I was thinking that. It was used as a substitution for "it has" in the case quoted and correct.

Tino is indeed correct, I guess I was blinded by rage at the statement that rugby union had never done everything to harm rugby league.

At least I won't be banned from using the English language again which wouldn't be the case if I had played rugby league (paid or un-paid) during the 1980's or earlier and wanted to play rugby union, I would havebeen professionalised.

Can somebody explain why such rules only applied to rugby league players and not footballers, cricketers, tennis players, etc.

Of course rugby union has never done anything to harm rugby league (apart from stopping people playing the game).

Quote ="the tache is back":33o7skigi can't watch it for 2 reasons a- it's incredibly tedious b-ruddy faced oxbridge types singing "swing lo" yes just remembered there was a third reason,stuart barnes face at half time,he needs a good shoeing,oh yes the forward passes as well. at the end of the day it's a different code of rugby and it's a case of whatever floats your boat.'" passing game www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-d1vxkXuGQ

Quote ="the tache is back":33o7skigi can't watch it for 2 reasons a- it's incredibly tedious b-ruddy faced oxbridge types singing "swing lo" yes just remembered there was a third reason,stuart barnes face at half time,he needs a good shoeing,oh yes the forward passes as well. at the end of the day it's a different code of rugby and it's a case of whatever floats your boat.'" passing game www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-d1vxkXuGQ

Rugby union is great game,so is rugby league.

Pushing on an open door with me Paul - I agree totally with your comments. The Vichi government didnt like RL either.

I'm a big fan of both codes and actually enjoy playing Union more than I do playing League. However as a spectator sport league wins hands down. Unfortunatly the fact that RL is a joke at international level is where it lets itself down, this is where Union picks the 'casual' voters. The sort of fans who will cheer on England/GB in any major sports competition assuming we've got a chance of winning and are playing decent opposition. The large attendances and tv audiences means extra money in the RFU's coughers an this filters down to the club sides.

My only serious gripe with rugby union is that with the large number of top English players going to France it may lead to Guinness Premiership clubs looking to Super League to fill the void of the England player exodus. Picking off the best of young English talent in RL, Lee Smith and Sale Sharks rumoured courting of Eastmond a couple of shining examples.

These threads [size=59(they appear every so often)[/size are so boring - kick the chips off your shoulders and live and let live. Admire the RL play and ignore the size of the RU following ............. let it go .................



My God, the irony.

If you are talking about the history of the game, I would never want to be associated with rugby league.

A sport which saw routine racism from the terraces, with monkey chants directed at Martin Offiah at around the same time Chris Oti made his England debut in RU and was cheered with chants of Swing Low Sweet Chariot which then went onto become an anthem of the England team.

Similarly rugby league was full of terrace violence and thuggery, Warrington v Widnes; Warrington v Wigan, Salford fans, Hull fans, many teams were notorious for their mobbery and liking for mindless violence at train stations and on the terraces. You wouldn't get that amongst the pimms drinking prawn sandwich brigade in RU.

Anybody who wants to claim RL is a family game should have a long hard look at its history.

I quite enjoy watching some RU in the off-season. I find it much more entertaining than over-paid nancy boys prancing about a pitch after a soccer ball before promptly falling over their own feet and having to be carried off. I don't claim to fully understand RU and all its tactics but can enjoy watching players like Shane Williams running at a broken line. That in itself is a thing of wonder.

"A bomb under the West car park at Twickenham on an international day would end fascism in England for a generation," - George Orwell

RL is clearly a family game, just because the history of rugby league had "violence & thuggary" doesent mean that it cant be a family game you never heard of a thing called change? An event which has 14 teams attending the same venue on the same day and goes by without any mention of violence or thuggary surely shows change?

kin dishonest Nancy boys......cant even Bleed honestly...

Sounds more like a terrorist strike against the liberal middle class establishment to me.

Out of interest Paul where do you think the BNP draws most of its support? Is it from the rugby union towns, Bristol, Bath, Sale, Gloucester? Or is it from the rugby league areas, Keighley, Halifax, Leeds, Bradford...

I'm an anti-fascist but take the racism out and I wish RL was still the same as you describe now.

Ahhh so thats why Sale have never thought of playing out of Moss side....?

Moss Side is in Manchester.
Sale is in Cheshire.
Sale RUFC play in Stockport.

What have they got to do with Moss Side?

Vichy.

Sale's In Stockport ? I didnt know that.......

An incident in an England international a season or 2 ago really summed up why I do not watch Rugby union that often

England were leading by maybe 4 or 5 points.The ball was trundled into the right hand corner by the England forwards and there was a ruck/maul/pile in or whatever it was. I think the name of it changed 4 or 5 times whilst I was watching.

Matt Dawson ( or Austin Healey ) or one of the other dancers or skaters was doing the commentary. His comment was that the game was now over because England could just wind down the clock using their forwards keeping the ball in the corner.

[size=150THERE WERE OVER 8 MINUTES LEFT ON THE CLOCK[/size

I went into the kitchen, made a brew and came back into the living room. Dawson ( or Healey ) were right - the ball hadnt moved more than 2 metres.

What a spectacle - swing low my backside

We might have some things in common with Union but the ability to wind the clock down by effectively killing the ball and preventing any play isn't one of them. If RU fans are happy that forwards can grind their way forward/sideways when recycling the ball over and over again then that's fine.

The extraordinary thing is that RU fans are happy with this type of stuff.

Because they look at the sport in a different way, it's not a sport designed for entertainment which league was. The whole way RL has evolved as a sport was to make it a product which would appeal to spectators, because RL has never had any sort of financial backing so its relied on spectators coming through the turnstiles, or in recent years signing up to pay TV channels.

One big difference I believe between RU and RL is that almost every RU fan has got into the sport by playing the game, where there are a lot of RL fans who have never played the game, which is why RL always has more 'family appeal'. I don't think you would get into RU if you hadn't either played it at school or come from a family background/social circle where it's played.

If you've played the game you can understand whats involved with scrummaging, rucks/mauls, line outs etc (stuff which RL fans routinely mock, which is fair enough), what goes into forward play, building pressure and territory, kicking for territory etc. RU is basically a battle of attrition looking to exploit the advantage of position and pressure (through kicks if necessary), teams who have traditions of playing fast open rugby eg some of the past great French teams or All Blacks are admired for their style but the whole game isn't designed for that type of rugby, whereas league is, even things like going to summer rugby was to promote the best visual product for spectators. So on those terms RL is always going to be streets ahead in marketability to new audiences and for spectator excitement (though as a sport we do a very poor job of making the most of this)

I prefer RL by a long way however I don't see it as my place to judge people for liking RU or to slag their sport off, because a lot of people like it and you can't argue against the high attendances it gets. I like cricket, I love Test cricket but only have a passing interest in one day cricket, there are plenty of people who say Test cricket is boring and one day cricket is far more exciting but to me Test cricket is far more interesting....I guess RU fans see the comparison of RU and RL the same way...

union is nearly as boring as formula one which isn't a sport it's driving a car.they both do though attract crowds but as was stated earlier it's a matter of choice,i love most sports but i do not enjoy the negativity of union so i simply don't watch it.