Union versus League - Code Clash at Wembley [DT]

pHyR3

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Rugby League versus Rugby Union in code clash next year

**_PHIL ROTHFIELD_**
DECEMBER 08, 2013 12:00AM

THE Wallabies have agreed to play the Great Britain rugby league team in a $10 million hybrid-game spectacular at Wembley Stadium next year.

London's most famous football venue has been booked for December 6, a week after the Wallabies' last game on their 2014 spring tour.

The game will pit the likes of Israel Folau and Quade Cooper against the Burgess brothers, Gareth Widdop and Sam Tomkins in front of an anticipated full house of 92,000 fans.

All up, organisers are expecting to raise $20 million through gates, corporate sales, TV, sponsorship and merchandise.

An agreement was reached between the two football codes at a secret meeting in London last month.

The codes will be paid $5million each and the players will earn around $50,000 each for a one-off appearance.

On November 11, English Rugby League boss and World Cup tournament director Nigel Wood secretly met with Wallaby supremo Bill Pulver at London's swish Grange Holborn Hotel.

They both agreed to the game, subject to commercial terms, which will be finalised by the new year.

Australia's Quade Cooper in action kicking a penalty.
Australia's Quade Cooper in action kicking a penalty. Source: AP
Wood was desperate for the opportunity to promote rugby league in London on the back of the recent World Cup.

The London Broncos are struggling to stay afloat in the Super League because of lack of interest.

A global media company is in the process of selling world-wide television rights and major sponsorships.

A consortium of Australian businessmen and rugby legends Bob Dwyer and Mark Ella were involved in the talks in London that secured the historic agreement.

One half will be played with 15 players with rugby union rules and the other half with 13 players with NRL rules.

The plan was to originally stage a Wallabies v Kangaroos game at ANZ Stadium in December.

NRL chief executive Dave Smith met with Pulver and the promoters but, after showing initial interest, knocked it back.

So the promoters took their $10 million proposal to England.

London based promoter Steve Berrick has been hired to oversee the game.

He has previously been in charge of Barbarians games and major events in the UK.

This will be the first of what organisers believe will become a regular showpiece on the football calendars.

The All Blacks have also been approached and showed initial interest in a game against the Kangaroos.

Previously, Wigan played Bath in a hybrid game in the UK and two Australian school teams played in a trial game at Brookvale Oval.
 
My opinion.

will pull enormous amounts of money, then everyone realises this is utter garbage as the union team dominates the half with union rules, and league team dominates the half with league rules resulting in the team who plays their rules in the 2nd half winning.
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Also, this is the telecrap, so take it with a lot of salt.
 
it is $5 million to british RL PLUS 50k match payments to those who play coming from an estimated 20 million in gate revenue, sponsorships, tv rights etc.
 
1 half union 1 half league apparently. but that could change. interchanges would be interesting. i hope they limit it and keep that limit low.
 
Could be interesting. If successful it will open the door for the real clash whish is The Kangaroos v The All Blacks.
It is an intriguing concept and on defensive and attacking skill alone I think the Kangaroos would have them covered. However, the technical side of the forwards game, with scrummages, rucks/mauls and lineouts would be too steep of a learning curve for the nuggety Kangaroos forwards and they would leak field position.

They would have to almost invent a new game to make it fair so it isnt really a viable contest for mine.
 
@stryker said:
Could be interesting. If successful it will open the door for the real clash whish is The Kangaroos v The All Blacks.
It is an intriguing concept and on defensive and attacking skill alone I think the Kangaroos would have them covered. However, the technical side of the forwards game, with scrummages, rucks/mauls and lineouts would be too steep of a learning curve for the nuggety Kangaroos forwards and they would leak field position.

They would have to almost invent a new game to make it fair so it isnt really a viable contest for mine.

In other words the Kangaroos would have them covered providing they heavily edited the Union version of the half to suit the fact that the Kangaroos can't scrum, compete at a set piece, or the tackle contest, let alone have to move laterally in support or improvise in defensive structure? Otherwise it just wouldn't be 'fair'? I assume the RL would be considered 'fair'?

This is the kind of hypothesis that makes me laugh out loud. It just reinforces the fact that such a stupid, irrelevant contest should never take place
 
I think you have to look beyond the hypothesis CT ….. it just doesn't go away this league / union thing. I reckon this could be the next big upheaval you know ..... The bringing back of League and Union under one umbrella. It might not happen in my lifetime but I reckon someone will come in one day, armed with an endless amount of cash, and bring league and union back together. Form a super competition with the best league teams and the best union teams in a, dare I say, not Super League, but ... Wait for it ... Super Union haha !!!!!

As I say ... Probably not in my lifetime .... But my money is on this being the next big explosion in sport.
 
Hopefully in my lifetime a merged Rugby League & Union will never ever happen, perhaps Union may come grovelling for RL to bail it out but honestly there are 2 different cultures here, RL is the working man's game and RU is !!!.
 
A game whose World Cup revenues are the third largest in the known universe after FIFA WC and the Olympics would come 'groveling' to RL? Are you suffering from a severe case of 'regional myopia'?
 
Hahaha !!!

Money speaks all languages CT ….. If someone like Murdoch, or someone of his ilk, feels a bit bored and decides they want to splash around a few billion and create a bit of excitement .... Who knows what might happen. We've seen it with Packer in cricket, Murdoch with his Superleague ..... Only a matter of time before we see it again.
 
@Knuckles said:
I think you have to look beyond the hypothesis CT ….. it just doesn't go away this league / union thing. I reckon this could be the next big upheaval you know ..... The bringing back of League and Union under one umbrella. It might not happen in my lifetime but I reckon someone will come in one day, armed with an endless amount of cash, and bring league and union back together. Form a super competition with the best league teams and the best union teams in a, dare I say, not Super League, but ... Wait for it ... Super Union haha !!!!!

As I say ... Probably not in my lifetime .... But my money is on this being the next big explosion in sport.

I'm a realist. In the big wide, wonderful world League is virtually unknown. In England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Italy, South America, Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Europe RL means diddly squat. In Australia this nonsense comes up for discussion every now and then because we love our League and we want our League athletes to prove what we think we so strongly believe. If the ARU ever transcend the petty politics that have befallen it for decades and grow the game in the Western and South Western corridors, we are fu….
 
@Knuckles said:
Hahaha !!!

Money speaks all languages CT ….. If someone like Murdoch, or someone of his ilk, feels a bit bored and decides they want to splash around a few billion and create a bit of excitement .... Who knows what might happen. We've seen it with Packer in cricket, Murdoch with his Superleague ..... Only a matter of time before we see it again.

Have a look at News Balance sheet for the 96-99 fin years and the Foxtel revenues since. Murdoch would have oral sex with a warthog before he threw money at such a venture
 
Haha …. You make me laugh CT .... And I mean that in the nicest possible way :slight_smile:

I can't disagree with anything you have said but if there was this unification thing ... Yes I know what your thinking .... It an awful big IF ... But if it does .... Simply because Rupert wants it for his Foxtel and Packer junior, when he takes his eyes of Miranda, decides he wants to be part of it as well .... You just never know mate !!!!
 
@Citizen Tiger said:
@Knuckles said:
Hahaha !!!

Money speaks all languages CT ….. If someone like Murdoch, or someone of his ilk, feels a bit bored and decides they want to splash around a few billion and create a bit of excitement .... Who knows what might happen. We've seen it with Packer in cricket, Murdoch with his Superleague ..... Only a matter of time before we see it again.

Have a look at News Balance sheet for the 96-99 fin years and the Foxtel revenues since. Murdoch would have oral sex with a warthog before he threw money at such a venture

I'm not so sure about that ….. Going back earlier than that in the mid 80s he almost sent his whole empire down the tube ..... Murdochs a risk taker ..... He won't die wondering ..... Just ask that little Asian sweetie he recently divorced !!!
 
I thought this was a League forum yet we have defenders of the sinking game of Yawnion bagging 'our' game, fair dinkum when League is fast tracked following the success of RLWC2013 then the next Union one will be amongst the last, just a reminder the Yawnion WC is a mere 25 years old while 'our' WC has been around for nearly 70 years!.
 
CT, union is the game that the spoilt brats play so that they dont get hurt and mess up their law degrees. There is barely one footballer in the whole of the code.
 

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