Hi All,

I know this is a rugby league forum and myself am a huge Cas Fan and come from a decent background in Rugby League myself. Iv recently become head coach at our Castleford Rugby Union under 15's side. We today beat Cleckheaton in the quarter finals of the cup to progress and we are really urging new players to come down. We have big sides in the competition with typical Rugby Union backgrounds and us Cas folk are a different breed! If you have a son who may be interested or a grandson, newphew, kid next door or anyone please could you back our cause.

Kindest Regards
Danny

I think he's saying it would be pointless trying to recruit RU players on a RU forum, as they'd already be signed up to RU teams.

My son and a large cohort of his Spartans teammates tried a bit of RU in their school team - to a man, they found it boring and rejected it out of hand; I guess for lads who are used to playing RL at a fairly high level, RU just doesn't have the speed and collision that they enjoy.

We've ended up putting together an off-season programme for the lads that consists of sessions of other sports that will a) keep them occupied and b) contribute to developing skills that will be relevant in RL. Throughout December and January they're doing some resistance training, ju-jitsu, kickboxing and distance running and they'll come away from those sessions with individualised running and bodyweight training programmes that they can do in their own time. Then it's back to full training in Feb when hopefully, they'll be like machines!

I was referring to a mixture of both really Bren that's why I left it open.
If you can keep kids with a hand in rugby league 12 months of the year, that's fantastic!
All I'm saying is if it's an outlet for kids I would never discourage RU. Especially when the alternative is staring at a screen

I'm not objecting to it "on principle", mate, I'm merely stating that having spent 9 years of my life playing the game at school, I wouldn't recommend it. It may have changed a lot since those days, but it's the only game I know where practising the skills of the game is actually more interesting than playing the game itself. If you ignore the specialist skills like scrumaging and line-out, then the training is one area where playing both may be beneficial, but I'd argue that more variety over a year, doing different sports in the off season if your kids play league, is better for the kids and their physical development than a whole year playing 2 forms of rugby. Just my opinion, though.

Anyway, apologies for taking this off topic topic off topic by extoling the virtues of rugby league on a rugby league forum.

My sons U9's (school year 5) team at Crigglestone could do with an extra players or two if there's anyone interested? They have just started training on Sundays at 11 for the winter and with kicking coming in to the game for them next year it would be a good time to start.
PM me if you wish or just turn up.

I agree with Jacques, and our views have never changed. OK, there may be some decent folk in RU but I have never had anything other than condescention towards RL. We would be locked/ blocked and refused any chance of discussing RL on any RU forum. Sorry, this thread is rubbish and nothing to do with us. I have family in Kent, Wiltshire and Lincolnshire, hardly RL hotbeds, there is zero interest when I talk of League, quite simply, they think the game is inferior at all levels. It's Venus and Mars.
Most RU fans have no idea that the likes of Graham Steadman and Mike Ford are coaching them to tackle, looking at the crap on TV this weekend, a lot of work still needs to be done, or better still, not done.
Summer RL for juniors is a seperate debate and has not had chance to make a clear decision on its merits. We didn't want summer Super League but 18 seasons gone (and a few hundred million to players), we are still here.
Stop feeling inferior and promote our game. If you need proof of RU and it's merits, read Mike Rylance, The Forbidden Game, it will make your blood boil.
Once playing Union, lads would be persuaded to choose Union against League.
Do your poaching elswhere.