I know, and I made no reference to hooray henrys at Twickers either, yet that was apparently the theme of my post.

There are a minority of cretins following teams in any team sport: football cricket, ice hockey, both codes of rugby. I don't really think any sport is more susceptible to them than any other, although the biggest/most successful teams in all sports probably attract more than their fare share. Unfortunately you occasinally get them at The Stoop for our games. At the Melbourne game I was sitting with a group of friends, several of whom only watch us occasionally. A longstanding friend of ours whom some of us have known since he was a schoolboy is a Premiership football linesman and had recently been appointed to the UEFA list - i.e. to officiate at international level. We were having a perfectly civilised conversation about this when a bloke in front of us turned round, butted in, and told us to "stop talking about football, this is a rugby league match". Then his northern mate started chuntering about "wendyball" whatever that's supposed to mean. Imagine the impression that would have made if it had been directed at anyone attending their first game of RL? They'd have gone away thnking RL fans were narrow minded insular to$$ers.

In fact I'd have to day if anything rugby league fans are more often defensive and derisive towards other sports than the followers of those sports are towards ours.

Gutterfax,i've seen your previous posts,you come across as a reasonable guy(albeit for a union fan)but your asking how do i know they were RU types,i'll tell you.About roughly 20 years ago i was playing amateur RL for a local club.A work colleague asked me did i want to come down to his local RU club to try the game i said yeah alright,did a couple of training sessions played a couple of games and the coach found out i was playing RL and told me to get out of the club,another example i went the Saints v Sale cross code game a few years ago and was stood with a couple of mates of mine and next to quite a few Sale fans and the way they were slagging MY game saying it was a game for chavs and oiks ok.

Thank you Lister I really appreciate the promotion of my status from you, how happy you have made me. It's so easy to reel you in it's now geting boring.

Yeah you got me there, congrats.

cj

RU 20 years ago and ru now are very different, dont forget if there was any hint that you had played the Profesional game in the past then the RFU dictated that you could not play league, that is no longer the case.
i have had many run ins, or discussions whatever you want to call them with friends and workmates who are hardcore union
Personally I have never tried to claim "my game is better than theres" even though in my mind it is, and if they want to try and convince me that "there" game is the best then hey ho
Yes I have played both, funnily most of my union up north, never really got to grips with it and spent every line out trying to work out when we "fu*%"d the pope rigid where the ball was going.

the main difference with the yawnion blokes that continue to slag off the "stop start" game of league, is they tend to be the ones that never tried playing the game.
I think you find that most union players that give it a go, will actually admit they enjoy the game, and even in secret tend to watch it, but if you are brought up in Bath for example and have been fed on the Bath Yawnion thing since a kid, why would you change? The same can be said for a kid from wigan who has been dragged down throught the "central park years"
I respect there choices, and have fun explaining the faults in ther game, nearly as much as i do the kickball fans, and enjoy trying to defend the faults in our game

I am a rugby league fan who only watches union live or on tv if:
Ireland are playing (my country of citizenship), London Irish are playing (the club I played for) or the British Lions are playing.....apart from that, I have no interest except when goaded by idiots on the NRL boards with nothing better to do.
I am sure your tales of discrimination are not unique and I am sure Listy is right in his claim that he has run ins with Union fans that leave a bitter taste, but I repeat, the majority of Union fans I have come into contact with since I started supporting London RL have been fine and it is their misunderstanding of the game and the skills involved that lets them down and not a sense of malice towards the GG. I find that when I point out that it was a RL Defensive coach and a RL winger who helped them win their WC they usually shut up. If not, I ask them how many tries that England team scored using crossfield kicks and where they thought that tactic came from.

On a slightly different point, I spoke to a high ranking union ref the other day who has stopped enjoying the game (union) since the law changes have turned it into league with lineouts (his words, not mine)

What sort of unpleasant encounters?
At what club(s)?

Its an interesting question. i attended the only rugby union playing school in the warrington borough and played union all my childhood. I was always a wire fan though, and went to watch them whenever i could. i came down to twickenham to go to university, primarily to play union, only to discover that they had a league team also. i was roped in at the freshers fair, because i was from warrington. i had never played, but i knew the rules and the tactics. i still played union, but i loved the league, and several good union players came over and played league with me. we went from having to scratch around for a team on a sunday morning to winning BUSA in three years, and the profile of league rocketed in the university. The union guys supported us, and played for us, and the union fans preferred to watch the league boys. there were occassions when we had more watching us train than the union guys had when they played.

what i took away from it though, was that players who were brought up playing union, and loved the game, once they had a taste of league they much prefered playing it. the vast majority. they loved the contact, the physical side, but also the fact that skill could be used to get out of situations. we had one of the best broken play runners playing full back, who, as he came from a union background was quality in the one on one tackle too. he was an ideal full back, but he was slight. A lot of ex union players went on to gain student honours, and i can name three players from the team who are now heavily involved in the running of league clubs in ireland and on the south coast of england. union people need to give league a chance, and a successful quins rl would be the ideal platform for this.

In the days when Rugby union was an amatuer game many of the harlequins FC players and fans worked within "The City", in the days when one had to have the right school tie to get a job. Within Union circles Harlequins FC fans have always had a reputation as "Hooray Henry's".

Don't you mean shamatuer.

Shamateur players existed since the days of the great split. I know of 3 players when I was at London Irish who couldn't have told you where their offices were.....terrible behaviour and something I would never condone......kind of like breaking the salary cap



For whatever reason you hate Union, remember, it is another sports activity that has very little (if any) direct impact on League. If players decide to cross the floor for money, I would suggest you look at the player as the culprit and not the other code.
Union have their own problems to deal with and we have ours. I would suggest that on an administrative front, League can learn from Union as to what they have achieved internationally in 20 years, but such blasphemy is normally shot down on the NRL board (very quiet over there at present

), but as I see it, a sport that was generating very little interest and revenue in the 1980's has now become a massive global TV event....

As for Harlequins FC reputation.......it took me 3 years until I bought a quartered shirt, but not because of the Union tie in, more to do with the fact that Quins fans have always had a rep for being barber wearing merchant bankers.

Fraid that's the 2 reasons why I can't ever see me making that step!

In reply to the original question, if any RU fans came along to RL games we might be able to give you an answer!

This years away strip makes it slightly easier as it's not in Quins colours.....I still think that the chevron idea I sent listy would make a good home shirt...

True, this year's away shirt is excellent - still got (half) a clown still on it though! Thought the chevron design would have made for a good home shirt this season seeing as we only had the pastels on the front in 2009, it would have been more of an RL style and with the rest of the kit predominantly black would have been a nod to the Fulham kit (30th anniversary and all that).

cj, I don't like Union either, for all sorts of reasons. So I just ignore it - it's not difficult. But I wouldn't think of defining myself by a hatred and I don't understand why you have to. You could try being positive about your attitude. How about "cjlovesleague" as your i/d?

We do - and used to go to Brentford occasionally as well - but we don't wear badges (or Barbours)

However

if you look out for the people having their caviar sandwiches and Pimms served by the butler at half time, it may give you a clue

Where was that Lymm with the Quins blonde Winger(Strettle)

correct

I see Leeds Carnegie Coach Neil Back is questioning which RU clubs are breaching their own league's salary cap (around £4 million a season). The "big club's" want to up it in preparation for the RFL style ongoing monitoring rather than season end as at present, which I believe will come into force next season.

There is no doubt that 3 world cup final appearances (including 1win) in 20 years has helped with the expansion of the union game.

i think they will have to raise it, as even with 4mm cap, its still dwarfed by the french cap which is over 7mm. makes the league cap look like chicken feed, and its no wonder players are going over to france in their droves. the nrl will have to raise theirs, after the melbourne fiasco, and the rfl need to look closely at theirs or british league players, and just as importantly french league players will end up in french ru

I must totally disagree that the codes clash, i coach RU for a Mini/Youth team and whilst i prefer to watch RL i love both sports and there is absolutely no reason why you can't, i think the vast majority of both supporters respect both codes even if they don't actually watch one of them.

We had our presentation day for the RU Club Mini section on Saturday and although the local football team were at Wembley at the time and on TV the RU supporters in the bar area with the TV watched Warrington V Huddersfield, and these are die-hard RU Supporters/Players & Coaches.

I have never had any problems from RU supporters and regularly go to Saracens and Twickenham for Internationals and proudly boast that i actually prefer RL, some people try to argue which is better but never with any malice to the other.

Please don't make generalisations about either sets of supporters, Rugby in either code has a lot to offer the other and both should be viewed in that way and not just in competition with each other.

There are probably some bad supporters of either code in the same way there are bad people in all walks of life with differing interests.

Enjoy Rugby in both codes if you can, if you can't then don't complain about the other just enjoy what code you prefer and leave it at that, everyone is entitled to their own tastes.

What he said.