If you go on Youtube - type 'Wigan Bath'
Just noticed that the full game has been added in the last few days.

Added by some french guy called "Rugbymanleague" - If you click his name it will bring up his profile, there you will see the 16 clips which make up the whole match.

Part 1 is a classic with Stevo having a right old pop at Union's Stuart Barnes re: Guscott's "injury"

How anyone can tell me that the standard of RL has improved after watching that is beyond me.


Of course the opponents need to be taken into account, but look at the skill on show.


Anyone who believes that the CC has benefited RL is deluded.

Excellent find, shall watch that while at work tomorrow thnx.

Shithouse Guscott! - Well in Stevo for telling it like it was.

I was there that night. I remember some bath fans getting covered in lager when we scored our first try.

I still have the game on VHS with the Middlesex 7's

Guscott had a dump in his trollies at the thought of playing against Via Twiglamala!



In them days they shipped it out wide a lot more specially off scrums, I would like to see a return to that.

Great find, enjoyed the old school Sky presentation and sounds



Wonder if he'll put the Union version online?

Adebayo Adebayo - So good his parents named him twice

Was one of those great nights out.
And proud as punch 'cos my boy played in the opener vs Golborne.
Been nothing like it since.

Thank you thank you thank you - my copy of this was destroyed a few months ago.

Awesome.

Wigan were playing a team for whom most of their players would never have played League before. Of course Wigan would have found it easy to rack up the number of points that they did.

The salary cap isn't to blame for why Wigan were the champions then but not now.

Errrrm, the second match was played under Union rules !

A team that's been fully pro for a while playing against a newly pro union team at rugby league - that's definitely the benchmark for playing standards!

More pro CC "fans" again missing the point.


I suppose the CC now puts limits on lines of running, sleight of hand and finishing?

Actually maybe that's the next stage in their plan?

"Each team will only be allowed 100 tries in a season, this is fairer to those teams who are inept......."

We were simply awesome in those days.

I actually feel sorry for Bath watching it.

Radlinski mentions it in his book. They threw the game plan out of the window in the first half of the Union game and tried to compete in the rucks and mauls. We got smashed. At halftime West and Lydon tore a strip off them and told them to play like league and get the ball moving. We drew the second half.

To be fair I think Bath didn't play union like they would against a union side either (e.g. fully competitive scrums, rolling mauls etc). That would have made for a very boring game (like the Saints-Sale one). Fair play to Bath they wanted to play the union game in as much of an entertaining way as is possible in that code.

As you say, they could have just shut up shop and played a very technical game of union and just destroyed us with the intricacies of the forwards game with rolling mauls and rucks.

At the time Bath were well known for throwing the ball around and playing an entertaining game of union, and to their credit they tried to play that type of game. It was only when fitness got the better of them that we started to even things up a little.

You shouldn't have felt sorry for Bath. That was the wake up call the RFU needed after your team beat the hell out of them.

If you think that there is less lines of running etc now than there was back then, how is that the fault of the salary cap?

Wigan should have gone for the 100 and not eased up like they did, but they still rammed home the point that running with the ball, support play and lines of running (the things that can be compared between the two codes) were superior in the League code. After that they ran riot in the sevens competition, which is also on youtube, and they were the reasons why the RFU decided to go after league players and coaches.

I knew it would be Wigan's Fault!

Look at that back line.

There is nothing even remotely close to that in SL.

The speed of hands in the backs is completely lost in SL today.

Maybe so. I just fail to see how the salary cap has been the sole cause of what I perceive to be a decline in playing standards, quality and entertainment value.

Guscott - "There's no point - Wigan will thrash us at league, and we will thrash them at union"

B0110cks. He was shiit scared of getting battered.

I think Munster would woop Leeds at both forms of the game if it was played now.