screeny said:
However, I agree with RU fans when they say they have more right to the word 'rugby' than us leaguies. We were the rebels after all. But I suppose in mitigation we weren't changing the actual sport per se, that came gradually and much later on.
You are spot on in all your arguments Screeny, 'cept the first bit of this one. The fact is that the original breakaway "Northern (rugby) Union" clubs had just as much right to consider themselves "rugby" as the ones who maintained their amateur status (ha ha!) in the south. As you say in mitigation, they were playing exactly the same game, just being more open about payments.
Also, there is a suspicion that the "breakaway" was actually a put-up job by the southern-based RFU clubs, with the over-strong (and successful) "Northern Union" lot effectively maneouvered out of power, only they were too daft to pick up on what was going on. It's an interesting "what if" point: if the Northern clubs had not broken away, would they have got their broken time way eventually? And if so, would the one code of rugby today look more like present day league or union?
In that respect, many present day league clubs are actually union clubs who have simply spent the past 100 or so years playing what developed into rugby league rules, that's all. Historically, they are as much "rugby" clubs as any whose teams consist of 15 players. When you think of it, rugby union rules have changed plenty since Victorian times too.
Instead of running scared off the word "rugby" we should proudly use it as is our right. If that causes confusion in some countries, so what? See the new American web site video for an example of how union's clever comandeering of the word could eventually backfire on it. It would be hilarious if "rugby" in the USA became universally accepted as rugby league, wouldn't it?
We have backed down too meekly on this issue too often in the past and now is the time to get tough. Aussie Leaguies should start referring to their game as "rugby". The first "Rugby World Cup" after all, was the Rugby League one in the 1950s. It's a shocker that we just roll over and have our bellies tickled on this. Or, like those forefathers in the George, are our present day club bosses too dense to realise what is going on?