Facts point towards that Rugby Union is acknowledged as the better code League world wide apart from in certain locations..

Personally I prefer league and will always watch Rhinos over tykes. However I have enjoyed the union internationals this last month and even other league fans have.

Rugby League needs to sort its act out and it’s only the blind (I mean Australian) who can’t see that. On the field the quality of rugby has declined entertainment wise. I can’t remember getting excited once during the Quad nations and that includes New Zealand’s win over Australia.

I didn’t even bother getting up for the state of origin this year because its quality has declined and that’s suppose to be the pinnacle of rugby league entertainment.

stopped reading after this, as this sums it up

You are not comparing like for like though.

Surely the Super 14 teams are state teams, which are playing in an international competition, and if you are comparing them with anyone then they should be compared to New South Wales and Queensland RL. What are their averages again?

You should compare the NRL to the domestic Australian Rugby Union competition. I do appreciate that this is a little difficult though as the national domestic competition collapsed after one season due to a lack interest and support. Indeed if I recall correctly it was a big embarrasment for the Australian Rugby Union, who had made big boasts about it rivaling the NRL

, and they could not sustain its losses which were A$5 million in just one season. I think the paltry attendances which were often less than 2,000 and a grand final attendance of barely 4,000, tells a lot about the state of, and indeed support for, Rugby Union in Australia.

so the nrl is worth more than rugby union in nz, sa and Oz combined and you still ignore it?

ill remind you in 12 months when the new TV deal is in place.

I will be here....and you can spend ages trying to justify the signing of players from an inferior sport to play in your all singing all dancing (but no bu99er watching) NRL.
I don't care how many (MORE) Kiwis the NRL sign.......it's indicative of how shallow the AUSTRALIAN talent pool is in the NRL when not only is your Toyota Cup crammed with Young Kiwi talent, but you will feel the need to try an attract NZ Union players


Massive TV deal? Sanzar got 35% + the rest of the world....so about 500 mil........for 100 games.......let's see exactly how much more per game the NRL gets before you get ahead of yourself......1 Billion would be about right for twice as many games........same amount of cash per game for both codes......good stuff


You remind me of a dog chasing its tail pal......you think you know what you are doing but in reality it's a futile excercise.

I used to get wound up by you and your mates....now I just enjoy showing you up. I have shown that there is an audience for RL in Wellington.......I got paid to do it

but you idiots still don't understand the concept of a sports fan

OK right now the nrls contract is worth slightly more than the improved S15 contract?

ruined my day

so damo enjoys seeing scotland lose by nearly 40 points to a team theyve never beaten

chris ashton scores 1 good try and all of a sudden union is good to watch

did you watch the quad nations final at all?

I know we don't see usually eye to eye dm but I have to agree with you.
The 4 nations final was RL at it's finest,tough skill,passion it had everything and even a little bit of biff which is always good.

Fair enough... it looks like I have parachuted into a long term feud here then

All I saw was an interesting interpretation of the figures (i.e. American football gets one 80k crowd a year in the UK with the Wembley NFL game and this would provide a higher average attendance than the Premier league... lies, Dammed lies and statistics I guess)

For what it’s worth, my interpretation of the Union vs. League popularity is that many people I have spoken to are raving about the England vs. Australia game at the weekend saying it is the best game of Rugby (Union they mean) they have seen in years. What is interesting about that game is that it had minimum scrums and the ball was in play for a lot longer than a typical Union game (in fact, the real tedious element was the ridiculous lineout’s)

Essentially, the best game of Rugby Union this year was a running and handling match... exactly what we love about our sport

Rugby League is Rugby Union evolved over a 100 years... Union is now going through the same evolution only quicker due to TV pressures etc

The challenge they have is how do they make their game consistently more attractive to watch and exciting without admitting that League was right all along... I’m looking forward to finding out

I didn’t watch the Scotland game. However the England RU (even when we lost to All Blacks) matches of recent have been better than the international RL matches. Ok this is just my opinion, but I’m someone who used to watch as many rugby league matches as possible until the standard declined to what it is today. When the alarm rang for Australia v PNG I decided not to get up and the same goes for NZ v PNG. I only watched England RL games out of loyalty and Australia v NZ because there the best that rugby league has to offer.

I’ve seen better clashes between Australia and New Zealand in the last ten years. Maybe I've been spoilt or I'm just romanticising the past. But even with my own team Leeds Rhinos - they’ve gone from a team that was a joy to watch playing to a team that’s almost unrecognisable now even though we’ve more a less got the same personnel apart from a different coach.

Manly Sea Eagles of 2007/2008 was the last time that made me go WOW.

[url=http://www.southstander.com/articlecomments.php?article_id=1508A good article by a league fan talking about Union tapping into the league market.[/url