The difference was union in WW2 was supposedly amateur and the heads of that code sucked up to Vichy to ensure rugby league would be destroyed or made irrelevant as it was a threat to union .League was a fast open game attracting many new supporters and union then had a lot of violence attached.
In addition RL assets' were taken over by the union.The French govt in the 90s admitted the acts, but offered no reparations or handing back assets.
The R360 is a professional sport who had no pathways systems and is pillaging both traditional union now pro and the professional NRL.
Union's morality before fully pro in terms of 90s was shamateurism paying players under the table, via car boots and the predictable paper bags provided by wealthy supporters.
You comparison is full of holes.
Bringing up Vichy is weaksauce in this context, it's just an attempt to deflect on this specific point. For many many years certain rugby league types have been squealing about rugby union having bans on players once they left rugby union to go to rugby league, playing up the angle on the person looking to make money and ignoring the IP/protection of the game point that was part and parcel of the decision by rugby union to have those bans.
Of course it's amusing this was always brought up when rugby league themselves already had bans. The RFL successfully lobbied international rugby league authorities to ban British players who moved to Australia in the 1970s. This was a
logical reaction by the RFL, who saw the game in England going backwards as they did not have pokies money to pay players like in Australia.
Similarly the PVL and ARLC decision here is
logical and not one I'd disagree with. But the hypocrisy should be called out in the context of this narrative from some of you for years. This quote could have been attributed to rugby league for decades as they hoovered up Welsh rugby union talent to play for clubs- whereby they came in, offered the player a cheque and left Wales without much thought of the impact of rugby union grassroots but also nourishing the pathway which rugby league was plucking from themselves.
"Unfortunately, there will always be organisations that seek to pirate our game for potential financial gain," said ARLC chairman Peter V'landys in announcing the ban.
"They don't invest in pathways or the development of players. They simply exploit the hard work of others
"They are, in reality, counterfeiting a code.
If it were the case that "shamateurism" was paying all of the players anyway in Wales, they wouldn't have left. But dozens and dozens did leave, something that all but stopped once rugby union went professional. Why is that? You can do some mental gymnastics on that, but that's what happened.
In the decades where players did leave, Welsh rugby union suffered massively. Performances on the field in the 1980s were dreadful. It is actually a bit of a miracle that Welsh rugby union kept going and providing players for rugby league and rugby union, because rugby league was not far off the French in Haiti in terms of stripping the resources of the place without nourishing the sod.
This "morals" stuff is very amusing, you keep telling yourself that everything is black and white...
).
