I remember Ray French once giving an interview in which he opined that, long-term, the only way for rugby to perpetuate itself as a major big money sport was for the top sides in RL and RU to join forces and combine their talent and resources in a single competition.

Whether that's being discussed at any level, maybe because of the parlous state of both RU and RL domestic games in the UK today, is uncertain of course, but it's probably unlikely.

The NRL doesn't need a hybrid version in order to survive. Likewise, international RU is doing fine without changing anything.

This sounds like nothing more than a charity one-off.

Rugby onion isn't really in that healthy a state. They've got the same issue with concussion claims that we have, plus they've had big name clubs fold in recent years.

It's bad enough that a Faily Mail journo wrote a piece suggesting a merger a month ago

rlhttps://archive.ph/DZW8Irl

Which is surely why many league fans are suspicious of 'hybrid games'. When union went pro, there was a flurry of pieces in the media saying the codes should merge. Always comes from the union side of course. Our sport is just fine as it is. Adapting rules to make it more like union would not improve it.

Get rid of Lineouts,get rid of 2 players ,bring it down to 13,keep the scrums and we could be getting somewhere.

Objectively, in the modern era, with fit professional players, not tubs of lard, union would be a better game with 13 players, but as they insist on the primacy of their 16-man scrum, that's never likely to happen. Plus, they wouldn't to be seen as 'copying league', of course.