played at amateur level at both, and the outright thuggery in some amateur RL games was embarrassing at times. I saw a lot of really cheap shots in amateur RL (some in RU too, but less). You meet plenty genuinely hard people, and a small number who think a punch from behind is hard. No more or less idiots than any other sport - its just that it seemed to be tolerated as part of the game more in RL. Granted, I last played 15 years ago, and I'm told things are better now. Personally I wouldn't send my son to any of the RL clubs I played at, if they were the same today (to be fair, these are low-level sides - I'm sure it was never so bad at bigger amateur clubs) but I wouldn't have any hesitation (well, not from a violence point of view anyway) in sending him to an RU club.

As I say, I'm talking 15 years ago, hope its all improved since.

Whilst there is the disparity between earnings for playing the other code it will continue , unless they want a tan first then they'll head to the NRL ( if they're really good ) .
Personally I wouldn't mind my Club Signing Danny Cipriani ..

I'll tell you another thing, you watch the international RU next weekend and, during one of the many stoppages, they'll be showing line outs being caught in a sexy slo mo using some sort of hi def camera.

I'm watching SL Fulltime the other night and Joel Monaghan finishes with and athletic dive into the corner and the shot from the camera on the dead ball line is all blurred.

Whatever your trade - you've got to make the most of what you've got.

This drivel leaves me in despair

Why? He made some good points.

I watched the most exciting game of rugby played at Twickenham last night that i had recorded on SKY+.
I was on Top Gear.....

Union has more aspects to their game than League does due to having line outs, free kicks and of course many more scrums and penalties.
What does it for me is that there will be 80 infringements in the Union game's 80 minutes giving around ball in play time of 25 mins per match.
League has massively less giving around 55-65 mins of ball in play time.
League can seem more repetative as there is far more rugby to see.
Before Union can be attractive to watch as far as I'm concerned they have to reduce their stoppages by half, this means changing the rules drastically.
Each game of Union I see has the ref blowing for an infringement with less than one minute on the clock. That is not entertaining as far as I'm concerned.
However, most Union fans enjoy their game, they like line outs scrums etc and the more the merrier. It is a good day out and the Internationals are all events. The quality of play is of no consequence to them whatsoever.

Well simple folk like simple things. Lets leave them to it, they're happy.

Indeed.....happy and laughing all the way to the bank.....let's all larf at the 6-12 game and hope nobody notices the failings of our game

The friendliness of RU clubs is entirely subjective as well. I've been to clubs where the people were brilliant, others (including one I played for briefly) who were cliquey and hostile to anyone they'd not played with before, especially relative newcomers to the game.

And one occasion where the spectators fought the players.

League is by far and away the more entertaining despite the belief of union fans that it's too stop-start. I'm not sure how the ball sitting on the floor why the scrum half decides whether to kick or not is seen as in-play or indeed the number of scrums and scrum resets but there you go. I've also never understood how turning the ball over after 5 tackles is seen as tame when most union sides just kick it ad nauseum until they eventually end up with the ball inside the opponents half and even then most of them just try to win a penalty.

I know most people on here will detest Sam Tomkins unless they're a Wigan fan, but we can't allow him to leave this sport. Kyle Eastmond was tipped as the future halfback partner for Tomkins at International level but instead he's stood on the wing for Bath. That's right, the wing.

I put the popularity of union down to education. People are brought up in most schools playing either football or rugby union. Most universities play union. It's just drilled into them that union is the only form of rugby and they lap it up.

Maybe in rugby league we should think about a marketing campaign that shows the many differences in the sports entertainment wise?

To be fair, at university level the SRL has expanded massively in the last few years, and there is now pretty much a blanket coverage of RL at unis. This year the uni of Gloucestershire won the national premier league, with St Mary's in London also in the top division of 6 teams. Below that the SRL has had to expand from a Premier North and South, to North, South, and Midlands because of the new teams and rising standards. Gloucs has 3 sides, Oxford Uni AND Oxford Brookes Uni both have 2 sides each, etc etc. Long may it continue!

Didn't realise that. Fair play to them.

I am a rugby union player and was from my schoold days, however, when I went to uni at liverpool, I joined the rugby league squad (because I wanted to try my hand at the sport i watched).
The squad was made up half of lads from traditional rugby league back grounds, and half of rugby union players who didn't like the union squad because it was full of rahs who wanted you to wear your underpants on your head while they spank you on nights out.
After I left uni, I went back to playing for my home town union club.

Who ever said our game was perfect? Certainly not on here. I'd far rather have the product on the pitch that we have if it's a choice between that or 80000 in the stands for an international, but then I like substance over 'style'. Credit though to the union marketing men past and present as their product, on the whole, is truly awful.

That's a shame. I also know a very large number of people from union backgrounds who took up RL at our uni, and since then have been to internationals at Wembley and the Stoop, Magic Weekend at Cardiff, the GF, and play for local London/SE sides. So at worst, in cases like yours, more people play the game for a year or two. At best, we gain more long term fans and players, quite a few with a lot of expendable income and possibly more willingness to go to big RL events than your average RL supporter seems to be given the lack of enthusiasm for England matches some seem to have. Like I said, well done SRL, and the various universities flying the flag for TGG.

RL has spread well to almost all big Universities. The total numbers are still less - most have one or two teams at most, versus a ton of Union teams, not just the main ones, but Hall teams, department teams, etc. That's a reflection of the intake, the vast majority of whom will only ever have played Union. So, the SRL has done well over the years.

For me, an absolute key breakthrough for a new club or Uni side is when they can field a second team - the benefit is more than just double.It makes a massive difference to player retention. If you've only one team then if you want to win you end up picking the best 13, leaving people without a game. They then get fed up and leave. Once you have a second team, for whom results don't matter much, you can get loads more people a game and your total retention is miles better.

If you're starting a club, do everything humanly possible to get two sides out, no matter how weak the second one is. If you start with one, there's never an easy time to suddenly jump to two, because if you can't offer people a game, they don't hang around long enough to build enough for that second team. If your launch attracts 30 people, get them all out on the field somehow!

Agreed, made a huge difference to us starting a 2nd team in my first year.

Are we all watching England on Saturday?

SRL is an excellent way tonot only introduce the game to a new audience, but also to garner a real interest and passion.

People will often go back to their home town clubs and, as I say, union will allow guys to carry on playing until they're 50. What's an important step imo is that we get Rugby League being watched on the big screen in these RU clubs.

I'd rather have my eyes poked out with rusty forks.

a fair few will......The BBC average 4.5 million viewers a game for the 6 nations and and Twickenham is rarely not sold out with 82,000 fans paying an average price of 65 quid each.....
there's no accounting for taste eh