Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:41 am  

gutterfax wrote:

My personal favourite.........I SUBSCRIBED TO A UNION BROADCASTING CHANNEL TO WATCH SAM EVEN THOUGH I HATE UNION

As opposed to........I SPEND HOURS OF MY TIME WRITING INANE RANTS ON A RL DISCUSSION FORUM EVEN THOUGH I HATE RL

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:59 am  

PopTart wrote:

Kinda left the subject of Sam Burgess behind now.

another thread Gutterfaxed.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:01 pm  

On RU converts, a former SL prop forward (still playing last season) was seen playing at a very modest level of club rugby union against Ormskirk last weekend. Apparently he looked rather uninspiring. Perhaps its not as easy as one likes to think?

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:40 pm  

Offside Monkey wrote:

On RU converts, a former SL prop forward (still playing last season) was seen playing at a very modest level of club rugby union against Ormskirk last weekend. Apparently he looked rather uninspiring. Perhaps its not as easy as one likes to think?

A current superleague head coach still plays the odd game of lower league RU too (or did last season anyway)

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:49 pm  

galliant wrote:

Tre Cool, so what you're claiming is the bulk of RL fans that don't turn up for internationals, or only go for a day out at the final are real fans? And to prejudge 82,000 people on the few that you know is laughable

I don't really understand the question, but what I'm saying is after 36 years of being surrounded by ru culture, I am convinced that the vast majority of England ru fans have little to no interest in the club game and as such are not fans of the wider sport of ru, just fans of the national side.

And for me that isn't something I would want RL to aspire to as in my experience RL fans are very passionate about all levels of the sport.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:07 pm  

the artist wrote:

A current superleague head coach still plays the odd game of lower league RU too (or did last season anyway)

I ran into a few rugby league Coaches and Players playing RU in the offseason. I presume the players were doing it for extra pennies. The results were always varied.

I remember speaking to a lad I knew who played for Liverpool St Helens RU. He's played in RU matches with two Saints players, the first, Mike Bennett, he described as a "machine" who scored a hattrick. The other was some winger who looked absolutely useless, his name was Anthony Sullivan. Not quite representative of their respective achievements in Ruby League.

[Uncle Rico]

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Tue Dec 09, 2014 4:35 pm  

[quote="gutterfax"]

Association football fans are loyal to country and club equally, refer to Rugby fans as "egg chasers", your average soccer fan doesn't give "rugga" a second thought,

Rugby League fans fall generally into 1 category. That is that they are fiercely loyal to their club side, which is steeped in tradition and has strong local ties to the community and the industry that is/was the heartbeat of their town.

They are probably soccer fans as well, given that most towns that have a pro league team have a better supported soccer team,

So in a nutshell, Soccer fans know of but don't care about Union and don't know about League [quote]

I know that you are referring to Rugby Union when you use Rugby and no one really calls Association Football soccer, but, apart from having a condescending tone, I thought your post was largely and it was too large, contradictory drivel.

To be helpful, I've edited it to cut down on the drivel and perhaps highlight the major contradiction, but, just in case you still don't get it, if you suggest that most Rugby League fans are Soccer fans as well, then how can Soccer fans not know about League?

I would also suggest that when it comes to Club v Country most Football supporters don't exhibit equal loyalty, especially in the Premier League...Club every time unless you support West Ham who rely on their players exploits in 1966 for any semblance of success

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Tue Dec 09, 2014 5:42 pm  

Uncle Rico wrote:

snip

Soccer fans are soccer fans....ask them to name a rugby player and the vast majority will give you a union players name.
Rugby league fans are more likely to be cross code supporters of their local soccer team......see th thread about magic weekends attendance being bit by hull FC making a final.
It's not contradictory at all to say soccer fans aren't rugby fans but rugby fans could or may be soccer fans.

Down here where there's less cross code bollox, we call them league and rugby union

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Tue Dec 09, 2014 6:30 pm  

JonB95 wrote: As opposed to........I SPEND HOURS OF MY TIME WRITING INANE RANTS ON A RL DISCUSSION FORUM EVEN THOUGH I HATE RL Those that know me know that although an annoying w@nker at the best of times, I have dome more volunteer and charity work for RL than most....I simply don't subscribe to some of the more fanatical and narrow minded views on here and therefore, am branded a Unionite. The truth is I rarely if ever give Union a second glance unless it's thrust in front of me, which down here is all too often. On the park, League tears strips off Union in so many different ways, but that is not to say there are not skillful Union players, not that any League player could walk into any Union side of their choosing in any position. Biff Tannen wrote: another thread Gutterfaxed. Threads with an opening gambit such as "I subscribed do I could watch a game I hate" invariably end up like this one, with name calling and highlighting of small errors in the hope that it will distract from the issue in hand. I haven't steered down this route, but instead simply responded to the lunatic fringe who claim that Sam Burgess walks on water, when in fact there were many RL fans who actually think he wasn't even the best player in the NRL Grand Final. Back on Thread. Burgess will probably be expected to take flat "crash" balls on Friday, at least until Bath have the game in the bag. If the game opens up, I am in agreement with the poster who says he thinks Sam will score a few tries, but if it's a close game, then it will be a battle of the players numbered 1-10 all night. I see Sir Ian McGeechan thinks that Sams Tackling technique could be a problem, as it's not always about "the hit".. I'd take on board what he says given he is one of the most successful Northern Hemisphere Union coaches of all time.....I think he even got Scotland a Grand Slam

JonB95 wrote: As opposed to........I SPEND HOURS OF MY TIME WRITING INANE RANTS ON A RL DISCUSSION FORUM EVEN THOUGH I HATE RL Those that know me know that although an annoying w@nker at the best of times, I have dome more volunteer and charity work for RL than most....I simply don't subscribe to some of the more fanatical and narrow minded views on here and therefore, am branded a Unionite. The truth is I rarely if ever give Union a second glance unless it's thrust in front of me, which down here is all too often. On the park, League tears strips off Union in so many different ways, but that is not to say there are not skillful Union players, not that any League player could walk into any Union side of their choosing in any position. Biff Tannen wrote: another thread Gutterfaxed. Threads with an opening gambit such as "I subscribed do I could watch a game I hate" invariably end up like this one, with name calling and highlighting of small errors in the hope that it will distract from the issue in hand. I haven't steered down this route, but instead simply responded to the lunatic fringe who claim that Sam Burgess walks on water, when in fact there were many RL fans who actually think he wasn't even the best player in the NRL Grand Final. Back on Thread. Burgess will probably be expected to take flat "crash" balls on Friday, at least until Bath have the game in the bag. If the game opens up, I am in agreement with the poster who says he thinks Sam will score a few tries, but if it's a close game, then it will be a battle of the players numbered 1-10 all night. I see Sir Ian McGeechan thinks that Sams Tackling technique could be a problem, as it's not always about "the hit".. I'd take on board what he says given he is one of the most successful Northern Hemisphere Union coaches of all time.....I think he even got Scotland a Grand Slam

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Tue Dec 09, 2014 9:48 pm  

I love this RU v's RL debate. One thing that the RU fans seem to forget is that for years and years RU has done everything it could to undermine and sabotage RL it could.

I went to Uni in the late 90s from playing academy RL, it was only in the third year of Uni that the rules of RU were changed to allow me to set foot on the pitch to play RU. Before this it seemed that the ex-pro was a problem for RU, despite people like Jonathan Davies openly stating there were plenty of "brown envelopes".

Look to France in the Second World War for an example of RU persecution of RL.

RL has had to evolve to become more entertaining to earn money with a dearth of wealthy backers.

Having played both, RU is definitely not my cup of tea. It's slow, ponderous, with rare ball movement to the backs. The learning to be a forward is vastly overstated by the RU world, it's learning not to run and follow the ball around the pitch for the next round of ruck/maul/scrum/throw-in with the occasional studs in the back for being in the wrong position. Tacking is light and any real collision is lacking. How people find a scrum than lasts forever with multiple restarts entertaining is totally lost on me.

Then there's the bit where the drop goal is three points?!? Imagine Pat Richards, get him to half way and why not? It's not like there's any lost field position, just get to half way, kick and if he got 50% over from there it's a lot easier than getting a try.