Everyone knows Leeds Met is the best setup in England for Rugby league. Just have to look at their dominace.

Heard loughbrough (sp) and Edge Hill are doing very well these days.

We have some union converts actually.

Manchester itself doesn't seem to care for either code. Football rules!

Back in the mists of time when I was at uni in the early 90s our team (Bradford) was about a 50/50 split between lads from RL areas and those from elsewhere in the country.

Was about the same not to long since when i was there (though the union team got mot more funding i beleive and was more popular as the uni is mostly filled with southern and overseas students).

The part were it states RU arrived before RL.

The game that was played up to the time of the split was called RUGBY not RU that only came after the split as did RL.

AFAIK the uni union sides get some funding from the RFU.

There was a code of football overseen by the Rugby Football Union, then some clubs broke away and formed the Northern Rugby Football Union (later to become the Rugby Football League), sou you could say that Rugby League came out of Rugby Union.

I think some people might be surprised by the number of League players in the south who are, as you suggest, actually from the south.

Sure, it's a slow burner, but with League in London really taking off at grass roots level and the likes of Oxford's own Darrell Griffin turning out in Cup Finals and representing England...

It's easy to slag RL in the south, or anywhere outside of the heartlands, because the battle to get the media onboard is going to take decades. But the foundation is there, in that so many kids (and adults) are playing the game, and it's a really strong foundation. My hat goes off to all the folk who dedicate their lives - as many of them have to - to actually spreading RL.

Great article too. Cheers!