League fires back: RTS abandons All Black dream as resurgent Warriors announce star's return to NRL

He has alreadyed played as an All Blacks so you cannot abandon a dream that has already come true.....the mind boggles.

Chivas, that's an interesting question about the animosity between league and union in Aus. I played union as a kid in Sydney but always followed league (and the wallabies). Both are wonderful games, although I do feel that union was better in the Campese era than today. But what has always put me off union is the classist attitudes of many union people - I have often heard private school union types disrespecting league with their general attitude being that the game is played by thugs and people of low intellect and is somehow in itself intellectually inferior to union. This attitude is so ridiculous it is almost beyond belief. But anyway, it is this attitude, combined with the slow pace and stoppages of union and the scoring system that favours penalty goals over tries (at least compared to league), that means I don't watch union much except wallabies games and the world cup.

Silly headline. It was his decision and a good one. He realised he wasnt RWC bound with so many better players at 12 ahead of him. NZ isnt interested in Aus code wars.

Yeah this is boring now. Soap box is fine la

??

Lets get something clear here. RTS is a win for League because he is pure class off the field. One of best blokes to ever play the game. He will bolster a Warriors side which is in pretty decent form. He is not a win for League because League needs the talent or good PR though.

You remenber incorrectly... SBW was mainly used from the bench.. No way he was replacing Maa Nonu

What he said x 100!!!!

Innes was a hell of a league player too.

The only clash of the codes I'm aware of proved only one thing.. they are two different games. Bath v Wigan resulted in each side winning their respective games. As a fan of both games who can see positives and negatives in both codes, I really struggle with the "my dads bigger than your dad" arguments. The fact that some elite players can shine in both proves little, equally this can be said for those who fail

Not sure what your comment has to do with anything… but it’s a pity in your case reading comprehension doesn’t come with the ability to type though… not an Australian rugby fan.

I thought RTS would absolutely brain it in Union, now after watching him for a few seasons, I have to say I was wrong. To me it's clear he is never going to be the AB's option at the RWC and the reason is that there are better 12's in NZRU. For all of those who point to SBW as some kind of cross-code success story, they forget that he was mainly a bench player for the ABs for most of his time there.

This. Spot on Danny.

He wasn’t good enough to it in Rugby but was a Dally M in League. Gus Gould and the whole league commentary team might need to reflect on what is ‘the best game in the world’. While they’re at it and fixing their hyperbole, they need to be introduced to Corey Toole, because he’ll make the Fox, ‘the world fastest man’, look like a tortoise.

Isn't that what happens to the Wallabies. The last time Eddie was coach werent we hopeless at set pieces.

I’m not suggesting you have a problem with Leitch’s national identity or origins of his name. Get off your soap box. But you asked for one world class Japanese rugby player- I gave you 4 with Leitch as one of those. And here you are again building some sort of argument that at least infers some questions around whether he should be considered Japanese due to the age he arrived in Japan. As for those questions; they’re meaningless in this debate. The individual examples you’re using come from soccer where professional clubs are involved in the development of pre adolescence. That doesn’t happen in rugby where you don’t start to get an insight into whether the physical attributes required to play the game at the elite level are developing until usually the later teen years. As someone who’s involved at the pointy end of the school aged pathway, I can’t tell you the number of kids that were either earmarked for big things and failed to launch or emerged from nowhere to become a young star. And that’s in the 17/18yo age group. At 15 years a kids trajectory in rugby is virtually unknown. Yes, NRL (and now rugby clubs) are starting to show interest in kids around that age but that’s from casting a net far and wide in an attempt to rubber stamp those that do emerge to become something. The number of kids within a clubs ‘development pathway’ that never play a single game of first grade is enormous and the reality is that even if they are a ‘club junior’, the overwhelming majority of their development comes from their time in their local club, school and representative teams. The reality is you’re, barely at base camp of the development pathway at 15 with it all still ahead of you. That makes Michael a product of Japan and why his name deserves to be included on a list (which included 3 others) when asked for world class Japanese players. Yes Wales haven’t beaten the AB’s but as you’ve acknowledged, they rarely played back then. They played twice during the decade in question and Wales went down by 3 and 1 point respectively. Again, not really playing into the narrative of 2 teams out on their own.

The first real scrum will finish this contest.

The irony. Thanks Chat GPT for writing a clichéd reply from an Australian rugby union fan

I love a good debate but please stop implying I have some problem with Leitch's national identity or the origin of his name. I don't have a problem. My name isn't Paul Kent. It's also ironic as rugby fans drone on about Samoa and Tonga being fake rugby league nations because the majority grew up in pacific communities within Australia and New Zealand. It's not our business to define how a person feels about their national identity. 15 years old is debatable though in a youth high performance production debate (not an identity argument). Messi was alot younger when he went to Barca and I think Harry Kewell was 15 when he went to Leeds. Alot of footballers would have done the same and not made it to professional level. NRL fans always debate whether the roosters are a homegrown development club when they pick the best 15 and 16 year olds. There are fair arguments for both sides. The state of origin cut off is 13 years old and I think that's about right. That's just my opinion. My dad reels off all of those great players in the 70s :-) - Gareth Edwards, Merv, JJ, JPR, Gerald and the Pontypool front row. Who was best out of Phil Bennett or Barry John. It was a great side but they didn't actually beat the All Blacks with their last win in the 50s. However, they didn't play each other that often so it is always up for debate. France were also very good at that time so it could well have happened - we ll never know. They were certainly a big part of the historic Lions wins in the 70s once a sprinkling of World class Scots, Irish and Fran Cotton and Dai Duckham were added.

Is a 15 year old really anything close to the finished product? Of course Leitch is Japanese and it’s a fools argument to suggest otherwise. While New Zealand and South Africa have the best international records respectively, I don’t believe it’s accurate to suggest they’re dominant over the rest of the competition. Again, not to the same extent that Australia has dominance in League or the US has in Basketball. For example, Australia has the better head to head record vs South Africa throughout the Tri Nations/Rugby Championship. With your Welsh background you’d be aware of the pretty special team Wales had in the 70’s. I dare say if RWC’s were a thing back then and there were 2 or 3 of them in that decade then Wales would have taken at least one of them. France has also had some brilliant teams over the years and if RWC’s went back as far back as the League version- they probably would have lifted Bill by now too. It all comes back to your definition of ‘dominance’ I suppose, but while New Zealand have been the consistent benchmark like say Brazil has been in Soccer- I don’t think any team could claim outright dominance. And no; that’s not to say the international rugby and soccer landscapes are comparable, but neither are rugby’s and league’s.