Edwards played at 7 in the RL game but didn't play in the RU game as he was carrying a knock and we had a game mid week.

Wigan Team that day
16 Kris Radlinski
14 Jason Robinson
15 Henry Paul
12 Gary Connolly
11 Martin Offiah

10 Joe Lydon
18 Craig Murdock

1 Terry O Connor
2 Martin Hall
3 Neil Cowie

23 Graeme West
4 Andy Farrell

6 Shem Taputu
13 V Tuigamala

8 Scott Quinnell

Subs
7 Mick Cassisdy
5 Simon Haughton
22 Gael Tallal
26 Andy Craig

Dont them numbers seem strange?

16 Kris Radlinski
14 Jason Robinson
15 Henry Paul
12 Gary Connolly
11 Martin Offiah

What a back line

I read Ian Millward's column and he said that when he was summarising a six nations match (I think), he slagged off the game as the team that scored no (or less) tries won the game, and as soon as the cameras stopped rolling Jeremy Guscott stormed out of the room. He is as union as they come, and after watching the 82-6 game I'm not surprised he didn't want to play - he would have been embarrassed like the rest of the Bath team.

No doubt Union has changed, the guys have got bigger and probably a bit fitter but they have all their flair coached out of them, as flair doesn't win RU games. Would love to have made it more regular, but I doubt the RFU would like their sport continually shown up.

Saints and Sale tried it a few years back - 40mins of each. We had RU in the first half, and Sale did what Bath should have done - didnt pass or kick, just ruck and maul for the 40 mins and pushed us back down field.

When it came to the RL half, the Saints lads were knackered. WOuld have been interesting to have teh RL half first and see what happened.

It was a completely pointless exercise really.

Adideyo Adibeyo. Best name ever.

The real reason St Helens lost that match is when they started playing League they were trying to score from every tackle. As this kept failing the clock started to tick down and it became mission impossible.
They were by far the better team ~ just played a bit too dumb.

Guscott was in one of the West stand lounges a few years ago when me and my lad were in there.
Lad (aged 10 ish) got his autograph and had a good chat to him.
Came across as a nice bloke, and he is a wigan fan if im not mistaken.
So why all the aggro towards the fella , i dont know.

He was Englands best centre by a country mile at the time, so hes right in doing what he did.
why risk injury in what was a publicity stunt??

Back to Guscott...

The best thing that day was Stevo having a right go at him on the TV and the yawnion men trying to stand up for the coward. Don't forget he was very happy to publicy state that one RL club had offered him a million pounds to switch codes ~ The RL clubs were just a public in saying they hadn't!
Personally I never saw anything in him that would have made him league material.

The thing with these games is its alright for people to say how union has changed since then, but it misses the point. For years everyone was told how big, strong, powerful, skilful, fit these union players where ALREADY. League was never given credit by the media and suddenly here it was in front of the viewers.
PROOF of which code had the superior atheletes.

I had a bet with a bloke from Bath sat behind me £50 that we would put 100 on them. He was laughing saying they'd be close. I was telling him the only reason we wouldn't would be if we got bored.
At half hime i pointed out that we'd actually finished the last few minutes without 13 on the pitch because we'd took people off and not bothered sending anyone else on!
He stood up at half time, gave me 50 quid and went home!

Silly sod would have won the bet!

I looked for him at Twickenham at the sevens and at the yawn fest but SADLY never found him.

The best bit at Twickenham was when we were losing in the final and the whole crowd were suddenly supporting Wasps. They really wanted us to lose. The guy stood behind me, (don't know his name but still see him all the time) was offereing anyone a bet that we'd still win as soon as we got hold of the ball but no one wanted to take him up on it.


I know some of you like the crappy game of kick and clap but i hate it with a passion. It will do anything it can to destroy league and thats why i hate it.
If you think that not the case you need to look again.

A very happy occasion for me. I was in the middle of my 2nd yr Law exams at Uni so couldn't attend, but I had a bet with an annoying rah-rah type off my course that wigan would win by a clear 50 points over the 2 legs. It was only a fiver but that was big money in my student days

It wasn't the money anyway, it was him having to pay out the bet infront of all of his rah-rah mates in the bar that was so satisfying.

In defence of Rugby Union lads, there was always the Public School element in the Uni RU club but a good proportion of the lads watched the games with me, as the only RL fan it seemed in the whole place and not only enjoyed it but encouraged me to start a League team at the Uni so they could try it. So it came to pass that in my final year when i should have been concentrating on study, I set up and ran the Uni's first RL team (it's still going 13 yrs later and plays in the Southern Premier). The RU lads, despite being a bit raw, loved it. As everyone was doing it at the time, we organised a cross codes with the sneering pr!ck who ran the RU club who was convinced they'd hammer us at both codes. Of course I set it up so it was league first and we won the half 42-0. The Ru lads simply had no answer to us running at them full pelt to break the line rather than set up plays. Second half we played the game plan to put it dead at every opportunity to slow it down and only lost the half 22-7. It was the best pi$$ up of my 3 yrs down there that night. None of the Union lads came.

That bit in bold is so very true.

It still is about possession but you also need the territory for that to happen. You can't take tackles on your halfway line if you're stood on your own. You would just cough the ball up and be out numbered. Sides kick to try and hunt the mistake/turnover so their forwards can take advantage. If your forwards are in front of you then you have no option but to kick.

Also, not sure if it is still written as this = but the object of rugby union used to be listed as 'kick more points than your opponent'

In Rugby League it's better to kick your opponent.

What an incredibly bitter post! To suggest you saw nothing in Guscott to suggest he wouldnt be able to make it in league is just laughable considering the players who did switch and managed to go on to become very good league players. He was twice the rugby players these players were. Why do you think the rugby league clubs were falling over themselves to try and sign him?

As for your last paragraph. lol. Its 2009, not 1989. The codes couldnt be closer. Do you still hate the germans for the second world war too?

Anyway, carry on jerking off about a tournament that was held best part of 15 years ago, funnily enough, also the last time wigan had a decent team because if there was a sevens tournament now, I would take every guiness premiership team over wigan. Union backs in england are now stronger, faster and more skillfull than their league counterparts. We have gone backwards whilst union has really kicked on

What an incredibly bitter post! I bet you don't even see the irony.

I think you need to look up what Irony means sunshine. When replying to what I perceive as being a bitter post, with a post that you perceive as being bitter, is not Irony, but then I wouldnt expect a wigan educated person to grasp this.

As for my post, it was bob on. Whats bitter about it? Are you trying to tell me that the backs in super duper league are of the same class as those on show in the guiness premiership?

I'll keep it simple, pal, fook off.

no, they are far better than the Ra Ra's. I want to know who you think Guscott was better than who made it in league from Union.

Well if Chris Ashton is one of the top Rugby Union backs then I would say yes.

Guscott would not and could not have made the transition, he had no upper body strength. Massive credit to Davies at that time, but he took a season to really get strong enough to cope, he always had my admiration for what he achieved. Speed is one thing, but not enough on its own in league. Guscott just came across as an arrogant git... And i for one would be amazed if he was offered the monies mentioned to cross codes.

Guscott would definitely have made it in RL if he'd made the switch IMO. Sure he may have needed to bulk up but look at Davies. He did it no problem. Guscott had plenty of flair and was tougher than the majority of England backs at the time such as Carling and Underwood.
He didn't play in the cross codes games because he saw them both as pointless. In the end they proved nothing other than that each club was very good at their own code of rugby.
He may come over as arrogant and I think that's a fair assessment but I think some people are going way OTT.

Guscott ran good lines that was it. No league clubs were falling over themselves to sign him. He was a good union player ran great lines but he would have been destroyed in most other aspects, something off the record he acknowledges. I am not sure who you are comparing with him who did go on to become very good league player I assume the likes of Davis, Bateman, Gibbs etc all who were far more naturally suited to league. Phil Deglanville was the only player worth a look at from that Bath team, vastly underrated player and could have in my opinion been a cracking defensive centre.

Regards the backs there is a vast difference in the physical requirements required in modern day league and union, so to compare the 2 is pretty difficult although from my experiences generally the League lads have come out on top in most core physical disciplines.

I would not take every Guiness Premiership team over Wigan at 7's but i would not expect Wigan to win a 7's these days playing under Union rules, but having said that if the boot was on the other foot I would take every SL side and a good few NL1 sides over any Union side in league 7's.

While the "codes could not be closer" this is a very naive statement, clearly they are working together but if you do not think there is an anti League agenda with the media men and major established figures within the game then you are somewhat deluded.

I would agree that Union is improving as a product and it needs to it is still not a great spectacle domestically, and i also agree we as a Sport are going backwards but I think we are starting to slow down in this respect and 2010 is likely to be a watershed year that will see improvement across the board not just 1 or 2 clubs.

I know that Bradford made a couple of concrete offers to sign him, one around 88 and another in 92/93. He turned down both.

I disagree with your opinion that he waas only good at running good lines. He was also quick, had a good change of pace, could step off either foot and had a decent kicking game. I always thought his attitude would suit him in League too as you need a bit of arrogance and cockiness to succeed.

If you read John Bentley's autobiography he rates Guscott in contrast with De Glanville who he doesn't reckon much to at all.

I have been pretty close to the Bath camp in my time and have experience of both Deglanville and Guscott, if you asked any of the Bath team who they would want on the field it was Deglanville he had a Dean Bell type aura about him, he would do things that other player would not especially back, he was also ridiculously strong.

Regards the Bradford offers, according to the man himself both were nothing more than a publicity stunt and he never received a serious offer from the club.

Guscott was pretty fast but his acceleration was not the best, Bateman and Davis had raw acceleration, Guscott had pretty bgood feet for a Union player but nothing special for a League player at the time. He also lacked real strength which would have been a major issue in League, his engine was also not the best and i dread to think what effect having to do 10-15 + tackles would have on his game and his pace.

His kicking game was reasonable nothing fantastic, but credit to him he had the ability to come up with a match winning play, again though i would question his ability to do this without a hiding place for 75 minutes of a game that he was often afforded in Union.

Bradford did make a solid and pretty good bid for Mike Tindall in the early 2000's.

Rubbish!