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Last week, I sat down and watched full game of rugby league for the first time in my life. I’ve never done that before because it is not a sport that I have had a lot to do with in the past.
I did not have league when I was growing up as I grew up in a country where league is not played much. If you are curious about where I am talking about I will give you a clue: we give our babies dried meat to chew on when they are teething and there are lions roaming the streets.
It was all the fuss about this ‘State of the Origin’ stuff that made me decide to give a game of league a go and see if I could make sense of it.
The purpose of this article is not to compare union and league, it is really just about the perspective of a union guy watching a league game for the first time, in any case we don’t need to compare the two formats because we all know that union is the better format anyway.
The game that I watched was between South Sydney Rabbitohs and Parramatta Eels, I decided to barrack for the Rabbitohs on this one because I remember hearing somebody tell me about the history of where they got their name from and I like the tradition surrounding the club. That and I happened to watch a Russell Crowe movie the other day.
The first thing that struck me was that there are some similarities in the two codes but they are actually very different. League is definitely played at a much faster pace and is a bit more frantic. I can understand how some would say that union is boring in comparison with all the kicks and scrums, but straight away league seemed to be a bit one dimensional.
But if league is one dimensional it sure is a tough dimension, the hits are fierce and those shoulder charges are not for the faint-hearted.
There is one aspect that is decidedly not tough, though, and that is the scrum. I use word loosely here. I could not believe it the first time that I saw one, it really seemed like a waste of time, why bother with it? Just hand over possession and be done with it and stop that embarrassing imitation of a scrum.
The biggest things to get used to is the fact that there is no trying to fight for possession after a tackle, no rucks or mauls and no lineouts. The two codes really are quite different. I now realise that this is a good thing, I appreciate the pace of league but also appreciate the fact that union adds more dimensions to the game.
One thing that I wish both codes would do more is to throw the ball around a bit more, it is funny how often a try is scored after the siren when teams who are behind get more adventurous and show more urgency in attack. What would happen if they did that more often?
One common thing between union and league (and all sports for that matter)? The referee’s decision always goes against your team.
The highlight for me? Watching the referee keep up with Chris Sandow and the players chasing him when he intercepted the ball and ran downfield. It looked like the referee actually had to slow down because he was so much quicker than the rest of them.
So after all this will I be watching more rugby league in the future? Better believe it!
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