Could be great for us this one, lets hope Adam Hills promotes the game in the usual manner using his profile (although the game took a bit of ribbing on The Last Leg Tonight).

Good news for the game this, their cricket and rugby union coverage were much better than the same games on the BBC.

Well I think we are in for a treat having just watched a bit of channel 4s coverage of harlequins v Cardiff reds ,when the viewing public get to see rugby played how it should be it’s going to knock the socks of people watching for the first time compared to the stop/start /kick game I just watched

I quite enjoyed the game to be honest but I did think the coverage was good and like the idea of C4 covering rugby league.

RU has come a long way but I think it’s gone as far as it can mow in terms of a spectator sport.

Problem is it really needs to replace the mauling and the line our. It could also do with reducing the number of players on each side. That of course is impossible because it would then be RL.

I’m hoping this year for a fairly balanced league. Saints will be a cut above but not unbeatable with the normal suspects chasing them.

I can’t see an obvious whipping boy with probably places 12 - 4 pretty much up for grabs in almost any combination.

I see Saints, Catalan and Warrington as the main contenders.

That hopefully will look good on C4, tight leagues usually do. Fingers crossed.

I watched it and I enjoyed it too.
RU has some awful moments, the constant stop/start and second row forwards who run like a tree trunk with no legs and fall at the first stride. All part of their game of course! BUT what I do like about it is that a try can come out of nothing and lets face it, if their forwards are alien to us their backs certainly aren't - many of those we see on tv would walk into any SL team.
The two codes are miles apart though. RU is far too complicated for me - what I find farcical is that when the attacking team are pressing the defence in their quarter you can bet you last dollar the ref's arm goes up at some stage for a penalty!
I'll stick to league

I can't watch Oonion as I find it too frustrating for the same reasons as you 1315, the so-called technical infringements are just too baffling to understand as you can get 2 identical rucks (or are they mauls ??



), and one team will get penalised in the first one and the other will get penalised in the second and don't get me started on "phases" when they have 23 of them to end up 2 yards further back from where they started and then just kick the ball into touch

Clearly I'm a league man and have sent many days converting my union friends but I played Union for a long time and can appreciate the game, especially the forwards.
There is a lot to learn in rugby league from union.

Those phases are all about forcing a mistake. They are not trying to get yards, they are trying to commit players to the ruck so that there is a space elsewhere.
A good scrum half will know when the time is right to move it.

No different to a league prop running it down the middle at waiting tackles. He isn't making yards he's trying to tie them in and get a quick ptb so there are gaps elsewhere.

The game is too complex in some ways as, like you say, they can have a penalty for anything, but equally they don't fuss with technicalities that we do. A knock on in league is judged to a nanometre. They judge it in metres to just let the game flow.

Union supporters think league is stop start because of all the play the balls. In union, the forward play is slower but they don't actually stop the game to recycle the ball.
It's what you get used to.

Back to C4, I liked the coverage and the people with the Mike.
I hope they give league the same respect and don't go for a northern cloth cap image like others do.

Not that it matters much, but C4 is a publisher, they don't create their own content. Production companies will be competing against each other to get the right to broadcast RL on C4.

One reason why the programming on their channel is so good, the production companies need to be on their toes to keep getting paid.

All very positive for rugby league, I'm excited to see what the end product is. Skys coverage is a little stale imo and it could give them a kick up the you know what.

It will be interesting to see who forms the presentation team.
Sky's team have become predictable and offer very little, a good knowledgeable presenter can bind the programme together.

It will be interesting to see who forms the presentation team.
Sky's team have become predictable and offer very little, a good knowledgeable presenter can bind the programme together.