I have always found Union a tough watch but I’m sports mad and will watch almost any sports and keep up with, however 10 minutes in to this England game and I have switched it off, I thought League was going soft but Union is a joke now, it seems like almost every game has a red card.
If the RFL played it right and told the refs to play on the more lenient side they could end up getting a lot of Union fans converting.

37 points in the game and all but 5 from the boot

Yeah 27 points to 10. If it was an RL game it would have finished 15-8..(much fairer reflection on the game)

I sat through it too. I know the ABs got some criticism for losing to France, I thought either of those sides would have beaten Argentina or England comfortably on that performance. I remember two occasions near the end of the first half; England had a break down the right wing, and it ended up with the loose forward kicking the ball aimlessly into touch. Then, a few minutes later, England initially had a five onto two, but ended up throwing the ball over the side-line. Defended well enough, but, we won't even bother about scoring tries, we'll knock over a few drop-goals, won't beat the best sides.

After learning my skills at St Josephs and St Cuthberts . I had to play Union in the Army. I soon jacked that in !

RL was banned in the armed forces until uncle Maurice and co went about to change that in the 90s,thats why I dislike RU with a passion.
Was even worse in France.

It might appeal to me more if the clock was stopped every time the ball was whellied into the crowd for the fatties to waddle up for yet another line out.

Can't help wondering if the endless succession of RU internationals is diluting the interest. There doesn't seem to be half the fanfare on TV this time round. Even the booty-kissing BBC don't seem especially interested.

Well, you say that, and you might have a point, compared to, say, the last World Cup. But nevertheless, if rugby league was treated with half the fanfare that rugby union is by the BBC, the national newspapers and so on, how the sporting scene would change! Rugby league is *still* a largely unknown quantity to many outside the North of England, a fact that I often think is underappreciated. And I hear a lot of "I liked what little I see of it" type comments around. What I would say is that the coverage of union is very good, both on BBC and ITV. Compared to JJB jabbering on.

I've always been hopeful that the more Union was exposed, the more the viewing public would get wise to what a poor game it is. But I agree with you that intense publicity can often override that (football is an even better example). When the establishment is behind you, the odds are always in your favour.

But the landscape is changing a little. Domestically, I hear that RU is in a bad place, so maybe their reliance on the international game is becoming over-reliance. I live in hope.

Not, of course, that RU's demise would switch everyone's attention to us. I'm sure the Beeb would find prime time spots for Tiddlywinks before upping their coverage of RL.

I'm not having that! JJB is a revelation. Did you not know that "a rising tide lifts all ships"? He's only said it 40 times and it's still worth a few outings yet...

Union is an odd choice, on the face of it, to be a successful spectator sport. Stoppages are frequent, the game seldom achieves any real flow. Many games are decided by technical calls by the ref at scrums and the breakdown. Even the commentators often don't know why a decision has gone a particular way. And some of the rules seem perverse. Yellow cards for 'deliberate knock-ons' is a particular pet hate of mine.