Rugby League

[fd3]

No post on the topic.  Am I really the only one who follows the sport?

[Peter]

No.

Rochdale Hornets ground-share with the football team.  The first half of the season is often a washout!

Good result for Huddersfield last week.  My wife's uncle, Joe Peel, used to play for them when they were Far Town.  Calling yourself "Giants" was always asking for trouble.

[fd3]

I'm not from a league background, but inherited it from my in-laws (Hull KR).  Being foreign I nominally support the Catalans, so that whole Folau saga is working out really nice for me.  It's like we're a halfway house for players no one else would touch with a bargepole.

What are your thoughts on Toronto in the English League?

[Peter]

Same as they are for Catalans!  Anyway, the days of local sides are long gone, except in the lower leagues.  Oddly, Toronto train in Rochdale!  Rochdale themselves were founder members (with Huddersfield, I think) but those days are also long gone and Rochdale are in Division 3 this season.

I never played league, but I like the game very much.  The scrum is killing Rugby Union (that and steroids).  But I still watch it, having played ar school and college.  My limp never lets me forget!

[Psychler]

I played Union for 25 years to a pretty good standard.  In the early 80's, I also played two games of League for £$£ [under an assumed name] for a team in Cumbria.  I never told a soul until well after Union went professional as I didn't want the then mandatory life ban.

I've got to be honest, I found League boring to play.

It paid for a couple of weekends in the Lake District seeing a young lady that I'd met whilst in Carlisle playing Union for my County.

[ElyDave]

I'll watch the occasional game, but being ingrained in union as player and referee, I find league tactically less interesting with no real contested restarts and only six points of contact.  In some of the real nailbiting union matches, you can see teams putting together double figures of rucks or mauls before forcing the error

[T42]

The other day I watched a highlights reel of the 1988 New Year's Day match between Wigan and Warrington, the one they called World War III.

https://youtu.be/mjLC_vqhfZ0

First time I've watched any League since I was in my teens.

[fd3]

Union gets a big following from ex-players, as a non-player I just see people kicking the ball back and forth up the pitch, dropping the ball and then 5 minutes of stoppage until a team concedes a penalty at the scrum (seemingly at random).  When I watched it with an ex player it was much better and 10-15 years ago I remember watching some cracking matches with really good skill levels ... but it just doesn't have the appeal anymore.
League is designed as a spectator sport and as a pure spectator I find it much better than any other footy code.

Great to see that Catalans are removing rainbow flags to prevent any injury to their advertising.  I may have to switch my support to our hated Derby rivals (London).

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I think high marks in Aussie Rules football are pretty spectator friendly
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-BAaCBC1V1Q

[Peter]

What an amazing collection, D!  I don't know how Rules is played, so I'll be reading up.  Unlike rugby union players these days, they look like normal human beings, except for being mostly tall.  There's some terrific asthleticism shown - I think some of them could hurdle to an Olympic high jump medal.  There's a lot of "eye-watering" shoulder-straddling in the climbs, so I imagine the singing in the showers is pretty soprano.  I'm going to find some clips on the tube to get more familiar.  Is the injury rate high?  I imagine broken shoulders and necks are on the cards.  Definitely a bonkers sport.

Thanks for sharing - as they say on the street.

peter

[fd3]

Yeah, I hadn't included Ozzy rules, Gaelic and Kabaddi in my list because.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I come from a part of Oz that is League through-and-through (worked at the Lang Park Cauldron and all) and still think that Aussie Rules is more spectator-friendly. Amazing athleticism.

[T42]

Yeah, I hadn't included Ozzy rules, Gaelic and Kabaddi in my list because.

Anyone for buzkashi?

[DuncanM]

League is designed as a spectator sport and as a pure spectator I find it much better than any other footy code.

I used to love watching League in the days where Martin Offiah and Ellery Hanley used to boss it for Wigan. I stopped watching it in the mid 2000s I guess, when it seemed to be smash it up the middle 5 times and try for a 40:20 or whatever it was called. With union it feels like every ruck has the potential for a penalty (either way) - it drives me nuts and I don't watchi it much for that reason. With League it seemed to be all about how long you could lie on top of someone without getting pinged for it.

[markcjagar]

I grew up with a Leeds Rhinos season ticket and went to Headingley fortnightly for the better part of 10 years with my dad.

I love league - which has probably been helped by supporting one of the more dominant sides of this century - but I've been watching more and more union over the last 5 years and I have to say it really has grown on me, the more you understand the rules the more interesting a sport it becomes.

Generally the NRL is far superior to Super League and Australia will always be better than the Kiwi's and England/GB.

[fd3]

Not watched much NRL, but that which I have watched didn't sell it to me as being particularly better than the SL.  SOO included.

I pretty much only watch free to view sport anyway, so I am unlikely to see more NRL or Ozzie Rules unless they get a late night show on 4 or 5.