Disagree. The low tackle isn't as effective in either code these days because just as in league you'll get a quick play the ball from a low tackle, in Union you'll get a quick turnover. They'd be far better off holding up the player and getting hands on the ball to disrupt the attack. You're also highly unlikely to leave your defence exposed numerically due to 2 extra players and the lack of attacking skills in Union. NZ have been committing less players to the ruck not the tackle, they're very different entities.
I would seriously have to question what you've been watching if you think tackling with the shoulder is not happening in League. Virtually every tackle is a shoulder tackle or a break is made past flimsy arm tackling. The offload is more dangerous and energy sapping to a defence than 5m further forward is, that's why so much emphasis is placed on wrapping the ball up compared to tackling round the legs. If there were the same amount of leg tackling in league as there is union there would barely be a play the ball due to constant offloading.

Even Jake White, who famously lambasted rugby league culture and the mentality of our players ("We're fortunate that we don't have a rugby league culture in our team"icon_wink.gif arrived in Australia and turned to league people for help. Brian Smith is currently the collision coach at the Brumbies, but before that they tried to get Buderus in for some sort of role before the NRL denied it.

Last I heard he said "You have to learn from those (rugby league) guys. If you can share that intellectual property, and the thought processes of coaches and their ideas and so on, geez, you're sitting on a goldmine."

League people are everywhere in rugby coaching, especially for defensive based stuff.

If you need a good laugh go and watch any of the Jonah Lomu highlights on Youtube. One of them is the most viewed rugby video of all time on the internet to my knowledge and it's profound just how bad the defence is. Pretty much most of his tries wouldn't exist if he played against people who were willing to tackle him. I know it was a different era then but you really wouldn't be exaggerating if you said 10 year olds in league have more heart... maybe not the physicality or technicality skill, but they're tougher mentally than those blokes who ran away from Jonah Lomu.

None the less there are some great prospects in rugby, especially in NZ and SA (I think)

Whilst we can debate the merits of each sport, one things for sure. The increase in money for the NRL has the potential to really take its toll on southern hemisphere rugby union.

Surely the increased money in the NRL is becuase th Australian economy is booming......which would imply that the Australian Rugby Union is benefitting too. I don't know as I have no figures for RU in Oz but that seems logical to me.

Possibly, but I get the impression that in Aus, RU is continuing to become the poorer relation to the NRL and ARL. I may be wrong.

Our sport has a rich history of Union players turning to League and making a success of it – the vast majority of these from South Wales and some are among the legends of our sport. That was from an era where they came from an amateur background to succeed in a professional sport. To suggest that the athletic outside backs from the current Welsh team wouldn’t make the grade in League is just silly

If a talented young rugby player walks down the street and turns left into a Union club asking for a game or right into a League club is just a matter of chance – the support and coaching he would get may vary but the talent is not a variable

We should not be shouting that our players are better but our game is better (and allows the best players to showcase their talents)

Defensive coaches in Union are now coaching players to wrap the ball and wrestle the tackled player to ground, due to recent changes in the ruck laws.

If you take the ball into contact but don't manage to get it down on the floor before it becomes trapped/unplayable, then the put in at the scrum goes to the defending team. So the technique now is to hit, wrap and attempt to bring them to ground in such a way that the ball remains held up off the floor.

I'm not suggesting they couldn't make the grade, just I think it's a waste of time and money if you want to be realistic about it. What do the Welsh outside backs, or rugby pros in general, have athletically that can't be found elsewhere for a fraction of the money. If we wanted to nick some union players what's wrong with the guys running around in the ITM or Currie cup, Sevens players or amateurs playing in places like Fiji, Samoa, even America where there's an untold number of failed football players with freakish physical talents. Wales is Wales, it's not the home of many stand-out athletes or particularly skilled players

As I see it most rugby players signed by a league team will effectively need to be taught the basics of the game and they'll 100% need whipping into shape. In the last year the NRL have brought through Hurrell and Koroibete, with athletic talents like that plucked from just about nothingness what's the incentive to be looking at backs from the Welsh team or pro teams? If you can give the core skills to athletes with no pro experience then why break the bank on established players with a huge price tag? I don't understand the logic to be honest. You could lose count of the number of completely ordinary rugby league players walking into international union outfits and displacing union players. Tomane and Vuna are playing for the Wallabies... Tomane and Vuna.

Where's Andy Powell? Off somewhere being taught how to play the game and training his .

"The bravery taking the ball into contact at full speed is admirable, and their ability to spot an overlap shows a vision that not many union players possess." - John Beattie on RL, 2010. Beattie is a league fan so he doesn't mind admitting it.

RU kinda struggles in Australia and has for a while. They tried to set up an Aussie domestic comp a few years ago similar to the Currie Cup but attendances were so bad and so much money was lost that it was scrapped after a year.

They still draw the crowds for internationals, though.

Owen Farrell will never move to RL !!

He is the J.Wilkinson Mk2

He can kick goals, get all the praise whilst strolling around in the backs and never having to get dirty.

Farrell has played plenty RL at schools level and was in the Wigan scholarship scheme.
Why would he want to move back here?
He's an England Union International, now on a Lions tour and is a nationally known sporting figure. His earnings will be vast.
What would he be if he'd stayed in Wigan?
No.6 perhaps, aged 21/22, not a chance of making the International squad due to a useless England coach and his favourite for the job, not to mention far better players in front of him.
I can't think of any good reason why Owen Farrell would want to return to Wigan or Rugby League.

So that he could learn to play Rugby properly , that way people will not spend the next 20 years saying,
[size" he's nowhere near as good as his dad was" !!!.[/size

If we ever get ourselves together and get some decent cash coming in, Union converts would be a great way for London Broncos to get some headlines and grab some attention from the Union supporters.

Players like North, Tuilagi and Bastareaud would be great to watch and there'd be plenty of big union backrowers like Haskell who'd make very good prop forwards.

Tuilagi is just another example of where our sport can often be disappointing. Why wasn't he scouted and signed when he first came here? Everybody and their Mum knew from the day he landed that he was going to be a beast, just like his 87 older brothers, a couple of which played league. A team with some sense would have signed Alesana, and gotten a young Manu for about nothing on top of that. Having Alesana alone would have been a massive scalp in itself, given he was something of a cult hero at Leicester, more so than Manu has proven to be up to now.

Oakland Raiders picked up a lad from Manchester the other week called Menelik Watson. I've heard him say in interviews he enjoyed playing rugby. A basketball academy in the Canary Islands scouted him but none of the league teams noticed him. He should be playing in SL.

The Hask would be a great signing. There are a few good players who've played in Japan, which to me indicates they'll chase the yankee dollar and would be open to league, Haskell is one of them.

Joe Marler would make a good convert imo. He'd fit in well with his outlandish haircuts.