Saying things like "have you taken a poll" do make you look silly because you know i haven't taken a poll so what were you hoping to achieve by asking that?

I played union for over ten years and i've been to several SL grand finals and had a Rhinos season ticket when i lived in Leeds so don't try saying people who like union don't like league because that aint true.

A lot of the guys who i played union with now play league during the summer too and totally appreciate the skills required to play the game.

I've played both, watch both and like both.

It was as simple enough question. If you haven't done some extensive research, then how can you possibly make the claim that you made? The answer is that you can't.

I've played both codes as well, and watched both, which makes me at least as well qualified as you - and yet I don't feel able to call it one way or the other. I know some League folk who respect Union and some Union folk who respect League, but I also know plenty on both sides who have no time at all for the opposite code.

In no shape or form are you qualified to claim that "most Union fans" appreciate the skills of League. Your statement - and therefore the argument you built on it - was thus trash.

I'll say again, stop trying to play the voice of reason when all you're really doing here is having a pop at League people (with exactly the same biggoted, idiotic attitude that you appear to find so repulsive in us).

Got told ha

Are you seriously saying that it's simply "nip and tuck" and that union fans hold league in as much comtempt as a lot of league fans appear to hold union?

If that's how you feel/how you have witnessed it thats fine.

I have witnessed a very different attitude in the paths i've crossed.

An extensive poll of league fans views on union and vice versa would, i'm sure, prove me right. But then again that's just my opinion.

I'm sorry, mate, but you just can't be for real.

What kind of argument are you trying to sell here? That Union fans are more broad-minded and more understanding and better informed than League fans because "you are sure" that's the truth?

And do you expect to be taken seriously?

Having spent a bit of time in Leicester and Bristol I have to say that some of the attitudes RL people have about Union are quite wrong.

I hate the old school tie/social climbing rugger brigade as much as the next RL fan and personally I don't find RU particularly good to watch (though its got better in the last 15 years or so thanks to rule changes and to be honest I don't think the kick and clap description is fair any more, though it was in the days of Rob Andrew et al) but it isn't true to say RU fans hate league or league fans. In my experience there are plenty of people in the Midlands and South West who love their rugby (union) but who do appreciate league rather than hating it.

I think the problem is that the inept management of RL and the flat-earth brigade in RL missed a golden opportunity back in the late 80s/early 90s when Wigan and Widnes were closing the gap on the Aussies. If we'd brought in the SL concept then with a proper SC that encouraged growth while stopping clubs going bust we would have had a much stronger game now, with bigger TV revenues, a bigger geographical footprint and most importantly a better international game.

Unfortunately the die-hard parochial attitude of many in RL coupled with inept club and RFL management meant that this opportunity was missed, RU went professional and RL will now always be far more in the shadow of RU than it should have been.

There's actually little point RU people hating RL now. RL is I'm afraid destined to be a small minority sport in this country and the way things are going some people in RL (not RU) are going to get what they seem to have been wishing for - the slow death of the professional RL game.

It's the idiots running RL and the morons writing articles/letters in the RL press and posting on SC threads on this board that will kill RL, not RU people.

I agree. RU and RU people are nothing like as big a threat to us as we are to ourselves. But the other fella was still talking crap.

I certainly don't think all RU people are friendly to RL. You only have to listen to a certain former Bath fly-half to realise the real hatred towards RL that exists in some quarters in that code.

But yes, our biggest problem is the incompetence of our administrators and the ridiculous attitudes of many supporters and the RL press, who seem to want our game to fail. Compared with that, the annoying comments of RL hating rugger types are a minor problem.

Lets not forget that David stettle who is in the england squad is from these parts aswell

I know that he is the son of a great, but is he really that good?

He would have to be some player to have more potential than Liam F.

He was outstanding as a 14 year old, and always looked as if he was to be a top player.