Cross code Rugby

[Ken Smith]

The talk of the All Blacks playing against the Kangaroos is an interesting perspective. Whilst I agree to a certain extent with Craig Murdoch that Rugby League in general has lost its flair excepting for Cas in 2017 and St Helens last year what do folks think about a hybrid sport of Rugby amalgamating the two sports with the same laws sometimes in the near future? One suggestion is that the new sport might be a 14-a-side and become a summer sport throughout the World if it is to compete with Football. In England would that mean one Super Championship of say 16 clubs, and how would that affect Castleford? I imagine most Cas supporters would be against the idea, but the big city clubs like Leeds and Hull might be for it. It might work in the Southern Hemisphere but could it work in England?

[mdean]

I live in a RU area and as well as the usual sparring over the differences, in the middle there is a perfect sweet spot.

RU, limiting the dirge of playing bundles over and over again, referees interpreting if someone is supporting their own weight and when there are 8 blokes on the floor the ref blows and points to one person and says - you had a hand in the wrong place is daft - and the kicking can be tiresome.

That said, our game at times the restarts are somewhat limiting, particularly scrums. I like the set restart option in the NRL, that kind of mitigates one of my own gripes which was to allow teams to build more than 5 plays and a kick against negative defence.

There is a really interesting sweet spot in the middle in my opinion. I have often said that RL I can enjoy and watch at any level, but RU is only entertaining at a good standard where ball is in hand and played openly. Otherwise it is a game of kick and pile-on.