Originally Posted by
Webbo Again
How many English/Scottish/Irish union players can you name who switched to playing league?
If we're moving onto the subject of RL signing union players, then let's look at the hypocrisy and the prejudice.
A person with a talent for playing *rugby* was prevented by the RFU and other RU bodies from earning a living from their talent. A rugby union player could (and did) earn money from other professional sports like cricket and in those cases the Corinthean spirit of amateurism stopped applying. But play rugby league (even not for money!) and it was inquisition time.
Pure and simple prejudice.
They weren't just banned from playing rugby union ever again, they were ostracised by former friends, barred from entering rugby union clubhouses and stadia. Pathetic.
What makes this even more laughable was the 'boot money' farce of shamateurism. The top players were of course paid. And many took advantage of the old school tie network to land pretend-jobs that required very little of them but gave them a salary so they could concentrate primarily on the rugger.
And then, once the union authorities bow to pressure from the clubs and remove the veneer of 'amateurism', suddenly it's as if the prejudice and holier-than-thou posturing of the preceding century didn't exist, and the RFU were handing fat contracts to league players and coaches.
Like Stephen and others are at pains to say, as a sport, of course rugby league has a dead-eye aim when it comes to shooting itself in the foot. The parochialism and self-interest of clubs is horrendous - just witness the shocking situation of reserve sides. The marketing nearly always seems dreamt up by a bunch of year 7 school kids doing a project. We change the rules seemingly every time porcine Nigel farts. The powers that be tweaked the ptb/offside rules/interpretation to turn a fast-paced, vibrant, try-fest spectacular into an automated crash-a-thon and wrestlefest, where the ability to manipulate the ref into not penalising your team for 3/4/5 blokes slowly getting off the tackled man one by one can and does decide games.
But neither the ineptitude of the RL authorities, the poor on-field product nor parochialism of clubs (accentuated by the Leeds-led Yaaaarksher 'mafia') can be looked at in isolation when it comes to reasons for our sport's perpetual struggle to get not only adequate media attention and representation, but simple recognition by the global sports body that has evolved to be the arbiter of deciding what is and isn't an actual sport.