Owen Farrell will become the next Johnny Wilkinson though - in that the only TV highlights we'll ever see of him will involve kicking for goal, but that won't matter as it's so damned important to them.

You can say that again! But when all’s said and done, just put a stopwatch on both games and time the parts of the matches when no actual running play is taking place. I wonder which game would have served up the most action?

RU is up there with Football, Darts, F1, Golf and Saturday night TV... Its baby food for the brain dead.

You don't need to watch it closely as you can pick up whats happening after you have reached from the sofa for your Pizza or tasteless Lager.....

If you say so chaps

You have to have played RU to appreciate it. I can understand frustrations re the scrummaging and breakdown laws, and the number of penalties, but the rules are such that players are coached tactics that will win the all important penalty. If side A is a far better scrummaging team than side B, then side A will constantly win penalties for the opposition weak scrum collapsing, breaking up and wheeling. I'm an official at a NE RU club and in our game yesterday we won a number of penalties and scored a try from our superior scrum. Last week we scored 7 tries, 5 were by forwards and were from close in. Not great to watch at times, but it did the business.

The point is that the great technical skills people talk of, cannot be seen when watching a game live. Its boring as hell, and gives you heaps of time to eat your prawn sarnies and sup yer Bolly. As you say, not great to watch, thankyou for agreeing

Plus, i think many people who post on here will have played at sometime...

It's different but its not rocket science. Hugely more complex? Nonsense. I am sure its a very convenient excuse if things don't quite go as smoothly as anticipated though for whatever reason.

Even people involved in RU get sick of the forwards prattling on about the complexities of the forward game and I am speaking from experience.

Or even coached it.

Ok lets give RU the benefit of the doubt that the forward play is technical. But so what? It is as boring as hell. I don't see the excitement of tactics that deliberately try to get penalties. Joel has decided to try RU and that is where he will probably stay. I doubt he would now admit that it is not as good to play or watch as RL.

I thought Graeme West's book was interesting to hear his view of playing RU as a forward. He said he got ed off playing RU because he never got the ball. He found it a revelation when he took up RL and was allowed to run with the ball and score tries!

I don't care how technical RU is. I just don't find it entertaining to watch. I have tried over many years to see the point but I just don't get it.

The complexities are in the rules, especially around the ruck and maul. Different referees use entirely different interpretations, that's where the problem arises. For example at Stockton we generally have Durham County referees. Yesterday we played 40 miles North and had a ref from Northumbria. His interpretation of the rules at the ruck and maul were completely different to what we are used to. He might as well have been from another planet.
Joel is bound to say he loves playing RU, you don't bite the hand that feeds you, same as those who come back, @I enjoyed RU, but I was missing RL.' You say what your current employer wants you to say.

Says it all..... Forget basic running and handling...

Odd that, as someone has said, that if its so complex as a game, they employ so many ex RL people at the highest level... Take a look at the backroom when Wilkinson won the world cup..