Standard of the Zimbabwean First Class competition

[pariah]

Pariah they havecactually tried the union v league thing with mixed rules and I think the league team won something like 80-0.

liar!

[eugene]

I remember Bath v Wigan in 1996.

Wigan 82-6 Bath in the League fixture

Bath 44-19 Wigan in the Union fixture.

In Bath's defence that Wigan lineup had many all-time greates such as Kris Radlinski, Jason Robinson, Inga Tuigamala, Martin Offiah, Gary Connolly, Henry Paul, Shaun Edwards, and Andy Farrell. One must also remember that the League guys were professionals, whereas the Union players had only been professional for one season or so.

The Bath lineup only had a few notable names such as Phil de Glanville and Mike Catt.

League Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLJh ... tXjUOK0SRc

Union Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Dzv0CclzKE


In 2003, St Helens and Sale played a game where Union was the first half and League the second. Sale won 41-39, with Sale leading 41-0 at half-time. The now professional union players had the fitness to keep up with the League players, which they struggled with mightily in 1996.

[foreignfield]

A Zimbabwe Cricket Union team would thoroughly thrash a Zimbabwe Cricket League side.

[jaybro]

Pariah they havecactually tried the union v league thing with mixed rules and I think the league team won something like 80-0.

liar!

Proven wrong doesn't respond stand Hhm ......

The other telling factor between the Union v League battle is the success of players crossing codes, There's a long history of league players crossing over to union and killing it whilst I can't remember any Union players making a successful switch and there have been a few who have tried ....

[eugene]

Inga Tuigamala, Matthew Ridge, Jonathan Davies and Scott Quinnell were very successful Union to League converts.

[ZIMDOGGY]

Eugene is right, but they were all in the 80s and none of them are Australian.
League in the U.K. Is reserve grade standard in Australia. Literally, reserve grade rugby league players in Australia go over to England and dominate when they have no career options in oz.

Jaybro is ultimately right. When a league player goes to union they walk into the wallabies side, they are probably taking a pay cut to get to that point though. Except the discarded league lower graders that fill the super rugby backlines.

That's also why Australia play boring union. They are from a low talent pool but well coached.
None of this is a secret in Australia.

State of origin gets pumped up and talked about for weeks and is the most popular sporting event on the east coast calendar easily, and can get a crowd of 80000 to a game on a Wednesday night! whereas wallabies games don't even get televised on free to air, or if they are, a secondary channel

[eugene]

UK Super League teams pummeled NRL teams this season in the World Club Challenge, and plenty of Australians have gone over to Super League and completely bombed, like Trent Burns and Luke Walsh for example.

[jaybro]

UK Super League trams pummeled NRL teams this season in the World Club Challenge, and plenty of Australians have gone over to Super League and completely bombed, like Trent Burns and Luke Walsh for example.

The Super League is no where near the standard of the NRL, only reserve grade players cross over to England now or players on their last legs ......

[eugene]

Overall the NRL is definitely stronger, but the gap isn't as big as Australians like to think it is. To compare SL to reserve grade is unfair in my opinion. The number of English players from SL clubs who are hitting it big in Australia suggests the standard of RL in the UK isn't all that bad.

[ZIMDOGGY]

Overall the NRL is definitely stronger, but the gap isn't as big as Australians like to think it is. To compare SL to reserve grade is unfair in my opinion. The number of English players from SL clubs who are hitting it big in Australia suggests the standard of RL in the UK isn't all that bad.

Nah reserve grade is an accurate assumption.
Although of course if a player isn't good enough for first grade he may also not be good enough for the next level down after injuries and what not. Also Luke Walsh didn't bomb? Last I heard he was doing well.

Yes there are SOME uk players doing well in Oz. There's about 6 with three of them from the same family (burgess bros).

However;
They are forwards, never backline players. Not sure the relevance of this but we haven't had a good English back in oz since Carney 15 years ago.

Secondly, it's basic maths that t least a couple of English players would be NRL standard given they do have a lot of players. But you have to be cream of the crop top 2%

The work club challenge games you cited aren't ever taken seriously from the nrl teams. They would be 50 plus scorelines if they did.

That said, the U.K. Super league is very entertaining to watch as they generally are more unstructured and colourful, more attacking due to weak defences.

In England union is in a position to raid league talent as its more popular in the U.K. Nrl also raid English league talent. They suffer by being on the food chain of two Rich competitions