With sport in general being in major trouble because of the epidemic could it "force" a merger of the rugby codes?
If the financial package was good enough could we see a hybrid game?

It may seem far fetched at the moment, BUT!!!!

why would RU do that?
if they stay tight they are far better resourced to see RL go down the pan and just inherit the void

That is the bigger reality I fear

I can't see Wigan RUFC taking the fan base, more likely a case of 10k people saving several hundred pound a year by not watching professional sport anymore if the worst happens.

they dont have to swap codes. RU would just slowly use the marketing void to make rugby on TV be equated to RU and slowly the gap between the 2 codes could see teams like Sale get more PR, or even create new Liverpool and Manchester franchises.

they have the international game sewn up already, and as club RL dies the International RL games attracts fewer attendees and slips further down the TV order, thus increasing the gap.

I believe that RL is more likely to be absorbed back into RU than a hybrid game to appear. And that's a big leap of the imagination, as the RFU would most likely rather see us disappear.

Most rah rah clubs have large debts which they can only service through high corporate matchday income, inflated commercial deals and rich owners (which a number of RL clubs also have).

Their top grade teams are probably no less vulnerable to collapse than ours.

No

I have feared for our sport over the last decade, even before the virus and even before rumours of a reduced TV deal.

I do think we might be seeing the end of the days for professional RL in this country as we know it. The game will survive in some form, semi pro and Amateur for the foreseeable.

So what about the top RL clubs?

Well I see Wigan, Leeds, Saints and possibly Hull being asked to move across to RU in the future. The only team I could see successfully accomplishing good crowds would be Leeds.

No, it won't happen.

The NRL is seen as the biggest and best we have to offer and yet they are playing on because they are royally screwed financially

The only reason RL is still going is because the small clubs get a vote and that is why the product is utterly dreadful.

I will be surprised if we survive this and carry on as we are.

The public of Leeds will never watch Union , that has already been proven

Who else is joining me on the never ever watching RU, even if they dress it up in cherry and white stripes bandwagon?

I'll fire off to St. Pats or somewhere instead.

Sooner watch Ashton Bears than RU.

A hybrid game is a non-starter: why would the RU authorities want or need to do that?