Very impressive. 2 tries scored by foreigners, 1 try by an ex RL player and all the goals kicked by the son of a RL legend. ENGLISH RU is looking healthy.

They did score tries which was an improvement but the All Blacks scored just as many. It was, as usual, decided by who had the best penalty goal kicker.

How bitter do you guys get? Great game, astonishing result. Something else, if England RL beat the Australians, no one would even notice

And by the way the 'RU legend' was nowhere near good enough for union

Who's bitter. RU is an inferior game that cannot usually achieve a result without a multitude of penalty kicks influencing the game as was the case here. Given the paucity of tries from England, it really is astonishing that they should score three, one from a RL winger and one from a centre whose brother played for Halifax and Samoa, so I wonder of any RL influence was involved, not that he's English anyway.

Watch out for the papers tomorrow, he'll probably be pictured diving into the Thames from some ferry or other or throwing somone around in a bar whilst ksissing a floosie.

You are. Union is not an inferior game, you just do not like it. By bitter, I mean that whenever there is a great game of league, union people do not leap onto boards to post how poor it was. Not sure why you feel you have to

Yet he was capped 8 times by England RU

Union is an inferior game by a long way. If Union people saw a great game of League they'd love it instead of the garbage that they watch instead.

That was in the days when if a halibut had played league the RFU would cap it. Not nearly as much crossover now, and those that do take a lot more time to succeed.

I have seen a fair bit of league, but find it all a bit samey. I am not going to sart claiming league is inferior, but then I don't have a huge chip sitting on my shoulder.

What's bitter about my statement? Is there anything in it that is untrue? 2 tries scored by foreigners; Brad Barrit, South African, moved to England in 2008 aged 22. Manu Tuilagi, born Samoa, moved to England initially illegally aged 13, 5 brothers all played for Samoa. Chris Ashton, former Wigan RL and England RL player. Moved to Union aged 20. Owen Farrell's father was a Rugby League legend; Debuted age just 17, GB debut aged 18, youngest ever GB captain at 21. Won every honour in the game including Golden boot.

All sounds about right to me. As I said, very impressive, make of that what you will.

All true, but why try to pick holes in what was a great result and a great game. If you don't like union, don't watch it

I'm getting reminded of the great Dutoni when I look at a certain poster on this thread.



Outstanding stuff from England. The pack was massive, Launchbury and Corbisiero in particular, but as mentioned previously we were much better for not having Flood involved. Was impressed by Farrell and he will rightly get the plaudits (although how he has been nominated for POTY is beyond me) but was equally good to see Burns in there too. We have two young talented tens now who can be competing for the shirt for a decade. Would be a huge mistake to ever pick Flood again.

Confirmed here that Izzy is a money grabbing grub, despite his and his managers denials. www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union ... 2b0yv.html

Confirmed here that Izzy is a money grabbing grub, despite his and his managers denials. www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union ... 2b0yv.html

Hilarious. League is much better without him.

What did Farrell do apart from kick penalty goals and drop a goal when he had an advantage and running options right and left. His first instinct was to kick even though he would have come back for the penalty already awarded if he had launched a running attack. There bhave been great Rugby Union stand offs and I can think of Jonathan Davies, Watkins, Carter, Spencer, Ella and even back to my youth Sharpe but Farrell. Please tell me what he has got that has you drooling so.

In a similar vein, why come to a discussion forum called RLFANS and then be surprised when the users think League is a better game than Union? Yes, this thread is to discuss Union but it is being discussed predominately by fans of League. I discuss Union on here but I don’t go on Union boards to discuss it and I certainly don’t go on Union boards asking them why they think League is inferior – they follow Union and therefore think that is a superior game and League fans follow League and therefore think that is a superior game. Pretty straight forward logic

Interesting to see Sale getting whacked by 62 points today by Toulon . The Premierships only northern team currently bottom of the premiership are going to be lucky to survive this season. Could it be that the Premiership will be without a northern team next season? Newcastle might have other ideas but a Long way to go. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 21007.html

Interesting to see Sale getting whacked by 62 points today by Toulon . The Premierships only northern team currently bottom of the premiership are going to be lucky to survive this season. Could it be that the Premiership will be without a northern team next season? Newcastle might have other ideas but a Long way to go. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 21007.html

You could well be right. The end of season mini-league play-off rules in the RU Championship completely scuppered Bristol last season after they had led the league all season. Sale are currently in a right mess and crowds are down too with the move to Salford.

Quote ="Sadfish"Interesting to see Sale getting whacked by 62 points today by Toulon . The Premierships only northern team currently bottom of the premiership are going to be lucky to survive this season. Could it be that the Premiership will be without a northern team next season? Newcastle might have other ideas but a Long way to go. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 21007.html'" Karma! The ghost of County Past and Salford Future are coming to haunt Sale Present.

Quote ="Sadfish"Interesting to see Sale getting whacked by 62 points today by Toulon . The Premierships only northern team currently bottom of the premiership are going to be lucky to survive this season. Could it be that the Premiership will be without a northern team next season? Newcastle might have other ideas but a Long way to go. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 21007.html'" Karma! The ghost of County Past and Salford Future are coming to haunt Sale Present.

The last Aviva crowd Sale got was pretty similar to Salford's average from last season. I'm baffled as to why they turned up in greater numbers at a soccer ground (and a dump of a soccer ground at that) in Cheshire.

More trouble at Sale, John Mitchell quitting as coach after a month in charge to return to South Africa.

There's a tumour eating away at that club from the inside, and it's called Steve Diamond's ego.

Wasps beat London Welsh 34-15

interesting article about the problems RU faces with the scrum and how it is having a damaging effect on skill levels and entertainment in the game. www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/ja ... ugby-union

interesting article about the problems RU faces with the scrum and how it is having a damaging effect on skill levels and entertainment in the game. www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/ja ... ugby-union

The minute the IRB insisted on the ludicrous "crouch, touch, pause, engage" mantra scrums became an absolute shambles.

Look back at games from the 90s, where teams were allowed to engage on their own terms and the scrum allowed to settle before the scrum half put the ball in. Very few collapses, very few scrums leading to penalties or free-kicks.

The current laws basically allow 240 plus stone of forwards to engage in a "who can hit hardest" contest, with little concentration on getting the binding and engagement correct. That's what leads to scrums continually needing to be reset, as props are too interested in getting a nudge on their opposite number rather than correctly binding to keep the scrum up.

Time the IRB went back to the future if they want to sort out the setpiece.

My understanding with the crouch touch etc was to make the scrum safer to avoid the length of time players were pushing in the scrum causing injuries and also dangerous scrums with lots of pushing and collapses that caused injury.

The reasons for this is that most RU players now have exchanged 70 s and 80 s flab for 2000 muscle and therefore the pressure in the scrums is much higher and the number of shoulder, neck and back injuries was increasing