The comp in Garforth also only plays Union.. it's a disgrace. It's a huge school in a Rugby League hot bed and it plays fecking Union.....

I was never a disciple in the first place

Does anyone know actually why these highschools play Union not League ?? Especially those located in RL hearlands.........It baffles me...

Because Union they have to teach in PE or offer a club for. Some schools do not have the resources to offer both Union and League so stick with just the one code.

Where you get schools with League is where it is the only interest from the pupils.

I doubt pupils are ever really consulted, it's more a case of "we play union here" and that's it. That was my experience anyway!

Same here BOTH our P.E teachers at Horsforth school played Union and that's what we played.
From time to time we were allowed to play league after constant asking but because we competed against other schools at union,league was dismissed .

Quote: leicester_rhino "Work is ongoing, but it takes time. I know in Nottingham, a lot of the guys at the club do work in schools, and are actually getting the schools playing the game. But this is mainly due to dedication of certain individuals to get the word spread about the game. A large proportion of guys who come down to Outlaws are union converts, who very quickly realise that League is a game worth playing. However, I am tempted to think that although stuff works well in Nottingham, its a fairly rare case, certainly outside of the heartlands. the RFL needs to target clubs in cities like Nottingham, and get more kids playing the game.'" They should get some support though. We certainly do. Not so much financial, but do get help. We got our first player to England level at U18s this week www.midlandsrugbyleague.co.uk/article.php?id=92 and three others to the last stages of the trials, one of which is now signed to Harlequins U18s academy.

Quote: leicester_rhino "Work is ongoing, but it takes time. I know in Nottingham, a lot of the guys at the club do work in schools, and are actually getting the schools playing the game. But this is mainly due to dedication of certain individuals to get the word spread about the game. A large proportion of guys who come down to Outlaws are union converts, who very quickly realise that League is a game worth playing. However, I am tempted to think that although stuff works well in Nottingham, its a fairly rare case, certainly outside of the heartlands. the RFL needs to target clubs in cities like Nottingham, and get more kids playing the game.'" They should get some support though. We certainly do. Not so much financial, but do get help. We got our first player to England level at U18s this week www.midlandsrugbyleague.co.uk/article.php?id=92 and three others to the last stages of the trials, one of which is now signed to Harlequins U18s academy.

My school in York only played Union and not League, that was simply because the head of PE was an ex Union player. Its not that he hated League or anything but it would have meant him giving up another night a week to do both a League team as well and he couldn't be bothered. Dont blame him but it meant that virtually all my mates at school, bar the 1 or 2 I could convert, ended up either playing or watching or at the very least taking an interest in Union and knew almost nothing about League.

The importance of getting schools playing League cant be overstated. Thats 50 or so lads from my school who would have at the least gone to the odd league game either in York or Leeds if theyd played League at my school instead of Union. Instead they often went to Twickers.

We offer free coaching of league in games lessons to schools. Games teacher gets a lesson off or joins in and learns something themselves. We get league to kids and encourage them to join the club. That's a bit slower to show results, because we're getting to kids at 11 to 14.

We played very little extra curricular sport at high school, despite the fact we could have had probably one of the best rugby league sides in Leeds if we had - a fair few kids in my year played up at East Leeds as well as representing the District.

Both PE teachers played Union for the lower grades at Otley, so running teams on a Saturday was out of the question.

Our head of PE was Joe Warham, and we only played Union (I went to Roundhay, so ex-grammer school etc...). I didn't even know who Joe was until I started going to watch Leeds when I was 15 and saw a photo of him in a match program.

Our school also had strong links to Yarnbury RU aswell so a lot of us played up there on a weekend!

It's always amazed me the number of schools who persisted with playing union, given that it is (or certainly was back in the 70s and 80s when scrums and rucking were less controlled) inherently more dangerous than league.

I don't think H&S was considered in the decision making.

That said, at the time I was a schoolkid if you came home from PE with an injury it was an accident and "one of those things" - my parents wouldn't have been straight on the phone to the education authority looking to screw some compo out of them.