Levrier wrote:
Any time a young winger gets ideas of leaving league for union Josh Charnley should be used as an example. He was perfect as a league winger but union is a different game and unless you are a South Sea Islander the change seems vast.
I can't help wondering if, half the time it goes wrong for these lads because of the cultural change.
That may sound daft, but there's no easy explanation as to why so many league lads fail at Union. They are easily the equal of their Union counterparts in terms of fitness and skill, and having played in the backs at both codes in my youth, I personally found nothing in Union more complex than you'd find in League. In fact quite the opposite; as a League three-quarter, I did a lot more work.
So, setting aside the obvious idiocy of Union coaches playing guys like Andy Farrell and Sam Burgess in the backs, why does it go wrong for so many?
I don't remember as many Union converts to League failing, though in their case it was often a vital new job and so they couldn't afford to let it (though there were one or two high profile failures like John Gallagher).
Couldn't it simply be that it's a such a change of scene, tone, atmosphere etc that so many lads who've grown up around Wigan, Leigh, Warrington, Saints feel like fish out of water?
