I guess it's just coincidence then that certain sports like Union are assisted by the media? When a significant proportion of media editors and management also come from that same tiny, privileged, elitist 7% of the population.


The association with the public/independent school sector is what drives a lot of my disdain for professional Union. And why I can't bring myself to support England Union in anything.

I shall be doing all I can to avoid the Union World Cup, but I might watch the occasional Wales game.

Another thread obsessed about Union? It's already had the paranoid speech on the media by Him and it's not even page 2 yet

The public school in Hull (Hymers) didn't play RL until an ex Hull KR coach got a job there as a the PE teacher then they started playing it. I wonder how much of it is lack of opportunity, exposure and coaching/knowledge of staff as much as snobbery and class divide? We didn't have any schools playing RL in Perth until the WARL brought in a high schools programme, now we have Snr schools playing in a comp and scholarships available and are starting to produce NRL players. Resources and strategic planning is needed.

If you have a problem... if no one else can help... and if you can find them... maybe you can hire... ......

I mean, seriously, just how does he manage to buy a suit THAT'S TOO FECKING BIG!?!

Look at those trousers, you could house half of the diaspora of Syria in there.

I work with a Welsh RU fan who calls RL "pass the parcel" and has said to me numerous times that "they look like junior RU players they're that small".

Yeah there's certainly some big humans playing Rugby Union but they're odd aren't they, some of them are like circus freaks.

Bean poles and fat blokes, Gorky looking stoopers with two flat feet and zero athletic ability.

Union demands - in the front five at least - very specialised body shapes.

Squat little balls of muscle in the front row who are expected to trundle from ruck to ruck and then work hard in the scrums and lineouts. Freaks of nature in the second row who look more like they should be on an NBA basketball court, specifically designed to generate power in the scrums but with athleticism and good hands for the lineouts.

The closest thing to rugby league players are probably the back-rowers and outside backs, hence the reason that's where most league converts end up.

Part of the reason why they are two very different sports.

You're being too kind!

So he can grow into it?

I went to a private school in Manchester, which unsurprisingly was run by RU enthusiasts, but it never filtered through- most of us were into football and to a lesser degree league. We left school absolutely despising Union- or even rugby as a concept, it wasn't until I was about 22 that I went to watch RL because I was bored one weekend and was hooked.

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