Grandad 1 wrote:
One area of the RU game which is vastly better than RL is the standard of the referees. Players and team's play the ref in both codes but because the refs are so poor in RL they seem to get mouthed off at much more than any ref I've seen in RU. Our refs seem to get the most simple of calls wrong on very regular occasions which is disappointing on every level even with video technology, if your lucky enough to be on Sky, they still get plenty of calls wrong. Also League highlight's on BBC, great, but at 1150pm? Union on channel 5 prime time 7pm proving that TV exec's think that RU is more attractive to their customers. We need a huge shake up and quickly or we'll be left way way way behind.
Grandad
Agree with just about all of that, I reckon that if League doesn't take off over there it doesn't have long left as a pro sport, except down under. Union is put over so much better on TV than league, League has no International game worth talking about anymore, As you say Union ref's are different class to League and that is reflected everywhere in the game.
I think half the problem is we don't have any true stars anymore, Where are the Neil Fox's, Meninga's Newlove's Gary Connely's Hardesty's and Millwards and countless others, As soon as anyone gets even close to their class, Union hoovers them up, It used to be the other way round with true legends like Lewis Jones and David Watkins coming our way regularly.
For me Danril called it right a couple of weeks ago when he said The game is crap, the ref's are crap and worse still we are crap," or words to that effect " so it's no wonder Union is grinding us down.
It's a possibility the game will do well in Canada and USA but i think it would be a bit different to what we are used too, They tend to like their sports with a lot of action and aggression , Grid iron and Ice Hockey style , I think they would probably change a lot of the rules. I'm not a big fan of either of those sports myself, Ice Hockey is too end to end for me and grid iron is a bit too repetitive , That said league now is mostly 5 head down plods and a kick.
Hey Ho i shall watch it as long as i can in the hope it will get back to something like it used to be before it disappears, but i won't be holding my breath