Tino is indeed correct, I guess I was blinded by rage at the statement that rugby union had never done everything to harm rugby league.



At least I won't be banned from using the English language again which wouldn't be the case if I had played rugby league (paid or un-paid) during the 1980's or earlier and wanted to play rugby union, I would havebeen professionalised.



Can somebody explain why such rules only applied to rugby league players and not footballers, cricketers, tennis players, etc.



Of course rugby union has never done anything to harm rugby league (apart from stopping people playing the game).

Quote the tache is back="the tache is back":33o7skigi can't watch it for 2 reasons a- it's incredibly tedious b-ruddy faced oxbridge types singing "swing lo" yes just remembered there was a third reason,stuart barnes face at half time,he needs a good shoeing,oh yes the forward passes as well. at the end of the day it's a different code of rugby and it's a case of whatever floats your boat.'" passing game www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-d1vxkXuGQ

Quote the tache is back="the tache is back":33o7skigi can't watch it for 2 reasons a- it's incredibly tedious b-ruddy faced oxbridge types singing "swing lo" yes just remembered there was a third reason,stuart barnes face at half time,he needs a good shoeing,oh yes the forward passes as well. at the end of the day it's a different code of rugby and it's a case of whatever floats your boat.'" passing game www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-d1vxkXuGQ

Rugby union is great game,so is rugby league.

Pushing on an open door with me Paul - I agree totally with your comments. The Vichi government didnt like RL either.

I'm a big fan of both codes and actually enjoy playing Union more than I do playing League. However as a spectator sport league wins hands down. Unfortunatly the fact that RL is a joke at international level is where it lets itself down, this is where Union picks the 'casual' voters. The sort of fans who will cheer on England/GB in any major sports competition assuming we've got a chance of winning and are playing decent opposition. The large attendances and tv audiences means extra money in the RFU's coughers an this filters down to the club sides.



My only serious gripe with rugby union is that with the large number of top English players going to France it may lead to Guinness Premiership clubs looking to Super League to fill the void of the England player exodus. Picking off the best of young English talent in RL, Lee Smith and Sale Sharks rumoured courting of Eastmond a couple of shining examples.

These threads [size=59(they appear every so often)[/size are so boring - kick the chips off your shoulders and live and let live. Admire the RL play and ignore the size of the RU following ............. let it go .................







My God, the irony.

If you are talking about the history of the game, I would never want to be associated with rugby league.



A sport which saw routine racism from the terraces, with monkey chants directed at Martin Offiah at around the same time Chris Oti made his England debut in RU and was cheered with chants of Swing Low Sweet Chariot which then went onto become an anthem of the England team.



Similarly rugby league was full of terrace violence and thuggery, Warrington v Widnes; Warrington v Wigan, Salford fans, Hull fans, many teams were notorious for their mobbery and liking for mindless violence at train stations and on the terraces. You wouldn't get that amongst the pimms drinking prawn sandwich brigade in RU.



Anybody who wants to claim RL is a family game should have a long hard look at its history.

I quite enjoy watching some RU in the off-season. I find it much more entertaining than over-paid nancy boys prancing about a pitch after a soccer ball before promptly falling over their own feet and having to be carried off. I don't claim to fully understand RU and all its tactics but can enjoy watching players like Shane Williams running at a broken line. That in itself is a thing of wonder.

"A bomb under the West car park at Twickenham on an international day would end fascism in England for a generation," - George Orwell

RL is clearly a family game, just because the history of rugby league had "violence & thuggary" doesent mean that it cant be a family game you never heard of a thing called change? An event which has 14 teams attending the same venue on the same day and goes by without any mention of violence or thuggary surely shows change?