I played yawnion for 5 years & it bores the t[ii[/its off me. I feel suitably qualified.

'qualified' ?


you should be fookin' 'certified' mate !!!

When I played league I was knackered after 20 mins. When I played union was still full of energy after the 80 due to the lack of action.

Next time I'll make sure my tongue is even more firmly in cheek.

I was a second row or loose in League and I have played half a dozen games of Union in the centre. I spent 80 minutes trudging up and down the pitch as the fly half constantly booted the ball over my head and into touch. I understand why professional teams and international teams need to play a certain style of rugby in order to win games but the standard I was playing was 4th or 5th string and yet they were still happy to kick the ball off the park every 30 seconds – I couldn’t understand why they didn’t try to run the ball and actually enjoy the game

I gave up (before I lamped our fly half)

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17072449Cardif Blues captain Paul Tito warns of Welsh rugby union 'crash'.[/url
[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17092404Former Wales captain Gwyn Jones has warned the nation's players face "massive" pay cuts amid a cash crisis.[/url
Cardiff Blues have recently decided to return to their former Arms Park home for some games because of falling crowds at the Cardiff City Stadium, where they signed a 20-year tenancy lease with Cardiff City Football Club.
Falling crowd numbers have added to the financial pressures on the Welsh regions, who have already seen some of their leading players leave or announce they will leave for richer English and French clubs.
The Welsh sides' self-imposed salary cap of £3.5m compares unfavourably to that imposed on English Premiership sides and is dwarfed by the £7.1m limit of French Top 14 clubs.

With Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aironi and now possibly the Welsh clubs struggling financially, will the Pro 12 league become an annual two-horse race? The central contract system opersted by the Irish RFU could lead to their clubs pulling away from the others which does nobody any favours.

Welcome to the real world, professional rugby union.

Ireland are just about managing to live in the professional world but the route taken by the Welsh and Scottish RFUs has been staggering at times. A single Welsh team to compete in the English league? The Welsh domestic league would comprise of the traditional teams who currently play in the Welsh Premiership. This new side representing Wales could draw on players from the domestic competition, with each domestic club being assigned one player on a WRFU central contract.

The provinces do seem to be coping much better with the transition than the Welsh regions or the Scottish super clubs, not sure why that is?

Be interesting to see whether the new rules on overseas players the IRFU are bringing in hurts their competitiveness at Heineken Cup level. The provinces will be restricted to just one player in each position who is not Ireland qualified from next season onwards IIRC.

It may bring the Irish clubs down to the level of the other nations but It will only widen the gap between the French and the 'have nots'.
What are the odds on long lost relatives from Waterford, Galway and Sligo surfacing?

[url=http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8423539And so it continues.[/url

Already off
Mike Phillips (Bayonne), Gethin Jenkins (Toulon), Lee Byrne (Clermont Auvergne), James Hook (Perpignan), Dwayne Peel (Sale), Aled Brew (Biarritz), Andy Powell (Sale), Rhys Gill (Saracens)

On their way?
Luke Charteris (Dragons) – Perpignan are in the hunt; Jonathan Davies (Scarlets) – Northampton, who are losing James Downey, are said to be interested; Huw Bennett (Ospreys) – New French big spenders Lyon may be the hooker's destination; Ben Morgan (Scarlets) – English clubs are sniffing around him

Ben Morgan has been capped by England.

Twice I think.

Maybe one of the reasons the Irish are coping better is the already established network of county/provincial sports team in other sports - gaelic sport for example.

The idea of getting behind a team representing a whole region rather than just your home town isn't foreign to Irish sports fans in the same way it is to the Welsh and Scots.

Owen Farrell moved back to fly half. As I said, never a centre.
Wales, Ireland, France.

His dad was a natural.

The Irish provincial system has been going for years so that's why it's easier to sort now. Even in the amateur days Munster and co were playing New Zealand in tour matches. In terms of crowd figures and what not, there are 4 provinces and it divides the whole of Ireland into 4. The Welsh regions are all in the south and aren't far apart. Cardiff to Newport is about 10 minutes on the train, so to call them regions is a bit stupid. Of course there probably isn't any other way of doing them, but the Welsh are very proud and a lot won't go to the regional games. The move back to Cardiff Arms Park for the Blues meant a lot of the old Cardiff fans would return. A lot of them are very stubborn and won't even acknowledge the name Blues. I read on their forum that a lot of the crowd roll their eyes if somebody starts a chant with that name in it. There's obviously still passion there. The Ospreys sell out LV Cup games at Bridgend no problem and the Blues have sold out the last 2 games at the Arms Park.

There's always talk of a 5th region in the North but I don't know how financially viable that would be. However the Wales U-20's recently got 6,000 at Colwyn Bay so there may well be love up there.

The WRU would love to break North Wales. I wonder how much they have bunged into that failed North Wales club www.gogleddcymru.blogspot.com/

The WRU would love to break North Wales. I wonder how much they have bunged into that failed North Wales club www.gogleddcymru.blogspot.com/

Quote ="dids858"The WRU would love to break North Wales. I wonder how much they have bunged into that failed North Wales club www.gogleddcymru.blogspot.com/'" They filled it with second-rate Canadians and overseas students studying at Wrexham and Bangor Unis. No wonder they failed to sell the community concept. They seemed to panic once it was confirmed Crusdaders were to enter Super League. Wales -3 looks a cracking bet to me this weekend.

Quote ="dids858"The WRU would love to break North Wales. I wonder how much they have bunged into that failed North Wales club www.gogleddcymru.blogspot.com/'" They filled it with second-rate Canadians and overseas students studying at Wrexham and Bangor Unis. No wonder they failed to sell the community concept. They seemed to panic once it was confirmed Crusdaders were to enter Super League. Wales -3 looks a cracking bet to me this weekend.

Along with Wales first try this has been a VERY profitable Saturday afternoon's union.

Well done England.
You snatched defeat from the jaws of victory
Ben Youngs??????
Why bring him on when he is playing shoite?
Lancaster showed today why he is not our next coach.

On the plus side for a Wales win ... England are useless at scoring tries, and if the only way we can win is by penalties, then I hope England lose every game that they don't get a try.

I flicked over 4 times to check England were losing. Not once was there any play whatsoever. Waiting for a penalty kick, scrum, lineout, someone to put the crowd out of their misery.

You're right, it was awful (again).....I was watching with a gang of football fans, who, while not Rugby fans, said they could watch Union, but didn't 'get' Rugby League!!??...



It really is a funny one.....The occasion is no doubt a great one - Great stadium, huge crowd, top atmosphere, yet the product on the pitch is so poor.

Its obviously helps that because the two sides cancel each other out, it leads to matches being close right to the wire, so you often get tight, tension-filled matches but the actual quality of rugby is not good.

Looking at the type of person who goes to Union matches, it seems to me that a good majority are simply there for the 'occasion' and not for the sport, which shows that while their product is dire, their marketing is obviously top-notch, something that Rugby League could learn from.

You say that but I've had people telling me it was a good game. Now I've only seen the highlights as I was busy yesterday but it just goes to show you how two people watching the same thing can come away with completely opposite conclusions.
A couple of comments on twitter from a friend;
'I really enjoyed the match today. Watched some quality players on both teams @EnglandRugby @WalesRugby'
'it was actually a great game, and a fair result!'