Lol. Another bitter, prejudiced, conspiracy theorist RL fan.

I refer the gentleman to the very first line in the very first post in this thread.

EDIT: Cat got your tongue? You were quick to poke holes in my lack of knowledge of who gets what for how much in British satellite TV circles.....how much did each European/anglo-european comp get for their TV rights...oh font of all TV knowledge.

You'll find most RL fans hate RU due to:
1. It being an inferior version of RL yet manages to be more popular (in some parts of the world)
2. RU has for over a century heaped sht on RL and done its best to deride it and turn public opinion against it (google Stephen Jones for numerous examples)
3. In England its been a traditional north v south/ class divide
4. its an inferior version of RL (did I mention that?)

At least in my part of the world the Aussies are more sensible on such matters and RU has slipped to a third tier sport for the most part

nope he pulled out the tv rights line this time lol

I refer the gentleman to his own, wholly incorrect, wordsEDIT
Eh? What? Have you replied to the wrong person again? Perhaps it's time you took a break from tinternet.

another thread Gutterfaxed.

On RU converts, a former SL prop forward (still playing last season) was seen playing at a very modest level of club rugby union against Ormskirk last weekend. Apparently he looked rather uninspiring. Perhaps its not as easy as one likes to think?

A current superleague head coach still plays the odd game of lower league RU too (or did last season anyway)

I don't really understand the question, but what I'm saying is after 36 years of being surrounded by ru culture, I am convinced that the vast majority of England ru fans have little to no interest in the club game and as such are not fans of the wider sport of ru, just fans of the national side.

And for me that isn't something I would want RL to aspire to as in my experience RL fans are very passionate about all levels of the sport.

I ran into a few rugby league Coaches and Players playing RU in the offseason. I presume the players were doing it for extra pennies. The results were always varied.

I remember speaking to a lad I knew who played for Liverpool St Helens RU. He's played in RU matches with two Saints players, the first, Mike Bennett, he described as a "machine" who scored a hattrick. The other was some winger who looked absolutely useless, his name was Anthony Sullivan. Not quite representative of their respective achievements in Ruby League.

Soccer fans are soccer fans....ask them to name a rugby player and the vast majority will give you a union players name.
Rugby league fans are more likely to be cross code supporters of their local soccer team......see th thread about magic weekends attendance being bit by hull FC making a final.
It's not contradictory at all to say soccer fans aren't rugby fans but rugby fans could or may be soccer fans.

Down here where there's less cross code bollox, we call them league and rugby union

I love this RU v's RL debate. One thing that the RU fans seem to forget is that for years and years RU has done everything it could to undermine and sabotage RL it could.

I went to Uni in the late 90s from playing academy RL, it was only in the third year of Uni that the rules of RU were changed to allow me to set foot on the pitch to play RU. Before this it seemed that the ex-pro was a problem for RU, despite people like Jonathan Davies openly stating there were plenty of "brown envelopes".

Look to France in the Second World War for an example of RU persecution of RL.

RL has had to evolve to become more entertaining to earn money with a dearth of wealthy backers.

Having played both, RU is definitely not my cup of tea. It's slow, ponderous, with rare ball movement to the backs. The learning to be a forward is vastly overstated by the RU world, it's learning not to run and follow the ball around the pitch for the next round of ruck/maul/scrum/throw-in with the occasional studs in the back for being in the wrong position. Tacking is light and any real collision is lacking. How people find a scrum than lasts forever with multiple restarts entertaining is totally lost on me.

Then there's the bit where the drop goal is three points?!? Imagine Pat Richards, get him to half way and why not? It's not like there's any lost field position, just get to half way, kick and if he got 50% over from there it's a lot easier than getting a try.