The friendliness of RU clubs is entirely subjective as well. I've been to clubs where the people were brilliant, others (including one I played for briefly) who were cliquey and hostile to anyone they'd not played with before, especially relative newcomers to the game.

And one occasion where the spectators fought the players.

League is by far and away the more entertaining despite the belief of union fans that it's too stop-start. I'm not sure how the ball sitting on the floor why the scrum half decides whether to kick or not is seen as in-play or indeed the number of scrums and scrum resets but there you go. I've also never understood how turning the ball over after 5 tackles is seen as tame when most union sides just kick it ad nauseum until they eventually end up with the ball inside the opponents half and even then most of them just try to win a penalty.

I know most people on here will detest Sam Tomkins unless they're a Wigan fan, but we can't allow him to leave this sport. Kyle Eastmond was tipped as the future halfback partner for Tomkins at International level but instead he's stood on the wing for Bath. That's right, the wing.

I put the popularity of union down to education. People are brought up in most schools playing either football or rugby union. Most universities play union. It's just drilled into them that union is the only form of rugby and they lap it up.

Maybe in rugby league we should think about a marketing campaign that shows the many differences in the sports entertainment wise?

To be fair, at university level the SRL has expanded massively in the last few years, and there is now pretty much a blanket coverage of RL at unis. This year the uni of Gloucestershire won the national premier league, with St Mary's in London also in the top division of 6 teams. Below that the SRL has had to expand from a Premier North and South, to North, South, and Midlands because of the new teams and rising standards. Gloucs has 3 sides, Oxford Uni AND Oxford Brookes Uni both have 2 sides each, etc etc. Long may it continue!

Didn't realise that. Fair play to them.

I am a rugby union player and was from my schoold days, however, when I went to uni at liverpool, I joined the rugby league squad (because I wanted to try my hand at the sport i watched).
The squad was made up half of lads from traditional rugby league back grounds, and half of rugby union players who didn't like the union squad because it was full of rahs who wanted you to wear your underpants on your head while they spank you on nights out.
After I left uni, I went back to playing for my home town union club.

Who ever said our game was perfect? Certainly not on here. I'd far rather have the product on the pitch that we have if it's a choice between that or 80000 in the stands for an international, but then I like substance over 'style'. Credit though to the union marketing men past and present as their product, on the whole, is truly awful.

That's a shame. I also know a very large number of people from union backgrounds who took up RL at our uni, and since then have been to internationals at Wembley and the Stoop, Magic Weekend at Cardiff, the GF, and play for local London/SE sides. So at worst, in cases like yours, more people play the game for a year or two. At best, we gain more long term fans and players, quite a few with a lot of expendable income and possibly more willingness to go to big RL events than your average RL supporter seems to be given the lack of enthusiasm for England matches some seem to have. Like I said, well done SRL, and the various universities flying the flag for TGG.

RL has spread well to almost all big Universities. The total numbers are still less - most have one or two teams at most, versus a ton of Union teams, not just the main ones, but Hall teams, department teams, etc. That's a reflection of the intake, the vast majority of whom will only ever have played Union. So, the SRL has done well over the years.

For me, an absolute key breakthrough for a new club or Uni side is when they can field a second team - the benefit is more than just double.It makes a massive difference to player retention. If you've only one team then if you want to win you end up picking the best 13, leaving people without a game. They then get fed up and leave. Once you have a second team, for whom results don't matter much, you can get loads more people a game and your total retention is miles better.

If you're starting a club, do everything humanly possible to get two sides out, no matter how weak the second one is. If you start with one, there's never an easy time to suddenly jump to two, because if you can't offer people a game, they don't hang around long enough to build enough for that second team. If your launch attracts 30 people, get them all out on the field somehow!

Agreed, made a huge difference to us starting a 2nd team in my first year.

Are we all watching England on Saturday?

SRL is an excellent way tonot only introduce the game to a new audience, but also to garner a real interest and passion.

People will often go back to their home town clubs and, as I say, union will allow guys to carry on playing until they're 50. What's an important step imo is that we get Rugby League being watched on the big screen in these RU clubs.

I'd rather have my eyes poked out with rusty forks.