doesn't compare to nrl sorry the impact in nrl is much greater an much more frequent and besides if your talking ru rivalry you gotta be looking at the curry cup

Shame on you! I take it your not going then

Impact.? thats just part of the game.! In france they go beyond the game fighting, eye gouging the works. i even recall alfie having to drag a player out of the crowd at toulose as he was fighting with a spectator(not alfie his team mate trevor brennan i beleive)

General thuggery and the brutality of the competition not linked. Union is not as brutal as league end of story and anyone who says so needs to play both in the forwards to fine out

People, especially Union apologists, confuse intensity with niggly and thuggish play. I've played against teams that have eye gouged, spat, stamped on players in the tackle, punched players on the ground etc, and I've played with players that also do that kind of thing. It happens all the time at amateur level. That doesn't mean that the game is more intense than pro level. Anyone can do things like that. Getting stamped on in a ruck is nothing compared to the intensity of a league match, and it's just unpleasant and leads to injuries rather than two teams raising the bar and going at each other. For me, this just highlights the difference between the two sports. If you meant the French league is brutal as in dirty, then there are plenty of amateur RL and probably Union competitions that are a lot more 'brutal' in that respect. And if you meant in terms of the intensity of the match, then pro RL competitions are far more brutal, and are much, much harder to play in.
No, can barely afford to get to Wrexham for the Crusaders games let alone Doncaster

Free coach to doncast pal. on scorps forum page sign up quick pick ups all along the m4 and if your like me michaelwood services

I would say both in french league the games are intense, physical and down right dirty(honestly cant think of any pro league as diryt to be honest, yeah amateur up the valleys here in south wales is bad enough, i should know. The regions hate each other. And i did say arguably.! all you lot do is bang on about NRL.
I have the privelege of enjoying both sports.

All i am trying to say is that ALF has seen everything in his career and bought the T shirt... nothing will faze him..!

He's played in Bridgend v Cardiff and Ospreys v Cardiff Blues as well as Wales v England matches so he should be used to the dirty sh* t.

Bridgend v treorchy to... i shall never forget that... bridgend being escorted out the valley..nuts.!

great performance from CRU tonight.... would alf be as bad as youngquest at FB.?
i doubt it.

if youngquest wasnt playing tonight the we would have won.

Does anyone know if Gareth Thomas was at Saints tonight? I walked past a guy wearing your home shirt who looked the spitting image of him.

One would expected him to be sat either in the dugouts with the subs and staff etc or in the stands with Noble and co. I can't imagine him signing for the club with the intention to play him next week but then for him to miss the opportunity to watch the game at close quarters.

When was the last time Leyth made the national sports headlines?

Cheers Andy Greg, I knew some of the guys were on dual reg.

Looking forward to seeing his debut this weekend , no doubt he will start on the bench.

A good signing to get the interest of the general Welsh public as a whole.

35 year old on a 3 year deal IIRC may be overdoing it a bit though.

Good job he's only on a 6 month contract with a year's option then isn't it.

A pic on the Saints website confirmed he was there, sitting on those glorious wooden seats of ours, and having seen that pic I now know that earlier on he was in the away end, which is where I walked past him.

Yeah i think leaguies sometimes dont understand the nature of welsh rugby union really. Im dividing my time between mountain ash and the brecon beacons at the mo, occasional visit to merthyr, aberdare and ponty. These places are the beating heart of welsh union and its basically ex-mining/steel town/village against each other and the players they produce wont struggle with any aspect of any kind of physicality. Anybody who thinks anything is deluding themselves. The great tragedy of sporting history is that we lost the queensland of british rugby league in wales. Its a total match between the history, background and sporting culture of league and this country. Hopefully one day we will turn that round.

Obviously I didn't RC then.

Story up here is that Alfie is the fittest member of the squad. He may be knocking on a bit but he has looked after himself.

With Gareth Thomas going in at the centre's Anthony Blackwood has joined Barrow Raiders on a 2 months loan.

Maybe that's more to do with the others being a bit wheezy.

My my the "special link" with South Wales Scorpions" lasted a long time didn't it?

Will Elliot Kear play tonight does anyone know. Seems Noble is unsure who to play at FB. Him or Youngquest

Youngquest has been a bloody calamity in his two games at Fullback. Thank god Nobby realised it and brought Kear back.

I bet Youngquest is the sort of techincally adept player who looks brilliant in training. However, in games at Fullback his match sense completely leaves him and he makes some terrible decisions (not just agaist Saints, was the same against Leeds).

By contrast, Kear is very assured for a young bloke.

Youngquest looks better on the wing and I like his height for Witts high kicks. Lots of competition in the backs now which is healthy.