One of the reasons RU is the way is it is, is that it's got the "establishment" behind it. It came about (urban myth or not) in a public school in Rugby, is promoted above the "thuggish" soccer in the majority of existing public schools that coincidentally provide most of the movers & shakers in the current government & blue-chip companies in the land (if not the Commonwealth).

If anyone bothered to watch the 7s last weekend in Glasgow, you'd realise that they've got a very addictive format there that cannot fail to enthuse kids & will often lead to further interest in the 15s game. RL 9s was "demonstrated" before the games actually kicked off, but has anyone on here actually read or seen anything about it since?

Premiership RU is dire unless you subscribe to the "chess on grass" theory, in which case good luck to you. However, some of the games in the Celtic leagues (BBC2 Wales/Scotland/NI on a Friday night in the winter for anyone with FreeSat - I assume it's available on Sly too) are quite entertaining as they tend to run the ball instead of playing ping-pong & hoofing it up the field every five seconds.

The image of RL is still that of a bunch of fat blokes running around in a muddy field watched by two blokes in flat caps with a whippet or a ferret on a piece of string. I have this argument every time I have to visit any of our offices in London or (for my sins) Milton Keynes. The bigoted attitude of RU stalwarts who've never bothered to watch a league game is mind-boggling & akin to arguing that God doesn't exist with a Jehovah's Witness.

It's not that League is any better a game than Union or vice-versa: there will always be idiots who slag off one or the other without any evidence or first-hand knowledge.

The problem (one of them) is that we have a governing body that routinely sticks its head in the sand when confronted by their ineptitude to capitalise on events that should be a given. It's plain that the hype & interest generated by the WC last year has been squandered & we're back to squabbling about whether the new format is going to work (I think it will, so long as there's a concerted effort to get the lower leagues full-time & get some cash to them), and there are too many vested interests in Red Hall for truly effective governance.

Until we get rid of the cloth-cap & ferret image (actively, if covertly, promoted by Twickenham) & someone other than Andy Burnham takes up the call to arms, League is destined to be forever the "Northern League" - you could argue, we'd do worse than revert to the old name & stop trying to be something we can never be.

who are the elite if it doesn't include Wigan?! - good idea though, maybe the 6 clubs which voted against the new structure should threaten a break away league backed by another TV channel

Sorry by elite I mean the governing body. The people that IL criticised over thier running of the game at the start of this season.

Have often thought this would be a good move.... It would really shake things up....

I said half, does sound better to though to make things up...

Looks like we are both making stats up then.

Super League need to get Barry Hearn in as the top man.

Look at Darts and Snooker, he's increased revenues and prize money across the board, especially in the darts.

The top and bottom of it is that advertising costs, and no matter what some people might think the game can’t compete with RU while the top brass at the Beeb has a majority of old school ties pulling the strings and pushing RU down our throats at every opportunity, and although I thought the RL TV adverts have overall been quite a good attempt, the Eddie Stobart effort made a bit of a laughingstock of the game. As for the games relative entertainment factors, well everyone’s entitled to their own opinion and mine is that when it comes to real entertainment RU an RL are the mirror opposites of their places in advertising, RL is more forward thinking, or trying to be, while RU is quite happy with its place in the sporting world, its complacent with its product, and it shouldn’t be. I once had a friendly argument with a Welshman about each other’s respective sports attributes, and it finally came down to him saying, “RU is more of a game of skill and strategy, like chess” my reply to that was that the difference being, chess is a much faster game with more understandable rules. Those that may say I have a northern chip on my shoulder, you’re dead right! and I’ll put it alongside my northern steak n kidney pudding mushy peas and gravy. To be serious I’ve said it before, the fact is football and RU are seen by the wider public as being MORE FASHIONABLE. Football is one of a very few sports that is fashionable across all the classes, great trick if you can pull it off!

That just about says it all. You could add the way Union has nicked the word RUGBY without so much as a whimper from the RFL, RUGBY=UNION. Rugby League what's that. We now have women's soccer nicking "Super League", all the ignored little points that are slowly shoving Rugb y League into the wilderness.

You do realise the above was evolved out of our game for various sound reasons as in a similar way as when we dispensed with two players? Scrums in particular are a big reason why RU is so slow. They have to be set "just so" which can take an age or are simply dangerous these days given the size of players and often result in penalties or are collapsed if one pack dominates another. There is nothing to be envious of here IMO and we are well rid of that particular extra dimension. RU types will tell you for as long as you want to hear it of the technical complexity of forward play in RU and it is complete nonsense. It is just different.

I am speaking from some knowledge having coached the game at junior level for a time when my son played for several years. I have also watched some big first class level games live and witnessed a kick fest with Munster v Leinster in Ireland as an example. The only extra dimension on show that day was boredom.



Being mystified why an inferior on-field spectacle has a superior organisation running it and is commercially more successful is not a sign if any chips on shoulders. In fact it is a huge criticism of those running our sport and not some sort of entitled view that we should automatically be the bigger game financially just because it is better.

Next we'll be talking about expansion of the game

Well after that BS i doubt your RU coached side was very good. If you weren't teaching your forwards the technical aspects of both set pieces as well as working at the break down then you must have seen some heavy scores against you.

Don't understand how anyone who claims to have 'coached' a side can say the complexities of the forward game is nonsense. I guess props and hookers just lean against each other and ball goes in the 2nd row right? What about body position when challenging for the ball on the floor? Do the line outs just work themselves out? What you have just spouted is the equivalent of saying RL is just 6 tackles and a kick with no technicality of controlling the ruck etc.

Doesn't sound like you are speaking from knowledge to me!