The union boys love all that scrimmaging stuff and the notice technical stuff in those "pile up's" that you refer to.
In the interest's of balance, maybe gutters could take you to a couple of union games and properly explain to you exactly what is going on.

Burgess for sure will be one very happy customer though, he is making his wages far easier than he was in league.
Much as we may be disappointed, League had many, many years plundering some of the Union talent (before it turned pro

) and what goes round comes round.

We have to find more effective ways of marketing league and expanding the game, both in terms of domestic and more importantly on the international stage, where sadly, we are light years behind kick and clap.

I haven't been to a game of union other than an international test since 1988.......i have no love of union and especially not their scrums, but I do understand that their administrators are lightyears ahead of ours......theyre that good they managed to get a poster here to pay for a channel to watch a sport he hates.....and even after 6 weeks of supposedly giving 4 weeks notice he's still glued to the set!

To me the RU and RL debate is all about money and marketing.
No one will ever really convince someone on the other side that their game is better. There is a lot of history and pride at stake for that to happen.
But good marketing may convince someone to be more interested in the other game.

Sums it up well.

Correct.

Interesting that this week Calendar news have been running a feature about the RU world cup which doesn't get underway until September. However, there has been no mention of the start of the professional RL season which is just over a week away, with a good percentage of teams competing being from the Calendar region.

What new season?

I haven't heard or seen anything about it!

What is it?

Good point, where are the ads for RL from Sky? I haven't seen a single one (but I'm good at avoiding ads) and wouldn't it be nice to see Sky doing something. Better get on the blower to the BBC and mention that there's something that could be on the radio sport news that's worth a mention.

Precariously clinging to the will to live after enduring watching on Sky the utter garbage from start to finish that was the latest Union match in which Burgess participated never mind to attempt any sort of analysis. Goodness knows what Sam's private thoughts on the frustration of it all must be. At least we've got the Auckland Nines upcoming on Premier Sports to reinvigourate the spirits.

Apparently he's getting loads of banter off his mates at South Sydney, he made a grand total of 15metres in one of his latest RU matches and has been on the end of some jokes from Australia.

Mr C> If you're referring to the England Saxons game, I endured it too. SB didn't have a good game, and has a lot to learn if he wants to make his mark as a RU player, but the whole match was a dismal spectacle. And then the commentators were saying, this is how England will want to play against Wales!

As you say, roll on the Nines! (which I am watching right now)

15 metres? He'll be topping the union stats chart with those efforts lol

www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/engla ... 32pes.html Duncan Bech wrote: [iSam Burgess made a forgettable representative union debut as England Saxons ground out a worthy victory over the Ireland Wolfhounds in Cork. With head coach Stuart Lancaster watching from the stands at a capacity 8,200 Irish Independent Park, Burgess produced several conspicuous errors in the first half before becoming a peripheral figure after the interval. Only eight matches into his union apprenticeship and clearly still a novice in the code, the Bath inside centre failed to make any meaningful impact on a disappointing night to end any fanciful notion of playing a role in England's Six Nations campaign.[/i

www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/engla ... 32pes.html Duncan Bech wrote: [iSam Burgess made a forgettable representative union debut as England Saxons ground out a worthy victory over the Ireland Wolfhounds in Cork. With head coach Stuart Lancaster watching from the stands at a capacity 8,200 Irish Independent Park, Burgess produced several conspicuous errors in the first half before becoming a peripheral figure after the interval. Only eight matches into his union apprenticeship and clearly still a novice in the code, the Bath inside centre failed to make any meaningful impact on a disappointing night to end any fanciful notion of playing a role in England's Six Nations campaign.[/i

I expect Sam to return to South Sydney in 2016, in time to participate in the second of Souths' consecutive back to back Grand Final losses to Sydney Roosters, by playing in in the NRL Grand Final of 2016.

Hopefully his stint in union won't have lessened him as a player unlike pretty much every single other player who has come back to league.

Are you thinking of Sonny Bill Williams, Matthew Rogers, Wendell Sailor, Lote Tuqiri, Craig Gower and Mark Gasnier?

Or were there 29 other players whom I just can't remember?

I very much doubt he even broke sweat in last night's match. But that tells you everything about the game he now plays and nothing about Sam Burgess. I do fear though that, given the nature of Union and with the best will in the world, his battle hardened edge is beginning to whither already. Ah well, he's getting well paid.

Lee Smith, Iestyn Harris, Joel Tomkins, Karl Pryce, Martin Offiah, Henry Paul to name a few more

He was probably confused because the Irish team didn't have Aussie accents in every position

eh?

What you on about?

Forgive me I care very little about the NRL so I don't know how they performed when they came back. Were any of them better players on their return.

These were exactly my thoughts last night just before switching over after 15 minutes of giving the second half of last nights game a go see how he is getting on.

During that 15 minutes Sam touched the ball once and threw a pass, joined 1 maul and made 1 tackle and the rest of the time stood around freezing his nads off whilst both sides made mistake after mistake and exchanged several penalties and erm scrummaged for several minutes.

Awful spectacle.I would be very surprised if he isn't back in the NRL next season.

Sonny Bill Williams in 2013 on his return was certainly a better player than when he left, and a much better person, who changed the culture of the squad at Sydney Roosters.

The others were outside backs, much older than when they left, and thus not as fast. But most of them were close to as good as when they left.

That's just Union for you, I have no interest in that game it's alien to me. We share the name rugby nothing more and have a common ansestry. But so do all codes of football.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/31595304 Check out Mike Fords comments

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/31595304 Check out Mike Fords comments