Yep, Gareth Thomas said post-match to the Sky Sports camera's that Rugby League is far more physical than Rugby Union. I hate that sport too. Not a patch on Rugby League!

I bet Jamie Foster won't look like that in ten years time!

Now that is dedication. It costs me about £70 in petrol for each trip. I stay at my sisters, so the only other cost is alcohol, which can be excessive. Due to family matters and 7 weeks of working weekends all I've seen this season is Cardiff, which virtually cleaned me out. I'm coming over this weekend and really looking forward to it.

I have been going back and forward to IoM monthly for the past two years, the Flybe flight is ludicrously expensive manly due to the tax. Really like the place though.

Yeah it's a great place to live, the TT is on this week so it's mayhem! The beer tent is good though!

What's car insurance like over there with there being no speed limit?

It's no different to the Uk to be honest, which is surprising!

anyway, back on the union v league debate, having played union for over 20 years and watched league foe over 30 years. i consider them to be totally different games, both with good and bad aspects to them. to dismiss union as pants tells me people have never played the game.

Union is naff though, I played 5 years of it at school, alongside a couple guys who are playing top flight RU now. I was pretty much a utility player, played everywhere except hooker and the half backs at some point.

That union, what is that union?

Union is too slow, stop start stop start kick pile on stop start kick stop pile on kick. That pretty much sums up 80 mins of a union game... Yawn!

Union is second rate for many reasons. The only reason union is where it is, is due to better publicity, and it's played by southerners who have links to London who Overtime have run the media. In opposition RL is a working class northern sport. There's no comparison.

to be honest most rugby league fans just have a knee jerk reaction when union is mentioned, they respond as they think they are 'supposed' to respond

its like if you grow up a Rangers fan you are taught as a kid how to respond at the mention of Celtic

far too few people think for themselves, if you actually ask blokes like Mike Nicholas, John Bevan, Jonathan Davies, Allan Bateman etc, who have been there and done it at the top of both sports, they won't come out with these stupid responses about union, but you will hear it from rugby league plebs on the terraces

Some interesting comments and comparison from none other than Stuart Barnes!
rlStuart Barnes piece in the Sydney Morning Heraldrl
I can see where he's coming from when he talks about the very best Union, but as he also admits, "the best union is admittedly a rarity".