Personally I prefer league (even though I played union), but where union wins out is the international game. Having more than 3 or 4 top flight teams (though union still has the same problems as league with failure to support the second tier nations) really helps having meaningful internationals year after year and not randomly every year.

In terms of style/game play I know what you mean about league becoming more boring (5 hits and a tackle), though union isn't immune to that with endless phases - both are testament to how good defences have become (largely based on league defence in both games) and how little space there is on the pitch.

An 80 minute penalty shoot out ... with scrums

Agreed. RU final was terrible but GB v NZ pretty poor, too. Missed an opportunity there. All the more important that England find a team that can win OUR world cup in 2021.

NRL without a shadow of doubt. Going to RU is a huge risk in terms of being able to adapt. I think if you're going to make a decision to cross codes, it has to be done at the start of a career. If you're in a RL academy team and a professional RU team comes in and offers you a good contract with first team options that aren't there in RL, then it makes more sense. It's worth the investment in time to learn a different game at that stage rather than going mid career when you want to be making an impact immediately and I think a lot of players don't make that impact because they struggle with the transition.

Going to NRL would be the ultimate experience in RL, if you came back to SL you would almost certainly come back a better more rounded player. I think it's great when more English players go over there and it will help the international team. I know people say its bad for the game to lose our best stars but look at France in football, the French league always sends its best stars to the elite leagues and their players are better for it.

This reflects my own view on the subject. Crossing codes is a significant gamble for both parties. I don’t pay much attention to domestic RU but I can’t recall hearing much about Denny Solomona recently and he kept Charley out of Sale (I think), although for all I know he could be injured or have been playing in the World Cup!

Denny Solomona has scored a lot of tries in RU but he's had a few issues too. He was in the England squad but then fell out of favour after an alcohol-related incident and he got banned for homophobic abuse of another player.

But he was joint top scorer in the league this season. Given what I said above about many players finding it difficult to adjust, he deserves credit as he basically scored more than a try a game at Cas and came straight over to RU and went at around a try a game there too. I think he is a Henare-like talent.