A union man watches his first game of league

IOW as predictable as sand is on the beach.

Not to agree with you.. But in the Past 3 test matches between the SANZAR vs 6N teams... The team that put the ball into the scrum retained the ball 94% of the time... The teams that lost the most scrums on their own feed were Ireland and Australia.

KiwiBear, I have to say the QGIRLs post is probably the the funniest I've read on the Roar. I think you summed it up beautifully: "'Sorry…there s nothing redeeming about rugby union” That statement there translates to im close minded.'

Getting rid of scrum penatlies had SFA to do with what the AFL was doing.The scrum penatlies were a blight on the game,everyone complained about them.The pressure came from within.Rule changes are an evolutionary thing. Penalties decades ago could change a game,and the refs did not have the assistance of video .Many penatlies slipped through unchallenged. I will settle for games like the Bulldogs v Storm and even the Eels v Panthers,at least the ball is out in the open,not hidden in crab wise moving rucks and mauls.Barba's effort was worth the price of admission.So much for the oft used one dimensional. I dont believe the NRL clubs would be that keen on poaching S15 ru players,judging by what I have seen of late .The ability to express oneself is avalable to players in rugby league with more room to move and less players.. And the refs appear less pedantic ,than the ones, like the partypooper who ran the Walls v Wales test.And not the first time I might add.

Safa is probably used to the higher standard of SA Rugby than Aus. Some of the Aus derbies have been shockers and the less said about the Waratahs the better??

Ok I've now come to the conclusion that the poster Old Rugby Boy is not who he says who he is: Old Rugby Boy said | May 15th 2012 @ 10:58am | Report comment Hi Justin2, To my horror, I found Rugby League being played right across Europe. I have seen games being played in nearly every eurropean country. They even play seond tier tests. I think it is called the European Shield. I am not sure if Germany or Russia is the current holder but a german business associate told me that Rugby League should become the second football code in Germany in 10 years. I even saw games of Rugby League in the black townships of South Africa. There are two competing professional Rugby League competions in the USA, both being televised and I understand the US pays test matches against the West Indies and Canada. I looked on Wikipedia and there are 40 nations with Rugby League test sides. Most of them would be rubbish but I think we can blame Rupert Murdoch and Sky TV for his world widebroadcasts of Super League. Reply Justin said | May 15th 2012 @ 5:24pm | Report comment Well have a look at Rugby across Europe and the sides in the East. They are actually good teams. Rugby is now in the Olympics so many countries, name the US are hungry for success due to increased funding. League? Care factor… Reply Old Rugby Boy said | May 15th 2012 @ 5:40pm | Report comment Not the point, old boy,player numbers are starting to climb, rapidly and that must be a worry. If we stick our heads in the sand and sit back and “look at rugby union across Europe etc ” Rugby League will overtake us. I have had a look at Rugby Union across Europe, I go there every second month. The picture is not as rosy as the IRB istelling us. Rugby League is taking over in some countries. When you go to Europe you will see Super League in nearly every country, on Sky. The Heiniken Cup is not as widley broadcast and does not rate as well. To make sure Rugby Union grows we shouldnt be disparaging about Rugby League we have to make Rugby Union better. p.Tah said | May 15th 2012 @ 6:02pm | Report comment Best way to pretend you’re a rugby fan is to make up a name like ‘Old Rugby Boy’ and use cliches such as ‘old boy’ when referring to others. Any guesses who this poster really is? Justin2 said | May 16th 2012 @ 5:40pm | Report comment Gee and if I say I go to Europe a couple of times a year and see the exact opposite then what happens? Sorry Old Boy but no one is buying what you are selling…

RL used to be a penalty athon (remember scrum penalties) but the flow on of Aussie Rules made them attempt to speed the game up . Now is a violent version of touch football with bizarre attempts to make it less predictable (stripping the ball, kicking the ball dead from a restart to regain posssession, 40-20 etc). Now ironidcally there are less penalties but with the 10 metre rule they are more significant and can change a game. As the writer said the skills are only basically comparable and it would be interesting to see if RU was still amateur how many RU guys would be bought by League..

"Sorry...there s nothing redeeming about rugby union" That statement there translates to im close minded. Congratulations to the Author for being open minded enough to give League a chance Im sure if he watches more games then he will see that the game although different has a lot of good points to it. I ve been in a similar situation being a New Zealander moving to Melbourne. To start of I hated Aussie Rules football as i simply could not get my head around the game as i was looking at it from a union/league background. But as sooon as i took another look at it with an open mind I appreciated it for the great game it is! You can compare it with league and union but all three are unique games with different skill sets. Queensland Game Is Rugby League - Im sorry but I have to say your call is a bad one. In league true the players do run complex lines but more often than not it is simple one up running the ball up to set up for one big play. In union the skill is in winning posession and then retaining it phase after phase slowly working into a position where you can score, in league they have trouble completing a set of six. Dont get me wrong i love league but i love my union too. Each has it s negatives but the positives of both hopefully outweigh those.

KOG, It is me. Before I retired I spent at least 3 month a year in Europe. RU is strong in France and, surprisingly Spain (perhaps not as it was a fascist dictatorship until recently and we all know the relationship between fascism and RU in Europe), but because of Sky and simplicity of its rules RL is rapidly becoming national sports in North and Eastern Europe. In Germany the growth has been so spectacular that my former business associates, in Germany were watching more and more RL. Germany is now pushing for a Super League team. In countries around the Mediterranean, where there are strong family connection to Australia RL has taken off. Why the surprise? Most of Eastern Australia can’t be wrong all the time.

oikeee. And it would be also boring without the dummy spitters.Got to love them, duirng or after the game,when the ref has done something wrong. You can see them now Stuart,Smith,Hasler,Anasta etc.

Actually it is rugby league,in Ukraine,Norway,and the Czech Republic,so League fan is correct.However it is Serbia where the game is really growing well KOG. Always good to have variety, when it comes to sport and perhaps with all the dramas in Europe ATM,rugby league is a marvellous distraction..

Rugby league would be boring without the dummy runners, three cheers for the dummy runners. That might be interesting, find out who invented dummy runners. Our game needs to, and does not give enough credit to the dummy runners. We should have a hall of fame for these masked men. :) Who are they, what are they, and why was i not told about them, every game i watch, i hear the commontators giving credit to these men. Plus dummy runners just sounds funny to me. Why not call them mummy runners, or dunny runners.

You are right. Germany have got big plans for RL. In fact RL is gaining a strong foothold in a lot of European countries. The Check Republic, Norway and the Ukraine are some of the many European countries where RL is taking off.

Really? Where do you meet these people?

? Clearly it would be rugby, that is why it has an international presence. That is why there were test match all over the world this weekend.

Apparently the Germans are taking a shine to rugby league. Some one on here said they spoke with one of the officials from there. He was told that rugby league will become the second most popular code of football there in a few years.

There is alot of work done off the ball in rugby league. The second-rowers, front rowers and centres run complex lines, acting as as decoys to draw defenders out of a position, but also acting as legitimate options that their dummy half, haflback and five eighth can link up with. You don't get this in union very often. The only time I've seen it in union is when a set piece play is performed after a line-out or scrum. In rugby league you'll see it at least 3 times each set. The "off the ball" work in rugby union is just the rucking and mauling.It's boring and not all that skilful. I prefer to watch the ball runners in action during a rugby league match. There's a lot of thought and skill involved in what they do. It also makes it much more difficult for the defender, as they only have a split second to decide whether they need to slide or come up and in to shut down a play. Rugby union defenders are rarely confronted with this sort of attack, so they just sit back on their line and wait for one of the fatties to crawl the ball up to them for a gain of 5 inches. The ball players in rugby league are so much better at what they do than the ones in rugby union. The halfbacks and five eighthes in rugby league are more agile, can step off both feet while accelerating, can throw a crisp bullet pass around 20 to 30 metres with pinpoint accuracy, have a great attacking kicking game and know how to read the line so that they can direct the attack towards the defender who is either out of position or about to be out of position. You don't get this in union. These reasons are why I find rugby union to be the lousiest sport to watch. I don't know how anyone can watch it without feeling silly. The people who prefer rugby union don't seem to understand anything about ball playing skills, which would explain why they don't appreciate the superior skills of the halfbacks and five eighthes in rugby league. All they like to see it big fat men standing around in a scrum formation, which is something they have to reat about 10 times because they are not very good at it. Sorry, but there's nothing redeeming about rugby union.

Unless you live in Victoria where channel nine treat it with absolutly no respect at all and quarantine games to ridiculous hours or dont even bother! Take the rights of them i say!

I would say that there is a lot of difference between the two scrums. I will, however, agree with you that Union scrums take way too long to form and resetting them is almost always a waste of time. Just go right to a free kick and be done with it. The two key differences in the scrums are: 1) anyone and his mother will pack into a League scrum because no one cares what will happen during the scrum itself and 2) Union scrums, while almost always going to the team with the feed, are at least a theoretical contest that requires planning for at least the possibility that the ball might go in straight and be contestable or that one team will keep the ball in the scrum to have the pack move the ball forwards.

In theory it could take five minutes...just rewrite the rules so that every situation that now results in a scrum would instead lead to a handover and a play the ball or a tap kick. Of course, for some strange reason people seem to like it.