benefits Union teams no doubt. How the heck would a league team ruck and maul successfully once they get into the opposition half.



Its a horrible idea which rugby league should stay away from. The only benefit for Leeds is gaining more media coverage etc.







exactly. We already have a hybrid version of Rugby!!

Can see Leeds scoring a hatful from their own half then

Quote kobashi="kobashi"benefits Union teams no doubt. How the heck would a league team ruck and maul successfully once they get into the opposition half. Its a horrible idea which rugby league should stay away from. The only benefit for Leeds is gaining more media coverage etc. '" The rules are awful... thehybridcode.com/index.php?page_id=438 ...any League side would largely be restricted to going for long range scores. I'm not sure how Union sides would build any attacks with the 60s rule in place. As a Leeds fan I hope we go nowhere near this - do we really want to risk injuries in Scrums, Rucks and Mauls?

Quote kobashi="kobashi"benefits Union teams no doubt. How the heck would a league team ruck and maul successfully once they get into the opposition half. Its a horrible idea which rugby league should stay away from. The only benefit for Leeds is gaining more media coverage etc. '" The rules are awful... thehybridcode.com/index.php?page_id=438 ...any League side would largely be restricted to going for long range scores. I'm not sure how Union sides would build any attacks with the 60s rule in place. As a Leeds fan I hope we go nowhere near this - do we really want to risk injuries in Scrums, Rucks and Mauls?

I can't really see the interest, if some of the League lads really enjoy the Union side of things then Leeds might lose a few stars next year or after.



I think maybe a high profile mini NFL V SL or NRL/Union Tri-tournament might do wonders for the world wide image of the respective sports.

Quote Omar Little="Omar Little"The rules are awful... thehybridcode.com/index.php?page_id=438 ...any League side would largely be restricted to going for long range scores. I'm not sure how Union sides would build any attacks with the 60s rule in place. As a Leeds fan I hope we go nowhere near this - do we really want to =#FF0040[urisk injuries in Scrums[/u, Rucks and Mauls?'" As a former Union prop (loosehead) this is a must avoid game for Leeds. A union scrum is a highly developed set piece that doesn't just work its takes alot of effort and practice to perfect. Any Premiership team infact any national league team worth their salt should be able to screw Leeds into the ground at the scrum and be awarded constant penalties. Even with the flankers dropped (usually the lightest) i'd expect the 6 man scrum for Leicester to be pushing 650kg. All they would need to do is drop the ball every few mins (like a normal game!) and just enjoy the scrum.

Quote Omar Little="Omar Little"The rules are awful... thehybridcode.com/index.php?page_id=438 ...any League side would largely be restricted to going for long range scores. I'm not sure how Union sides would build any attacks with the 60s rule in place. As a Leeds fan I hope we go nowhere near this - do we really want to =#FF0040[urisk injuries in Scrums[/u, Rucks and Mauls?'" As a former Union prop (loosehead) this is a must avoid game for Leeds. A union scrum is a highly developed set piece that doesn't just work its takes alot of effort and practice to perfect. Any Premiership team infact any national league team worth their salt should be able to screw Leeds into the ground at the scrum and be awarded constant penalties. Even with the flankers dropped (usually the lightest) i'd expect the 6 man scrum for Leicester to be pushing 650kg. All they would need to do is drop the ball every few mins (like a normal game!) and just enjoy the scrum.

The only hybrid I'd be interested in is union money, rugby league rules.

The only way Leeds should touch this is if the rules are amended to remove competitive scrums.



If a Union team loses specialist front rowers to injury and are forced to put other players in there, scrums are declared non-competitive on safety grounds. I can't see how it could then be considered "safe" to scrummage against players who have no understanding of how to do so safely.



Removing flankers will actually destabilise the scrums, making them even more unsafe IMO.



At the moment, this is just an approach from Bob Dwyer to see whether Leeds would be interested. I would be surprised if it got much further than that without some serious negotiation on the format of the game taking place.

Agreed. As a former tight head, I know of what you speak. If you don't know what you are doing, regardless of how big and strong you are, you will get hurt.

One day these morons will realise that every code of football there is is defined by the state change, if any, that happens at the tackle and that if the state change of two entirely different sports is diametrically opposed there is no sensible possibility of either merging them or forming a hybrid that makes any kind of sense at all.



I can understand the need of Union to test itself occasionally to see how far it has come since the advent of professionalism but that's all this is.

And as a hooker in Union I'd agree, unless the League boys are having weeks of training with people who know what they're doing then as a coach I wouldn't let them anywhere near a competitive scrum with top level professionals, it's dangerous enough at College level.

I'd agree too, I've played everywhere in a Union scrum except hooker and I can't see how competitive scrums could be allowed in this hybrid version. If the Union lads wanted to they'd win every single scrum and somebody would end up getting seriously injured.



IIRC when Wigan played Bath the Bath lads simply packed down but obviously were sensible and didn't push that much, I'm not sure you could rely on that kind of thing nowadays since Union scrums have changed a lot even since then.

Taking into account all the opinions voiced in this thread, the idea of this game should be abandoned. I am not a Leeds fan, but I am a league fan and would not like to see any of their players injured through taking part in a folly like this.

Union is a boring sport which is stuck in the past, whereas RL continues to evolve. The USA is the place where Rugby League could thrive, and if it ever does make it big in America people might finally understand that RL is the only Rugby worth watching.

Surely the best type of game for a cross code would be 7s match. A lot less complicated than trying to play two games at once.



[url=http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4piQYfzAzIAnyone remember this?[/url



Would be nice to see some league lads in the olympics playing for GB in 7s come 2016.

I fear for the Union lads getting absolutely smashed in the tackle. There wouldn't be enough of them left on the pitch to form a scrum by half time.

I would expect that the two players to be dropped from the RU side would be the props rather than the flankers which would limit somewhat the bias of the scrum to the RU side.



The fitness required is massively different and they would struggle in RL as much as an RL prop would struggle in RU. RU props simply wouldnt have the defence, the fitness, the ball skills, the speed or agility to even basically function in RL. Similarly no RL player has the sheer strength, power or size to function as an RU prop.

If you tried to play the RU prop in that game, yes they would dominate the scrum, but they wouldnt be able to handle pace of the game, the 10metres, nor would they be able to defend against a player like Burrow, Mcguire, Webb etc on the field with only 13 players, they would get more and more exhausted lessening any impact they would have at the scrum.

I wouldnt wanna see that either unless it was a rugby league 7's.



under the union umbrella it only benefits their game.

if it was to go ahead a two match series, one league one union take out competitive scrums. Points for a try, penalty and drop goal is the same in both matches. Aggregate score wins.



If it was done on one match then 7's or nines match.

I'd rather see Leeds Rhinos vs New York Giants. That'd get some media interest!

That has a chance of happening with Sinfield supposedly heading the NFL. Maybe with the Jets, not Giants though.

Youre spot on there Smokey, but the issue isn't really one of the Union team winning all the scrums, but one of player safety. If you let a Union pack scrum down against a League pack, regardless of how tired they are, one of the League pack will get hurt.

This that is why an idea like this is so stupid, they are two completely different sports with different skill sets required, even in something so basic as tackling. I've not really played RL at any standard, but from watching the aim is mainly to slow the play the ball down as much as possible, whereas in Union the aim of the tackle is simply to make it and get off as quick as possible to win a turnover.



And HIM is right about the scrum, it isn't about winning the scrum itself, they can be incredibly dangerous; I played front row for 10 years and considered scrummaging to be one of the key strengths in my game, but seriously injured my shoulder when a scrum in training went down, it really could be carnage if players who have never scrummaged before go into a game against a team of international forwards.

The point I was trying to make was that I wouldn’t think RU props would play, they would be the players dropped and a 6 man scrum without RU props would have a far less force than an RU scrum, It would be RU second rowers, fronting up against RL props in the scrum. RU would likely still have the advantage, but I wouldn’t think the danger would be all that present.



With regards to tackling, in RL there are one of two aims, to win the collision and to control the ruck. There is also a lot more focus on stopping the offload. In RU it is focussed on body position of the tackled player and making sure the tacklers body position is right, players almost drop to the ground once in contact in RU because it gets a faster turnover. The difference I would see is the man-to-man defence of an RL player is much much more important and that’s where an RU player would struggle.

If you include scrums I'd say to remove the intentional sideways pressures that are put on, clearly one of the reasons why all RU props are short & thick of neck to resist the forces exerted. Still far too dangerous/risky all things considered. The only position I ever wanted to play in union was flanker, remember turning out for a team down here at inside centre & I've never spent a half feeling so cold...



As an event it might be interesting to watch but I don't see RL gaining anything from this at all, the RU media would make sure that the RU came out of it smelling of roses no matter what the actual result.

RL team wins rules diluted in RL's favour

RU win, clearly shows how far RU have advanced skill/fitness wise (and they have) and league isn't as good as it thought it was.