Playing union for Wales in those days against the top sides like England, France, Australia and New Zealand, we would often get dominated up front, so as a fly-half I could be starved of possession. In league I was getting more ball and there are four fewer men on the field so there is more space, and that suited me. TT: I enjoyed playing both for different reasons.
League is a more free-flowing contest, which becomes a battle of attrition when the match is tight. Union becomes more of a thinking game, tactically: where do we kick the ball? On a turnover, is there space at the back or should we control the ball? Is there space out wide? It's totally compelling, even for the neutral. I enjoyed the England matches against Australia and New Zealand in this year's World Cup and look forward to watching the final this Saturday.
You can't help but enjoy big collisions and attacking brilliance. League is on the whole more dynamic because of the rules; union has its moments like that but it's a slower build-up to the crescendo. Jonathan Davies told me I would have enjoyed rugby league.
Although I had good offers it was never really an option for me while I was playing union for a very successful club side and national team. Both codes have some truly special players that we all enjoy watching play their chosen sport. These comments are now closed. Comments Join the conversation. To use comments you will need to have JavaScript enabled. Comment posted by U, at 29 Nov U I enjoy them all for different reasons.
Watch the sports you like, enjoy them and don't watch the sports you don't like. In the meaintime stop comparing. It really does get you nowhere. Comment posted by Pauliethebloke, at 29 Nov Pauliethebloke. The panelists give an excellent, fair balanced performance.
A shame some of the posters then resort to type Like most Kiwis have played both and love watching both. Shame for those who find faults with the other and cannot enjoy both codes, irrespective of what dribble you say, you're the ones missing out. Comment posted by Liampr, at 29 Nov Liampr. Although I generally prefer league, union at its best can also be very exciting. However, the lack of coverage of league within the mainstream media is criminal. Comment posted by Complete and utter horse, at 29 Nov Complete and utter horse.
Comment posted by monme, at 29 Nov monme. They're both good games, though I'm far more of a union fan, probably due to growing up in Scotland, where nobody played league.
I've enjoyed this world cup though. As for people calling the RL scrum a "sham", I'd take the league scrum over the tedious debacle that's currently destroying union. Hopefully a more organic approach will be found, one that can embrace grassroots rugby league in Canada and North America, and ensure the development of the domestic league over there, as well as any professional franchises it has — with genuine investment in the infrastructure, facilities and player pool around it.
International matches are few and far between, despite the fact that 80 odd years ago, the same countries we have player pools in today France and Wales were playing regular matches. Not every match will be the perfect test for England. But rugby league will never be perfect. It was founded as a breakaway from another sport. Once bitten, twice shy. With his individual brilliance, vast crowds flocked to his matches, filling the financial coffers of rugby union.
Unsurprisingly though, rugby's success increased discontent among the players and public sympathy. Where was all the money going, and why couldn't it be spent on the footballers as compensation for injuries or time off work? By then though, men like Messenger had come to appreciate their own worth. The son of a professional rower and friend of high-paid Test cricketer Victor Trumper and entreprenuer James J. The formation of rugby league, and Messenger's decision to join, prevented Australian rules from gaining hold of Sydney's vast working-class population and swamping rugby union.
With Messenger in their ranks in , the NSWRL and QRL began to build club competitions that were able to provide injury benefits and financial rewards for working-class footballers. The Wallabies were accused of being professionals by many in Britain. This attitude took hold of the IRB, who then announced the already poor allowances to rugby union players were to be further reduced.
As a result, shortly after their return to Australia in , more than half the Wallabies accepted contract offers to join rugby league. Attracting huge crowds wherever they played, the League authorities were able to build a solid financial base, securing their permanency, and becoming the preferred football code in Sydney, Brisbane and Newcastle, and establishing a hold in Auckland and Wellington New Zealand.
Unable to attract crowds and gate-money, rugby union was forced to embrace amateurism even more tightly than before, this time as a way of survival. While the effects of WW1 on rugby union further exacerbated their position, the 'rugby war' was over at the end of Something had to be done. In , 20 players, headed by current QRL chairman, Bruce Hatcher, were chosen for a special training squad.
For eight weeks the players lived in the dressing rooms at Lang Park, and were put through gruelling physical and psychological challenges. The last two weeks, the players were allowed out a couple of nights, but they had to be in by 10pm. You have to remember, some of them were married men.
Des Morris and a few others got back late and had to scale the fence. Eight car loads of police turned up, because they thought Lang Park was under siege. Queensland lost all three matches against NSW that year, and won only one of the next 24 matches against the Blues, before the first Origin in There were two draws. In , thanks to McAuliffe, Queensland, for the first time, had equal representation on the national selection panel.
He always stood up for Queensland, and got under the skin of NSW officials many times, with calls from south of the border to cite him. On one occasion he threatened to withdraw Queensland from Australian Rugby League, when Manly-Warringah refused to play the Brisbane representative side at Lang Park, with a Queensland referee. McAuliffe got his way.
He took a massive gamble with Origin. It was the last throw of the dice. If Queensland lost, it was the end of inter-state football. All that would matter, would be the Sydney premiership. McAuliffe put indigenous hero, Artie Beetson and later, Wally Lewis, on a pedestal, and they delivered for him in those crucial years in the early s… Artie first as skipper and then as coach, and Lewis as skipper.
The year saw major changes in the administrative structure and operation of the QRL, the most significant the implementation of the 'One League' concept, which had been the keynote recommendation of what was known as the 'Eric White Report'.
Ross Livermore, a former league ball boy, was appointed QRL managing director. Livermore was a workaholic, who hated to delegate. Mind you, there were not many people to delegate to, in those days. One night, a match at Lang Park drew an unexpectedly large crowd and Livermore found himself in the bar cold room, opening beer cartons to help meet the demand from thirsty patrons.
McAuliffe and Livermore knew the importance of the media, and although television was crucial from a financial standpoint, newspapers, in the pre-digital era, set the agenda. I knew I could rely on McAuliffe for a yarn when things were quiet, although sometimes these collaborations landed us both in hot water. Nothing came of it, because the story was true. Livermore was often accused of leaking me Origin sides, but I can honestly say he never handed me a team, although sometimes he would caution me about speculating on the likely selection of a certain player.
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