Robert Tait's "An Illustrated History of Rugby League" mentions there were discussions about renaming Rugby League (presumably in the 1980s and 90s). It doesn't mention any of the suggestions.

If it were ever to change its name, to avoid the confusion with Union, what do you think could it/should it be called?

The best I can think of is Thirteens, which wouldn't really work when playing RL Sevens or RL Nines!

"RL"

A new name would need to reflect this brave new dawn of rugby league. So how about "Dickie and Nige's invite only exclusive gentleman's club"?

RUGBY

we are stupid for letting union take the name!

Rubbish. If Union want to monopolise the word Rugby, let them.

Ours is a distinct sport, about as far away from union as you can get, yet people STILL don't know the difference between the two sports, and invariably dismiss 'rugby' as being 'boring'. These people don't even know League exists!

I reckon we should go down the same route as American Football (NFL), Australian Rugby League (NRL), Aussie Rules (AFL) and what have you, and exclusively refer to ourselves as RFL.

TO cement this, it should incorporated into our competition names. RFL Engage Super League, RFL Challenge Cup etc.

Real Rugby?

errrrrrrrrrrr...............no!

how can we name oursleves after an organisation that many would say are corrupt and useless!

The RFL are a seperate entity to 'RL'

Someone posted up link to a US TV news report on the USA game against Jamaica - they were calling it Rugby. Great if RL takes off and the Yanks think of RL when they think of rugby, not so good if they end up totally confused by two sports having the same name.

Canadian Football, American Football, Gaelic Football, Australian Rules Football are a lot further away from RL than RU is. Rugby Union is to RL what Gaelic Football is Australian Rules Football. Also it could be argued that RL and RU are in fact the same sport but different codes the biggest distinctions between occurred relatively recently when limited tackles were introduced and there was less emphasis on competing for the ball.

Fact remains the majority of people do not find rugby boring they are just pretty much disinterested in it. Those that do follow a given code of rugby it is usually based on their geographical location and upbringing.

First step should be to get Sky to stop labelling our game as Super League and rename it to Rugby Super League.
Fact remains that there is a whole market out there who are willing to jump on the 'Rugby' bandwagon whenever the world cup or six nations come round who don't have any idea that league exists. A lot of them are interested in the concept of Rugby but when Union fails to deliver they lose any real interest for another 12 months. If we could get them to realise that there is a more dynamic and free flowing alternative we might start to get somewhere.

Im not sure that is the case. Modern RL is a vastly different game from modern RU. Some skills are interchangeable but that is the case for most contact sports.

Compare someone like Andrew Sheridan to Jamie Peacock as athletes and you can see the vast difference and both are nominally 'prop' forwards. Or the difference between James Roby and Steve Thompson though both are 'hookers'.

If we were to change names it would have to be 'Rugby' - absolutely nothing else, just 'Rugby'. We then have it as a registered trademark, any other sport ( union)would then be unable to shorten their name to just Rugby.
Incidentally, I would do something similar with the world cup - call it 'The World Cup'. As far as I know there isn't a competition with just this name at present.
It's all a bit radical and far thinking but it would make some serious headlines.

RL13.

Branded as XIII

RUGBY. and drop 'super' league. Its just lame, its one step away from 'uber mega rugby'.

Yes why not, worked for the IRA

That's like saying all the sports you just listed there are different codes of football, not different sports.

That's a good point.

The issue I have with using the word 'Rugby' is that the Onion lot don't use the term 'Union', they just use 'Rugby'. This is then used in the meida. So, for example, I sent a letter of complaint (because I'm cool like that!) to ESPN and BT Vision when I started my TV contract last year because in their respective catch up functions they had a section for 'Rugby', which only contained programmes covering the Onion code.

The complaint did nothing, but it is noticable how often 'Rugby' is referred to in other media outlets, like the news. I remember years ago when League and Union were differentiated. I'm also sure I remember that when opening the segments on each code there would be photograph of ball tee'd up in front of some posts would appear behind the reporter. If they were talking about Union, there would be a Union ball, League, a League ball.

The solution is either to raise the profile of the code again or change the name completely. I'd be happy with referring to it as League with an official name of League XIII.

Why don't we go the whole hog and just call ourselves FOOTBALL?
We're both stupid for letting soccer take a monopoly on it!

Or...

Why don't some fans just swallow their pride, accept that union is the bigger game, has a monopoly over the name "rugby" and find a [inickname[/i (like soccer in the US and Aus) to distinguish us from them? Because those that think we should call ourselves rugby to spite the unionites (and claim it as some kind of history lesson) should be suggesting football.

And "League" isn't distinguishing enough either because that could mean anything. Premier League? Magners League? A "Rugby" League? Doesn't help.

No majority will like a particular suggestion though, as the majority of the game's fans are stubborn.

I'll throw one out there though:
Rugby League Football - Sport's official name (as now)
Leagueball - Sport's nickname.
Leaguer - A player
Leaguey - A fan (pl: Leaguies)

You can tell its a sport by the name, and there's an obvious connection with our game. Won't be confused with other leagues, and gives us identities as fans and players.

As above, Union have hijacked Rugby and we have let them. I quite like the Rugby Xiii logo.

But like I said, it's just like complaining about association football having a monopoly over the word "football". Back before the split, they were both "football" - Rugby rules and Association rules (previous to that, whatever school's rules).

Us choosing to verbally drop the word "rugby" is no more a defeat for us as them (and us) dropping the word "football", or "soccer" being the name of choice for association football (why try and compete with "American" Football, or gridiron as it's nicknamed in parts of the world with a stronger code of football).

Look at QLD and NSW. They call RL "footy", RU "rugby" and association football "soccer". Is that a loss to rugby or a win to football? I think take it as a massive win that we're the dominant code of football in those areas, and have relegated football to use "soccer". Rugby is secondary, not primary in distinguishing our sport, so why people are that bothered about that but don't care about the "football" part shows their ignorance of the sport's history and their petty jealousy of the other code.

And association football has hijacked Football, and everyone has let them. Why doesn't this bother you?

I don't like the idea of XIII as a distinguisher. What about nines or sevens? How do we distinguish them from union sevens? It just makes is appear a modified version of "rugby" (which worldwide usually means union). We need separation.

This is why I said one of the solutions is to raise the profile of the game. If the game can garner the sort of profile it used to have in this country then there will be little issue with the name. An informal naming arrangement can help distinguish the two codes of Rugby and help raising the profile of the game. Look at NZ; they call Union 'Rugby' and League 'League'. Officially its 'Rugby League', but informally its called 'League'.

I suppose another argument for not dropping the 'Rugby' term is considering the history of RL in France and how League clubs were banned from using the term 'Rugby'. Should we really give into Union's political pressure, even after all this time?

Do we really think we can raise our profile enough to overtake to the point where people call the game "rugby" exclusively though? I don't, certainly not in my lifetime. Even football doesn't try in places, and they're huge.

The informal naming arrangement is exactly what I was getting at. I don't think we should change the name of the sport, just give it a nickname (like soccer, gridiron, etc). We are informally referred to as "League", but that can cause confusion, e.g. you can't have a National League League, it would be stupid. And if you choose to change the word "league" (as in the competition, not the sport) to something like "championships" (National League Championships), people will be like "what sport is that in?". It could mean anything.

The XIII idea won't work for reasons already mentioned.

The NFL does not refer to its sport as "NFL", it calls it "football" and that's "football" plain and simple with no qualifications.

The Aussies refer to NRL as "footie" too.

Superleague is a brand that's worked and continues to work. Perhaps Rugby League as a whole can adopt the name rather than just the top tier of the sport.

The Sport becomes Superleague, every team from amateur to top divison champions play Superleague.

Divisions become:
1. Elite Series
2. Championship Series
3. National Series

The winners of each division finish top of that division and receive a real trophy, not a plate. Then the top 6 of each division enter playoffs to try and become 'Elite Series Champions' or 'Championship Series Champions' etc.

The 3 Grand finals could be played on one day, Superleague Grand Finals Day.

Franchise system stays and you must have won one of your divisions respective trophys to apply for promotion every 3 seasons.