Union is good to watch if you take the time to understand the rules and appreciate the tactics.
I tend to find the internationals are much more entertaining watch especially the teams such as NZ and SA. Premiership games are also good if it doesnt rain! There are teams that are better to watch than others and sometimes there are dire games but that happens in all sports.

Id rather watch Union than Football.

Of course Juan.I think that JP is a very intelligent man inspite of his west Leeds Bramley/Stanningley accent which makes some people think differently.He may have to use the RU to influence the broadstream media to recognise that he is just as top class british sports star who deserves recognition

I beg to differ...I played Union for 30 years, but have watched League for over 40 years.
I understand Union rules, and it is a wholly inadequate form of rugby, players lack basic skills we take for granted in league, 15 of them cover a pitch in defense, and still tackling skills are absent even at international level. Five Nations players lack tactical nouse, and frequently take wrong options..International Union is frequently like watching paint dry.
I was a very average Union player, and chose the 15 man code as an easier option...I can't think of a single union player that I would want to see in a Rhinos shirt.

He's hacked your account again Gareth.

Well I am sorry to say, I have a long memory when it comes to Union, this is the game that would ban anybody from every playing Union again if they played the great game. The Union game is dominated by the public school elite, that is why they get all the media coverage, if the great game got the same amount of coverage as Union we would play to sold out grounds for Internationals.

Yes I was bored Saturday and watched the Union game with England and what a load of rubbish, it was slow, boring, it was clear that there were to many plays on the pitch to have an open attacking game, that is why League is a 13 aside game. All England appeared to want to do was get a pen and kick at goal. What a loud of rubbish.

100% League 0% Union

Despite playing yawnion at school & watching it before I got into rugby I am now completely unable to watch a game. When I see the highlights on the news or sports reviews I never fail to be astounded at the lack of technique in attack & defence.

Misguided opinions like this are holding back rugby league and have been for several decades.

I played Union at school, because inexplicably in west Leeds that was what we had.

I was never much interested apart from that. I watched more when I was at Uni as I had a couple of house mates who were Union types (one from UAE, one from Surrey) so we had a cultural exchange. Both are well into League now (Surrey one is a Wests fan over in Sydney, Arab chum is still in NW England but retains the Leeds loyalties I instilled). By the by. These days I watch RU when its on and I've got nowt else to do, and might watch it in a pub if mates are doing it as a social activity. I don't think the standards are necessarily as poor as some would suggest, though I don't think its caught up with League in the basic skills. This is partly because I don't have SKy so I'll watch most sport if its on the Beeb! There just isn't enough RL on there to fill the gap.

Generally, the international game has become increasingly ponderous of late. Some of the Heineken Cup games can be pretty good though. I do think people sometimes gloss over how poor the quality of some of the televised RL matches can be though. At it's best, RL is my favourite sport to watch by a country mile, but a good game of RU is still better to watch than a poor game of RL in my view.

Also, I find that round Leicestershire (where most of my pub RU watching mates hail from) the class issue isn't all that relevant. RU is widely watched and played in some pretty working class parts of the county. RL is barely played anywhere, so there isn't any divide to bother using class to explain.

Agreed. I played Union in Leics for years, and the clubs I played at weren't exactly upper class. The game may be run by toffs at the top, but at the bottom, most people playing it are like you and me

When people talk about basic skills in Union, they really should make a distinction between what they see in the Premiership and Heineken Cup and what's on offer in the Super 15 down under.

The gulf in skill levels between the hemispheres in Union makes the one in League look miniscule by comparison.

Agreed. I don't watch much RU, but the Southern Hemisphere stuff is just a different game. That Northern teams can 'compete' is largely down to weather and ability to spoil a game

A point not lost on many Unions who trying to rectify the problem from U7 and up by changeing the game that youngsters play. U9 (the first year of contact) is now (as of this year) basically rugby league in everything but name - no rucks or mauls, no scrums and no lineouts - just tackling and ball playing. Kids are encourageed to offload from the tackle - defenders are not allowed to stop this - unless they put the player on the floor in the tackle (enourages low tackling and better technique). Mind you, guess the one of the only two counties in England and Wales that hasn't adopted the new rules?
Players coming through at the moment have little knowledge of how to do anything other than take a tackle and let someone else take responisibility - watch even an international player when they make a line break and end up in space. It's embarrassing.
The main problem Union will always have to deal with is that you don't have to play any "rugby" with the ball to win a game. It's more about position than possession, and then waiting for the infringement. SA played absolutely no rugby on Saturday in the first half, they simply watched England fail to deal with re-starts correctly and defended until England infringed - then took the points.

Spot on
Out of interest which are the 2 counties not to adopt the new rules?

Cheers, I guessed one would be Yorkshire. Sadly Yorkshire appears backward in both codes of rugby then.