Cannot stand the game think it is so boring. However what i do understand and what worries me is that England best players are ex League players Ashton and Farrell and are they likely to come looking for more. I aware Sam **** is away from Wigan soon, could he be going there, could they come trying to pinch Hall or Watkins. We need to be aware of the risk

Class seems to be alive and well in your part of the world too from your comments.

You are wrong about the kicking duals. I watched many in RL alive and well in the 60's with Lewis Jones and they were both skillful and entertaining.

You are also out of date with regard to the Rugby Union of today. No team game has changed or evolved more over the last 20 years or so. Since the top teams turned pro the fitness and skills are a match for RL at the top level. Like you I prefer RL for many reasons, but you have to except that the world public disagrees with you and supports RU in a big way in most parts of the world. Even Italy RU now gets bigger crowds (70K+) to see them than Roma or Lazio in the same stadium.

We have to except that RU is the true global version of rugby and one that is very popular with people who do understand the veru different tactics. It is as different as one day cricket and a test cricket.

I find Union drab, it's dull to watch, there's not enough scoring and far too technical.

I say this after playing the sport to a reasonably decent level but still can't stand to watch it.

It's not a case of having common sense or not, it's personal preference.

Fully agree with these comments, the best side won but I did not expect england to win after I saw who was the referee,Walsh has a bad track record with English games. Example, the scrum breaks up,both sets of front rows pop up out of the scrum so he awards a penalty to wales. I am not saying Walsh won the game for wales who were superb,but a lot of early scrum penalties favored wales. Thus england were on the back foot for most of the first half,thus sapping energy and eventually conceding points.

I'm not sure what fog you're trying to knit on behalf of the rah-rah boys, but England's average age was 24.6, Wales's was 25.6. Not exactly grizzled veterans against young pups, and also pretty much the same, superior team that they'll have to be playing for the next half-decade.

The only thing that bothers me about that, as an RL fan, is that it might concentrate their thinking that S.Tomkins, Watkins, Hall and Hardaker would do a much better job against league-like players like North and Halfpenny than England's current useless 3/4s.

At the end of the day I really couldnt care less who won yesterday

One letter in the Sunday Times read "Six Nations rugby is a awash with penalty goals. Try an exhibition of 13-a-side: more open space, fewer defenders and hopefully more tries"

I think this is what I despise most about rugby union. That some people (usually pretending to like RU because its "in" and an image thing) only recognise the one code "rugby" and not realise there is a far better product out there. But is that their fault?

All I need to know about your personal stand point is you enjoy kicking duels. My God !

You enjoy paint drying and grass growing presumably ?

Kicking duels from fullbacks virtually disappeared after the Wigan and GB legend Martin Ryan started linking up with the threequarter line immediately post WW2.

It was that that changed our game.

Union is probably still doing that tactic. Union like to kick the ball.

Kicking duels certainely did not disappear with Martin Ryan.Lewis jones had many a duel with the likes of Johnny Wilson and berard Ganley etc

Agree, played both codes, union to a higher level, but much prefered union to play.
League is a lot better personally to watch. There is a common misconception that you don't have to be as fit playing union. I played in the forwards and it was very energy sapping

Complete and utter cobblers. Most ill-informed, innacurate post I've read on these boards in some time.

I played club rugby, mainly in the Midlands and South West for best part of 20 years and nothing could be further from the truth. Don't judge a Twickenham crowd as an accurate representation of grass roots RU in it's English heartland. Go watch a Gloucester v Northampton game and see how wrong you are.

I'd normally agree but I was in a bar yesterday that had the ENgland game on. The product look superb, packed stadium.It had the feel of a huge "event" to it. The bar was packed with an excellent atmosphere.

After the game we got the barman to turn over to the 2nd half of Super League. The contrast was startling. Empty stadium, lack of atmosphere and a real drop in intensity. The bar also emptied!

I appreciate the comparisons are not valid (one is a showcase international, the other a regular club game) but a casual observer or potential sponsor could not help but notice which was the superior overall product. Even I, a die hard league-ite couldn't help but be bored after the Union was off and "Super" League was on.

Oh well...at least you got served at the bar quicker.

Well said.

If you want a valid international comparison, there's always rlTHISrl which attracted an even lower attendance and lack of atmosphere than the Hudds/Hull SL game yesterday.

RL has a lot of issues which need urgently addressing. Vacuous and insecure claims about the SL product being miles better than the Union product no longer rings true and does not help.

You seriously think the union 'product' is better?

England failed to score in 3 of 5 six nations games, yet went within a whisker of winning the whole thing.

And until recently, Saracens were top of the Premership despite having the LEAST number of tries scored in the whole league. (It was less tries than games played...)

Southern Hemisphere RU is massively entertaining at times, but the Aviva Prem and Pro 12 are farcically poor entertainment compared to Super League. If you disagree, then you're seriously on the wrong forum.