Because if the average mother sees that on the television she doesn't think brilliant, lets sign our kid up to play thugby league.

rubbish, most mothers have zero say in what the kids want to play after the age of 10 or 11 and I can't ever recollect seeing U9's start a punch up!

RL is for tough kids to play, go play soccer or touch if you are a wimp!

It's a wonder the sports of Boxing and MMA exist then.

Don't be such a girl

I played a lot of amateur at prop and those are lovely to be in the middle of (Not).
It gets to the point where you don't get time to look at the shirt but if it moves you smack it one whilst keeping your chin in so as not to get sparked out.

As you say I have in the past been called names for smacking a team mate.
My reply was 'you shouldn't have been in front of me and moved then' we both chuckled about it.

lol, two burly props "chuckling" .....I'll get me coat.

The average mother tends to be a bit of a girl.

You've not been to Cas then ?

It's a game based on heavy physicality, they're tough blokes and most of them can take a few smacks round the chops in their stride.

OK - it's exciting to watch from the safety of the terraces or the couch.

But can you really condone it? One punch can kill after all. Surely the sport has to do it all it can to eradicate this sort of behaviour and in doing so:
a - maintain the safety of players taking part in the sport
b - encourage more people to play the sport which yes, will always be tough, aggressive and a heavy demand on the body - but fair and ultimately safe as it can be.

Don't be such a sexist

He was actually playing centre
I get your point though

Has anybody in the history of RL ever had a serious injury from a fight on the pitch? If you want to make it safe stop tackling and play tag!

I miss the punch ups it seemed to sort any problems when there was a little scuffle in the first ten mins