the_cow posted:
i have to comment on this thread. i go to 'the' sports university in the UK- lets see if you can guess it.
Loughborough?
yes, alot of union players are t*ssers, but thats just usually the public school mob who will have a problem with league and even you for having a northern accent. however i play for my hall rugby union team, and theyre all a decent bunch of guys- im the only northerner on the team.
My son plays for Chester RUFC U13's and the people running that are great but it doesn't make the game great.
It is going downhill this season now they have switched form 12 to 15 a side.
as i watch alot of rugby league i play the union game in a different way to the rest- i can ruck n maul with the best, but i love to run with the ball- which you don't see many prop forwards doing in union.
My problem with RU is quite often even the wingers don't run with the ball.
both games are different games- its a blend of personal choice and where you were born that decides which code you follow.
Well where we live it is why my son plays RU.
i even like both codes shock horror, but only when union is played correctly- watch some tri-nations union rather than the boring northern hemisphere game.
Playing union correctly seems a difficult thing to achieve. Last night was training for the U13's and they had a specialist level 3 coach there to coach getting the ball out wide.
When they actually practised this they still managed to take the ball inside to the forwards rather than get it out to winger who saw the ball about 1 in every 10 passages of play.
it is highly annoying the number of league players moving over to the union code at present, but isnt this just what happened in reverse before union went professional?
Union was at the time an amateur game so players had one choice if they wanted to earn money playing sport. That is a big difference than the current situation.
Given we are told RU is a complex game league players have trouble adjusting to, why now RU is full time are they not producing their own players to the extent they need to come to RL every time the world cup comes around?
They have more money than us and so ought to be producing their own players so its not that they come to us that bothers me so much as why do they need to do it.
For the record I never understood why RL went to RU for players but I could understand why RU players came to RL (money).
as for your quote, i dont see any difference regarding complex rules- both codes have numerous rules that are subjective to the refs interpretation.
There is a famous poster advertising for RU refs that shows a picture of a ruck or a maul (I forget which) from a real game of RU. It highlights over 15 infringements that the ref could legitimately blow up for.
Even if they spot them they don't blow or the game would be ruined. So I don't think with union it has more subjective judgments made but rather it chooses to ignore numerous infringements to keep the game going.
As to RL I do think there has been an increase recently in rules that require subjective judgements from the refs. For example the infamous Pat Richards "try" v Wakefield and Cummins response to the controversy has made that situation clear as mud. Another is this idea of a dominant tackle. What one ref may see as a dominant tackle another may not. This is a bad development for the game IMO but I still think RU is a mystery rules wise at times.
I laugh every time I see lineouts at pro level where lifting is not allowed. A sure fire acknowledgement they could not police the law as it stood.
Dave[/quote]
