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Last updated on June 7th, 2017 at 03:10 pm
Congratulations to the Newcastle Knights, winners of this year’s annual NRL pre-season competition.
- What the hell’s rugby?Posted by Clayton on 2005 02 21 at 06:29 PM • permalink
- Both American football – Gridiron as we know it – and Rugby League are based on… Rugby.
Called Rugby Union here to differentiate it from League. While Union is primarily a running and tackling game, League is mostly about booze, punch-ups and hookers.
Some League stars convert to Union (which is far more complex) to give their liver a rest and to enable them to spend more time training rather than in late night police interviews.
- I don’t think it is fair to lump Wayne Carey in with those animals. He cheated on his wife with a mate’s wife. These rugby fellas took it in turn to rape a girl.
The King crossed a moral line but that’s a long way short of what the others did.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2005 02 21 at 07:01 PM • permalink
I know what rugby is, I wasn’t being serious.
Considering the US & Canadian readership, it’s not an unlikely question.
Of course my answer was not particularly serious either. (Rugby League has its share of undisciplined louts, but it also has some very fine players and a top level game can be very exciting to watch.)
I don’t know where Carey comes into it (or should I rephrase that…?).
He plays Australian football (an entirely different game from either of the rugbys).
- No offence, the true difference betwwen League and Union is the fact the media sells papers with League.
Same as AFL in Victoria.
There were over 70000 people accross Oz who went to go see trial games on the weekend, that more than you get in total to the Unions state based comp all season.
By the way its “alleged rape” and the police have not received a formal complaint.
And finally, for once a sporting body acted swiftly in cancelling the Rookies’ contract and implementing fines.
I would like to see that happen in other sports.dino
- There were over 70000 people accross Oz who went to go see trial games on the weekend, that more than you get in total to the Unions state based comp all season.
Way off Dino,
There was 36000 that turned up to the Brumbies, Waratahs and Reds last home trials. (src: RugbyHeaven) That’s actually better than the NRL.
- Fair go- Canterbury Bankstown haven’t come back from Patpong yet; I believe their pre-season game is to be held at the SFS, with a Kings Cross brothel binge folled by a running poofter-bash of Oxford St for afters. Newcastle are amateurs. BTW- Chief is bang on, and gate receipts for all home super 12 games last year would make any NRL official salivate like one of Pavlov’s pups. When it goes Super 14 it’ll be the beginning of the end for the NRL, which will wind up the hick provincial competition it has always aspired to be. The AFL’s next.
- On the Knights debacle, the first person out the door of the club should be the genius who booked the team into accommodation near coed campus bedrooms instead of a motel on the way out of town. Add alcohol and what would you expect to happen?
For those who care about historical trivia, rugby (union) started out as an amateur game and the professional wing (league) was a breakaway competition for players who needed financial compensation in case they could not get to work on Monday. That established an element of class distinction between the codes that still persists to some extent, though I imagine it is more marked in Britain.
- Bit of a fallacious argument comparing Randwick/eastwood etc to the NRL- the N stands for National, and features teams from QLD, ACT, Victoria etc; the local NSWRU comp would be closer compared to the Sydney city RL comp. If the NRL had’ve had the nuts to axe a few more Sydney clubs and epand the comp how superleague as doing they may have had a chance of survival in the big-time; pandering to archaic loyalties to clubs with no population to support them was the kiss of death- it’s only a matter of time. I hope league keeps going in some form- heaven forbid the presence of bogans, bevans, parras and westies at a game of rugby, wot?
- Habib
there is no chance of all the niff nuffs turning up to rugby because they would never understand it, if they want to see penalty shoot outs they will watch soccer.But honestly, to compare apples to apples, super 12 should be compared to State of Origin for league – that is a true provincial side.
But club loyalty is what makes the game good.You see hoe fickle the crowds are in Sydney especially when say the Swans and Waratahs are losing, when they are winning cant buy a ticket.
- Habib, you are comparing apples and oranges. Watch the first grade Union on the ABC some Saturday. How many NRL games have Utes parked against the fence as in Granville oval? First grade Union, apart from the super 12 which is an international comp, draws as many to a game as the Camden Rams league team do. We can also park our cars against the fence on cold days at Camden!
I tried real hard for many years to convert but in the end it is a shit game! Like AFL. Too stop/start. Too much influence from the ref. Too many points for a penalty. Too many penalties. Too many blokes on the field etc etc.I do agree that we have to kick out some of the Sydney clubs and expand Nationally though.
- Re Underscore’s comments – are you taking the piss? If you ever try to watch a rugby union game you will notice that nothing ever happens. Switch on the TV and the game will have stopped for something. It is really boring and rather than practice tackling and running (which League players are excellent at) they indulge in their favourite sports of cactus whipping, beer bottle rogering and the ‘circle of fire’ (when they run round the dressing room with lit toilet paper up their arsehole).
- Craig UK – You’re right, there is always something happening on the league field. Problem is its always the same bloody thing:
Step 1 – Pass the ball to a forward
Step 2 – Forward runs straight at opposition
Step 3 – Gets tackled and plays the ball
Step 4 – Repeat 4 more times
Step 5 – Kick the ball
Opposition starts at Step 1I’ve played both games and I can honestly say that as a forward League is crap. I’d hit the ball up, tackle and wait in case someone got the ball away in the tackle (very rare). In rugby I hit up, tackle and support as in league but theres also contestant scrums, lineouts, rucks and mauls. Always work to be done.
As for what rugby players indulge in after the game, would you prefer they sign other players names for kids, skip cab fares or engage in group rape?
Dino – So we’ll compare oranges to oranges, super 12 to SOO, but we should really only compare the all-Aussie matches in the super 12. But while we’re at it lets compare internationals, hell we’ll compare NRL with rugby’s grade comp. But why only look at Oz? Lets make it even, compare NZ’s NPC, or the Currie Cup in South Africa, or the Celtic League, Heineken Cup, European Champs with their League counterparts. Bugger it lets compare the two sports in Japan, or the US Super League (which is the rugby comp) with the Rugby League comp over there. So no offence dino, but the difference between the two codes is rugby league is a nothing sport outside of (to quote Roy and HG) the east coast of Australia, the north of England and the northern tip of the southern island of NZ.
- Union is the sport where the highest degree of skill called for is kicking an uncontested penalty. Games which end 42-30 frequently have only one try scored. I suppose the initiation ceremonies in union are jolly good fun for those of a certain ‘bent’ though.
And Anthony, surely you are aware that the main reason why league has not been allowed to grow in, say, South Africa or Scotland or southern England has been the machinations of the RU authorities. The attitude of the RFU to RL was a disgrace and I can’t believe that anybody who believes in a free market could possibly take their side.
Watch the TV ratings for SOO this year and then compare them to the top Stupor 12 game. In fact, compare them to the Bloodyslow Cup, which on past form might make it to 83 in the charts.
- Craig UK, surely you are aware that the attitude of the RFU in the pre-professional years was of little benefit to rugby. The banning of contact with any person who had any contact with rugby league, the refusal to consider professionalism and consistent refusal of a World Cup because it would interfere with the Five Nations. How did any of these decisions benefit rugby? The RFU and IRB seemingly did its best to hamstring rugby everywhere but England, it wasn’t just a war on league.
More to the point exactly how did the RFU stop league infiltrating South Africa or Scotland? By refusing to go professional? Surely if rugby league is as great a game as you would have us believe AND one could get paid to play there would be little an England based sporting body could do to stop it infiltrating those countries. The RFU and IRB’s laws against RL didn’t stop RL nearly killing rugby in Wales, one of the few rugby heartlands. Why would it be any different in South Africa or Scotland? Rugby League had nigh on 100 years to kill off rugby and it didn’t.
I’ll be sure to watch the ratings for all those events. Just as long as you compare the ratings for six nations matches with… well there’s no league equivalent.
Actually, I have this remarkable ability to distinguish between sport and politics. Given your attitude to free trade however, I presume you’re more than happy with rugby’s buying of rugby league players.
Anthony – now awaiting the argument about rugby’s inability to nurture its own juniors.
- Anthony
I have no problem with union buying up league players. It is the only way for them to succeed really. I can’t think of too many players who league would want from union though.
You’re right that RU didn’t kill off league but it wasn’t for want of trying. The appalling Bill McClaren once ordered the posts to be taken down at his local club rather than allow a game of league there. The head of RU in France once forced the pitch at Vichy (know the name) to be flooded to prevent a league game being played there. And speaking of Vichy, are you aware of how the union authorities took the opportunity of the collaboration years to seize league’s assets and almost wipe it out. Did you know about the activities of the union authorities in Italy to force league out of business?
I’ll be interested in the Six Naions figures as well. Despite the best efforts of the BBC, which acts as the RFU’s marketing arm, there does not seem to be a great enthusiasm for it.
- Anthony1982 – Banning players from playing rugby union just for talking to rugby league clubs, never mind playing for them is anti-market and repugnant to everything that sport stands for. I don’t have anything against rah rahs taking our players, we fought for years to give people the right to move freely and openly between codes. Especially I don’t mind when they’re over-the-hill, injury prone league players who still have more skill and ability than anyone in the ‘kick and clap’ code.
Also how about taking down posts on playing fields to stop rugby league from being played, as happened in Scotland. Do you find that acceptable. These are just a few of the dirty tricks that union has pulled to stop the rise of league which is a much more viewer friendly spectacle than union rubbish is.
And what about the French RFU who collaborated with the nazis to ban rugby league and steal its assets, which they have never returned? And the Italian RFU who brought up bogus insurance complaints to stop the spread of league in the peninsular? And the South African apartheid regime which allied itself with the rah rah cause and refused to allow the playing of the 13-a-side code?
Union knows that if the free markets had been allowed to rule they wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. For all the hype TV viewing figures of 6 Nations games are remarkably low, especially when compared to RL Challenge Cup matches which receive no punlicity from the BBC.
As a sport I don’t have anything against union, but I can’t take the baggage that goes with it I’m afraid.
- Folks, don’t confuse popularity with quality. The sex pistols sold heaps of records…but they were shit. Casey Donovan(not the porn star one) was “popular” but she is shit. Soccer is popular but it is shit.
League may be only popular in a few states of Aus but it is a quality game to watch. I was against it at the time, but now I wish Super league had taken off. Unfortunately some of the crappier Sydney teams stuffed it.
Anyways… Camden Rams in 2005!P.S. Go the mighty Eels!!!
- I’d sooner go to a local club rugby game than an NRL game any day- it might be equally as dull, but at least they serve real beer, in cans, and the bar is still open after half-time. As to free trade, try telling your theories to every club that’s tried to set up in opposition to the Brisbane Broncos (Gold Coast Chargers for example) who have been crushed by the clout held at the NRL by Brisbane, the most rapacious monoply trader ever to be ignored by the ACCC. The ARU might be money-hungry arseholes, but they’re hairy arsed boys in comparison with the NRL.
- You know guys I’ve thought about it and you’re right. Rugby sucks. I’m glad you pointed it out to me so I’m converting.
I didn’t realise that the posts were cut down at EVERY rugby field in Scotland making it impossible for League to play. Nor was I aware that every field in France was flooded causing the same result as in Scotland. I mean it would have been impossible for them to find another field and put up some posts with all those people in collusion with the Nazis having stolen all their money.
- Re: League as a training ground for future Union players.
That is true in a way. My kids, in the off season, play touch footy to keep fit for Rugby. For those not familiar with these games: touch footy is basically the same as Rugby League – you run, get touched then pass the ball – except in League when you get touched you fall to the ground then pass the ball.
