In a similar vein, why come to a discussion forum called RLFANS and then be surprised when the users think League is a better game than Union? Yes, this thread is to discuss Union but it is being discussed predominately by fans of League. I discuss Union on here but I don’t go on Union boards to discuss it and I certainly don’t go on Union boards asking them why they think League is inferior – they follow Union and therefore think that is a superior game and League fans follow League and therefore think that is a superior game. Pretty straight forward logic

Interesting to see Sale getting whacked by 62 points today by Toulon . The Premierships only northern team currently bottom of the premiership are going to be lucky to survive this season. Could it be that the Premiership will be without a northern team next season? Newcastle might have other ideas but a Long way to go. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 21007.html

Interesting to see Sale getting whacked by 62 points today by Toulon . The Premierships only northern team currently bottom of the premiership are going to be lucky to survive this season. Could it be that the Premiership will be without a northern team next season? Newcastle might have other ideas but a Long way to go. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 21007.html

You could well be right. The end of season mini-league play-off rules in the RU Championship completely scuppered Bristol last season after they had led the league all season. Sale are currently in a right mess and crowds are down too with the move to Salford.

Quote Sadfish="Sadfish"Interesting to see Sale getting whacked by 62 points today by Toulon . The Premierships only northern team currently bottom of the premiership are going to be lucky to survive this season. Could it be that the Premiership will be without a northern team next season? Newcastle might have other ideas but a Long way to go. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 21007.html'" Karma! The ghost of County Past and Salford Future are coming to haunt Sale Present.

Quote Sadfish="Sadfish"Interesting to see Sale getting whacked by 62 points today by Toulon . The Premierships only northern team currently bottom of the premiership are going to be lucky to survive this season. Could it be that the Premiership will be without a northern team next season? Newcastle might have other ideas but a Long way to go. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 21007.html'" Karma! The ghost of County Past and Salford Future are coming to haunt Sale Present.

The last Aviva crowd Sale got was pretty similar to Salford's average from last season. I'm baffled as to why they turned up in greater numbers at a soccer ground (and a dump of a soccer ground at that) in Cheshire.

More trouble at Sale, John Mitchell quitting as coach after a month in charge to return to South Africa.

There's a tumour eating away at that club from the inside, and it's called Steve Diamond's ego.

Wasps beat London Welsh 34-15

interesting article about the problems RU faces with the scrum and how it is having a damaging effect on skill levels and entertainment in the game. www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/ja ... ugby-union

interesting article about the problems RU faces with the scrum and how it is having a damaging effect on skill levels and entertainment in the game. www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/ja ... ugby-union

The minute the IRB insisted on the ludicrous "crouch, touch, pause, engage" mantra scrums became an absolute shambles.

Look back at games from the 90s, where teams were allowed to engage on their own terms and the scrum allowed to settle before the scrum half put the ball in. Very few collapses, very few scrums leading to penalties or free-kicks.

The current laws basically allow 240 plus stone of forwards to engage in a "who can hit hardest" contest, with little concentration on getting the binding and engagement correct. That's what leads to scrums continually needing to be reset, as props are too interested in getting a nudge on their opposite number rather than correctly binding to keep the scrum up.

Time the IRB went back to the future if they want to sort out the setpiece.

My understanding with the crouch touch etc was to make the scrum safer to avoid the length of time players were pushing in the scrum causing injuries and also dangerous scrums with lots of pushing and collapses that caused injury.

The reasons for this is that most RU players now have exchanged 70 s and 80 s flab for 2000 muscle and therefore the pressure in the scrums is much higher and the number of shoulder, neck and back injuries was increasing

Given that significantly more scrums are required as each one needs to be reset two or three times, the total time spent by both packs exerting pressure through the front row won't have decreased at all from what it was when most scrums were got right first time.

Disappointing for Hendrie Fourie that his retirement due to injury means he now has to leave the country that he represented at international level.

Hasn't been here long enough to qualify for UK residency, and the cancellation of his Sale contract means he also has his sportsperson's visa revoked despite having an English born son.