We aren't going to drop the name Rugby. It won't happen. A couple of states of Australia and that tiny country over to the east of us that won silver in the womens 7s are the only places that get antsy about calling one of them "Rugby" and the other "Rugby League".
Maybe thats because RL is hardly played outside of those few states and the tiny island. Its hard for people across the world to complain about something when they dont know what it is...
I dont know about your experience, but I've lived a year in China and months in Europe, so i can tell you how hard it is to tell people about RL. When they ask about sport in Australia and you respond with a thousand word thesis just explaining the stupid f*cking name, people switch the f*ck off.
Wouldnt it be nice if you could just say "In Australia, we watch XXXX Football". Six simple f*cking words and finally people might actually know the difference between RL and RU...
If we have the better Rugby competitions people will play in and watch them. 7s looks more like League than full Union, we have as much chance of advantaging from any added interest in Rugby as the other mob, as long as we actually have the people and structures in place to do so. Just a matter of being visible.
As for Hayne, everyone who goes to watch him run around in the Rugby will be watching NRL now that he's signed with GC. There's another opportunity.
Like i said, riding the tailcoats and living off the scraps.
And always in the shadow...
