I’ve also watched some of those early to mid 90’s games and remembered how great it was, but agree the play the balls were a bit too messy, and scrums too, but the one thing that was much better back then was the pace of the game, it was relentless, and the fatigue that caused made for opportunities for some great off the cuff, natural flair rugby. Taking it all into account, I think the game would be much better with the following;
- Reduced interchanges, get down to 4 per game
- A much more prompt ‘held’ call, with an immediate ‘release’ by the defenders required
- Have to say it, but bring back the biff (to a degree). Still stamp out the cheap shots that were rife in the day (raised elbows, high tackles, blind side shots), but allow the guys to go toe to toe when required - that whole anticipation of a stink in the grudge matches was a huge part of the enjoyment for me... even as late as the early to mid-2000’s when Barrie was chasing Fielden around, that was one of the things we all lost looked forward to in a Leeds/Bulls match. I also believe you’d get rid of a lot of the cheap stuff from the current game if players knew there’d be immediate physical retribution - there’d be very little attacking the knees of an attacker, pressure on necks, joints etc if they knew a prop was gonna come in swinging at them for doing it.

One other thing that stood out for me when watching the Leeds/Cas Yorkshire cup game on Sunday - we paid £50k for Carl Gibson, in the 80’s.... 30 years on and that is seen as a significant spend in the current game - how have we stagnated so much (granted there was some frivolous spending back then that couldn’t be maintained).

Great video on the great Roy Francis. https://youtu.be/FRX27awOb6g

Great video on the great Roy Francis. https://youtu.be/FRX27awOb6g

i agree. Warren probably the best for his longevity and smoothness a bit like martin tyler from the football over here but i loved darryl eastlake who did all the aussie tests and state of origin games 80s and early 90s him of henderson gill 'doing a bit of a boogie!' fame had some great catch phrases and his tone was quality. of today i like vossy.

Im no Union fan but its a totally different sport to league and you cant really compare the two sports. You potentially only have the ball for 1 tackle in Union you arent guaranteed 6 if you dont drop it. League is a game of possession and Union a game of territory.

Iestyn was such a natural player, but not a natural athlete, speed off the mark and body swerve, but Lacked real pace over anything above 30-40 meters, Think he had to work really hard on his fitness and weight in his first spell in league, he put a bit of weight on in union and lost some fitness, maybe only 5-10kg and lost 10% fitness, but that was enough to lose his impact. Stayed in league he would have been hall of fame.