Rugby League vs Union- The Game That Got Away pt 1
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- Опубликовано: 16 янв 2025
- Filmmaker Roger Mills authored this documentary in 1969 and managed to capture the spirit of rugby league in the north of England. Mills tells the story from his own perspective, as a middle-class rugby union-playing southerner who was taught nothing of the game at school and who never knew that far off in the 'cloth-capped' north men took money for a very different type of rugger.
The film is beautifully shot and shows the sport on and off the pitch. It deals with league's difficult relationship with rugby union and differences in attitude and culture. Among his interviewees is the late Brian Redhead, who describes league as an intellectual game.
www.bbc.co.uk/
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They're both fine codes and brilliant in their own unique ways and for their individual nuances. I don't see why so many of you feel you have to be so partizan as to love one and hate the other.
A lot of it is down to the way the RFU and all the clubs disrespected RL and ostracised ts players and anything else connected to RL. Even going down to train with a RL team could get you banned from playing or even entering into a union ground BITD. Also the hypocrisy, even in the 60s certain players were getting back handers to turn out and this continued all the way through to the 90s when RU eventually went 'professional' despite them already paying players openly for decades. Yet used the professional aspect to denegrate RL at every avenue, not just the hierachy at the RFU but the fans too. Also RU was very much a closed shop and particularly racist, RL has always taken in players from any continent and of any skin colour. Clive Sullivan being the first man of colour to captain a UK national team. The French RL had all their assets taken away from them at the beginning of WWII (it was the more popular code in france at the time) and was mostly down to the French RU who were collaborators with the Vichy French (this is documented), it basically destroyed RL as a sport in France and all the asserts were stolen by the French RU. Even last year the International RU board ignored one of its representative as head of RU in the UAE who lied (& very likely bribed the police) to arrest a RL president to prevent him running a competing league that had already being going on for several years. heads at RU did squat to step in, all because RL got popular and got sponsorship in an upcoming country. same old. yeah, there's loads of bad blood, some of it will never be forgiven by those of us in RL circles. I've played both, mostly league.
Exactly!!!
@MANCHESTER UNITED What on earth has football got to do with the comments section of a rugby league production?
@@ynotnilknarf39 "Also RU was very much a closed shop and particularly racist, RL has always taken in players from any continent and of any skin colour."
I have been watching a lot of old RL replays and documentaries on here recently. There were reports of monkey chants against black players in the late 80s at Headingley. Matthew Ridge talking with Snoz in the Manly changing room saying he had been called a "black bastard" by an opposing player. THere are other examples.
@@homeone4054 We're talking about the sport not the fans, RL was open to people of all races whereas RU was not, RL gave opportunities, if you were good enough you got in and hence why a person of colour was captain of a British sporting team in the 70s, before that a black person (Roy Francis) was coach of the national RL team, has soccer or rugby union being broad enough to be able to have offered that to men (or women) of colour? Maybe later but RL was decades ahead of union in that respect. Also maybe you're ignoring the chants/anthems at 'twickers', black slavery song ring a bell?
"I think Rugby League ideally is this blend of finese and speed and sheer physical brute force. To me it's the perfect blend of the artistic and the primitive"
What a magnificent film. Here in NZ many of us wish UK league got more attention from our media. Although old, this film really sums up its charm.
This is such a great documentary. I love both codes of rugby and this documentary makes me want to go to Hull and see a local derby or something, which is quite impressive since my understanding is that no one ever wants to go to Hull.
I live there I come from the south originally it's a great city has its rough parts like anywhere else come and see for yourself and have seen a local derby best derby in rugby league
I always admire the areas that don't have football as the most popular sport. Places such as Castleford, Wigan, Featherstone etc etc Rugby League, and small pockets of East London, Bethnal Green, Canning Town where boxing is the main sport. How refreshing!
all those places you mention there are more soccer players than league
The attitude of this documentary, one of quiet surprise, is not too far off the current BBC coverage of the Challenge Cup. The hatchet job the Union did on League is so good this could be broadcast now and inform more people than it did in 1969.
Live for ever league...
The reason RL does not put effort into the scrum is that we realised something that RU never has and that is they are predictable to a 90% bias for the feeding side. And the cause of huge delay and boredom and penalties within the game, not something a paying audience wants to see. They became uncontested as a means to speed the game up and have a quick reacting defence. The safety side was a bonus.
I grew up in a small country town in Australia. A lot of us would play Rugby on Saturday and League on Sunday, in the under 16's grade. I end up making it to NZ in the under 17 grade in Rugby.
I enjoyed both codes equally and although they're played differently I found that some parts of each code would help me be a better player in the other.
It''s a pity there is divide. And most of the division is along the lines of wealth. In League you would get people of all backgrounds, rich and poor. But Union was seen as a wealthy mans game. When i toured NZ, my cousin, myself and one other kid were the only ones that didn't come from a private boarding school.
This is really a sweet video, too. It was what motivated me to give Rugby League a chance--and I'm glad I did! I love Union as well, but enjoy both now.
I can just see you getting your thrills as your favourite kicker lines up for another well earned 3 points to add to the previous 5 penalties.
What an amazing piece of social history. It's surprising when you think about it that Wales didn't also become a league stronghold back when Union was amateur.
Wales almost did.The only thing that stopped it was the RFU agreeing to turn a blind eye to the WRU and welsh clubs giving their players "boot money".
@stevvvvveperryinteresting. In Australia there were a few unofficially getting payed to play. David Campese had huge offers from league in the 80s but Union managed to keep him for the 'love of the game'
@@PossumMagic99 I always thought that Campese came from a league background but his lack of tackling ability made him a liability in the 13 man code so he opted for union. True though, he even admitted himself that he was union's first millionaire.
@thurmanmerman2720 yes he was a poor defender. I think if he had accepted Saints offer when Roy Masters was coach they could have fixed it up.
I've heard some rubbish in my time, but this is special! As the son of a rugby union player, who came from the working class, left school at 14 to become a carpenter on abuilding site, and yet earning 19 caps for his country, I have listened to the stories. He chose to play a game he loved and could not be persuaded. In spite of any financial losses he certaibnly incurred when playing.
I got asked a question recently at a party by a woman. "what is the difference between union and league". My answer was simple and accurate. "League is the game that is won by rhe team who scores the most tries, union the most penalty goals"
Thanks for uploading Brilliant
My grandfather played RL between the wars under an assumed name as he would have been banned from various other athletic events he competed in at the time had they found out.
Nice to see the ashtrays around all the clubs. Sports were different in the 60s.
Yes well said my American friend, it is true, RL was born out of discrimination for the basic working class RU players, some had to suffer through seeing family starve because there was no financial compensation for any players, in other words, it is and will always be disgustingly elitist, which is not a concept most Aussies, and Americans for that matter tolerate. Ever since 1895 in England, and 1908 in Australia the Union crowd have donr everything they can to bury RL but we will only GROW.
Why is union way bigger in America than?
A woman recently asked me at a party
"what is the diffrence between union and league"
My answer was simple and accurate
"League is won by the team scoring the most tries, union the most penalty goals"
At 9.30 in clip were they talking about JPR Williams ?
I like watching people score tries instead of kicking penalty goals for 80 minutes
Plenty of tries in rugby as well mate. All Blacks score some of the best tries I've seen in both codes.
Im a union fan to but the modern game you see alot more penalty goals in union than league. If the all blacks get a penalty inside the opponents 22 95% of a chance they'll take a penalty goal than a try
+krugers elmstreet A famous Australian loose forward when asked to define rugby union said 'that's the game where the crowd handles the ball more than the players.'
+krugers elmstreet league is repetitive and predictable. 5 tackles, kick ball, repeat 😴😴😴😴. I can see why no other country outside of Australia couldn't care less about the sport.
Isn't every sport in the the world a bit repetitive and predictable. Football is people taking dives and trying to attack from there own half and has low scoring. Basketball is 24 seconds to make a basket go other way. Baseball watch a pitcher pitch once in minute to somebody to hit it at someone or in the sky to be catched. Hockey 5 pass combo and tackle and try to shoot the puck at a goalie 10 times in a period. American football watch a team try to advance 10 yards and punt the ball on 4th. Union watch scrums collapsing and penalty kicks taken with few try's and in League watch 5 tackles kick & repeat. And on my sport of Finish baseball which is a much more dynamic and more exiting than many sports around, is only played in Finland and watching it on TV is shit. Of all the sports there are I hate football because for me its boring, someone else finds it intresting... Unfortunately that seems to count the entire planet...
Nice doc, for a great sport...
The Rugby Football Union was founded in the Pall Mall restaurant, Charing Cross, London,1871. The game played under the newly formed Union rules was different to the game played at Rugby School. Just another fact.
Agreed! I've always said if you pick 10 rugby forward and 10 league forwards at random and lined them up for a 100m sprint you can guarantee league will finish off 1st to 10th for sure.
They are both fantastic but different long may they continue
Yes I have seen it. Mick Skinner can be seen in the crowd of the Wigan v Bath challenge wearing a half Bath half Wigan shirt.
The Old Farts at RU have still not changed.
Reading the comments further down the line. There is quite a lot of misinformation concerning Union players playing League and being banned from returning back to Union on the UK. Utter rubbish!! Any Union player trying out playing League was given the moniker of "A.N. Other" on the match programme so he would not be banned from playing Union if League was not for him.
League clubs were in the minority, still are in the UK.
They never held the power to stop a player going back to play Union if they so wished!
Some moron summised that Widnes stopped Jonathon Davies and Martin Offiah going back to play RU.
Did they fuck!!
A ban was automatically put in place by the hierarchy at Twickenham for any RU player who went over to League.
Also to note, any Union player who wished to play League at an amateur level, if found out was banned from playing for any Rugby Union Club respectively!
It was known as an apartheid in sport!
A Union player could be seen to play football, be a jockey, snooker player, boxer, whatever and get paid for it! He would not be admonished because he was not being paid to play Union! (Utter shite and hypocrisy on the Grandest scale, Union players at first team and international level had been paid cash sums by Union clubs since at least the 60's).
But if they were seen to play that Bastard Northern game of League then they were ostracised and banned for life!!
I myself played Union on the Saturday afternoon, on the Sunday afternoon I played League. I never earned a single coin from playing League, it was for an amateur outfit.
But playing for the Union side in cup matches, if we won we got paid £50! Wow big bucks!! But we got paid!!
If those stuck up cunts at Twickers found out I was playing that Northern bastard game, I would've been banned from playing Union!
This is the primary reason in the UK that League players and fans look down on Union!
Nothing to do with Union fans or the players, it's the people in charge of the game and their blinkered attitude that still exists in the likes of that wanker Rob Andrew!!
Rant over!!
Back in the old days, RU players highly likely got paid secretly especially in countries like France. They just didn't told anybody, and David Campese was a millionaire back in '91.
A Northern Soul, speaking as one who played both codes I can guarantee you that even after signing professional forms for a league club and being paid for a year or two , a player still played Union if he wanted.
A Northern Soul your last 4 words before "rant over" summed up Union up until 1995...or possibly later
Da Undaground Mane You mean they just didn't pay any tax on it! Everyone knew about it...
Well said Terrortorn. I love the 20m gain you get in rugby by skillfully forcing the ball in your own goal area when your oposition kick it there. But hey if they don't kick it in the in-goal area you can always unpredictably kick it out on the full (so you can have yet another rest)
Yes Guaranteed no doubts about it
Yes and a lot of the delay is the high number of tries, video ref decisions and conversions as the clock is not stopped.
11 penalties (non kicked for points), 7 tries, 7 conversions, 421 passes, 2400 meters run with the ball and 420 tackles.
I played Rugby Union at school, the most ridiculous aspects for me were shoeing and scrummaging as a front rower.
Where's the stadium is going to be at? Southern France.
You had to play sports like soccer and rugby union into the South of England back then in the military because if you play league down south in a ground, you could get in big trouble by the RFU. Stevo was refused service at a pub somewhere in Swansea or Cardiff because the landlord detected him as a rugby league player. That was a long time ago. David Watkins was kicked out of Cardiff Arms Park because they knew he was a rugby league player. He was about to commentate a 5 Nations game there.
There is plenty of Middlesex sevens featuring Bradford and Wigan for you to see the difference between League players and Union players. I suggest you watch on YT Bradford v Wasps, 2002. Would you like me to tell you how many RL players took less than 1 years to gain international caps when playing for the schoolboy code.
My first day refereeing RL in Syd i was doing an u/9s game i noticed x wallaby Simon Poidevin helping one team warm up,when i asked the coach was that Poidevin he replied it was and his son was playing.I replied i thought he would play RU to which he answered He wants his son to learn to tackle properly before he gets him to play RU!!
So why do league players who go to union defend at a lower rate than they did in league?
@@gus-qj2mp Any statistics to back up your comment?? And why does Rugby union have so many X Rugby league players defensive coaches??? Eg Edwards, Muggleton, kiss, Farrell, Randall, I could keep going on and on but I'll leave it at that.
@@lapalad
No problem mate.
Vunivalu defends at 12% worse in Union
Koroibete 13 % worse
Moeroa 8% worse
Burgess 7% worse
Tuivasa Sheck 11% worse
But why do Union players who go to league defend at a better percentage?
Lachie miller improved by 9%
Jeral Skelton improved by 13%
Radradra improved by 9%
Simmonson improved by 9%
Are they better defenders or does league inflate stats by counting 2nd,3rd and 4th man into tackles?....Ill let your mind decide on that one.
Now onto your league players coaching defence in Union......My counter point is all the skills coaches in League who were union players, are Union players more skilled or is there just absolutely minimal level 4 coaches out there with experience at a high level that two very similar sports rotate the same names around when they are needed? theres also a heap of ex mma fighters being defensive coaches in the nrl does that mean mma fighters can tackle better? Would it also shock you to know the amount of cricket fielding and batting coaches working in the MLB? Offering different perspectives is what can help make good teams grea, it can also cause the opposite in muggletons case where he's been moved on from every role he's had in union.
@@gus-qj2mp Comparing MMA to the Rugby codes 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@gus-qj2mp Wales had their best defensive record under Edwards, both times Australia won the world cup they had RL players defensive coaches, Randall and Muggleton, I did notice no mention of Eion Crossian who still is the but of many a joke about players with poor defensive ability. And maybe you should ask Simon yourself why he wanted his son grounded in RL first before switching to RU? I think k I know why much harder to tackle when your ten yards back than when you can virtually shake hands with your opposing player. And why is Eddie Jones already targeting RL players to improve the woeful Wallabies?
@JonnyLewisFilms Hi mate, not only as Salford fan, but as a RL fan in general the documentary your making sounds fascinating, can you please keep me up to date on any developments?
Thanks,
Alec
My son was ban from playing rugby league by his club after he played 2nd XV for his school in Christchurch so now they can get stuff and he'll be playing rugby union and league for Aranui High.
Kickable penalties are about achieving good field position though superior play and tactics. Whilst watching the actual kick at goal may be boring, the lead up is potentially as good as a try in either code. Whist it is tough and demanding for most of the game RL generally only gets interesting/ skilful on the 5th tackle when attacking the goal line.
In rugby league you wanna take it out of your own tryline you have to earn it...rugby league players jump as high as AFL players but they not only catch it but have to score as well...Rugby League Wingers have scored some of the most difficult tries I have ever seen....with their bodies out of the field of play but still in the air and a couple of fingers on the ball...the leaps I see in Rugby League I have never seen in Rugby Union in the 25 years that I have watched union
Only two players on a rugby league field can jump and theres only one ever considered good enough to play afl because of it but please make some more mumbo jumbo up
Aside from the ambitious target of reaching over six million players across Member Unions,
Brazil, China and Mexico will be among the initial locations for the launch of the IRB's new global initiative. In China, for example, Get Into Rugby was launched at the recent IRB supported Zengcheng International Women's Sevens tournament and will be initiated in 100 schools in Nanjing, where the 2014 Youth Olympic Games will be hosted, as well as Guangzhou.
"Rugby Union was an amateur game..." During the late 80s early 90s I worked with someone who played Rugby Union and I played Amateur Rugby League both of us at a comparable level and we both traveled a similar distance to play yet he got paid 'travel expenses'. So who was the true amateur?
My dog said that his best mate got more dog food because he was a smaller dog so who's the true dog?
Rugby Fans love their sports and more and more Fans, Players and Volunteers are joining Rugby every year because its a great game to play and watch. In the end its just a SPORT.
I went to a league game in the weekend and saw so may players walking around the paddock doing nothing and some of them were so big they make sumo wrestlers look skinny. The prop came off and said he was only on the field for 15 minutes out of 80mins and that he was bored from walking. See how easy it is?
Damn. Just like back then when union officials banned players who they caught playing rugby league for a club. Both rugby codes did a lot of dirty negative things. Was this was in Australia or in New Zealand?
This was in England.
Same thing happened in Fiji when league was introduced in 1992
It's like a different world. Would a League chairman turn up in a Rolls Royce now?
Yes
RFL should built a stadium for rugby league in Northern England. Just heard the French Rugby Union got the go ahead to built one in Paris for a 82.000 capacity stadium. This will give French Rugby a massive boost. Not its only Italy left.
The Stade Francais game was a hybrid match played over 60 minutes the retired and semi pro's of Lezignan a 800,000 euro squad took the 20,000,000 euro pros of union to within 4 points in a code both had never played before. Lezignan is known as a village club.
when was this mate?
Harlequins can announce today, Tuesday 11th December, that 60,000 tickets have now been sold for the Big Game 5 on December 29th when the defending Aviva Premiership Champions face London Irish at Twickenham Stadium.
no. Im referring to set pieces of an attacking team.
Who is playing this weekend? The AllBlacks vs the Wallabies and the rabbitohs vs the roosters? Which game would you rather watch lol
Rugby League World Cup Final 1995. Eng v Aus, Wembley, 66,540 att
Rugby Union World Cup Final 1995. SA v NZ, Ellis park, Joburg, 63,000 att.
Lancs, Yorks and Cumbria and a few brave Australians travelling 12,000 miles supply more spectators than two Rugby Union playing powerhouse nations. Still they make wonderful advertisements on telly.
When do you think Rugby League will ever be relevant outside the heartlands of 3 countries?
@@CasperThaler-ii2nd Wales, SA and NZ I think is the sum total of countries in which Union is not an also ran.
I don't really understand what your saying here bro but there wasn't any bans in New Zealand by union on league players.
When Martin Offiah signed with Widnes he wasn't allowed to play rugby union anymore by his new rugby league club. You do know that aye bra?
why can't they play at Stade De France ?
Yes this has been undertaken with very little reasoning behind it. It has little fan support in the UK.
thats a fair point u raise...however footy back then....was a lot slower than the footy played these days....the speed of the play the ball is ridiculous...especially the level of skill...these days tries are scored in the air.. players scoring freakish tries that I have never seen in the 90's origin days or in Rugby Union...the plays and set moves that teams score off are very hard to defend against..in saying that mad respect for 90's league...but the game is played very differently
quade cooper was a rugby union junior, played all his rugby union for tokoroa pirates with his all black cousin sean maitland.
sbw was a member of the auckland primary school rugby union rep team between 6 years old and 13 years.
A lot of RL players played RU in school.
My Dad had the Chinese whispers at University as he was into the RL away from University and played RU there. Always as an amateur, never for money or at games where gate feees were paid. He would have been turned down for the RU squad had he continued, he wasn't that bothered about the U anyway.
Most of the U influence would have been behind closed doors in simply never considering RL for inclusion. Ignoring RL is now traditional in the UK.
So maybe a change in the point system can force RU to kick less and run more, that I can agree on.
The RLWC has been around longer, but you can't really say it's global when you consider there have only been 3 nations to win the title since its inception. You would think that it would have had more chances to be seen by the global audience. In any case do you have some personal vendetta against RU? Because I have friends who play both codes and they don't have the same level of resentment and bitterness you have. I'm just wondering that's all.
Really, see Bradford bulls V errrr the entire Middlesex 7's RU. and watch the ease at which a RL team destroys RU at their own game. It is only in Rugby League that the Union talent actually gets to fulfil their Rugby potential as they learn the skills required to play for 80 minutes.
I enjoyed this film. As a American following both RU and RL, this film shows the painful, childish, and bigotry acts that Union put on League in the UK. The first three minutes of the film especially the beginning tells it all. Rugby League was banned in the military and in schools until the late 20th century. I always knew Union was so jealous of league and it had to take action but put fearless bylaws against it. That's is in England.
Did your hear about the ban rugby league put on its members here in New Zealand if they play union for their schools?
Both RL experts, Saints fielded a b side due to play off commitments. Chris Joynt even interceded on behalf of Sale to stop a player being sent off because he did not know what he was doing and caused dangerous play. As with many RL players at the time they retired to RU.
don't you miss the good old days when league use to be full of hard defense ? Most of the 1990s state of origin games from the 90s were decided by a few points but they are best games of league you will ever see . Those games had very few tries but had huge TV ratings in aussie and over here in NZ . Rugby League today has gone soft to the point of being far too many tries , or is it just slack lazy defense ? .
Even as a RL aficionado, 60-70 mins seems high but I'll take your word for it! Believe me I know the workrate expected of a RL forward. I started at prop and then moved to 2nd row/centre (most people move the other way over time!). No place to hide on the RL field, and a decent level of ball skill is required in any position.
At RU I've played several positions in the pack and backs and to be honest I find it dull. Watched some friends play RU at the weekend and they were bored.
It just the UK where rugby league has a whole lot of problems. I know RL is a minor sport in England just like NZ and France. Rugby League was banned in military in the UK until the early 90s. Players had to play Union in the military when league was banned. Read "History of the RARFL". RU used to ban its own players when they switched to league. The narrator is a Southern Englishman and wants to know about rugby league. He haven't heard of the sport until the BBC assigned him.
There's the RWC and it stands RUGBY WORLD CUP.
Whats RUWC?
If it's RU you want mate, just watch RU videos, we will be quite happy with or without you. RU is palyed in more countries, maybe but seriously, like RL, Union has only a few giant nations, and are vasically a mirror of RL, in other words, RU has Aust, NZ< UK and SAf, RL is very small in SAf, but RL has Aust NZ and the UK as it's giants, so the jury is still out, and always will be. You upper class Roogers will never be rid of us, EVER. Long Live Rugby League.
since when did I mention rolling mauls?
Here's a fact: the Sports Discrimination Bill was introduced in the UK precisely to put an end to RU discrimination against RL. RFU penalties for any involvement with RL were harsh - in fact any lads found to have played RL were banned for life, even if it was only a single game as a child. Welsh international Fred Perrett was even excluded from lists of players who died in WW1 due to 'defecting' to RL.
Have you looked up the French RU Vichy/Nazi collaboration yet? Too intellectual for you?
I think its due to the Stade De France not been available for French rugby matches and higher cost of hiring. Good for rugby in France.
Yes, that game proved that league teams are good at league and rugby teams are good at rugby. In any case countries like UK, France, New Zealand and Pacific Islands where both games are played and have watched on TV for over 100 years they find rugby is the better spectacle than league.
Most Union scrums result in the ball being retained by the feeding side 90 odd % of the time. The changes in 2007 were as a result of the shameful statistics of some 34 mins of play per 80 in the world cup. Changes meant to speed up and reduce technical infringements not any safety requirements.
Idc what anyone has to say about me. I love both Union and League. I don't understand why fans have throw such a huge fuss about which is better. No one is better. Why? Because it all comes down to prefrence and what you enjoy.
Those who throw hate don't take the time to study both games. You love both because you're asking why he was penalized in the ruck or why a one on one strip was legal and it's people like you that both need.
RFU might have had a meeting at the Paul Mall restaurant in 1871, its history and its birthplace is at Rugby School and is well known fact. This is the reason why only Rugby celebrate the school of its origins and named its most famous trophy after a student at Rugby School. Baseball does not trace its roots back to England or wanted to be piggyback on other sports so just like League.
The original Rugby World Cup was Rugby Leagues, You have the Union one. You simply choose not to call it by the proper title as an aid to marketing Union around.
Union bans players for switching to league before it went professional. Jonathan Davies and Martin Offiah were both great rugby union players and league players. Offiah has speed and that's why league clubs recruited him. Terrortorn is also a former league player for his university. He didn't brainwash me, he tells the truth about the hatred that union had towards league in the UK.
What is funny about this is, I had subtitles on, haha, it didn't like Welsh speaking english much.................haha
Paris is a soccer stronghold coz it is located in Northern France. The North is a soccer stronghold while the South is a rugby stronghold.
I mentioned rolling mauls as you seem hesitant or unable to back up your claim for Union being a more tactical sport, the rolling maul being a low skill solution to working the ball downfield. Indeed RU borrows from RL tactically, it does not work the other way round.
when did they make the scrums in league uncontested???
I believe in the early 80s.
league is way better sport even though i grew up playing union, league wasn't played where i am from, but we used to get it on tv... union at the moment is a bastardized version of league now anyway...
+Kevin Cronin nothing is contested in league, you have to be a bunch of chumos not to make 40-50 metres per set of 6 as they make the defense stand back 10 metres...and go wow...its a free running open game lol Scrums are a joke, interchange is a joke, and the TMO's are a joke...the game is as exciting as a game of checkers...give me chess any day
Everything in league is uncontested lol
The scrums can be contested there's no rule against it, it's just quicker
SBW can come back to union anytime. Martin Offiah and JD made the switch back in the 80s. Back then, rugby union players were banned for life if they switch to league. Widnes recruited Offiah during a Middlesex tourney when Martin was playing for Rosslyn Park. Martin went up North but the RFU knew it and banned Offiah from rugby union for switching to league. The ban of league players from union was lifted back in '95 when the sport RU turned pro.
Exactly the first Rugby world cup was Rugby Leagues. Union went out of their way to only use the world rugby as a way to develop brand identity globally. They have no exclusive entitlement to it however much they wish they did.
I agree they should fix many things with union 1 the points for penalties and 2 the play on law (if you do watch rugby you will know why it is a problem) too often you see players who are knocked out and can't defend themselves getting in the way of the play. Most points in union are infact scored by tries but too many are scored by goals i agree with you on that. But heres a fact rugby union players are physically dominant over rugby league players.
Rugby leagues so hard man like their scrums are just explosive bro so tough i couldnt handle it
@terrortorn Exactly My point! You dont gain territory in Union so you kick. You work harder to score tries. Ru is more positional if you know what I mean. Each position has a very important and different role. I dont watch much of league, but from what I have seen everyone basically has the same role. Rl is one dimensional aswell whereas union changes pace.Union takes more skill. Dan Carter & Jonny Wilkinson are just out of Darren Lockyers league im sorry. Why is union more widespread?
Adults and kids of all sizes play rugby league and rugby nothing to be ashame off. There have been many big blokes who plays international in both codes but I suppose you can't see that outside your window in Sydney. Top international teams only has one or two front rowers who are massive and have lean built to be able to play in those position the other 30 members all are lean and built with perfect balance of speed and power. Yes, they are all sportsman who happens to play one of many sports.
I'm talking Australian Rugby League that is, as British RL has been 2nd best for 4 decades now.
Really and where is this definition written down and under whose authority? The original RWC is ours so any definition the RU may wish to invent is surplus to requirements. The 14 nations in the original RWC will do just fine. And I seem to recall exactly the same nations have been in the original RWC final as in the amateurs games competition. So much for your ideas of a global game.
It's strange how this upper v lower class dichotomy existed between rugby league and union in UK and Aus. Here in South Africa was just rugby union that was played by everybody in public or private schools.
The floor has been open by rugby in France, England, Wales, Ireland, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Russia, Scotland, Italy and many others countries for over 100 years and we all know which sports is a better version & more popular in those countries. I do know that AFL is massive in Australia and League is only popular in two states. Rugby will always have its place in Australia because its a global game and soon it will be a OLYMPIC GAME as well.
No, they don't. RU fans just bang on about the 'technical' aspects of RU, the 'contest for the ball', and the scrums, lineouts, etc as being what they love. Any reasonable RU fan acknowledges more ball play in RL but they don't see RL as 'real rugby'. I went to watch some friends play RU at the weekend and managed to maintain a whole conversation with them from the touchline. The inside centre came off and said he was bored. It's a shit, boring game but with strong roots and money.
The New Zealand Herald reports the hosting fee to be NZ$150 million, and the IRB says the fee for the one in France in 2007, was £57 million ($89 million). That tournament netted the IRB £122 million, including £28 million from sponsorship and £82 million in broadcasting rights.Without the money, the IRB could not pay for international Sevens series, the Pacific Nations Cup, or the Women's Rugby WC, or for training, referees and its own annual administration costs of £15 million ($24 million).
Been tried 1992 from 4 points to 5 for a try. The only way they will run more is by removing 2 players and limiting the possession of teams and not allowing kicking out on the full. To encourage more tries a penalty should be worth 2 points and drop goals 1 but this won't show them how to play.
Lol at the guy who say darren lockyer is out of wilkinson and darters league... Please mate Lockyer was the fullback of the century, meaning he can actually run the ball. He is known for his drop kicks and and he was the best five eighth during his time at that position. And he plays RL which means you HAVE to be able to TACKLE(he eventually slowed down at the end of his career)
I agree that RU focuses too much on scrums and there are too many penalties, however most of the ru hard hits are not given as penalties, only the ones that are high or spear tackles are given (and more recently tip tackles which i disagree with). And by the way Shane Williams would defiantly dispute your view that "he plays like a RL player". If you watch Wales, Australia, New Zeland, Scotland, Ireland, France etc in RU you will see the open wide expansive game that RU provides.
@MPT1983 Union is more complex in comparison to League.
The original rugby world cup was in 1987 in New Zealand where the best 16 rugby playing nations came together and the final was between the All Blacks and France.
The rugby league pretend world cup which involve three nations and then four and then back to three...What world cup in any sports around the world takes over three to four years to complete with just three four nations taking part? The Rugby League World Cup was a joke. The first RLWC was in 1995 with ten nations taking part.