Thursday 25 February 2010
Just for Chris
Thanks for following my blog. The RU versus RL debate is a tough one from a viewers point of view. The objectives of the two games have become so different, and if yoy grew up watching one it is hard to watch the other. To RU fans RL seems simple and the game can only be won by attacking for tries, RU can be bogged down by negative play. To us, it seems ridiculous seeing a team who scores less tries winning through penalties from complex technicalities. The true hatred is a historic and political one. Rugby Union was played as an amateur game. This was ok for the southern public school educated. Up north, miners and dockers who were working 6 day weeks had to take a day off and wanted, needed replacement pay as they didnt earn much. The Northern Union decided to seperate themselves, their teams had won all competitions for a decade, they decided to reimburse the players for lost earnings. What followed was nearly a century of aparthied where if an RU player as much as had a trial for an RL team, they were banned from playing union for life. The 2 sports evolved from this point. Union became a great game for players, I played, there was room for short fat blokes, tall lanky blokes, a great game to play, the ball in play for only 40% of the game. RL evolved in to a game to be watched, the ball in play for 80% of the game, tries outvalueing penalties. By th 1980s we were so far ahead it was a joke, RUs best team Bath played a Wigan team in decline and lost 84 6. Bradford Bulls played St Helens in one of the hardest games of the season, got on a coach, 2 hours sleep then won the RU seven asides competition the next day. The divide was huge. Now RU has pulled its socks up but the games bare little in common, a great RL player may fail in RU, Johnny Wilkinson wouldnt get in any super league side, he's a great kicker but all RL players have to defend and whats more pass to attempt to score tries. I see RU games with scores of over 20 points a side where no tries are scored, all midfield mess and kicks, waiting for penalties. The worst moment was when England dragged the game in to a mess of bodies to win the world cup. Sorry, but visually, morally and spiritually RL is thye greatest game of all.
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Hi
ReplyDeleteHaven't logged on recently so almost missed this.
Growing up in Hampshire rugby league seemed a bit exotic, even the names of the teams were, Hunslett, Swinton, Wigan. To many southerners "the north" is a long way away. Even now I think many people in the south think nothing of hopping across to France, but a trip to Yorkshire is like a journey into the Heart of Darkness.
It seemed to me in the sixties and seventies, when I watched RL and played RU, that RL was a war of attrition with players just running into tackles until it was time for a scrum ( I was obviously missig the subtlety of it). While RU was a game of skirmishes with more mobility. I wonder if the problems with RU that you refer to are since it has become professional and there is more ridig on the result. Previously RU did not have so many leagues and cups, games were played between gentlemen for the fun of it! And the rules reflected this, with the coming of competions the approach to the game changed but the rules did not keep up. I understand that RL has always had competitions so the rules were formulated to cater for that.
As I said I have not watched much rugby recently. The few occasions I have seen it I was impressed by the change in the physical shape of the RU players since professionalism, so triangular, like a load of Dairy Lea cheese slices running around the pitch.
Thinking about northern sport put me in mind of a childhood hero of mind Alf Tupper "The tough of the track", do you remember him, or didn't you get The Victor.
I did get the Victor and I'm grateful for the flood of memories remembering so.
ReplyDeleteNow I live 'down south' I often find, when I return home, a parallel of ignorance. some think all south of Nottingham are rolling in wealth which is certainly not the case. I confess to a bigotry I was brought up on by my Father yet still feel RU has got itself into a strange position since professionalism. I loved playing the sport and still believe it a better game to play. My problem lies with the spectacle. Rugby League has its rule problems too now with the advent of wrestling techniques being brought in to the tackle to slow play down. With overview I find both games more ready to experiment with rule changes than football where 50 year old solitary refs chase young, fired up men, unable to keep up with what the camera sees.