The Super-Super-Duper Rugby Union thread!

[gary v1]

Even the overview of the rules confuses me. Essentially, you get a set of six in your own half but as soon as you cross the halfway line, it reverts to rugby union rules. Fucking strange.

 

I often wish they could bring the games back together somehow without losing large numbers of fans. A genuinely national rugby code, certainly in this country, would revolutionise the game. Currently, both codes stifle each other through geography. Internationally, we'd have the Kangaroos vs. the All-Blacks, genuinely showcasing the best rugby footballers in the world. However, this game sounds like a complete farce.

 

Interestingly, if they did the Super League champions vs. the Premiership winners now, it'd be much more competitive because when Bath and Wigan had their games, Wigan were streets ahead in the fitness and ability stakes, whereas now the player are long-term full professionals.

 

I agree, the rules should be amalgimated into a single code for rugby called 'Rugby Union'.

[Up Chuck]

League fans would never go for it. The ridiculous bile they were spewing on Twitter when Sam Tomkins played for Barbarians showed that much. "Look, they can't even pass, what a shit sport!" and that kind of bollocks. I can't imagine what their reaction to an amalgamation would be like.

[mikey]

I know they wouldn't go for it, just wondering/wishing aloud.

[Up Chuck]

I know, I was just taking any excuse to carp about idiotic League fans (note: not all League fans, I get along just fine with a good many of them). It's an interesting idea with lots of potential positives, but there are so many practical problems that would get in the way. Definitely a kind of cool thing to think about though. It'd curb the massive decline of Union in the north, for a start.

[patiirc]

I know, I was just taking any excuse to carp about idiotic League fans (note: not all League fans, I get along just fine with a good many of them). It's an interesting idea with lots of potential positives, but there are so many practical problems that would get in the way. Definitely a kind of cool thing to think about though. It'd curb the massive decline of Union in the north, for a start.

 

There are historical reasons for that that can be traced to the Rugby-Football split.. was very much a case of paying players versus upholding the Corinthian spirit of things which is why Union in the UK is nearly exclusively a Southern game and League which is northern based and were already subbing players wages remained north of the Midlands with few exceptions like Preston Grasshoppers, Ossett and letterly Newcastle under John Hall iirc

[PowerButchi]

There are historical reasons for that that can be traced to the Rugby-Football split.. was very much a case of paying players versus upholding the Corinthian spirit of things which is why Union in the UK is nearly exclusively a Southern game and League which is northern based and were already subbing players wages remained north of the Midlands with few exceptions like Preston Grasshoppers, Ossett and letterly Newcastle under John Hall iirc

 

I don't think what you said is at all relevant to Rugby in Wales.

[patiirc]

I don't think what you said is at all relevant to Rugby in Wales.

 

 

Rugby League in Wales, folded soon after the inital split and then resurrected in the late 1920's iirc. They spent the best part of 80 years struggling for recognition including the national team disbanding in the 1950's and again c.1970 such was the lack of support for League. This is before they became an autonomous group c.2005. Rugby League in Wales has been at its strongest for about the last 20 years, before that, its history is patchy at best. Most of the major Rugby Union teams in Wales were traditionally Southern based iirc, based in or around port cities and mining towns such as Neath, Pontypridd, Port Talbot, Swansea, Cardiff and then more recent times Llanelli Scarlets, Newport Gwent Dragons, Cardiff Blues etc. So ties in with the North/South Divide, unless you can say differently, in which case I'm all ears.

 

The NFRU was amongst the first to sanction 'missed time payments' heralding the start of professionalism according to some regarding RFL

[PowerButchi]

In all my years in North Wales, people have only really started giving a huge shit about RL in their droves since about 2010. Then they stopped in 2011. In fact, prior to that, the only real RL teams of note were the attempts to have a strong RL team in South Wales. There was the South Wales team they tried to fast track about 16 or so years ago, then Crusaders which moved up to North Wales and North Wales couldn't really sustain (along with the Moss Roberts shit). In fact, people in the North have always been the main been more arsed about Union than League. Compare attendances for meaningless RU internationals to those of meaningless RL internationals played at Y Cae Ras for evidence of that. I'd even back "A" International attendances at The Racecourse over RL international attendances.

 

Either way the history of rugby in Wales has little to do with "Corinthian spirit" in my opinion, hence why so many quality players like your Billy Bostons went up north. Just so happened that local businesses were very sympathetic to teams they supported (read Scott Gibbs autobio for details of some of the easiest well paid jobs ever) along with pretty decent brown envelopes on a saturday.

[gary v1]

I did a quick google search and was surprised to discover there is a rugby league league in Scotland. I honestly had no idea given that I've never heard of a scottish rugby league team (other than maybe a national team which I assumed to be full of aussies and English people anyway)

[mikey]

A lot of the "corinthian spirit" stuff is bollocks too. The RFU didn't want to "lose their game to the working classes" as had happened in association football. So they set about provoking and stifling the working class northern clubs from stopping compensation to players to stopping teams from charging entrance fees. Meanwhile, rich industrialists in the North sought to make a quick buck out of rugby league, as some of their peers had already done with football. It's not as cut-and-dried as some make out. The NRFU were originally amateur too. There's an equally fascinating schism in the Southern Hemisphere too.

 

What kept rugby union strong in Wales is that the RFU turned a blind eye to shamateurism.

 

EDIT: There's a play I've wanted to see called Broken Time about the Great Schism which contains more history than you'll find in the history books.

[Up Chuck]

Right, the football fans have their thread to perv on next season's kits, so we're following suit in here as of RIGHT NOW. Here, my friends, is the very different and VERY Super-15 different-looking Leicester Tigers home shirt for next season, made by Canterbury.

 

What do we all make of that, then? Have to say it took me aback a bit at first, but it's growing on me. They've done a less radical version that they're calling the "classic" home shirt for the more traditional fans.

 

I'll be picking neither up, mind, they're bloody expensive.

 

*changed to external links due to massive images*

[PowerButchi]

I still say Leicester should go back to initials. That tiger print shirt is nasty though.

[Up Chuck]

Our current home shirt has the corresponding letter for each player's number on the front of the shirt, under the badge. I quite like that. Hope they carry it on. And the tiger stripes are proving pretty divisive on Twitter and the Tigers forum. We're getting a new 2-tone blue away kit and a black Heineken Cup kit too, so god knows what those will end up looking like. Black with orange stripes would surely be too naff for them to even try. Wouldn't it...?

 

EDIT: Not worth a new post but worth posting: I tweeted earlier about Steffon Armitage having a good showing for Toulon tonight, and how it might put him in England contention now Tom Wood's injured. Said tweet was promptly retweeted... by Steffon Armitage's wife. Unexpected.

[Up Chuck]

England's 42-man squad for the South Africa tour's been announced. Danny Care, James Haskell, Ugo Monye, Anthony Allen (hurrah!) and Matt Mullan are all back in, and there's a ton of uncapped guys in Christian Wade, Joe Launchbury, Tom Youngs (Ben's big brother, hooker who moves like a flanker), Graham Kitchener, George Lowe, Joe Gray, Geogre Robson, Jonathan Joseph, Alex Goode, Tom Johnson, Carl Fearns, Joe Marler and Thomas Waldrom.Full squad:

Forwards (23)Mouritz Botha (Saracens)Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)Paul Doran Jones (Northampton Saints)Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)Carl Fearns (Bath Rugby) Joe Gray (Harlequins) Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints) James Haskell (Otago Highlanders)Tom Johnson (Exeter Chiefs) Graham Kitchener (Leicester Tigers) Joe Launchbury (London Wasps) Joe Marler (Harlequins) Lee Mears (Bath Rugby)Ben Morgan (Scarlets)Matt Mullan (Worcester Warriors)Tom Palmer (Stade Francais)Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers)Chris Robshaw (capt, Harlequins) George Robson (Harlequins) Matt Stevens (Saracens)Thomas Waldrom (Leicester Tigers) Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers) Backs (19)Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers)Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints)Brad Barritt (Saracens) Mike Brown (Harlequins) Danny Care (Harlequins) Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)Owen Farrell (Saracens) Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)Alex Goode (Saracens) Charlie Hodgson (Saracens) Jonathan Joseph (London Irish) George Lowe (Harlequins) Ugo Monye (Harlequins)David Strettle (Saracens)Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers) Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)Christian Wade (London Wasps) Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

That's 9 from Harlequins and Tigers, 7 from Saracens, 6 from Northampton, 2 each from Bath, London Irish and Wasps, one from Exeter, one from Stade Fran

[mikey]

Our current home shirt has the corresponding letter for each player's number on the front of the shirt, under the badge. I quite like that. Hope they carry it on. And the tiger stripes are proving pretty divisive on Twitter and the Tigers forum. We're getting a new 2-tone blue away kit and a black Heineken Cup kit too, so god knows what those will end up looking like. Black with orange stripes would surely be too naff for them to even try. Wouldn't it...?EDIT: Not worth a new post but worth posting: I tweeted earlier about Steffon Armitage having a good showing for Toulon tonight, and how it might put him in England contention now Tom Wood's injured. Said tweet was promptly retweeted... by Steffon Armitage's wife. Unexpected.

Dude, that's up there with the time recently that Kriss Akabusi retweeted my blog about West Ham.