I am attending a dinner on Friday night where the guest speaker is the ex-England Rugby Union prop Geoff Probyn.

At the end of the evening the diners will be invited to ask Geoff questions.

I am considering askingGeoff "you played rugby union at the highest possible level. In all honesty do you think that you would have been good enough to have played amateur rugby league?"

Unless of course any of you have any better suggestions.

How big is Will Carling's schlong?

Ask him if he felt any embarrassment when England won the grand slam without scoring a single try!

Or ask him how on earth did Jason Leonard get over 100 caps at international level, when he could hardly walk let alone run.

Ask what was more physically demanding; Beating the cream of European Rugby (pah) or beating one off over Thatcher?

What year was that?

Never - he's made it up.

maybe thats one to ask Mike Nicholas or John Bevan

John Bevan, Mike Nicholas - definately not, and neither would I ask that question to Frank Reynolds, Bobby Wanbon, Derek Finnegan, Allan Bateman, or for that matter the dozens of other RU players who have changed code and proved to be so succesful.

But the question could undoubtedly be put to Geoff Probyn...In case you don't remember him too well I will remind you; a fat bloke who strolled from scrum to scrum and lineout to lineout, thats Geoff.

That's what props in union do.
He wasn't that fat.
And it's Jeff.

I remember Jeff Probyn well, he was England prop when I started watching RU. His game was based around the set pieces and the ruck and maul, so he was a very union-oriented player. He probably never thought about crossing codes to turn professional in league because it wouldn't have suited his game, but he would have dominated amateur league players because he would have been far too tough and physically strong for them.

No doubt you think you're being a smartbooty by making the suggestion that league is better than union, because he wasn't a player suited to it, but your question is about as relevant as asking Mark Roberts and Mike Gregory if they would been able to win any lineout ball against a university union XV.

Do not mention Mark Roberts and Rugby Union in the same sentence.

Sounds very disrespectful to me.

He was a very staunch opponent of crossing codes in either direction.

your so funny when you do that sarcasm stuff.......

wow you took the words from my ex union props mouth lol

It's true, soft lad. Can't remember the year and i don't even know if Jeff/Geoff Probyn was playing. They beat France 21 to something in the last game at HQ. It was on ESPN classic the other week. Er,....I was watching whilst waiting for something else to come on.

Theres a few unpleasant places you dont want to be on a rugby field in either code, but, I reckon if you could ask every player from both codes the place they'd least want to be, most would say the front row of a union scrum. Jeff lived there, and cut it at international level to boot.

THE HOOF

To have not scored a try, their points total would have to divide exactly by 3 (pens and drop goals). In 91, which you're on about, they scored 83 points in total, ergo they must have scored a try. Similar story in 92 and 95 and 03.

You're wrong. Sorry.

Yeah, but i believe the one they got was a penalty from a collapsed scrum near the line. And they don't count in my book.

Moe stop making up rubbish.

England's Grand Slam teams scored plenty of tries. Underwood, Guscott and Carling scored lots of tries in 91, 92 and 95 and Robinson, Luger, Lewsey, Tindall and co filled their boots in 2003. The idea that England were a forwards dominated machine who never scored any tries was basically bait thrown at them by the Aussie media because England won a couple of games against southern hemisphere opposition off the back of Wilkinson kicking penalties and drop goals. The majority of England games in Englands Grand Slam winning eras, they used to rip teams apart quite convincingly because they had a good backline.

Moe you know nothing about RU so stop trying to make cheap jibes.

I was a big Will Greenwood fan, thought he had a pretty good brain, and a decent pair of hands.

Hate Rugby Union - astonished they are apoligists for it lurking on this forum...

Carling scores 12 tries in 73 tests, hardly lots.

yeah but dont forget Sally thinks Wire fans get misty eyed over Mark Roberts...!! when in FACT he had a better try scoring ratio than Mark Forster, and Des Drummond, and a ratio twice as good as Gary Sanderson, Bob Jackson Paul Cullen and Mike Gregory.

you shouldnt knock Rugby union...... its funnier that one foot in the grave!