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RYAN ATKINS L O L


P.M.S.L

I’m glad the lions got shaded by the tennis at the weekend, it makes a nice change. If ever a game was over rated its RU. Too many rules, too many players, too many stoppages and too much publicity. Not enough tries and running play. Get a half decent team, bang in a Sinfield or a Foster and you’re away. Play a full 80 and lose on an unexplainable scrum penalty that could have been given either way. As a spectacle tennis is no less boring, both games are Mogadon on steroids, but at least the results went the right way.

The Union Lions beat the Wabbalies.
Trouble is, the vast majority of people don't know that the best Rugby players in Australia play Rugby League.

Not as bad as the people that will have hopped on board the "Ashes Bandwagon" starting today....

The rah rah can hardly complain. They have had blanket coverage of their tour. They have a second rate sport promoted so well that its all over the media.

Give me Andy Murray every time.

I went to the Sale v Harlequins ru game earlier this year with 5 or 6 first time watchers. Before the game they all thought they were Rugby union lovers. By the end all were amazed at how boring the spectacle had been and admitted they liked they idea of liking Rugby union but when push came to shove they didn't actually like it

To be fair it was Sale v Harlequins, but credit to you for getting some newbies down to the game, some like it some don't but thats the only way you will grow a sport. If you took 5 or 6 first time watchers to Salford v London they would also think it was rubbish but if you took them to Wigan v Saints they would be hooked instantly and saying what great quality play with family atmosphere and welcoming supporters

Thats true but unfortunately the best rugby players in Britain play union not league, or at least the ones who are able to perform at international level when the pressure is on.

We always hear from Phil Clarke etc about various great British RL players but how many of them have stood up and delivered at international level? Within British RU you have two strong nations Wales and England, both of them have had their ups and downs internationally and often find it tough against the All Blacks and Springboks, but they do produce good international players. Sometimes they haven't had enough of them to win games against the top southern hemisphere sides consistently but they do produce players equipped to perform at the highest level.

With England RL we just rely on constant false hype to keep up the interest, a win over Wales or France or over the Exiles and we will hear "the time is now" and how good the young talent is but we all know deep down they are a million miles behind the Aussies and Kiwis. You will get it before the World Cup, people on here will be deluding themselves that England has got a great chance because of player X, player Y etc, but when they come up against Aussies or Kiwis in the World Cup semi we all know they will get whipped and everyone on here will talk the truth about those same players.

Absolute nonsense. The codes aren't particularly comparable. I would say NFL and RL have far more in common than RL and RU.

However if one was saying who were the best players from a point of view of skill and fitness it's Rugby League every time. As for being to handle pressure what's that based on ? the recent Lions tour ? Laughable

It strikes me your heart lies too much with the dark side, either that or your tongue must be stuck in your cheek. To keep it short taking on board what you say about skill, and performance under pressure etc. If the Australian national RL was to play their RU side at union, after a proper learning time, who would you say would probably win? My bet would not be on the dark side. RU. Is a poor game much over rated, and in this country is more about school ties and snobbery than entertainment.

The Kangaroos players would never beat the Wallabies at RU, no matter how good athletes their forwards are they would not have enough time at this stage in their careers to get up to the level of an international RU side in line outs, scrums, mauls and rucks and the side that controls those will control the game and could grind them away.

However what you probably mean is if you take the forward stuff in RU out of the game and put them up as athletes against each other in the one on one skills, beating a man, passing, making breaks etc who would be better and the answer is the Kangaroos no question. They would butcher the Wallabies like they butcher everyone in RL, even with Israel Folau in the Wallabies. However I think some of the Wallabies backs could play NRL to a good standard but only Folau would make Origin or Kangaroos plus the stand-off Quade Cooper who is probably better suited to league IMO.

It comes down to numbers as always and in Australia they have a lot more league players than union, it has always been the lesser of the two codes in Australia.

Over here though I don't see it as clear cut. Wales, England and the Lions are very well prepared sides and they have used league influence well. It's been a loss to league that coaches like Shaun Edwards and Mike Ford went to union and Andy Farrell seems to have had a good influence in England too. Owen Farrell is a fantastic player and would surely have been a top SL player. I do think Sam Tomkins is head and shoulders the best English rugby player but its just a matter of time before he joins England RU and he could be as influential as Robinson was.

I realise that England RL have tougher standards to measure up to than England RU do, there is no equivalent home nations championship, they are effectively judged against the Kangaroos and Kiwis who are awesome sides. If England RU only had the All Blacks and Springboks as opposition they would probably have had decades of struggle too. But the big difference is England RU (and now the Lions) have climbed to the summit in the past decade with major successes in the southern hemisphere and England RL haven't done that.

In one of last week's MENs, Sam Tomkins had a column in there, and he talked about RL and RU in equal measure. Also Phil Clark often uses the term "...in either code of rugby..." when talking about a variety of things.

If I opened a newspaper and read a column by a RU player, or watched some coverage of a RU game, would I hear them mention RL even once? I watched the Lions games, from a point of view of comparing how it's coverage differs to ours. I don't think I heard them once mention Isreal Falou is a RL player who changed sports [twice]. Plus I felt the whole set-up was very professional; no in-arguing between the presenters, no calls of "that's forward a mile" when the replay shows it was fine and the comment just detracted from what was some good play, no confusion over the rules... I've got a feeling that Sky keep Eddie and Stevo on because they make things seem a bit amateur and that's how Sky want it. Now I'm sure Eddie and Stevo are nice blokes and big RL fans and embassadors but they aren't the best on camera on the mic's are they?

Everytime I watch that Super League Super Stars show I can't believe the music they have on at the beginning. It makes it seem like its a joke. It's only a little thing but it all adds up in the end.

Maybe I'm just being a bit over sensitive, but I suppose it all boils down to the bitterness I have that our game isn't as big as it should be and a lesser game gets so much more coverage, investment and support, when considering all the things that have gone on in the past where RL has been hindered by RU.

Why can't people just appreciate Murray did a great thing and applaud it ?

Why can't people just appreciate the Lions did a great thing too, and applaud that as well ?.

I dont get all this comparison of our game with those 2? all the ifs but whys and wherefores.
Ours is a great game in its own right, played by equally fit men with great skill creating for me the best sporting spectacle there is.
Where do we fall down ? .....Marketing.
Until our people at Redhall employ real Marketeers who can target all the
Media channels with the Brilliance of our viewing Package we will always be seen as a backwater non-mainstream sport.
Selling our soul to Sky has not helped us in my opinion, some small gains but huge losses.
But we are not blameless ourselves either. Looking inwards fat too much, rather than having a vision and making things happen in the world of Marketing of the SuperLeague brand, which is very difficult when its run by non visionary people who still personify the northern cloth cap image.
Until this changes we will always be a No 1 spectacle with a 2nd rate profile. Supporters will always jealously snipe at any other sport where we feel hard done by with the amount of exposure they receive and more worryingly our amazing game will continue to drift closer to extinction as a top line sport that is able to offer top line rewards to its stars in a UK based version of the game.
We should not only watch and learn from Australian RL. We should also bury our RedHall arrogance and watch exactly how the NRL do their excellent Marketing and interface with all areas of the media. It will be a lesson which would help transform our game within 10 years to one which is competing on a level playing field with all but our national sport.
.....and the answers to the 2 questions posed at the top ? Answer = A tad of jealousy mixed with anger.
Which I feel also, but mine is borne out of frustration of what we should be, but are not.

I thought the wire v wigan build up on SKY was as good if not better build up than any NRL game Ive Seen this season (not including SOO). I thought we had turned a corner with the coverage but then they go back to type for other games.

If SKY who plough millions into our game cant be ar$ed for 'regular' games then how can we expect anyone else....

I am shuddering at the thought of todays game coverage. My kids were watching some garbage on you tube today and an advert came up for the Cholmondley tough mudder race, I guarantee that advert was more professional than the rubbish the British Broadcasting coropration will put out.

the entire RFL want smacking plum in the face

To be fair Australia are one of the best rugby league nations in the world, where as the Aussie rugby team is crap and will remain crap, on account of nobody in Australia really cares for the sport.

The rugby league equivelant of the recent Lions tour would be GB coming back and beating Fiji 2-1