It’s time for league and union to merge
Roar Rookie By Wayne of Windale, 25 Sep 2009 Wayne of Windale is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- NRL, Rugby League, Rugby Union
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Rugby league and rugby union are currently battling it out in a downward spiral of falling popularity, relentless tales of off field barbarism and vulgarity, scarcity of financial resources and a shrinking base of on-field talent.
The two codes are also beleaguered by inherent flaws, which detract from them as spectacles in an ever increasingly competitive sporting market.
Ironically, many of these flaws, such as scrums in Rugby League and constant kicking in Rugby Union, are unique to each code. However, attempting to rectify these flaws would require the game’s administrators to make rule changes which would bring the codes closer together.
This would be unpopular to purists and would make the codes more homogeneous and less distinguishable. These flaws would easily be eliminated in the rule changes of a combined code.
The pool of player talent, combined with sponsorship and pay television revenue, would mean that the sky is the limit for a combined code.
Rugby’s Super 14 and World Cup at the international level and the domestic NRL structure as the basis for the domestic competition.
A combining of the codes would assist the following problems for Rugby League;
* lack of international appeal and meaningful international fixtures
* risk in expansion within Australia
* it’s lack of professional media presentation
* need for a more revitalised and more entertaining style of play
Benefits for Rugby Union in its present form would be;
* domestic club rugby would be re-born using a revamped NRL structure as the base
* large expansion of junior territory and resources
* improved pool of players at international level
* a more revitalised and entertaining style of play
The separation of Rugby League and Rugby Union represent a 110 year old pay dispute.
The source of this dispute is long gone. Both codes are now fully professional at their elite levels and are paid large sums from the same source in Foxtel.
Of course, it would be difficult to come upon an agreed set of rules for the game, as well as the acceptance by other countries. But change is difficult to accept.
Sometimes it just has to occur.
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September 25th 2009 @ 8:26am
MarkH said | September 25th 2009 @ 8:26am | Report comment
Mate, thats going to happen like a god botherer hanging around for the second coming. It would be fun, but its not going to happen anytime soon or there after.
The IRB with all its coin, makes in a week what RL makes in 10yrs. So in the end its a pipe dream. League is League and Union is Union.
September 25th 2009 @ 8:31am
True Tah said | September 25th 2009 @ 8:31am | Report comment
Australia and PNG are the only countries where RU would really benefit from merging with Rugby League. Do you think rugby players in Georgia, Argentina, Kenya, Japan, Madagascar, India are all going to change the game they play so the ARU can perhaps field a more competitive international side?
September 25th 2009 @ 8:59am
AndyRoo said | September 25th 2009 @ 8:59am | Report comment
There would be zero benefit to either code.
The only possible thing that I could think of was they could get together to market touch football in new markets, but they could be doing that anyway.
September 25th 2009 @ 11:51am
Trevor Allan said | September 25th 2009 @ 11:51am | Report comment
have you seen how many different touch and many players from both codes now just preferred touch rugby ? we started touch for an off season for the players and now touch are in total competition with both codes and have their own governing body..
September 25th 2009 @ 12:01pm
AndyRoo said | September 25th 2009 @ 12:01pm | Report comment
Touch is the best way to win over new markets where the egg ball is seen as foreign.
Requires less gear and no goal posts and women can play too. Get them used to the apssing and catching and constant running and then you can wean them on to the real stuff if their built for it.
September 25th 2009 @ 12:38pm
The Link said | September 25th 2009 @ 12:38pm | Report comment
Yeah Rugby in Australia is so interested in touch that they ban it from GPS schools – yes ban it.
September 25th 2009 @ 1:22pm
Siva Samoa said | September 25th 2009 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
Get a life bro. More lies wont help. How about all those talk about league players who cross codes should be ban from playing in the SOO or internationals ?
September 25th 2009 @ 1:48pm
Pete said | September 25th 2009 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
“The Link” is your middle name “Missing”
September 25th 2009 @ 2:07pm
The Link said | September 25th 2009 @ 2:07pm | Report comment
For schools to ban a sport takes a pretty blinkered view of the world, but such is the distain for anything linked to Rugby League in GPS Sydney schools. So what happened pre 95 if you went from Union to League Siva – wree you welcomed back with open arms?
September 25th 2009 @ 3:17pm
Siva Samoa said | September 25th 2009 @ 3:17pm | Report comment
you must have been miss inform again. doesn’t help when you have many paranoia league fans who hate rugby union than vise versa.
many former rugby union and rugby league players came back to rugby pre 95 and got involve in rugby union again. don’t let the truth get in the way of your paranoia missing link.
September 25th 2009 @ 9:02am
Harry Callahan said | September 25th 2009 @ 9:02am | Report comment
NEVER !!!
September 25th 2009 @ 9:14am
MarkH said | September 25th 2009 @ 9:14am | Report comment
At the end of the day. I like both codes and merging would stuff my tipping. These questions not only silly but just gets everyone pumped for what?
Leave the codes alone. Go pick on NFL. Now that is a code in need of some help.
September 25th 2009 @ 9:17am
Manly Matt said | September 25th 2009 @ 9:17am | Report comment
Wayne of Windale,
This is without doubt the worst article, the least well thought out, and the stupidest sports idea I have ever heard. I think all of the other comments thus far will tell you why, so there is no need for me to go in to it here.
But, whoever the administrators of The Roar are, need to take a good look at the articles that are put up on this site. The Roar has gained a lot of respect of late for it’s hard hitting, no nonsense articles that draws thoughful opinion and insight from real sports fans. This sort of rubbish will do nothing to enhance your reputation.
September 25th 2009 @ 9:23am
Rickety Knees said | September 25th 2009 @ 9:23am | Report comment
Australia has a unique situation that applies to no other country, in that it not only has to compete with Futbol but also AFL and NRL. Rugby is the 4th most popular winter sport in Australia. Given the small pool of Rugby players available we actually do quite well. I often speculate just how good we would be if we were all to harness just the NRL talent but alas that will never be. There is no way that the IRB is going to change the rules of Rugby just to suit Australia. The Northern hemisphere scuttled the ELV’s without even trialing them, falsely believing that it was an Australian plot.
Rugby League will survive because of its tribalism and Rugby will survive inspite itself.
September 25th 2009 @ 11:15am
True Tah said | September 25th 2009 @ 11:15am | Report comment
Look at New Zealand Rugby League, which is in a hell of a lot more strife than Australian Rugby Union, and yet they are able to wreste the title of world champion from the pride of Australian rugby league.
September 25th 2009 @ 9:32am
captain nemo said | September 25th 2009 @ 9:32am | Report comment
wayne of windale, all your article shows is that your knowledge of league and rugby is poor. On a lighter note, listening to radio national online last night, I heard an interview with wallaby Adam Freier who said the team no longer call league mungo, its new name for league in the wallaby camp is “mygameisbetta”
September 25th 2009 @ 9:40am
Rodney McDonell said | September 25th 2009 @ 9:40am | Report comment
I’m not going to read all that, but i did most of it. A few points.
1. Your premise that the codes need to merge because of falling popularity and player depth in rugby league and rugby union is flawed. I only see the “downward spiral of falling popularity” inherent in RU in Australia. Also from the News Articles i’ve read and the responces from those articles, it seems RU is not on the down in NZ but it certainly is amasing a credible number of critiques.
2. I agree the two codes combined in Australia would have a massive player depth + money to easily be able to combat a very strong AFL. Still, i think RL could do this without the money RU could bring it. I have no doubt that with the emergence of an independant body for the NRL the game will prosper.
3. You site the off field problems of rugby league as if they’ve had a negative impact on the sustainability of the NRL – when in fact all the statistics point the in the opposite directions. This has been the NRLs highest crowd pulling season and highest TV viewing season (the only code to increase crowds and tv figures this eyar).
Rugby Union needs some help. I don’t think an extra S14->S15 team will make a difference in Australia. If they want to brign more people to the game, starting playing more interesting opposition. I.e play England more, Wales, Ireland, Scottland, Argenina etc. There are many countries out there that would make great opposition for Australia and I’m sure people would watch it. Australia v NZ v SA is getting boring.
September 26th 2009 @ 3:19am
Ryan said | September 26th 2009 @ 3:19am | Report comment
As a fan of both codes i think the impact of what has happened off the field in league this year will not be felt for another 10 years. If i had had to choose today what i wanted my son to play i would have to say Union because of values that the most of the players seem to have. You only need to compare any player in the Wallabies to a comparable player in the Kangaroos to see my point. Unfortunately the exception to the rule in League is the minority and vice versa in Union
September 25th 2009 @ 9:44am
oikee said | September 25th 2009 @ 9:44am | Report comment
Nice one Capt, well to tell you the truth, league followers are not that insecure, we dont even talk about the game called Union, you dug your own grave by being elitist. :_
Just to give everyone a point of example, take league in America, starting from now, if the yanks watch rugby league and then get shown some rugby union comp, they will be thinking that the union being shown must be the lower grade of the league players. Look its a sad tale, but its a very true tale. America is getting the Eels Bulldogs game tonite. May Union finally rest in peace.
No really, the top class union is All-blacks,wallabies. Put your hand up if you want more of this every year. Queenslander.
September 25th 2009 @ 10:32am
Siva Samoa said | September 25th 2009 @ 10:32am | Report comment
a paranoid australian league fan dreaming again. why use america when you can use new zealand who has been bored to death with watching rugby league for over 100 years that there are only 15,000 league players left and rugby is even more popular than it was when it first started. American rugby is very strong with college rugby set to have their own competition and 7′s rugby going professional all they are waiting for is next week when rugby gets into the olympics game.
September 25th 2009 @ 10:44am
oikee said | September 25th 2009 @ 10:44am | Report comment
Siva, mate, They will never show American Rugby prime time over there, The NRL is the strongest comp in the world, i hate to dissapoint you there big fella, but Australia nearly has as big a Kiwi immigrant population as NZ, and they are all playing rugby league mate. Your Rugby comp is on a hiding to nowhere, the only guys that watch your Air NZ cup are Union diehards over hear. And man, they are dieing hard. The super 15 is nothing more than a watered down version of what drivel you just showed us with the tri nations.
Your All-black Wallaby game was belted for a 6 last week, nobody was watching, only a few diehards on FOX man. America is buying the rights for the NRL. You really need to turn off the lights when you move over to oz, have i mentioned to you that the Broncos are a powerhouse, the biggest rugby club in the world.
September 25th 2009 @ 11:10am
Siva Samoa said | September 25th 2009 @ 11:10am | Report comment
last time i heard they show american vs canada rugby world cup game live on espn on primetime.
how many people in america have espn compared to spike lee tv ? how many rugby union players, college, high schools, woman, clubs are there in american compared to a couple of pub teams in league ? please to tell us. i’ll wait for your response.
Don’t worry about NZ. Rugby will always be the national sport. Its a religion and part of New Zealand culture.
Rugby league national competition the Bartercard Cup was watched by a man and his dog has been chop of the face of this earth. There are 18 professional rugby teams in rugby union in NZ. There is only one professional league team in NZ and most of that team are made up of Australians .
Rugby has over 145,0000 players. rugby league has 15,000. You do the maths when you wake up from your dream.
September 25th 2009 @ 11:29am
oikee said | September 25th 2009 @ 11:29am | Report comment
Siva, you really have no idea do you? Rugby league NRL is huge, your tiny supper 14/15 whatever, is a small little 3 country comp with what, ? 5 teams from each country, rugby league has 16 teams from oz and 1 nz, it will be 2 from nz soon with wellington to be included.
Now those 16 teams which could be 20 if league wanted to go this path have untold opportunities for rugby league players, from the age of 14, (which pay jumiors around 50 to 150 thousand dollars, even before they play NRL, your whole competition rely’s on a few players making the All-black squad to make a quid. You do the math,
rugby league in oz is huge man, it has opened the door for islanders and nearly has a 50% player ratio of youth players of Island decent making big money. Rugby league is going to gobble up anything that union can offer in this country, take a look at the island nations, PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, even the french Polynesion nations are starting to look into league. League is going to be the big money maker for Polly players, they will take this wealth and encourage others as they are doing,
Jarryd Hayne has done more for Fiji than any other union player has done for their nation. He has made the whole nation proud. Their are 10 Jarryd Haynes coming through the Toyota cup, open your eyes man.
September 25th 2009 @ 12:27pm
Siva Samoa said | September 25th 2009 @ 12:27pm | Report comment
you have no idea ikee but dreams. thanks for answering my question on American rugby/league playing numbers.
anyway go on about an australian competition because thats all it is an australian competition.
Why should we kiwi’s give a hood about the nrl ? new zealand would never get another team because it was the warriors that ruin rugby league in this country. Why should nz get another team when the whole of australia hasn’t got an nrl team ? keep dreaming.
new zealand – 1 professional rugby league team full of australian players. National competition Bartercard cup canned and no where for players to play rep except the major cities. Rugby League only played in two province in the South Island. Only 15,000 players left from 40,000 five years again
145,000 rugby union player.18 professional rugby union teams, All Blacks the most famous rugby team of the two codes on this planet.
Biggest games on tv and biggest TV ratings every year.
NZ – Rugby Union wins hands down
Australia – 16 professional teams, very popular on tv not so popular in other states. kangaroo’s can’t sellout any games.
rugby union has over 80,000 players. four professional teams soon to be five. more popular than league in western australia and has more playing numbers in victoria and south australia.
Australia – Rugby League wins in NSW, QLD,
South Africa – Over 500,000 rugby union players. 20 professional rugby union teams. world champions and very popular on tv.
a couple of pub league teams played by rugby union players in the off-season to get fit.
South Africa – Rugby Union wins hands down.
Pacific Islands – Over 20,000 rugby union players playing professional and semi professional in France, Ireland, Wales, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Portugal, Spain, USA, Scotland, Italy, Australia, Russia, Japan and Northern Ireland.
Samoa – Ten professional rugby union teams . 49 Rugby Union province with their own club competition..
Fiji – 15 professional rugby union teams – 105 Provincial union with their own club competition.
Tonga – 4 profeassional teams. 79 provincial rugby union with their own club competition.
Rugby league pub teams is played by union players in the off season .
Pacific Islands – Rugby Union wins hands down.
September 27th 2009 @ 9:43pm
Working Class Rugger said | September 27th 2009 @ 9:43pm | Report comment
Oikee
You’re right. Rugby League is huge. But only within NSW and Queensland. It’s following outside those two states is actually smaller than Rugby’s.
Umm… could you name the 10 new ‘Jaryd Hayne’s’ in the Toyota Cup, Because from what I have seen this season there really isn’t much to get excited about.
September 25th 2009 @ 11:20am
True Tah said | September 25th 2009 @ 11:20am | Report comment
oikee
if you knew anything about New Zealand Rugby and the Air NZ Cup you might be aware that ratings are up considerably this season and so are crowds.
The issue facing New Zealand rugby league is somewhat similar to that in Australian rugby in that the focus is mainly on one team…however thats where the similaroity ends, NZ is far smaller than Australia and Australian rugby has the Super 14 sides as well. In NZ, the Warriors play, but thats about it. Nothing for league fans in Wellington or Christchurch to really get excited about.
September 25th 2009 @ 11:38am
oikee said | September 25th 2009 @ 11:38am | Report comment
I just answered this question, but to put ANZ cup anywhere near the powerhouse of the NRL is just daft, Sparc are controlling rugby league in NZ now, rugby union is NZ sport, i will never say anything less, but for NZ not to be part of the NRL would be political suicide. Wellington wants a team, they even tried to get a team in super league.
September 25th 2009 @ 12:32pm
Siva Samoa said | September 25th 2009 @ 12:32pm | Report comment
The anz is the powerhouse rugby competition in New zealand . The NRL is the power house league competition in Australia.
The Bartercard Cup was the number one rugby league competition in NZ but it got canned.
September 25th 2009 @ 11:40am
oikee said | September 25th 2009 @ 11:40am | Report comment
There is a difference between a local comp game like the ANZ cup and a powerhouse club that the NRL can produce, Storm will be the next powerhouse in Rugby League, the Warriors also could be, if they pulled their finger out.
September 25th 2009 @ 12:35pm
Siva Samoa said | September 25th 2009 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
Warriors winning the NRL would be huge news in South Auckland.
September 25th 2009 @ 2:52pm
Onceinawhile said | September 25th 2009 @ 2:52pm | Report comment
U Mean the strongest RL comp in the world surely? and that’s pretty much because it is the only RL comp in the world.
I’m a league fan, but you sound even more delusional than me!
September 25th 2009 @ 3:11pm
Working Class Rugger said | September 25th 2009 @ 3:11pm | Report comment
Oikee, Oikee, Oikee you are a dreamer. For the first NRL finals game screened into the States via Spike TV only drew 250,000 people. That’s pitiful for a population of over 300 million. Having actually seen footage of both the USNRL and the Rugby Superleague the difference of quality is huge and heavily in favour of Rugby in the States. All I have to say to you this. USRugby will have over 100,000 player’s by Jan 2010 and 130,000 + kids regularly participating in its development program “Rookie Rugby’ as of the beginning of the school year as part of their PE cirriculum.
September 26th 2009 @ 10:34pm
Steffy said | September 26th 2009 @ 10:34pm | Report comment
250,000 is pretty good. It’s far mnore than watch the Guinness Premiership in the UK on Sky (as a comparison)
September 26th 2009 @ 10:51pm
Working Class Rugger said | September 26th 2009 @ 10:51pm | Report comment
For the US it absolutely nothing. Something like 0.15% of the population. Not even worth recording.
September 26th 2009 @ 10:59pm
Steffy said | September 26th 2009 @ 10:59pm | Report comment
It was the first game shown on Spike wasn’t it? These things build over time. However somebody decided to record it because the figures were given after the game. Perhaps the IRB should follow suit instead of announcing the TV ratings for the union world cup 2 years before it takes place.
Regardless, that 250,000 is 250,000 more than have previously watched the NRL on Spike. And that can only be great news.
September 26th 2009 @ 11:48pm
Siva Samoa said | September 26th 2009 @ 11:48pm | Report comment
the english rugby international team gets 7 or 8 million for six nations matches and 10 to 12 million for rugby world cup games. how many does the great britain and one irishman get in rugby league international ?
September 28th 2009 @ 11:21pm
Steffy said | September 28th 2009 @ 11:21pm | Report comment
Only some of those games and only a tiny percentage show any interest in union outside those handful of games. Still, pretty good figures.
September 28th 2009 @ 11:05pm
Knives Out said | September 28th 2009 @ 11:05pm | Report comment
I hope some of those people turn up for the four nations this autumn, Steffy. or that figure might prove embarrassingly irrelevant.