10 team leagues are too small and soon become boring for spectators. The game would be better going semi-pro and reverting to one big division in the hope of reinvigorating some of the old rugby league teams by having visits from the bigger clubs.

Whether you believe union is thriving or not, you can't deny that it's possibly in A&E whilst we are in ICU!

In the last season prior to the Covid malarky, they averaged 14,500.
League averaged 8,440.
In 2018, Wales, Ireland, The Barbarians, South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia visited Twickenham...only the barbarians gate was sub 80,000 and was still over 50,000.
2018 was a busy year for England RL, with 5 tests. The 4 at home attracted 81,213....that's 62 fewer people that watched England play Australia at Twickenham in a friendly!
In the middle of a global pandemic, The English Premiership signed off on a deal worth £40,000,000 a year to them. This is an extension at the same rate as before
In the middle of a global pandemic, the European Superleague agreed to £25,000,000 a year. This is 37.5% reduction on the same rate as before.
Currently, The British and Irish touring side are in a covid rampant South Africa to potentially fulfil a fixture schedule in place since before the Pandemic.
Currently it is reported that the NRL clubs don't want to let their players got to the RLWC because they'd have to quarantine for a fortnight on their return!

As I say. Neither game is ripping up trees, but if you're looking for a prognosis, one looks like it's stable whist the other is on life support in a self induced coma!

Sorry, Orangeman, I was replying to our resident, name changing, troll.
Of course Union is in better shape than league, I'm not denying that.

However, if we dont get to a position quickly, where contact sports can be played in schools, it's going to be extremely difficult for ALL contact sports.
The private school close to us, which would be regarded as a Rugby Union school has removed all of their Rugby posts and are now playing football and whilst Union in the UK still has revenue to dwarf that of League, to suggest that Union is going "from strength to strength" is simply not true, unless of course, their business models are somehow exempt from the effects of covid and I would suggest that they are not.

100%
My boy (7) plays ripper Rugby here in NZ. This is his last season before he goes full contact and his Mother isn't so sure...I've tried to explain that the drinking I did after games of Union has probably done more damage to my noggin than any contact, but with each new report on concussion and dementia, the case against full contact grows stronger.

Yes there are some nasty trolls re-appearing

...Hey ho.

Union is of course in decline as their size as a national game across the British Isles continues to decline significantly in terms of playing numbers.

Same for us, both games have suffered exactly the same way. Union has always been in "better shape" but it's decline pro rata matches League.........

BTW how are Wakefield RUFC doing nowadays compared to Wakefield Trinity??

Ones a corpse in an outdated rat infested tomb, the other folded in 2004

I acknowledge your worries on the head contact thing. Neither soccer or either code of Rugby has been able to do much more than pay lip service to it.

I shudder a lot more now when I watch games and players are still going off with head knocks for "checks" from the medical team....

Funny that when I was running the brewer in the corner I didn't come across one single rat or evidence of any being around but there were cats, being there early morning's would of expected to see at least one but then when I used to work down in London in the past they never failed in showing up some times in packs walking around like pets, they do say your never to far away from rodents

I've yet to see concrete evidence that rugby or football players get dementia/CTE problems over and above that within the general population, can you point me to the reports?
The case against getting out of bed, walking down stair, getting out the shower, walking, driving is far stronger re head injuries and the damage that does both short and long term at populatio level.
Cycling for example has a slightly lower injury rate than people on foot, it's got worse since helmet wearing was pushed in the mid 00s post UCI then British Cycling enforcing wearing which fed down to every other ignorant do-gooder orgs, the point being that risk is badly understood by people and they base decisions on emotion and ignore other things going on around them in every day life that have same or worse outcomes overall.

When supposed greater protections are brought in, any notional benefit (which is never the same as real life IME) is usually offset by risk compensation (as seen in all helmet wearing activities/sports) and then made worse by inactivity due to participants no longer wanting to participate, so injuries and overall health drops/obesity increases.
So for countries like Australia and NZ, when helmets were introduced with a penalty for not wearing, children expecially gave up in their droves (over 90% of teen girls stopped cycling in one state within months) and injury rates went up as the focus was put more on the vulnerable than the persons doing the harm, NZ and Aus have some of the worst rising obesity rates in the last 30 years.
Same thing in Ice hockey, boxing, pro cycling, American Football, even cricket, all fallen foul of attempting to make the sport safer but the overall outcome was worse regards head injuries and even deaths.

Reported head injuries in England and Wales (to a medical professional) were from the last papers I looked at around 1.6M/yr, not all hospitals gave figures so that's an under report, according to Headway 350,000 admissions in 2016/17 for acquired brain injuries.
If we want to destroy society/make it worse overall then attempting to remove risk completely or some figure that seems to be acceptable to x group of people is the way to do that, all it does is work against public health at population levels and EVERYONE suffers, not just those that have stopped doing the activity.

Ill just quote the last paragraph, but acknowledge a great post, very interesting, and the reaction to the latest head injury worries in rugby & football, i.e. business as usual, seems to show that people are ready to take their chances. Every time I watch the tough contact in rugby and the soccer lads and lasses heading the ball I will appreciate their skills and bravery all the more.......

They get out of the way when you come along just like the WUM's on here