Speccy...for someone who supposedly dislikes Union, you sure as hell "claim to" know a fair bit about it

Gutterfax also posts on an Aussie RL forum, but it seems only in their "The Fight Club" area, which as the name suggests is a keyboard fight between a few sports, if you can call some of them sports. So indeed he is a permanent wind up merchant in regards to RLeague forums it seems. IMO we should have a Fight Club area on here, for me to be able to put gutters right about union and League, by my name you can guess that I played a lot of union. I've watched it at times since 1981, and even watched much of the recent matches in Oz, but I said for the first time ever, after the 3rd "Test" in Sydney, that's the last ever union match I'm going to watch.

Learn to research before you post mate......things ain't always as they seem!

I was a happy-go-lucky poster on here until a number of Aussie based idiots decided to "start a code war" on the NRL boards back on 2009. They don't post here any more, because they swore a lot and whined like stuck pigs when they were shown up, but before they "left" they invited me TFC on the league Unlimited site with the promise that I wouldn't last 5 minutes......guess what? That's right...I am still there....they are internet bullies who don't like the truth when it's put to them....and every criticism of RL on that site is met with State of Origin and $1 billion dollars.....they point and laugh at the bigger and more popular codes of Soccer, Union and AFL because they are scared and they only post "in groups".....
I don't post anywhere else on that site because when they were getting their arses handed to them too regularly, they restricted my access like it was a punishment...

I post here with regard to League and enjoy the debates and conversation about the game, both it's good bits and its bad. I am not on any wind up.....if I was, I wouldn't have lasted 160 posts, let alone 16,000. Yes, I am sometimes blunt and often controversial, often accused of being

Lastly, with regards to the claims made by the OP, of the 23 players who ran out for Japan v Wales, 5 were non born Japanese....regardless of the off the cuff remark by the OP, the rest were all born in the country from all the statistics and reports I can find on-line. Happy to be proven wrong.....but I doubt he'll bother trying to prove it.

Put me right then?
Seriously....I have never said Union is a better game...I played at first class level in the late 80's (although I was never good enough to get an imaginary job at ICI) and am fully aware of its shortcomings.
Where you'll find I am generally attacked is on my stance that the IRB and individual RFU's are far better run than the governing bodies of RL pretty much everywhere other than on the Eastern Australian Seaboard.
The Scrum in Union is a farce, the game itself far slower than League (or chess for that matter) yet by comparison off the field, Wales v France last year in league got less than 1,500 people in attendance...do I need to tell you what the other lot get for the same game?

I get frustrated when the better game seems happy to accept it's place....it takes a contra sponsorship deal when the Aviva takes 20 million......the TV deal increases slightly, BT pay top dollar for the Union...the RLWC is on access TV for christs sake........but when I decry this, I am branded a troll or a naysayer.

Go on.....Put me right

Obviously I didn't know you were invited onto The Fight Club, or that you are banned from other areas on the site; how would you expect me to know that?

Anyway, the ruck, it's the most important part of both codes; however it's too big a part in union, the flankers are now the "Rock Stars" of union, as one Welshie put it in 2011 after the WC. This along with the fact that tight-head props have been known to be the highest paid on some rosters is wrong. You can't have forwards being paid more than the vast majority of backs! I know that the No.9's in League are classed as forwards, but they're obviously backs masquerading as forwards.

As far as attendances are concerned, you could put 15 cardboard cut-outs in Welsh union jerseys in the Millennium Stadium and you'd get a crowd. You know about the Establishment conspiracy against League over the years, the armed forces, private schools etc. I went to a private school for 7 years. England wanted rugby union opposition to play against, so they had to contrive/force, whatever, to make sure they had some. Of course the Guest and the Crawshay families, rich London Pommie families who came to Wales who basically took over the Welsh mines, they were a part of stopping Wales from developing organically, and allowing rugby league to develop, I'm not saying that it would be bigger than what soccer is, but it would be bigger than what League currently is in Wales. And that's before I get onto France 1940-1942.

But it's the actual on-field sport I want to focus on, where were the decoy runners in the third Test recently? Also the cut-out passes, backs moves, deception plays. Backs not getting much ball, and the lack of space they have? The players who get children to the ground, and bums on seats generally aren't able to express their skills. I watched some U12's union a couple of yrs ago, absolute chaos. Laws have to be changed.

1. I've never said Union is a better game...nor have I said it was perfect in any way. It is flawed.
2. The "Establishment ate my homework" stuff is rolled out far too much for anyone's liking....why do RL fans always bemoan the actions of the other code in "keeping it down" instead of brushing themselves down and getting on with the promotion of the game?

FFS......The RLWC has been going since 1954 in some way shape or form. From what I can gather from textbooks, reports and wiki is that more people attended the Union internationals in 2012 played featuring the teams ranked 1-11 by the IRB than have attended every game or every world cup since 1954.......this is where I believe that League is falling short.

You and I know that Union is gash by comparison, but it is convincing the British public that is the trick.......and Ireland v Australia at Thomond park in front of 9k ain't going to do it!

By the way....did THE Establishment make more SKY TV viewers tune in to the REPLAY of the Lions game the other week than watched either Superleague game LIVE?

Stop bemoaning the actions of those in the past and deal with the now......70,000 fans attend SL games most weeks...if each of them were to sell 8 tickets to friends in return for 2 freebies, you'd have sold out this RLWC ages ago.....instead, they've already started discounting the already discounted offers....

For what it's worth Gutterfax,I played union at various levels,I played union with someone who is in Frank Cottons all time England XV and I'm a Vice President of a Union Club - up til around level 3/4,union is a very good and varied game,with an exceptional strong social ethos.

That's a great way to put it.

A union v league debate. That's a move to the "other sports" forum.

Thank goodness for thread drift.

Yes, heaven forbid you'd have to actually respond to the initial point or do something about it.

It's fine, now we are all clear on what the forum's rules on blatant trolling are, i'll stop contributing sensibly and just start annoying people.