Having just watched highlights of Harlequins V Newcastle RU I doubt if rugby league will ever catch on at the Stoop. I hate to say this but some of the rugby was awesome from the Quins compared with what we get from the RL boys. It was fast with superb ball handling and backing up etc (Leigh - get a video and do the same). I'm afraid that the old RU style of kick and clap (at club level) is no more and from what I have just seen that game is by far more entertaining than any RL game I have seen this year. As I said, I hate to acept it but RL is becoming slower and boring - just compare highlights and you'll see.

whoa, steady on a bit!!





theres no doubt their game has progressed since they became f/t pros, but some of the basics of running lines, tackling and awareness are still way behind our boys

i do try and watch some union, just to see how league converts are getting on, and a decent ref who will let the game flow helps, but thats more the exception, rather than the rule


although some of their boys would be sensational in league, brian o'driscol being a prime example, and gavin henson would go well too, seems to have plenty of bottle



however, give me a day out at mount pleasent anytime, as opposed to a match at twickers

I think you mentioned there - highlights.

Believe me, having watched a share of rugby union over the last 2 years, it still pales into comparrison with rugby league. There are still numerous stoppages but it is improving.

But those 10min highlights where far more entertaining than any RL highlights I have seen. OK tackling may not be as good but the speed of the backing up & ball handling was very entertaining.

I watched what was the "big" game at weekend (Bath v Sarries) and it was a farce!
Every few minutes there was a huge gap waiting for a line out, penalty or scrum. At one point I went to make a coffe as a scrum was awarded and when I came back they were still having the same scrum!!!! No injuries, just reset, reset, reset.........
The inability to tackle can lead to some impressive long range tries from broken play but the basic levels of passing and tackling are streets behind RL.
Don't even get me started on forward passes and knocks on!
If you would rather watch Quins v Geordies than Leigh v Widnes then I truly feel for you.

Well in my opinion Union is actually worse than 10 years ago. I was a fan in the 90's but the game is getting more boring. A major change is the fact that the game has become more defensive. I think that it is the consequence of professionalism of players who are more fit and more skilled. The parameters of the game have changed, and as it happens it has conducted to give an advantage to the defense: it is now much harder to score a try by passing the ball in Union.

That is why they now keep kicking the ball all the time, something which is new relative to the 90'. Also the scoreline often gets very small with very few tries. Finally the possibility to keep the ball in the ruck is now stretched ridiculously and it multiplies interruptions of the play the ball in the game.

I find it now often quite frustrating to watch Union: no fluidity, only few breaks, kicks and kicks and few tries (with lots of tryless matches).

Rugby Union in a nut shell

Occasionally been watching the highlights on ITV4 during the course of the season, and I must admit there have been some awesome tries scored.

Union is improving slowwwwwly. But would still rather watch a poor game of RL than a supposedly good game of RU

Not sure what you've been watching but as a regular viewer of RU (my wife is a Tigers fan and I follow the Sharks - how do you get Sharks in Sale; I mean Stockport?), and so far this year, I can't recall an SL game to match it for excitement. And that's despite the stupid ELVs which have made the game worse. SL is becoming horribly predictable. Too many injuries, too many bad refereeing decisions, too many dull games. RL will always be my favourite sport, but I think the game is going backwards and with the fear of losing gone in SL, we are seeing too many sides capitulating.

As for this division, be honest, Widnes v Leigh was a terrible game and I don't mean the result. As one of your number said to me after that game with a sardonic smile, "two bad teams".

I have been watching the six nations, Heineken cup and some top 14 matches. Too many times recently, I have ended up thinking that I had lost my time watching a match.

We may just have different tastes. But I was a real fan 10 years ago, and I still watch games but the evolution is disappointing. It is true that relative to the Union of the 90' the RL has less playing options and is a bit more predictable. However, with changes in Union, the disappearance of the maul, the ineffectiveness of the passing game and the predominant kicking game, it is not that true any more.

There is also much more impredictability in RL where even in a close game, tries can be scored in quick succession. This means that even a game with a 12 points lead 10 minutes before the end of the match is still an open game.

Don't get me wrong - I still think a poor game of RL can be good to watch wheras a poor game of Union is like listening to Vogon poetry. Amateur RL can be a lot better to watch than pro RU.

The match referred to may have been entertaining because a players game rather than a spectator,s game is bound to produce one every now and again.

Difference is RL is more skillfull and anyone who doubts that should for example watch last Friday,s game between Saints and Bradford or even better and quicker, Australian RL.

cant believe this post is so stupid.

union is the game in which its showpiece the heineken cup was finished off with a 20 minute rolling maul by munster last year.

2 of the recent heineken quarter finals produced one try in total.

recent stats have shown rugby league as the best value sport in the uk for actual action on the field of play.

everything in union is done at half pace because the whole ethos is to re cycle the ball

union has many advantages over league but i am afraid very few on the playing surface.

With the advent of fitter forwards, less space is available and even teams often produce dire games.
In Australia and NZ the game is suffering due to the quality of the NRL, even though NZ are RU daft.
TV ratings for RL dwarf RU in Aus, the only real country where RL/RU come head to head on TV. Even here SKY ratings for RL club games smash RU club games. Why? because RL is TV friendly its all action not stop-start, or shouldnt be, the basic requirement in RU is to retain posession and hence dont take risks getting exposed, the basics in RL should be to take the risk to beat a man, if it fails you have more tackles to go.
RU's strength is that you can find a level to participate and play till your 55, you cant do that in RL with the fitness demanded.
Thats why RU will only ever expand so far in this country, and why expansion at all costs is the goal of the RFL, because when the sports clash on TV the audience is with RL so imagine what it could be with a broader spread and a quality international set up?

Get down to Tyldesley or Leigh RU clubs on a Saturday in winter its a sure fire cure for insomnia, watch highlights of any game and they are just that highlights I can make any game look a good one by highlights.

No comparrison Ive filmed both and its RL for me every time even though its money for old rope flming union its so predictable.

Sure, if the SL continues to expand to France and hopefully Scotland and Ireland in few years, then the demand from the TV from these countries will be very important and money will flow in for the RFL. In addition it will help develop the game in the South of England. If there are more Union than League supporters for the Quinns, I don't think that it is due to the quality of the show. It is just that for Londoners it is a game labelled "from the North": no Derby, no SL show on the BBC (well only at 4am Monday), almost nothing in the newspapers. With the expansion to other countries, this label will fell and help southerners to identify more with english teams in the competition and foster their interest in the game.
I think the inclusion of Toulouse in few years will have a noticeable effect on the competition in terms of mediatisation. I hope that at some point Ireland will be able to send a team in SL.

I would not be amazed if the game really takes off in the next decade and gains back significant grounds on Union.

Every genuine RL fan supports expansion, but what many want is a sensible way to achieve it. What we have now will simply kill off many clubs below SL over the next 5 years, that is not expansion, its stupidity.
Expansion is two leagues of 10 FT teams well funded from the sky pot, yet the selfishness and shortsightedness of a few will not allow this happen.
A second London club, a second French club and a second Welsh club are all essential but simply importing a team of has been Aussies is not the way to improve the international offering, a FT 2nd tier is IMHO.

We hear the same old story from Red Hall every ten years or so, thats perhaps why we are a 'little' cynical, especially when its all been done before and loads of money wasted.
The RFL cant even generate interest in its heartland so asking them to do so in other places is laughable .

I assume you think of CC. I think you have to give it time. The Dragons have been given time and they bring more and more French players on the field. The CC was a bet from the RFL. I think Toulouse was the best option for the game (because the French market is much bigger), but CC may have seemed the best option for Sky in the short term. I surely understand the concerns of some English supporters, I hear the same in France where some think that the "departure" of the best teams will kill the competition. The truth is that it will save the game in both our countries to have a great European competition. Even below the SL, the Championship can now aspire to be a second European tier and should look to include another French team and an Irish team as soon as it is possible. This will bring the money to make it a FT competition.

And hopefully we will soon be able to see more and more Championship matches on TV

But that was one game, if you watch a few more you'll get kick, recieve, return and everyone sitting on top of each other for 80 mins. Boring.

I look at what teams SL clubs turn out every week and how many non brits they contain. Expansion is player pool development and International competition, not simply location. Allowing more English/Welsh/French to earn a decent wage playing RL will grow our pool and enhance the holy grail of International RL, vital to funding and hence expansion.
When you have our biggets club, Wigan, packed with overseas mediocrity the point is proven. We fail between 19 and 22 because we lose players through lack of opportunity/wage, a second tier finds a home for those players in a FT role at a level they can compete and grow in.
Championship clubs with ambition will not become feeder clubs and the arena is part time, so cannot provide the platform for development.

Chicken and Egg Mo Chicken and Egg, wouldnt happen elsewhere, or should I say wouldn't have been allowed to happen elsewhere.

I agree, and I believe that the evolution is "overall" for the better. League was on the brink of extinction in France few years ago. The Dragons and the TO are now giving some expectations to the young players. In some ways the TO is even more effective at training young lads than the Dragons. They have a very good training and their junior team is top of the junior Elite competition.

They dont half pack um in though ,they always look well attended, i dont mind watching Sale although they are not as exciting now that Jason Robinsons left, also watch England but like as been said can be a tad boring with the need to go and do something else,i can still sit through a bad game of league though