Rugby League

"Why are League fans so hostile towards Union? I love playing and watching both codes, just hope the Crusaders have a better season next year. If you like Pepsi you should like Coca-Cola, right?."

Well, I've played both. I lean towards union, simply because that's my culture in this part of the world. If I was from Lancashire or Queensland, I'd be into league.

There are points, for and against both codes. I actually think that they're converging, and may even merge at some point in the future.

"Lets all look forward to the Rugby League World cup in 2013 and the Union World cup in 2015, both on our shores. I, for one, can't wait."

I tried to follow Scotland in the last RLW cup, but unfortunately media coverage was appalling.

First of all, I'm an ardent Union fan from Southern England, but I also like to watch League. However, as a student of the history of both games, I can tell you why League fans harbour ill feelings towards Union.

A lot of it is because of the breathtaking hypocrisy of Rugby Union at administrative level. Before Union finally went open (professional) in 1995, it was supposedly an amateur game where payment for playing was outlawed. I say supposedly, because players in some areas, for example in Wales, had been paid for decades by a method known as "boot money". Money magically found it's way into players' boots after a match where no one could see that payment had been made. I wish this happened to me now and then! The term for this is known as "shamateurism" and made a nonsense of Union's oh so high and mighty approach towards player payment.

Also, Union never accepted League as "Rugby" but was happy to ban Union players who had the temerity to play League, for LIFE, beacuase they had played rugby for financial gain. Yet supposedly, League wasn't rugby, in Union's eyes. Double standards, anyone?

Union's darkest hour happened during World War Two. The French Rugby Union actually conspired with the Vichy Government in occupied France to outlaw Rugby League. This was duly done, and to top it off, the French Rugby Union stole all of the French Rugby League's assets. To this day, they have never apologised, nor have they returned those assets. Happily, League is still played in certain southern French regions, but it is still not allowed to call itself "Rugby" and has to use the name "Game of Thirteen" instead.

The famous England Union captain Bill Beaumont came in for terrible stick from the English Rugby Football Union in the Eighties as he wrote a book about his time in Union. This was seen by the administrators as getting financial gain from Union and I seem to recall that Beaumont received a short term ban from the game because of this. Yet the "blazers" at Twiokenham were perfectly happy to live off of income from Rugby.

As I said, I generally prefer Union to League, but Union's history is shameful. Happily, in 1995, when Union finally came clean, this farcical situation largely righted itself and the codes are quite close nowadays.