England? It is the EUROPEAN SL isn't?

Only if this comes inhttp://www.ropeofsilicon.com/Images/stories/2007/nov/kubrick/clockwork/7.jpg" >

Speak for yourself Rupert.
I've had the mis fortune to watch a game of yawnion at Leeds and I can honestly say that it was the most tedious live sporting event i've ever attended.
Having said that, if they do away with the lineouts and go for 6 tackles and a play the ball, then maybe its a runner

I have no problems with Line-outs, they are a far superior way of restarting the game than scrums IMO.

I think a hybrid game, could be a better game than each individually.

Given Bradford announced a RECORD RL sponsorship seal for Stadium name and shirts at 300k a year and Sarries get 1.5 million for the same deal.........AND the Aviva premiership deal was for 20,000,000 over 4 years, whilst stobart paid zip, I think bundling the "rugby codes" together is a tad churlish.

Comparing one-off events between the two codes is completely irrelevant.

Leeds Rhinos average 16 thousand fans while Leeds Carnegie average 16 hundred at the same ground. It means absolutely nothing.

Yes but Leeds is probably the capital city of RL at this time. Donny has no real RU heritage but they still had a good well attended event.

Donny has barely any RL heritage either mate, lets be honest.

(That is not a put down towards the fantastic job being done at Doncaster RLFC by the way!)

I agree. What i'm getting at is that i don't think the RFL would get an equivalent crowd for a similar event in the same town.

It feels sacrilegious to say it ( and I only do so because it aint never going to happen ) but when I watch the All-Blacks I can see the beginnings of a half-interesting sport.

One thing I often wonder is that if League had never existed, would Union have reduced itself to 13 players by now? It just feels like it would be so much more interesting with a bit more space - not to mention a) reduce the reward for sticking it up the forwards' jumpers, and b) reduce the reward for kicking the ball off the field, and c) sorting scrums out or scrapping them.

I've played a lot of League and a bit of Union ( League at a crap level, Union at 'higher' level - by its own pyramid that is ) and whenever I played Union it always felt like there was just no bl**dy room! There were bodies everywhere ( own team included ) and (as a winger) you rarely got the ball, and when you did, it was mostly to field a kick, where you were then chastised for trying to take a man on, risking 'isolation' instead of just drilling the ball into the stand.

Probably not, but we have to stop comparing Rugby League to Union. The money they have compared to us is like comparing a city banker to a paperboy.

That is not to say League will ever cease to exist completely though.

I’d agree, I think if League didn’t exist then Union would have moved a lot closer to what League is now

I also think that if there wasn’t the animosity toward Union, and it was looked on like NFL is, then we would possibly look towards bringing some things back from Union, like lineouts instead of scrums, and possibly the scoring system.

That was a sensible post until your last suggestion. Why would we want to reward 3 points for a DG 5 points for a try and 3 points for a pen? It would have the same drawbacks in RL as it already has in RU.

It would also keep games closer which is something even RL fans complain about (I know, I know, RL fans complain about everything possible) It would keep games closer and add more variety to the game, these would be good things, I appreciate we would probably see fewer tries, but it is possible we have a too many of them. I dont think anyone can say with absolute certainty that it would swing too far the other way but if it did, i think it would be a case of tinkering with it rather than a wholesale change.