(Well said mate,we might be rivals but the common feeling between all fans of our game is we love it with a passion.
The sooner people realise that union is trying to take our game over the better we all will be to stop the b@st@rds. )





Thats the point I,am trying to make, If Wigan, Saints, Leeds, and the RL don,t start looking after our young guns in RL the offers will come in from the rah rah,s . Don,t slate them for having their heads turned and some signing. I do agree Chris Ashton did make a Co.. of himself with the shirt thing. like I said before he was allowed to be poached, how many more will follow ?

All of RL should be very worried there is no way they can or ever will compete with with RU. With the draw of their european competitions, world cups, six and tri nations rl is a million miles away from parity and the gap is widening.
The RFL are no more proffessional now than they ever have been and don't have the first idea how to protect what they have let alone expand the game properly. They have all their eggs in one basket with Sky and alienate every club outside of sl more and more every year.
So get used to losing players it will continue for years to come. It is irrelevent that RL is a better spectacle. RU is the dominant sport and it will take which ever player it chooses and there is very little the clubs can do to prevent it.
The English RU clubs are looking more and more at RL as the French clubs have no salary cap and are poaching English RU players.
We can't expect anything from RU given the number of players taken from their sport by RL in the past

Sorry, mate. I appreciate that your views represent the hopes and desires of the average Leyther rather than the real situation, but there's a lot more the RFL could do than they are at present.

It's actually their very unrealistic ambition to save the game's minnows that is exacerbating this situation.

My comments are not posted as a leyther I have no desire to see Wigan or any other RL club suffer.

Your right there is a lot more that can be done by the RFL but they have no idea what to do. As far as saving the games minnows that is an impossibility when they will be bailing failed SL clubs out season after season

The point of my post was that ALL of RL should be worried RU is going from strength to strength and this will not be good for our game.

Of course it is. Most Rugby Union clubs lose money and without their wealthy benefactors a number of Rugby Union clubs would have gone to the wall. Indeed the likes of Northampton and Saracens are only where they are now because their owners have spent £15 million+ to get them there. Likewise Sale, Worcester, Exeter and Newcastle wouldnt even be in the Premiership if it wasnt for their benefactors and the money that they have ploughed in. Bath, Gloucester and Wasps would also be screwed without their owners.

These wealthy benefactors have driven Rugby Union and made the Premiership what it is today. Most Rugby Union clubs are losing vast amounts each season and if it wasnt for their owners they would be bust. Also if it wasnt for their owners the salary cap in Rugby Union would be nowhere near what it currently is. If Rugby League had similar sugar daddies ploughing £15 million+ into clubs dotted around the country then I am certain the game would be much bigger and the salary cap would be too. Unfortunately the sport does not have these sorts of people.

^ Oh dear.

You could apply the same logic to many a Premiership football team.........

The reality is RU is a NATIONAL sport. Of course that is going to lead to a wider interest and a bigger pool of millionaires who could be potential sponsors.

I really don't see your point tbh.

I took the opportunity to watch some of the RU today. I have to say, looking at the England skills on display this afternoon, and the New Zealand team handing the Irish team their a*ses on a plate atm, (and Sonny Bill has just come on), it will only be the cream that they come knocking for I feel.

After watching the RU today when sat in the boozer.. how can people watch that week in week out?

I've no idea. I find it ridiculously dull.

Well when it's played well, it's good to watch.

England today- very enjoyable. There are skills that RU has that are in common with RL. I don't mind watching that one bit.

Then again when it's played badly...........

Scotland today of the 80 mins, around 16 mins were scrums.

Enough said.

Can you expand on that?

I am at a loss how the RFL, can compete with a game that has an income stream from TV; Sky (double that of RL for the domestic game alone before you add in internationals and the Heineken Cup) and the BBC for the Six Nations. Factor in the incomes streams from home internationals, their commercial revenue alone from those games is probably more than the RFL's annual turnover.

The above paragraph may come across as almost the words of a RU apologist, but they are simple facts that reinforce the fact the RFU can, and do, prop up their clubs when it comes to the signing of RL players.

Considering the SKY viewing figures for the two sports at club level, RL should be getting much more money from them than RU does.

I've said this so many times that I'm now bored with it, but I'll say it one more time while you're asking.

Kids need to be discounted from the salary cap in some way - even if it's only a percentage of their wages. That will encourage clubs to develop more kids of their own, and make it a little bit easier for clubs to keep them when RU scouts come knocking.

You'll not stop them all going. You may not stop most of them going. But as things are, it's far too easy for RU. They know that our top sides are up to the cap - and as it's generally our top sides who have the good youngsters, they're easy to target.

That may not be to everyone's liking. It may be akin to heresy to those who feel the game must be protected from its wealthier clubs at any cost, but doing nothing is not an option.

So many people have so many brilliant ideas about what The RFL should do and how to improve things altogether but these ideas are never going to come to frutation. I wish they would. I think fans and player and everybody involved in the game need their voices heard or things are never going to change.