I was talking to a union fan the other day about the merits of both codes. I was saying League is a more skilful,faster game and he agreed, but kept repeating Union is more popular.
Why is it more popular ?
I know that when I was at High School we were only allowed to play Union, as I remember, it was only Catholic schools that played League.

Public schools play Union. The money men go to public schools so Union gets the money and are marketed to the right demographic.

Rugby league is not more skillful than rugby union at all. It is more popular because rugby league is going backwards at an alarming rate to the extent that it is now just a glorified game of british bulldog. Neutrals who once would tune into super league on a friday night to watch a cracking match involving players of the calibre of Sean Long, Paul Sculthorpe, Jamie Peacock, Keiron Cunningham etc are instead, treated to a bore fest involving a load of academy lads with floppy hair playing first team. The standard is at an all time low and this is why people dont watch it

Regards

King James

Union is marketed better. Has far more money behind it to ensure it’s played across the UK. Facilities in clubs are better than their league counterparts. Has a far better international setup. Administration is far better organised. Game has friends in high places as it’s a game played in all the private schools, grammar schools, universities etc. It benefits from more extensive sympathetic and detailed media coverage. Need I go on?

What standard did you reach Prince Albert ?

Go on, name a Club you played for !

I will make it easy to compare for you ....

Bedford H.S RL, Leigh College RL, Leigh Miners RL, R.A.F Wittering R.U, Corby Town RU, R.A.F RL.

At no point did I ever get close to being of the standard of SL or top Championship pro's, so again, go on, dazzle us with your CV.

Like others have said, I would say it is simply because of where it is played. More popular in the south where there is more money for people to invest. London is more appealing to investors and players than Widnes or Wakefield say (no offence to those places, just examples).

I suppose that a factor is the leagues and international game has been a lot more structured and stable over the years.

Nothing to do with it being a better game I wouldn't say, ultimately comes back to where it is played.

And just cos a their game is more popular doesnt mean it is better at all just means a lot of people don't know what they are missing!

RL has the code. RU has everything else.

In response to Lebron James above:

But that's not exactly true, W/E 22 May 2016 according to BARB there's not a hint of RU watchers in the top 10 per Sky channel but RL is all over the week.

W/e 29 - we see RU international at the top of the SS3 chart. SS3 has a little less than 50% of the international RU viewing figures watching the Summer Bash and a scattering of more of the same over all but SS1.

W/E 15 - no RU makes and appearance. Lots of RL.

W/E 8 - Lots of RL and RU makes an appearance in 10th on SS4 with 22k viewers.

W/E 1 - SS2, SL, 184k viewers and 143k viewers. RU 10th spot on SS5 with 30k and 22K

Getting away from May, to October is a pain. SL w/e 2 Oct - 179k on Friday. I have to jump to the W/E23 Oct to find a non-international RU game, it's the European Champs three games with 70-76k each.

Given the number of competitions which Sky cover for RU outside of International and European cup games it simply doesn't seem to exist. Fishing programmes in Africa have similar viewing figures.

Wow, lucky none of those mentioned ever played for an academy or anything similar.

I don't consider London to be a RU stronghold. It's true that London is the home of the Establishment and RU is very much an Establishment game (although it has worked hard to broaden it's appeal in a way RL has not), but the "big" London RU clubs are on the edges where London merges with the home counties, and more of the big English RU clubs are actually in the South West or Midlands.



I think there is a parochial mindset entrenched amongst a significant section of the RL base which has always held back expansion, I suspect it (partly) has its roots in the way RL emerged as a distinctly professional sport, so the 'amateur' side of RL came as an afterthought in a way that isn't true of other sports that are played professionally. There have been some genuine attempts to break out of being a regional sport, but it's always done with a chunk of the RL base fighting against it every inch of the way. English RU on the other hand has been far more willing to embrace change and far less dogged by small mindedness. Interestingly I'd suggest that some of the experiences of Scottish and Welsh RU have been more akin to RL's struggles, but they have that stronger international game to fall back on.

RL in Australia has fared better the social and economic conditions were better:
- Association Football has never had the same level of dominance as it does in the UK (and huge swathes of the rest of the world)
- Australia has less of the baggage that came with the 'RU' split
- The RL heartland in Australia developed in its most populous and economically powerful region (NSW), whereas RL's heartlands are within the historic counties of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumberland, which declined in relative economic power throughout the 20th century.

I look back on the first time I visited The Stoop to watch the Broncos in the Branson era, it was big and bold and there was a sense of great things being possible with SL, we played Saints and a few players like Paul Sculthorpe were coming close to having a genuine national profile. Twenty years later and it has imploded.

and for some that's good news and sadly that's the mindset we need to break because other sports are re-branding, changing to meets the needs of the new consumer....... Look at the success of Wasps RU in Coventry moving away from London.

Change will come from the top and whilst we have big Nige the ultimate parochial northerner at the helm there isn't a chance in hell it will happen. We need to bring in another "Lewis" type character to bring a fresh thinking

I had a Quins RU season Ticket a few years back and what struck me was how uninformed the supporters were about the sport. It was a boys jolly out watching rugger drinking real ale and talking with there chums away from the board room.

Their fans are not all doom and gloom merchants.

Because they are usually too pished

Historically RU was a player friendly sport (not as much in the way of aggressive tackling, much slower pace to the game). This meant many could play the game without there being a heighten risk of injury and fitness levels did not have to be that high.Many would play into their 50's given the relative gentleness of the sport. RU was as much about the social scene as much as the sport itself.

RL was developed from the need to be a spectator friendly sport to generate the incomes for a professional era, meaning only he fittest, fastest and most creative would get noticed.

Sadly, RL did not spread the word in the early years and concentrated too much on the heartlands.

In those early years RU would openly discriminate and stigmatise those who played RL or even thought of playing RL. As RU was participated in and followed socially by the professional and employers (and southern based media), they held power of the masses. RL was, in those early years played by those from the work houses.

Role forward 100 year, the (incorrely) stigma of playing RL from the RU authorities eventually was lifted, but the masses still pay only lip service to it.

I challenged someone recently who stated about Burgess "RL are welcome to him, as RL is a s**t game anyway". When I asked what he thought it was that was "s**t" the reply was simply...

"always has been, thats what we got told at school by PE teachers, anyway look at the 6 nations and the attendances, RL doesn't compare"

Or put another way, generations of ignorance followed up with a dose of "not really anything about the sport, but because loads watch it, it must be better".

Thats what RL is fighting against.

I suppose the laughable part of it all is that RL has Nigel Wood doing the fighting!

This guy holding all the cards doesn't help:

RFL Chief Exec - Nigel Wood - In post since 2007. Director at the RFL since 2001.
Superleague Chief Exec - Nigel Wood - In post since 1996.
Chairman of the RLIF - Nigel Wood - In post since 2014 (supporting the RLIF for the previous 10years)

Participating levels in League is falling, in Union it is increasing.
The skill level in League is falling, in union it is increasing.
The profile and stature of League is falling, in Union it is ever increasing.
Marketing and funding in League is falling, in Union it is ever increasing.
Player quality and salary weight in League is falling, in Union is increasing.

League fans are very insular, protective and pessimistic for the future.
Union fans see it as a social sport and get involved pre and post game.

This is the kind of reply I was hoping for, as I said, when I was at school we HAD to play Union, we didn't get a choice.
If our game had been given a chance to be played in schools, perhaps things would be different now.

Perhaps the op needs to read a couple of the League history books.
Following the split in 1895, it was only clubs in the north of England that broke away.
At the time, it appeared that clubs in the Midlands and South Wales would follow. However, the Union hierarchy, realising that their game was in jeopardy made some changes, which were designed to prevent their sport being over run and controlled by rough northerners.
The measures taken were successful and therefore it becamne impossible to grow the sport in other areas.
If they (the RFU) had allowed broken time payments in the first place, there would never have been a split and our sport wouldnt exist.
Therefore, of course Union is at a higher level in many parts of the UK.
However, League remains more popular in terms of player numbers and spectator numbers in Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Union of course, has the pull of the six nations and has a much more developed international program and the domestic game rides on the back of this.
There are only 2 top flight Union clubs in the North of England, Newcastle, who average around 6,000 fans for their home games and Sale, who average around 6,400, neither of which compete with the top of SL.
At the other end of the scale are Leicester with an average of 21,500, which is excellent.
Bearing in mind that they have national coverage, full and total support of the national media and a far better international program, their domestic attendances are not so far ahead of League.
We should be very proud of our sport and grateful to those players in the late 19th Century, who dared to fight the establishment and gave us a faster, more attacking and far more exciting sport to watch.
It will always be an uphill struggle to expand the game in the UK but, that shouldn't stop us trying.

What on earth are you babbling on about? What point of mine are you trying to address? That rugby league isn't more skilful or that the game is going backwards at an alarming rate whilst rugby goes from strength to strength?

Regards

King James

Agree,as you say 20 years ago RL was definately on the up.
What happened ?

Not saying you are wrong but I would love to see some stats to back up your claim about participation numbers in Lancashire and Yorkshire given that in Lancashire for example, the rugby league clubs are centred around heartland towns like Wigan, St. Helens etc yet pretty much every town or village in Lancashire has a rugby union team, with a first, second and third team,with a youth set up. I would go out on a limb and say that there are more union players in Lancashire than league, by a huge margin

Regards

King James

I am afraid its you and others like you with your blinked views that are the reason all expansion clubs fail.
If you dont understand the real issues facing growing a sport in new area's then you will always be doomed to fail.

He's not addressing any point , he's just pointing out you're a =#FF0000Let's leave the childish insults to the playground please. Karen.

One thing that has recently come to the fore is Unions current war on high tackles and concussion , if RL doesn't address these same issues we will see less youngsters playing and ultimately a fall in standards

As much as we see the ' Biff ' and ' big hits ' as part of the game these things will turn off parents from letting their kids play the game

RL is THE toughest team sport you can play , however in our H and S concious world we must remove some of the less attractive parts of the game