Its a toffs game......RL is a working class game thats why it is and always will be a Northern sport.

All the top RU teams are from the southern side of the country although huge investments from Sale and Newcastle dented it they are now in fee fall and have severe debts while the southern teams still bask in the southern money...

OK, let's go with this moot for a bit and counter with...

Is cricket a "toffs game (sic)" ? I've been to OT a lot and it's never struck me as such (to counter the general class argument)

How would you explain the riches of Northern English association football sides and the makeup of the english teams in that sport? Is that Southern money? Are the English players predominantly from more advantaged backgrounds? (to counter the wealth vs north argument)

Was Mike Gregory a toff? He is just one example of a number of prominent RL working class players whom played a lot of RU before signing professional terms (to counter the accessibility of RU to northern working class people argument)

Are we not all a little jealous of (if not bitter to) the sport we consider inferior to be just that more popular, nationally and internationally, than Rugby League if truth be known (moving the argument on)

my god i have never seen so much inverted snobbery! i am probably more working class than all these people who have slagged me off on this forum! i've certainly watched warrington longer than most of them, i appreciate the north south divide thing must really get to some people however your behaving just as elitist as YOU claim RU is.

john woods played RU is he a toff? roland phillips?kevin ellis? scott gibbs.

just because you play union does not make you a snob, just as playing rugby league, or even watching it does not make you northern or working class.

for what it's worth i hope my son does go on to play rugby league when he's older however i feel his foundation in rugby union will only help him rather than hinder.

oh browny, your nowt more than offensive! so bog off until you have something more constructive to say muppet! i have and never will have anything to do with buggery, it appears to be in the forefront of your mind tho' lol

I am jealous in so much that, in what I deem a vastly inferior spectator sport, dominates the media and general public perception that is a superior game.

And breath!

sponsorships and tv rights bring in absolutely millions aswell as multi millionaire owners. I am not jealous 1 bit of Rugby Union as it is more supported due to the fact it is played in all the schools in the south and some up north so has more scope and touches more people, the game is a terrible spectacle and cannot understand these people who spend hundreds of pounds to watch england.

I'm with you on this apart from the browny comments who I bear no illwill. JWP made a lot of bum references once but he's not a lifter.


PS I never knew you went to public school before slumming it at Cully High with me. BTW are you going to the re-union in June?

Pushing on an open door with me. I am frustrated the sport we love doesn't have a wider audience and I no longer believe that is due to the press or institionalised prejudice (like it once was).

However I can see why the detractors have grounds for comment. Our sport, in my view, is not as entertaining as it was and the more "percentage" style of rugby and predictability can look, well, predictable. In RU for example you never know when someone is going to knock on under the sticks.

Also our international game is in a shambles.

Absolute genius.

I like Union - the biggest mistake RL people make is watching it expecting it to be RL. It isn't, particularly at the top level where it's about possession and territory. It's like watching NFL and being frustrated that it doesn't flow properly, or watching Test Match Cricket and wondering why it isn't done in a day. It's not what it's supposed to do.

It works both ways, I went on a beano to Sale Sharks last year and one of the coaches was putting us through a few drills - he slagged League off because it was too simple and it was about blokes running into each other. For him, the details, the rucks, the mauls, the line outs, is where the fascination lay with Union. Adrian Morley would be as hopeless a RU prop as Andrew Sheridan would be for us - yet they are both world class exponents of their sports.

Try to appreciate RU what it is is rather than what it isn't and it's very enjoyable, to me at least. That said, I'd obviously rather watch League, I'm not a complete imbecile.

This seems to have turned into a debate about whether RU and RL are class based, which is a bit off the original point I was making.
I will watch RU on TV if there is nothing else to watch, and I certainly would have gone to watch Sale Sharks at the HJ if they had moved in with us - something to do in Winter.
But is it the fault of RL coached moving to RU that has caused the current malaise of safety first in RU.

I'll be going to both games on friday

Morley would be damaged proping in Union, but I'd happily lose him for the Salford game to go and play for Sale. He'd play in the back row, and probably play with more conviction, and quality then any of the Sale team.

Before he gets sent off for a dangerous tackle that is.

I'd probably slot King straight in somewhere as well.

The Sale coach who criticised League for blokes running into each other is tad hypocritical. Sale's gameplan is basically the ill informed's interpretation of League. Bosh, bosh and kick, no variation whatsoever. Hodgson, Sale's most exciting talent, is a big fan of League, as is Cueto.

There was a time that Union was almost as exciting as league. Sale played some great off the cuff rugby, and England played some good stuff too. The game is an absolute mess at the moment though

Here's a thought.
Why din't Rugby Union now employ RL attacking coached to show them how to beat the defensive systems they have out in place.

On the media parts of the thread, a lot of our RL supporters (all clubs) really annoy me when they want a club first policy and say they don't much care about the International team.
Can they not appreciate how much publicity is gained if the International side does well. My son in law is a PE teacher at a secondary school on Bolton and sad he couldn't believe how much the awareness heightened of Rugby Union when England won the World Cup.

Why do people equate the South with not being working class?

As i type this now i'm stood in Acton W3 i can assure you it's majority working class possibly even underclass.

Clearly you are right, as a man STOOD typing, they haven't even got tables or desks, the impoverished southern fairies