It is very much the establishment game in Scotland as well. It's the same type of people that are in the Scottish Conservatives. Union is popular in the private schools there and taken seriously at their universities like St Andrews, Edinburgh etc, the typical Scottish lawyer or accountant will be into union.

But the average working class Scot who likes beer and fried Mars bars will say rugby's a game for rich poofters.

In Wales however as other posters have pointed out, it is very much the game of the working classes.

Ireland is an interesting one, one of my flatmates is Irish, she reckons that when she was growing up, rugby union was viewed with suspicion in the Republic, the real sports there were hurling, Gaelic football and football, rugby was always associated with being the game the colonial English brought. But there has been a definite change in the last 10 years with union growing in popularity thanks to the emergence of high profile players like Brian O'Driscoll, Ronan O'Gara etc, and it is definitely more accepted as a mainstream sport.

Wigan Peer wrote:Odd that the Scots watch an English Establishment game... Wonder why they never went down the RL route. Well i have ordered the Tony Collins book, so i should know more after that scotlandrl.com/index.php Scottish rugby union is very much split into 2 catagories. 1. The FP (former pupil) clubs with are by and large based in the central belt (Edinburgh and Glasgow) and north and are more or less considered middle class . 2. The Border clubs from the mill towns like Hawick , Gala , Kelso , Selkirk , Langholm etc. These are very much working class clubs where most of the Scottish players who took up Rugby League originated from . Regards , EW PS dont knock the fried mars bar until you have tried it (i haven't)

Wigan Peer wrote:Odd that the Scots watch an English Establishment game... Wonder why they never went down the RL route. Well i have ordered the Tony Collins book, so i should know more after that scotlandrl.com/index.php Scottish rugby union is very much split into 2 catagories. 1. The FP (former pupil) clubs with are by and large based in the central belt (Edinburgh and Glasgow) and north and are more or less considered middle class . 2. The Border clubs from the mill towns like Hawick , Gala , Kelso , Selkirk , Langholm etc. These are very much working class clubs where most of the Scottish players who took up Rugby League originated from . Regards , EW PS dont knock the fried mars bar until you have tried it (i haven't)