Post subject: Re: United global game; merger of RL and RU
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 10:48 am
glee
Free-scoring winger
Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2001 12:04 pm Posts: 2052 Location: Sandbeds Keighley
There is always the chance that League and Union might merge although personally I doubt it will ever happen. But if things had been slightly different in the early 1890s, there might have been just one code of rugby in this country and equally internationally. This is a theme that a recently published novel by London League Publications explores. It is based on answering the question "what would have happened if before August 1895 the Northern clubs had been in the majority and had control of the game". Written by Peter Lush it is fiction but it is possible that things could have gone that way. What a pity it didn't. More details on "Rugby Football: A United Game" shown on http://www.llpshop.co.uk.
[b]Visit //www.geofflee.net for details of my novels 'One Winter', 'One Spring', 'One Summer' 'One Autumn' and 'Two Seasons'. All five feature Rugby League against a humourous Lancashire/Yorkshire background and are inspired by the old saying about work: "They could write a book about this place. It would be a best seller."[/b]
Post subject: Re: United global game; merger of RL and RU
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 11:44 am
Roy Haggerty
Silver RLFANS Member
Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2001 12:04 pm Posts: 5480 Location: London
All comes down to the way the ball is recycled in possession. Everything else is window-dressing.
If you are allowed to retain the ball in the tackle, then you can take more risks without fear of losing possession. You also have far fewer penalties and scrums because of breakdowns in play, as rucks and mauls are always going to be very prone to errors and infringements.
How to re-start - lineouts, competitive scrums, drop-outs etc - the scoring system, the number of players even, these are all issues which could be adapted. But as long as there is a requirement to release the ball in the tackle, and no secure possession, then you will have a game which is essentially about kicking for territory and hoping to score from a setpiece, peppered with lots of stoppages for scrums and penalties.
The decision on possession would essentially decide whether the game was league with amendments, or union with amendments. There is no middle ground.
"...the biggest boor, the most opinionated pompous bigot that frequents these
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Post subject: Re: United global game; merger of RL and RU
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 5:16 pm
Fax and furious
Cheeky half-back
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:08 am Posts: 578
Roy Haggerty wrote: The decision on possession would essentially decide whether the game was league with amendments, or union with amendments. There is no middle ground.
Excellent observation RH.
IT's just that it is so galling that our (RL) players do not get the appropriate level of recognition or media coverage.
For example Will Carling was, in relative terms, not fit to lace the boots of contempories such as say a Garry Schofield in his pomp. But look at the unfair disparity in general recognition in this country.
beetwaste wrote:The benefits would be a single code of Rugby that would be better place to compete on a domestic and world stage with other sports. Imagine an English league with Leicester, Northampton etc, combined with Wigan, Leeds etc. It'd be a helluva league. And the rah-rah boys have a much better supported international game than we'll ever have. Couple that with the blue-chip sponsors that seem to be drawn to the 15-a side game, and there are massive benefits.
The downside is, that the new game would be utter tripe, because it'd almost certainly be RU with 13 players. Lineouts, rucks,mauls. Constant kicking. I doubt the RL fans would adopt that.
I wonder how an experimental mini-series between the two codes would work. Top 2 SL teams vs top-two in RU, in a mini-league. Try some different rules and see what sort of game we'd get. Drop line-outs and two players, but with contested scrums and rucks/mauls. Or 15 a side limited tackles.
It'll never happen. Completely fantasy.
If the codes merged there'd be a much greater emphasis on the international competition as that is where most of the money lies.
Look at other small-mid sized international sports worldwide, cricket, hockey, etc. Chasing/expanding the international game eventually kills off the club game. In Australia you'd basically be handing the country over to the year-long AFL and soccer club comps while a merged RL/RU would simply take the place of what RU is now; non-existent clubs and one or two well covered internationals a year...
Give it a couple of generations and the next gen Inglis, Tomkins, Foran, etc would be growing up idolising the week-to-week players of their favourite AFL/soccer club and the unified rugby would lose many, many players and fans.
Post subject: Re: United global game; merger of RL and RU
Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 11:37 am
Perry
Free-scoring winger
Joined: Sun Mar 10, 2002 5:17 pm Posts: 1169 Location: Hertfordshire
There is already a hybrid game, it's called "Super Series", or as I call it "Rugby League with Line Outs".
In "Super Series" the way the laws are 'interpreted' (or in some cases 'ignored') means that if you're going forward you can pretty much do what you want at the ruck as long as the ball comes out quickly, while if you're defending you're hardly allowed to counter-ruck or touch the ball. Furthermore the maul is ref'd in such a way as to pretty much outlaw it. All done to speed up the game for TV and compete with RL and Aussie Rules.
Trouble is, it's not really Rugby Union. It strikes me that people who are into union want to watch union, not some bastardised hybrid resulting from wholesale re-interpretation of the laws.
Similarly, those of us who love Rugby League first and foremost want to watch League, not some derivative.
Post subject: Re: United global game; merger of RL and RU
Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 5:54 pm
Lovesauce
Eddie Hemmings's Wig
Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:55 pm Posts: 142
salford1970 wrote:Next Churchill will solve the problems in Israel and Palestine.
"If you all just shake hands and accept each other's right to live and have your own homeland as well as sharing Jerusalem I can see this ending well for all concerned".
Post subject: Re: United global game; merger of RL and RU
Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 4:02 am
gutterfax
Gold RLFANS Member
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2003 8:33 am Posts: 20966 Location: The Shaky Isles
Lockyer4President! wrote:Union will be amateur in Australia within fifteen years. Properly amateur this time.
...you really are mistaking your juvenile wishlist for facts.
53,250 was the crowd average for the Wanabbees in 2014, with 37 the average at Home over 7 tests.
dally messenger wrote:was watching an nfl doco. on one of their teams and they used the term bomb to describe those long high passes from quaterback to running back and i think gibson took that idea, realized you cant throw the ball forward in RL and adapted it to a "bomb" kick we have
eels fan wrote:You poor poor obsessed fat ex vichyballin potato thieving stoaway.
Post subject: Re: United global game; merger of RL and RU
Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 10:28 pm
SodIt The Hedgehog
Cheeky half-back
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 10:45 am Posts: 920 Location: The small fishing village of Haydock
beetwaste wrote:Imagine an English league with Leicester, Northampton etc, combined with Wigan, Leeds etc. It'd be a helluva league. And the rah-rah boys have a much better supported international game than we'll ever have. Couple that with the blue-chip sponsors that seem to be drawn to the 15-a side game, and there are massive benefits.
Players could play League rules at club level and Union rules at international level...what? It's not as if we don't already play under different rules internationally!
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...you really are mistaking your juvenile wishlist for facts.
