How the NRL is destroying Rugby Union in Australia... 

Lots of work to do on my video skills, but I really, really appreciate everyone who is engaging with the channel already. I can’t thank you enough

Rugby league isn't killing union. Rugby Union kills itself through been a private school upper class game. It doesn't resonate to the people who have nothing. The pathways in Union are mainly through Private Schools.

Used to play Union in western Sydney, but anyone who had any aspirations to go pro would play league. NRL had clear pathways to make it to being a professional, but Union felt like you had to play for Joeys or Kings. And I can guarantee that a bunch of kids from lower socioeconomic areas are a million times more excited to play for the Panthers junior rep team than pack their stuff and board at a douchy private school. Not sad to see RA go under, they made their bed.

RA really dropped the ball after 2003. They had a massive opportunity after a hugely successful World Cup to really push growth in grassroots rugby and take the power away from the private schools. They relied on the popularity of Rugby as a global game and assumed they would attract the top talent. I think they’re really banking on the 2027 World Cup to revive rugby in Australia, it’s pretty much their last chance.

I played pro rugby for 13 years and put my kids into AFL (Auskick) because of the reasonable fees and just the genuine care from NSWAFL. The coaching, development and all round experience has been flawless and enjoyable not only for my kids but also us as parents.

When Peter Fitzsimons is the voice of Rugby It's got no chance He's turned into a self righteous flog

With the NRL's revenue passing 600m this year the gap is only going to get worse. Problem for rugby in Sydney is they ignored half the city. (Western Sydney) We love league, Go Parra.

Interesting you mentioned the crappy TV deal the union has brokered. I am a Wales union supporter, but look how the NRL promotes itself: all the highlights and condensed matches are available soon after for the WORLD to see. And the standard of play is amazing - the skills, speed and athleticism, the ball in constant play and the foul play more or less gone from the game. It truly is the best oval ball spectacle in my opinion. Union on the other hand still has mind-numbing kicking contests, scrum sets that go on and on and the most indecipherable and nonsensical rules. Union could be improved in a lot of countries, especially both Wales and Oz, but the problems are different in both countries.

I much prefer union, but I acknowledge it's just an inferior sport in many ways. - You have more guys on a team so player salaries will be lower and maintenance, travel, insurance costs will be higher - The scoring system is nonsensical. Penalties are worth too much (60% the value of a try), where as in league penalties are worth 50% of a try and the same amount as a conversion (talk about consistent scoring parameters). - League has eliminated the messy breakdown stuff, which is highly prone to referee interpretation and injuries - League hasn't got the same soul-killing, injury-creating, error-inducing high kick chase aspect to it - Rolling substitutions are superior and further reduces the squad size needed - Travel between NRL clubs is confined to the east coast of Australia, further reducing costs - Leagues refereeing is still pretty bad, but unions is disgusting. No consistency with referees and a smug attitude and lack of accountability with them - League understands the game is chaotic and they allow a little niggle, where as union try's to apply every rule to the letter of the law in a futile attempt to demand perfection...and it doesn't work.

This video is perfect for highlighting the reality of ARU. This video could have been uploaded 15 years ago and still be relevant. Rugby union is dying in Australia and League continues to boom.

Good for you nrl, rugby union in almost every other country is always trying to get rid of league so it's good to see the reverse

I played both codes while at school. Rugby is the better game to play but league is the far better game to watch.

It’s about time rugby league started pushing in rugby union nations like South Africa and Argentina

The issue is NRL is constantly changing and adapting, there's too many old elitist dicks in Union trying unknowingly to ruin Union.

As a South African who has huge respect for Australia, I NEED THEM TO COME BACK!!!!!

I grew up playing and watching union and I loved it. Recently I switched to watching NRL around 5 years ago and now it’s the only thing I watch. It’s a way more entertaining style of rugby. I can’t even bring myself to watching the rugby championship or international union games anymore due to the yellows and red cards they give out. I know there trying to increase player safety but it’s completely ruining the game in my opinion.

Above all else is the fact that there is only round 40 mins of play in a 80 minute match. Referees blowing the pea out of the whistle for seemingly invisible indiscretions, also has a massive affect. NRL on the other hand is much more of a spectacle even factoring in video referees and captains challenges.

I went to Matraville High School, a school that produced 6 wallabies, Fairfax the 3 Ella brothers Lloyd Walker, and David Knox, along with Eddie Jones.. we were a Rugby powerhouse, and now they play Rugby League and soccer. Rugby in Australia is dying on the vine and the drought doesn't look like lifting soon.

My first game of Rugby, Shaun Berne nailed a halfway conversion to beat the Crusaders. They'd put 56 on the Waratahs the previous time they played. Sadly, I've never seen a better game since, where I can expect my NRL team to serve up multiple games a season as exciting. Aside from watching a replay of the Wallabies winning after picking up that red card a couple months ago, I haven't been interested in watching any Rugby games end-to-end this year.

This is a complete misdiagnosis of the problem. In fact it’s so bad as to be adding to Rugby Union’s problems in Australia… the truth is that Rugby has never had the public schools in NSW and Qld, but when it got its first financial windfall it decided to directly try and eat into League’s support by spending big on NRL stars. However, whilst Union was preoccupied with the NRL, they let their grassroots wither and simultaneously the AFL identified that its primary market in NSW and Qld (and in Sydney especially) was in Union’s private school heartland. Indeed, the growth of the Swans and decline of the Waratahs are almost directly proportional. I remember being a Waratahs member in the early 00s and we’d get average crowds of 25-30k, whilst the Swans were tiny. The situation is entirely reversed now, and all the posh eastern suburbs kids all have AFL programs in their posh schools, to the point that they are now all much more likely to know who Buddy Frankly is than Michael Hooper. If fans of the Rugby in Australia are still failing to understand that their true competitor is the AFL, then the sport is well and truly stuffed…

Am Scottish Rugby fan and for the good of world cup I hope Australia come back to the old days when you had great sides of campese eales, larkham, etc sad to see the aussies where they are

Good points. Also, it Was always a battle to the death for Union and League in Aus from the very start. Eventually league won because it offers consistent product week in week out for tv. Rugby is inconsistent. League got people addicted to the game on a Friday night. Also when union went professional it had a high for a while but it eventually was its end, as it caused them to ignore the grass roots and focused on money, but failed. Then that horrid feminist attacked Israel and it was all over basically. The Falou saga and the way they handled it killed the game.

Was shocked when I turned up to a Queensland Reds game and was charged $50 for GA. Haven’t been back to a Super Rugby game since.

So true Well said I have shared your opinion for a decade or more and like you I cannot see any hope of a rugby resurgence in Australia

Interesting thing is Union used to be way bigger in public schools, look at the Waratah Shield. Absolutely huge competition.

Good video mate, keep it up. Although props are the most interesting people on the field, and in the bar.

Smashing video mate. Well done 👍🏾

While Rugby League is killing it in NSW and QLD, it's still dying a slow death due to NRL prioritizing their beloved national competition and State of Origin, they are pushing for the cancellation of more and more international fixtures because it takes away from the "pinnacle" of State of Origin. Rugby Union is growing internationally much faster than Rugby League because of that and the RWC 2023 is going to be a big spectacle.

Rugby Union in Australia destroyed itself. The NRL just capitalised on it.

I definitely don't like what NRL clubs like eagles playing social engineering games with the supporters , some evil weirdos running around in professional sports...

Wallabies England series drew an average of 45,000-50,000 attendance figures and millions more in broadcast viewership. Rugby Union is a legitimate global game whilst league is played professionally in 3 countries. Rugby union have a genuine world cup where up to 7 teams are capable of winning it whilst rugby league world cup has only 3 real contenders and a bunch of transplanted Australians.

Don't forget the crazy actions ARU have taken over the last 5 seasons which left them with a crippled "Super Rugby" competition. Some of it came from NZ who I found to be very arrogant in their dealings around Super Rugby. It won't surprise me if some time in the next 3-5 years the Springboks move to the Northern Hemisphere for their main rugby at Test level. This will be bad for Australia and New Zealand. Having the Boks to play against is good for both countries and they arrogantly assume that the Southern Hemisphere sides are still unbeatable. This could completely shift the landscape of the rugby centre of the universe away from New Zealand and Australia will also feel the fallout. I believe that this performances of the Wallabies and All Blacks this season is also a result of not playing the SA teams in Super Rugby. While we might not have won regularly we played at a high level and the physicality made them tougher and harder to beat by NH sides.

I've seen it on the club level too. I'm playing subbies rugby and year after year the numbers are just dwindling down. My club went from 5 grades to barely footing 1 team. It's sad to see

ARU's decision to evict Israel Folau, the greatest trans Tasman test try scorer in history was something they have never recovered from. How ironic.. and justified. They have since plummeted on the international ladder and are unlikely to ever recover. I used to be a Wallaby supporter but now.. Go France !

The problem with rugby union is that its just objectively worse than league lol. A scrappy visually unappealing pile of bodies with 400 penalty goals per game? No thank you.

Rugby is dead in Australia, proof of that is the new NRL side the Dolphins 35,000 fans at Suncorp, watch the same stadium when the Reds play there first home game will not come close to 10,000 probably 7,000 its a joke, I love rugby but the ongoing BS rugby is going through here in Australia is making me more leaning towards RL

Elitism and the disinclination to 'mix it with the plebs' is whats killing rugby.. that and some of the ridiculous rulings on field.. Need to start winning more games & a kid from Mt Druitt with nothing to lose has more mongrel in him and willingness to put his body on the line than a Newington flog that has to help out on the farm in Bowral over XMAS..

rugby league in my opinion is a real man's game , brutal tackles , faster , more entertaining . i am in the UK and watch both the Betfred Superleague in the UK and the NRL and on comparison the NRL is the best league to watch ( St Helens and Penrith Panthers the teams i follow )

The laws of League make it much easier to allow the players to entertain on the field (they ditched all the boring bits and they can't replace half the team once they get tired). Union can be great but more and more teams play as if they are scared and focus on low risk set piece and kicking games where players celebrate winning a penalty more than a try. It's is boring to watch and in most games the referee and TV official get more focus than the players.

I played rugby from when I was 9 - 27, in addition to playing 4 years of league during high school. I’m a private school boy from Sydney and I NEVER watch any Aussie rugby, but I never miss a Manly game. It’s so true mate, but rugby for me is already dead. Much prefer to watch the Swannies or….. the NFL

All sports not just rugby. Cricket ,field hockey ,there is a significant downfall in performances in these respective sports.

Union lags behind league in Australia because the Aus mindset doesn't suit it, not the private school myth. Way back before league had even made it to Australian shores, meaning there could be no excuse saying that all the best athletes were playing league, Union was the contact sport of choice. The early version of the British Lions arrived down in these parts, thinking that because Australia is big, they'd play them three times and New Zealand only once. Well, they trounced Australia all three tests, while NZ trounced them. The next time they turned up they played Aus twice and NZ twice. NZ won both of their tests, while Aus lost both of theirs. By the time the Lions turned up a third time, league had made some inroads in to the Aus Union player base and the Wallabies lost their one allocated test, while NZ won all three of theirs. Aussies have picked a sport that they're going to shine at on the world stage, which is an easier mountain to climb if there is little interest in it elsewhere to start with, which Union makes more difficult for them. League is fuggin great when you're a kid and the lack of dimensions it has, suits a certain mindset of player & spectator but, if you want to see how good you really are as an individual, or see how good mighty teams can become, Union will reveal those abilities in a way that the possession retention rules that league employs can not. Horses for courses mate, which is why league suits the Aus mindset more. Loved league when I was a young fella but, like Wilbur Smith books, you need something more taxing to test you when/if you grow up.

There are elements of these errors which are contributing to canadas massive and relatively recent slide. The bit about making clubs and their players fund a national program that throws money in the toilet without being able to find its own ass , hits particularly close to home.

The only way to revive Rugby Union in my opinion, is to not fight the other codes for players, sponsors and new talent, but to join them to some extent. The league clubs have clearly shown better business acumen, marketing and existing built fan bases. Their biggest rugby competitor is Rugby 7s as it offers a similar fast paced exciting game, and then the traditional rugby union. If these league clubs start to also grow rugby 7s sides it will allow them to be able to tap into some existing players and fan base, as well as build new excitement and opportunities for emerging players to break through, and some existing league players opportunities to cross over periodically. If successful they could try do the same for union. It would still likely be the less popular code for some time, but it could remove the stigma of periodically switching codes, as players could do it within the same clubs. It is unlikely to happen, given the already competitive nature of the organisations running the codes. But think it's the only way to revive Rugby union, and open up pathways for players to play both codes.

The RFU seems to have adopted the ARU model

There should a more structured, inclusive and united approach to schoolboys rugby. In Sydney, and outside regions, there are about 28 private schools that play rugby (ISA, GPS, CAS). Why can't there be a promotion-relegation system? Why are these bodies so stubborn in remaining separated? Students aren't interested in playing knowing they'll be blown out of the park every Saturday, or the shine taken from their 1st XV now playing third grade. Merge the comps and invite public schools to participate.

Rugby is failing, because as a sport it’s become boring to watch … kick contest, constant stop and starts, it’s turned into an nfl-type game. RA needs to invest into public/sport school competition or grass root competition.

as a kiwi who lives in Aus, i have to agree with the grass roots issue here in Aus. Its so strange to see rugby union only played in the private schools. In NZ every high school has a firstXV and its considered the pinnacle of every high school sport team...so much more importance back home seems to be placed in grass roots level...i dont see rugby dying in Aus but i dont think it will ever get back to its glory days of the late 90s. Good Vid 🤙🏽

Argentinian chiming in here, I think the unspoken issue here is that Union is global and that the undisputed power of certain teams is now being challenged, I'm not saying that it'll be an overnight thing, but the fact that the Pumas and other up-and-coming teams (Japan comes to mind) are increasingly more competitive is a boon for the sport, but it does chafe against the perceived dominance of established sides such as the Wallabies. Hell, the Americas region is seeing sustained growth in the sport year in and year out, and I'd reckon in a few decades you'll see a lot more competition in the Tier 2 coming from our end of the world.

Australian Rugby union is the game for rich private school boys and is lame as hell to play as well. I stopped giving a shit after we lost the world cup in 2003, and since that day nothing has improved at all

Prop is probably the most important position on the pitch

Great vid, keep it up

rugby needs to change penaltys and drop goals from 3 points to 2 points, have a mandate to blow less penalties for ruck and scrum infringements, charge $5 entry at gates and pour more money into public schools and broadcast at least 3 games per week on free to air tv. then in 10 years time they might gain some traction. doubt they would do any of that tho

Super Rugby is where the sport started to die in Australia. It clearly ruined the domestic competition. Not having games on free to air also hurt its viewership.

Rugby league is a great comparison but also AFL drains the potential talent pool and fanbase of Union

Disliked when you said prop was the most boring position on the field!

By far and away Rugby Australia's biggest mistake was believing that they didn't need to engage public schools.

I grew up in Rugby in NZ now in Aus. I couldn't find Rugby regularly on free to air so had to catch up online. The Stan thing also killed it. League is so much more accesible and so now am following League 95% more than union. Plus games are a lot cheaper to go to and yeh just more accesible.

Rugby league World Cup is no where near rugby union World Cup 😂 Why Australia rugby is dead cause the wallabies are shit the only time people will go to see the game is when they get good agin

NRL is not destroying rugby,, ARU is .

Rugby really struggles to draw new fans. Now with Rugby off free-to-air TV, there is a generation of youngsters who don't even realise the sport exists. Contrast that with League and AFL who have spent the past 20 years ruthlessly battling one another for youth exposure.

Really similar situation in Wales with football taking over and the WRU being completely out of touch. Hope something can change soon

Found your upload by chance The biggest issue rugby union has is its blatant disregard for grass roots and the mentality that comes from that. Take the all blacks for example, Union played in all schools and kiwis make it an ambition to make it to the top. In australia Union is a sport you play to widen the friends circle while studying at university before ditching the sport for a law degree and still wearing the Jersey years later to be trendy

While the gap between the two has really increased from the 2000s I felt that Rugby had a big problem with TV viewing from the 90s, even back then it was strictly about internationals, super rugby has never had any real impact in this country, Match attendances can hide that with the hardcore fanbases that will turn up, just like the Swans who have a higher average attendance then any Sydney NRL club but have a fraction of the TV viewership and interest. The grassroots side feels almost completely separated being based primarily around rich areas that league don't bother with but also has far less participation. I can't see the sport recovering here at all, Rugby league dominates the east coast TV and with increasingly large Deals I don't think it will be long before NRL starts poaching from Rugby outside Australia.

I come from a Rugby background, not a League one, so it pains me to say this, but the NRL is just a better consumer product. Well packaged, well covered, fast, often exciting and often times close. It may be a simpler game for purist snobs, but a simple product well packaged and presented is still better that a dreary dull 'superior' product.

As another youtuber pointed out, the increase from three teams was damaging, breaking up halves combinations. There are not enough quality players for the current number of teams. And, yep, the pay tv wall has hidden the game away from a large section of Australia.

Bruh what a cracka video! Loved it! It's strange to think that the NRL is still the biggest sport among so many of the aussie states with the all the internal drama going on constantly that gets blown out of proportion by the media. When I was a teen Rugby Union seemed like the golden standard because of how prestigious it seemed. Nowadays I see kids pretty much not even knowing that union exists and because of all the diversity within the game it seems like everyone wants to be involved. I see Union as a sport for the last generation, and League as a sport for the coming few gens. Liked and subbed btw, can't wait to watch other things you cover!

It's finished now they have gone down with out a whimper no TV no nothing finished kaput

Growing up in Newcastle & Western Sydney I have never followed Union, only NRL.. I see Union as very insular, poorly promoted and hard to follow. They never bring games to Western Sydney which is the heartland of League.. RIP Union..

I went to and work at a public school where rugby is (or was) the flagship sport. In 2003 we won a fairly strong 1st XV comp in our region, which is mostly private schools. Since then it's been very dire - this season we won 2 games and only lost by 40 to the top 2 teams, which was considered a good year. We have 5 boys teams and 3 girls teams spread across yrs 7-12, and out of the 120 or so kids involved, I would guess about 5 of them actually watch rugby. They all watch rugby league though. You can notice when you watch these kids play that they don't watch the sport because of how they play - getting back 10 in defence, thinking they get a rest after a hit-up, shoulder charging, running one out etc. No amount of training and coaching seems to iron these things out. It really is disheartening knowing that all of this could have been avoided if RA/ARU wasn't run by a bunch of fossilised ostriches who don't want to see their precious private school product progess.

The big flaw in this commentary is almost zero description of the actual GAME SYSTEMS themselves: Union is larger world-wide but League is more professional and optimized in the NRL and makes a more honed and refined game both for playing, for officiating and for spectating: It's had longer via professionalism to stream-line Rugby into a professional business of entertainment. Union is going through so many problems and is fundamentally merely retracing what League went through eg drop-line kick, 40-20, defensive rush and channels and so on... soon perhaps dropping both flankers also due to too many players on the pitch and sometimes scrums that are uncontested and feeding the ball in to name others. The subbing is out of control also, they took the sin bin from league already. The Rugby Union World Cup in France had a few great games (2 QFs) and then many game RUINED by the officiation Monte Carlo process of cards and penalties. Total garbage to watch as a consequence without a fair contest of skill and power and teamwork by generational talents. Jackalling is a marketing name that merely masks how random and variable holding on vs not-releasing (tackler and tackled) is to say nothing of the risk of going forwards with the ball presents leading to kicking tennis. League is a better competition in the NRL in so many ways looking at the matches and skills and physical contest but in controlled and well refereed (and great commentary not forced narration as per Union due to so many stoppages and random rulings). Union managed to spread world-wide because the romance of scrums and line-outs and large teams of variable sized players captured the imagination with the physical contest. But in professional era it breaks down. In professional era, League is simply a better "product" and a better game to play for more players to develop the core basic skills of Rugby: Run With Ball, Pass, Tackle and use space and time and teamwork. 7s is another great code but held back ironically by the Union governing bodies as an afterthought... and even that is damaged by the attempt to bring Union rules eg Jackalling heavily into the 7s code and use Union referees and not diverge more. I reckon the simple ease of League will mean it's better to play, better to coach, better to officiate and better to spectate overall than Union: The flip-side is a great game of Union when it works is one of the best sports but that's so rare compared to the mundane mediocrity and worse of most matches. What do you want with kids training: More time on the ball and less time not on the ball (ie wasted time) with more emphasis on the core skills and team combinations. I think League delivers all those better for kids tbh.

Nrl is alot more exciting. Rugby union hand out cards like its Christmas.

The NRL signed a deal worth 400+million per season not 115, the comparison is actually much worse than you put it.

Just watched the World Cup final and it was garbage compared to watching Australia vs New Zealand earlier on

Great analysis mate. Another factor that isn't mentioned is the role of AFL moving into Rugby's core private school/upper middle-class demographic. AFL has been much more effective reaching out to this demographic (both in fans and grassroots) than it has been in cracking into the broader Western Sydney/Bris suburbs/Logan demographic which continues to strongly support the NRL.

Problems with Rugby: For kids participation 1. General drive away from contact sports 2. Academics comes before sport in middle income families 3. Allowing AFL to promote themselves without active competition in schools 4. NRL tying up dual code kids from 14 with financial deals 5. rugby hierarchy gravy train of parasites that relies on private schools to do the work for them 6. Community clubs being held together by nepotistic individuals who focus on their own children over the team. The clubs within clubs.

More like rugby union is destroying itself in Aus

As a Melbournian, I’ve become quite interested in the NRL this year. When researching players, clubs and the nrl I’ve come across the differences in union and league, union seems like a white boys club. Their is absolutely no promo for the Rebels in Melbourne, I would assume no one even knows who they are, whereas storm are so well followed. On the stan sport trail too, TCR was live and free on 7 last year, to rival Supercars half on 7 all on fox and it would have brought in a lot of Motorsport fans in too watch. This year they moved it to Stan sport which has meant no one has to watched it as it is a new category and mostly older drivers or tier 2 and 3 drivers. Terrible move putting your struggling or growing sport on stan sport or any other streaming service with no free to air coverage.

I enjoyed your video and the points you made. Thank you. NRL has superstar players and characters. Rugby doesn't. NRL has funny, entertaining TV shows. Rugby doesn't. I enjoy watching international rugby games. But I'm an NRL fan, living in a rugby league town. I went to a state school. Rugby to me was always a posh private school game with limited appeal. Rugby surged a bit in Australia when it turned professional. It attracted some NRL players to switch codes. But that surge has waned. Over time NRL has attracted huge numbers of Pacific Island players with rugby backgrounds. Today, Islanders make up over 50% of the players in NRL. They are exciting to watch. I'm sure some of them would run through a brick wall if you dared them to. Back in the 80s there were no Islanders playing league in Australia. NRL would not be the same without Islander players. I think the player drain from the islands has weakened Australian rugby at the elite level. Islanders can earn big money to play NRL which has 17 fully professional teams. There is more money for them in NRL than if they migrated to New Zealand and hoped to make the All Black squad, which is just one team, or the limited opportunities to play Super Rugby, or whatever they call it now.

New to watching Rugby Union or NRL. Flick on TV on weekend and there are NRL games on - and the ones I watched were great games too. Tried to watch the recent Union championships - and wow they weren’t very good to watch - particularly Aust. I think NRL are doing a lot right, in the finals series (2022) were some really great games. Wondering if NRL will expand?

Great video mate ! I wanted to make a similar one haha The NRL tv money is a lot more than the 115 million you said per year ! That was only nine and doesn’t include kayo fox money witch is actually more than what nine kick in With the NRL salary cap raising to 11.5-12 million next year we will start to see the gap increase between the codes unfortunately.

I used to be a one-sport Rugby Union fan, the first big game I went to was in 1987 and I spent 30 years as a staunch fan. Apart from the problems mentioned in this video I have lost some of my love for the game over the last 10 years due to two main reasons: 1. The amount of off-the-ball stuff happening on the field is getting ridiculous. A team can't even take a quick tap penalty anymore due to the heavy interference from players and the refs do nothing. All of this adds up to the point where I now watch more woman's 15s than I do mens. Not a bad thing but I think World Rugby HEAVILY underestimates the damage being done to the watchability of the game. 2. Years of incredibly and obviously bad refereeing decisions have left me jaded. Just before this I watched the Black Ferns playing Scotland. A try from a forward pass was reviewed, it was not close, it wasn't even maybe flat, it was VERY FORWARD and obviously so. After review the try stood. I stopped watching. World Rugby HEAVILY underestimates the amount of damage crap like this is doing to the reputation of the game. I just don't engage anymore as I just get mad about the shocking decisions and off the ball crap that is happening all the time. I watch NRL now for the last 2 seasons. I am from South Africa where the is no Rugby League really, but I watch NRL because it is frikken great to watch and I don't see insane decisions on a daily basis. I have also started watching NFL. I enjoy that too.

You're absolutely correct on everything. The only place I think the game is well managed (From QLD so not 100% sure) is in WA with Twiggie Forrest saving the game and growing at the youth level. However, if Perth gets its own NRL team I see that changing quickly

I love rugby league but they should get rid of the world cup, instead just do a four nations.

Its just about dead nobody knows the names of the Wallabies due to the fact they are second rate not many of them could get on the reserves bench in the NRL . Its just a few private schools and they just can't match the quality of the NRL all the good kids bar a very few are playing Rugby League . They get almost no TV time unless some one wants a giggle at them getting smashed in a test match. a win for the Wallabies is rare. They will bow out of the world cup probably in the quarters it would take a miracle for them to make the Semis at best second spot in the group stage.

Get rid of the 3 point penalties and drop goals and maybe teams will try to score more tries.

World Rugby is a joke! I wish Springboks would change to Rugby league and tell Bill Beaumont to go !@#@!# himself!

I think it has everything to do with the way rugby is refereed now. The game is not the spectacle it was, red cards anyone?? Plus league is just more open and flowing with 4 less players on the field, but again it's not the spectacle it once was either, not even compared to 5 or 10 years ago. Rugby is clearly gun shy about litigation which is ruining it imo

Years ago rugby was a threat to the NRL. They got Wendall Sailor and Karmichael Hunt. How the tables have turned.

Spot on.. there is one bright spot, while the rugby union strong holds of NSW & QLD are dying there is growth in player numbers in WA.. They are completely and utterly focused upon the grass roots, pathways are made for club players not for private schools.

As a kiwi and a rugby union I do see your perspective, These are self-inflicted wounds caused by the Private schools elite mentality and Rugby AU

I think the "rugby is just boring argument" is pretty weak. There are tons of boring and yet popular sports. Just look at F1, it's objectivly boring, and yet, they were able to market themselves and the drivers in a way that they started to attract even people that are not that into cars. It's the same thing with rugby, they always fail to market the domestic competitions (france is the only exception) so for most of rugby fans, rugby is just a sport that you go see when your national team plays a friendly agaisnt another team for the 3rd time in 5 years. The marketing in the players is even worse, no one knows any players' names or personalities which is awful

Rugby union might be one of the worst sports I’ve ever seen, there’s no surprise league has taken over the game itself just makes more sense and is way better in general.

I say this as NZer. If Union was Australia’s main sport they would probably be the worlds best the most often. Imagine if current players playing NRL and AFL had played rugby their whole lives. Just the sheer amount of potential talent is mind blowing. Hopefully Aussie can improve their player base.

As an American that lived in Aus for a little bit, I was absolutely enamored with Rugby League. The marketing of the NRL and the team pride associated with area (Parramatta Eels and Western Sydney) really got me interested in the sport. I did not even know rugby union was a thing until recently.

former wallabies coach Michael Cheika is coaching a Rugby League team at the world cup

League is better than Union. Union can keep their woke agendas and i’ll continue to laugh at how they turned their back on the public school system. Love it.

Plus rugby union is a slower less exciting game, period.

Also Australia has a terrible commentator right now. Sounds like his balls haven't dropped and has no repport with anyone. Unlike RL commentators

Old news. I seen the NRL killing the Super Rugby like probably 10 years back. In Super, if the games close with minutes to go, and the winning team have the ball - they can just hit it up phase after phase and then kick it out. Whereas in league, the losing team eventually gets the ball and gets a shot to win or draw close games. Thats why you see more comebacks in the NRL making fans watch it to the 80th minute.