im not bored by rugby league, but the loss of the shoulder charge took away one of, if not the thing i enjoyed the most.

I love a good crash, bang, wallop more than a decent try in all honesty.

I still love watching RL, i just wish we could relax the physical side of the game a bit more

as Barry Mac said.... its not a tickling contest

It's the first time in decades I haven't renewed my season ticket...The last two seasons more often then not I've sat there watching the game and thinking to myself...What on earth am I doing here ? More often than not I've left the match 15/20 minutes early and listened to the car radio waiting for my mates...For me the entertainment value simply isn't there anymore....Very few players have the silky skills of old...The players are built like brick outhouses, strong in the arm but thick in the head relying more on brute force and ignorance than using the skills we all learned in the schoolyard...dummies, sidesteps and general kidology. The top hat was put on it for me when Wire won the league, scoring over a thousand points in the process yet still couldn't call themselves champions...Obviously the be all and the end all is Old Trafford...... a few minutes spraying champagne and the players winning a bling ring...The game is now completely owned by Sky TV and what they demand, they get....Whether or not I end my sabbatical I just don't know, but the game will have to drastically change before I do so.

Me too. Not watched us all season and cancelled my Sky. Going to CC Semi and any playoffs. Totally disenfranchised with the league format and the sanitised game. The spark has gone for me. I'm 42 now and have been watching since I was 7.

For those who find it boring and no longer attend games:

Do you not bother to watch live games or highlights on Sky, BBC or online either, since the game is so boring ?

There have been loads of one sided games in the NRL this year. The other week NZ Warriors beat Paramarra 48-0. State of Origin massively distorts the competition which is why the league table usually ends up tight come this time of year.

Did you watch Leeds on Thursday? Of course they care about the regular season. Any team which goes out determined to finish lower in the table is destined to fail. A team that works hard all year then in September rips up the form book will do well.

Everyone harks back to good old days....

For my grandad it was the 1930s as a kid and 1940s-50s as an adult
For my dad it was the 50s as a kid and the early 1970s team as an adult
For me I thought league was great in the early 1970s (I was 10) and amazing in the 1980s
My kids are different ages but have the same sort of fondness for the days they discovered the game as young kids and the days they appreciated the game as adults

The game is not getting worse....we are getting worse/older!!!

It is not the fact that it is not entertaining. It is the lack of intensity for me. I enjoy watching good defence just as much as great attack. But some of the tries scored in super league are really soft. I know it was ruled out for obstruction but the try widnes scored when the player walked past wood and England would not be seen in the NRL. Great defence means the attack has to be even more brilliant to score, there have been some larger score lines in the NRL recently because of players away playing rep footy. Eels lost their best player for 4 games. You just have to look at the NRL table and look at the points difference columns and compare that to super league to see which league is more competitive. if I had to choose between watching the eels V knight's and wire V Bradford (similar positions) I know which game I would prefer to watch.
Just watch Brooks from West tigers if you want skill and entertainment. He is 19 and has more skill than almost any halback in SL.

Widnes are in only their 3rd season back in superleague after years in the wilderness. You've been there from Day 1 mostly with a multi-millionaire owner/benefactor. You are 8 points better off than us this season, deservedly so. We have won 3 of the last 4 meetings and in all honesty, blew you away last Friday.
Only the most arrogant and one-eyed fans would claim you are "miles ahead of" us. Next season, we'll be better again, so maybe then even you might be able to give credit where it's due.

Vinty "blew us away" really?? Go on I'll bite

Well deserved win for you guys no doubt, early doors we had enough possession to score, but, didn't well defended or poor attack probably a mixture of both and the score just before half time gave us too much to do in the second half, although Ormsby keeps hold, or Russell takes the pass and we complete that set, or England goes over errmm we are back in it, hardly a shallalacking

I won't comment about the plastic pitch, TS resting a few, video reffing or not as the case may be blah de blah.....a deserved win for you WELL DONE as you were up for it and took your chances, but, "blew us away" not this year IMO

It is too sanitised.

Too many players are taking offence to getting hit hard. It's like a big hit means you cry and moan at the ref that it should have been a penalty or there'll be push'n'shove handbags. It's a collision sport, sometimes you're going to get creamed; take it. This is not football.

The shoulder charge rule is ing ridiculous. The rules were right as they were - late or high, or dangerous of any description, shoulder charges were punishable offences anyway. Now there are half a dozen perfectly fantastic, should-be legal, smashes penalised every week. Look at the shoulder charge rule, then look at the way players run in with the ball - players running into collision are shoulder charging the defenders in exactly the same way that defenders do when they get penalised. The only difference is that they have the ball. What's that about? It just shows that the shoulder charge rule is a farce.

A little bit of fisty cuffs results in suspension. If someone wants a scrap, just let them go at it for a bit then sin bin the pair and leave it at that. The crowd love it, many of the players used to love it (although some of today's players might go and hide behind the ref)...punish the dangerous and over zealous stuff, but if two lads just want a scrap; let them have it!

The game's gone soft.

It isn't boring though. There are still some epic games. Just not enough biff.

The coverage of the game doesn't help. I think Sky have an agenda to sanitise the sport. They make a big deal over absolutely nothing at times. Luke adorn had the Sinfield head shove right in his list match interview "these things happen, no hard feelings"...yet Sky made it seem he actually head butted him and broke his jaw or something. They completely overreacted. They also overreacted to how Catalans played against Wigan the other week. Yes, they were overphyscial and crossed a few boundaries but Sky made out they were a disgrace. Then you had Crosby taking offence to a completely non-dangerous tackle from Elima which was just a symptom of my first point about players not accepting getting smashed. There's too much of a big deal made of nothing incidents.



On another note there is too much aggressive swearing at the officials that goes completely unpunished every week. Two lads can't have a scrap, even if they both want it, but you can scream in the refs face calling him a ing twunt and nothing happens unless it's homophobic. That's wrong.

Not trying to wind anyone up Rico or troll either - just that the previous poster and his/her ilk really wind me up by their ignorance and arrogance. Maybe "blew you away" was a bit OTT, but no more so than he/her saying that you are miles ahead of us and nobody in Warrington cares when we beat you. Re the plastic pitch, most teams train on something similar, always makes for a good fast game, and at the end of the day, it's the same for both teams just like a muddy pitch when some teams adapt better than others.
RE Video reffing - all correct apart from disallowing Marsh's try for a non existent obstruction. Owens got away with one admittedly, but that was given by Bentham, not the video ref.

He sounds more excited than that to me.