Sky Sports, following on from the re-running of the Clash of the Codes, have put together a hypothetical Union 13 together to “more than match their league counterparts”.

They selected:
1. Kurtley Beale; 2. Johnny May; 3. Tevita Kuridrani; 4. Manu Tuilagi; 5. Josh Adams; 6 Richie Mo’unga; 7. Will Genia; 8. Billy Vunipola; 9. Cobus Reinach; 10. Kyle Sinckler; 11. Maro Itoji; 12. Brodie Retallick; 13. Owen Farrell

While it will never happen, we have time on our hands. So who would your line up in the RL 15 for the return fixture?

To be fair, that’s a quality 13

Retallick at 12, doesn't have the engine nor the hands IMHO, from these shores I'd have Tom Curry, the current England RU no.7, great engine, great speed, good hands, tackles without fear and is very committed, he'd be perfect for league, I'd say he's a vastly better version of Liam Farrell

Depending how the rules were set up, the game would be exactly as every other cross code game.
There isn't a Union 13 that could beat a League 13 playing RL and the same is true in the opposite direction.

There are plenty of players in both codes that could make the switch but, unless there was going to be 12 months+ for the Union boys to learn about our game, they would get mullered against league opposition, particularly in the forwards.
Mind you, stopping Vunipola from 10 metres out would be interesting

They would need to change some positions about. Genia would be better at 9 than 7 for example. A union scrum half is basically our version of dummy half.

The skil levels passing wise are nowhere near. It takes 4 passes to get to the wing usually rather than 1 or 2. The All Blacks side are the closest match to a league side skill wise. Would be interesting to see them give it a go.

I'd love to see a repeat of the RL vs. RU games, especially England vs. England.

Not an expert on Union positions/roles but our 15-man could be something like.

15. Makinson
14. Johnstone
13. Gildart/Connor
12. Lomax
11. Manfredi
10. Widdop/Gale
9. Clark
8. Thompson
7. Bateman
6. Whitehead
5. J. Jones
4. Philbin
3. Walmsley
2. Hodgson
1. Watts

And if it were played to full Union rules, the "league" side would only ever see the ball to kick it off to the opposition.
Same shaped ball but, significantly different games.

The mauls and scrums would actually be dangerous for the League lads to take part in.

I know they didn’t have contested scrums but they also thought that in the Wigan series and tbf Wigan did get hammered on penalties but as the game went on it became a lot more even. IIRC Wigan won the second half.

Mauls aren’t as dangerous but you’re right the league side would be dominated at that part of the game.

Would be interesting to watch again though and would get a massive TV audience and sold out stadiums.

There are aspects of the area where league could not compete with union, especially in the set piece. But if, I’m the above scenario of England vs England, I’d go with:

15. Tomkins; 14. Charnley; 13; Burrell; 12. Lomax; 11. Makinson; 10. Sneyd; 9. McShane; 1. Philbin; 2. Milner; 3. Thompson; 4. Whitehead; 5. Jones; 6. Smithies; 7. Bateman; 8. O’Loughlin

Not the best league team, but a mix of players who have crossed codes, some talented ball players and a dogged back row who would scrap for anything.

I’d love to see it as a one off. The last game was a generation ago, and I think it would be an interesting battle, commercially and on the pitch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjkZMzEv9nE Not quite a generation ago...although not exactly full strength lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjkZMzEv9nE Not quite a generation ago...although not exactly full strength lol

Saints played Sale on the early 00s. Half of each. Saints won the league half with ease and sale won the union half with ease.

Sorry but I saw Charnley playing Union several times and basically what he did was stand on the touch line as far away from the ball as he could looking completely lost. The best decision of his life was returning to RL. If it was an RL challenge great but for a return fixture not a good idea.

What a lot of RL supporters do not realise is that Owen Farrell will not be the highest paid player in his team, that would be the starting props given the demands of the position. RU props do not become top class rugby league players so any match played under RU laws would have to be with uncontested scrums. Without contested scrums it would not be RU. Any RL v RU challenge would have three possible variants. 1) Tweaked RL 2) Tweaked RU or 3) Hybrid. Interestingly enough the third option could have been a real possibility if the decision making process in RL since it's creation had made different choices. Every so often someone comes up with a set of hybrid rules which usually will get mild interest in the press usually because of some moneyman eyeing up the international wealth of RU.

They could, but also trying to divert play away from those aspects surely would be how you deny the opposition the ball/superiority. You don't play to the oppositions strengths do you? And if a union side were to play their normal side a significant part of their side would be gassed early if the league side plays to its strengths. So the union side may forgo the heavier 'no necks' and thus the 'danger' is not really as much as one might think.

In any case a basic understanding of the rules goes a long way, people still make the flawed assumption that union is a complex game with 'dark arts' in the forwards that no-one can decipher, this is simply untrue.

Changing how sport is played occurs all the time, look at how NZAB changed the breakdown/rucks, not committing players so having more defenders than the opposition had attackers, forcing the opponents to make errors. Tackling correctly in the first instance goes a long, long way, union forwards have, even at international level of going to ground with barely a finger on them, being able to 'jackal' that ball back is not beyond the realms of a RL player, the ability to know when you can/cannot compete to take the ball away isn't rocket science, using superior fitness across the team can mean you arrive at the breakdown more often than the opposition, a big prop getting a few metres isolating themselves happens all the time, what happens, the defenders get to them first, the prop holds on, penalty.

The more you use your defence to thwart in the way you know how means more ball for you. Another example, holding up players from going to ground and pushing attackers backwards is familiar on a RL pitch, this gives you the ball back but you try to avoid scrums and mauls.

It's far from as dangerous and as simplistic as you make out IMO.

You need to back that assumption up, and the reality is not what you're saying at all.

Not an assumption but an imperfect quote. Of course you might be right. I know nothing except what I hear and the statement about Owen Farrell being paid less than the (open side) prop was made by David Flatman on The Gallagher Premiership show so he might have been having a laugh. The importance of the front row cannot be underestimated in R U but at Saracens the Vunipolas were probably behind Farrell with Itoje signing a deal to earn more but all of those figures were uncertain because of the shenanigans.

To be fair. I reckon a premiership team would have a good chance of beating a SL team at rugby league

Lol. Nice one.

What did come across on the rerun was how much better the marketing was, a busy Maine Road, with both Bath, Wigan and neutral fans, fireworks and a good atmosphere before kickoff.

We struggle to sell any RL games to anyone but the hardcore these days.

No chance.

Could you expand on that, I'm sure a modified RU team might give a decent account of themselves, but to infer that a premiership team could take on and have a good chance of a beating a SL, on what basis are you making that.
Let us know how that might happen, you seem to make a lot of statements on this site with not much if any substance.

Its simple. People on here still think it’s the 80s when the grim reality rugby league has gone backwards in the uk. In fact, standard has fallen off a cliff whilst RU has far overtaken uk with regards skill levels.

There are millions of backs in the RU premiership that would walk into SL teams

Yeh like that waste of space at Warrington

It's not just about Skill level though is it it. A rugby Union side will struggle simply on defence.

A RL 13 would hammer any RU13 that tried to play League, it's not even a contest and equally and more emphatically, a Union 15 would keep a League 15 scoreless if they tried to play a proper game of Union.
When you consider that the likes of Burgess and SBW play centre in Union and they are/were very useful forwards in League, that tells you all that you need to know.
League is massively stronger in basic passing, agility and speed but Union is more about forward domination and there is no one playing RL that could play prop in a top Union side, no one.

I know that there have been attempts to have cross code games in the past and the RL side usually do quite well when they play the 40 mins of RL but, when its time to play Union, lineouts and scrums are not used or, are not used competitively.

Having said that there are players in both codes that could fit into a team from the other code but, League just doesnt have the personnel to make a top class RU 15, end of and the Union boys aren't good enough or quick enough or even fit enough to play RL, at least not without a substantial amount of time to adjust.

Same shaped ball, totally different game.