Officially the biggest home attendance in broncoquins sl history.......

Correct, given at 12,000 i think as the Union game was 'supposedly' a sell out !

I have tried and tried to watch Union, but I just find it tedious. Too much kicking, not enough hard running and the amount of times the play disintegrates into a pile of blokes laying in a heap is too much to bear.

Can't fault the RFU though, they have managed to peddle their shoddy wares much better than our lot, so fair play to them.

How I miss those threads, when conspiracy theorists could be found together, discussing brown paper bag payments and 30 aussies in a 25 man squad....life was so much simpler back then





Prior to that visit to the Capital, Huddersfield Giants were usually responsible for an average attendance of 2,700 or so. On that day, Harlequins Union side played their last game in the lower tier having easily gained promotion back up to the Guinness Premiership. They averaged 9,000 that year and we averaged 4,600 but without the double header, 4,000 that year, so the crowd total of 12,301 was pretty much accurate and the Stoop held 12,500 back then, so it wasn't far off a full house. We had about 750 cross-code fans back then.........alas, they are all now back to being Union only fans as we now try to convert Barnet FC supporters to the cause...

I said supposedly as there were plenty of empty seats while the borefest was on !

Not everyone who paid to get in that day watched the Union.......that's where your empty seats come from. I know I rolled up with about 30 minutes left on the clock of the union game and headed straight to the bar. I would have expected about 10k for the Union with the 2,300 or so rolling up for the League.....both sets of attendance figures for both clubs that year would support this.

Agree, good post.

Now the original reason for the RU/RL split has gone away (open and transparent payments to players) I wonder if there is a basis for a re-unification of rugby under a single set of laws - to create a game to start to challenge soccer globally.

All that has to happen is for RU to irrevocably reduce the number of players from 15 to 13 (get rid of 'wing forwards') and scrap line-outs and we are on.

"It will never happen" they will say - but so they did about the Berlin Wall coming down and Russia and China converting from Communism to Capitalism.

It's a fairly accurate appraisal. Only the other day I was reading that the play moves 55m per minute on average in the English premiership. The following day I was out with my dad - he's 92 - and he moved considerably faster. That said, the pub had been open for at least 10 minutes.

what I did notice from his debut and the 3 minute highlight reel that is on YouTube is that when he took his first drive in, the people tackling were turning their heads away and just leaving their chest/shoulder in the way - if they all tackle like that, he will rip it up

Welcome to the 21st century Wooden Stand. Although the two codes started from the original source, 150 ish years later they are a long way apart.
Neither really needs to compete with Football at the national sport level. That ship has sailed.
You might just as easily say that all forms of football, including rugby were born from the same sport so why not all go back and play that one so it will be better for everyone.

The examples of change you propose were born out of oppression and life changing events. We are neither of those. All it takes is good management that's all.

Where did I say I detest union? I watch it from time to time like I do most sports, the RU is very predictable and easy to follow, the tactics are written on a postcard for you. It isn't rocket science to learn & to play. And on the basis of your secondary comment how do you know he won't? IF he was playing for NZ he'd be sensational because they understand that running rugby when done well is what gets you points and draws penalties because of the speed of the play.

Listening to Lancaster and just watching the highlights reel it's easy/obvious to see that he relies massively on the forward game & brute strength, he has some talented outside backs but they get stuffed up the derrier time & time again..
but whatever.

All of the above, plus to introduce the "play the ball"

The only reasons any top RL player would play union are

1. money
2. profile/fame
3. lower impact on body

The only reasons a top union player would play league are....nope, can't think of any

A varied and high profile international calendar with sell out crowds?

A rare moment of clarity when an intrinsic brutally honest self appraisal reveals that the player in question is hiding in an inferior game while lying to himself that he's really testing himself to the limit of his mental and physical abilities!

Such a moment can either lead to further hiding and denial or said player can leave the comfort and familiarity of his self delusion and actually seek an answer to the question:
How good am I, Really?

Union players will only ever know this if they play League at the highest level.
I salute those who've done it like Scott Gibbs and Jonathan Davies but cowards like Guscott are just pretending to have been great when the truth is they were alright in a lower standard of Rugby.

I much prefer league to union, but that's just stupid. They are two different sports. Do you think Lionel Messi looks in the mirror and says, "I might be the best football player of my generation, but it's all a lie because I've never been heavyweight champion."

And yes before anyone says anything I know that there are similarities between the codes and that mine is an extreme example, but my point still stands.

League is the faster game, but Union is by far the more technical game. You might not like Union, but is it beyond your comprehension that some people prefer watching and playing it over League?

Oh dear.



Union is the bigger and more popular sport in regards to TV money, attendances and viewing figures. It's apparently....but it's very successful !


BTW.....I doubt anyone other than maybe Stuart Barnes believes that Guscott was anything other than am average union player who was good at looking good with better players around him.

Remember going to Widnes in the late 1980's to watch Jonathan Davies' Rugby League debut. He was on the bench and got on for the last 18 minutes. One half decent run but nothing else. Guess the lesson is not to judge a cross code player on the basis of just his first match in the new code. Davies went on to become an RL as well as RU great.

Another Welsh RU superstar back who had the guts to test himself in RL at that time was Terry Holmes. He was on from the start in his debut for Bradford Northern that I attended at Swinton (Station Road). As it happens, his debut only lasted 18 minutes as well. Until most of the Swinton pack chased him towards the touchline and broke his arm. Terry went on to become a pretty accomplished Rugby League player for a year or two.

Still on the 18 minute cross code debuts, I see the England RU coach has already all but picked Sam Burgess for the England RU B team next month after just his 18 minutes of RU comprising two hit-ups (one from what would have been a hospital pass for most players) and one "clearing out a ruck" - smashing a bloke who didn't see Sam coming and who didn't have the ball! - Apparently all OK in Union laws. Guess Sam won't mind having to do that now and again if that's what's expected of him.

avenger, surely it's a bigger cowardice to hide behind your keyboard and call another man a coward, and never having the bottle to say it to their face. And as i said before, for a lad that clearly despises union, you sure must watch it a helluva lot

Eminently sensible I'd have thought. Not sure it'll achieve the objective of speeding up Sam's development as a union player but it has to be worth a go. It's a pity league doesn't have the luxury of B internationals against decent sides to do the same with ours.

That flushed a few out didn't it!

I'm not Greenwood's biggest fan but he writes a good piece about Burgess in the Telegraph. www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyu ... osper.html

I'm not Greenwood's biggest fan but he writes a good piece about Burgess in the Telegraph. www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyu ... osper.html