FearNothing

this is how it should be - in Cru's promotion year a pile of us went to LSV and saw (I think) Leigh Miners v someone, Rochdale v Oldham for the second L1 promotion place, and Sheffield v Batley GF, it was a cracking day out

yeah, and never mind we can easily do social distancing at Queensway!!

Wrexham's not great for this kind of thing..when Cru moved North and played at the Racecourse, the soccer lot were very nasty about it all - Wrexham's always been a beer'n'football town, very narrow-minded on such matters. What really made it bad, though, was when the soccer club became fan-owned and took lease-control of the ground from the Uni, they effectively priced Cru out of playing there, and we were forced to move to Queensway, which, if you've been there, is no comparison but affordable. It also cost us several hundred fans who just wouldn't go to Queensway after the Racecourse

you may need a vpn to make it look like you're in the UK, and you'd probably have more chance if they ask for paypal as opposed to debit card payments (again, from the geographic pov)

yeah, think we were - one error gave Hudds the winning try...other than that we'd played a great game for the underdog no-hopers

I just think it's great that we weren't bottom ...and we got to the playoffs once - was proud to be at Hudds for that game!!

agreed....and that's also partly down to the difference in tackle techniques between the two sports, and there's no wrestle in the tackle in AF as there is in rugby, as once the tackle is complete the ball is dead so no need for the wrestle (probably could have put that better, but if you know AF you know what I'm getting at, no pressure to get up and ptb quickly, etc )

1. some may carry it similarly on occasion, but in more of a transitional way, i.e. before swapping arms. 2. No problem with rushing (running) plays, but some rules like Pass Interference were jigged and tweaked a bit which gave pass defenders less of the upper hand over receivers, so it was more of a natural evolution to a more passing game (and depended on your QB too!!). 3. Whilst the ball dimensions don't sound much, try holding one in each hand and the differences are much more obvious (and no I'm not telling you to hold your balls, especially in public ). 4. RL is great,

exactly...and too rounded at the ends. I suppose some big blokes could carry a rugby ball in that fashion, but it would'd be as secure a carry as in AF.

However, what you're not taking into account is that the receiver is usually the only offensive player in the vicinity of where the pass is thrown, unless you're looking at a screen pass where it's set up with blockers out front (but, to be technical, who can't progress past the line of scrimmage until AFTER the pass has been thrown). As for blocking, all 5 offensive linemen that is their sole job, with others chipping in depending on the play (like the fullback lead blocking for the running back)....blocking is a vital part of the game, unlike RL where if you tried that it'd be penalty after

@The Rocket @unapologetic pedant when I have more time, I'll pop an answer to your other q's

Interesting thread..... I used to play american football, so just thought I'd chip in some info about the NFL/CFL ball that might be of interest/relevant to the discussion. Not only are they more pointed than rugby balls, but they have laces on them, proud of the surface. The QB holds the laces with 3 fingers (little, ring and middle), with the index finger between the end of the lace run and the point of the ball, with the thumb around the ball to the opposite side. This grip allows the throwing of passes, as the grip allows the ball to be spun as part of the passing action - you can't do tha

err... isn't that what it was a couple of years ago with the "best of the bottom half" shield-thingy?? I think the most obvious thing would be split the teams almost in half (13 ch and 10 L1) so have a 12+11 whichever way round, and even out the central funding a bit.... let's face it, the top Ch clubs have the support to make up for a bit less central funding anyway, and a more even funding split could well make both divisions more competitive and compensate the smaller league for fewer fixtures.

...and how about using some of the £16M the rfl was given to help the sport?

I used to play Gridiron, and people used to look at me in disbelief when I described it as "chess with people"....the further you get into it, the more you see that it's a true analogy. As for set restarts, I'm still catching up with watching all the recorded NRL games (think I'm up to around mid-july) but it seems to work very well....still some slugfest games but overall much more free-flowing, and yellow cards handed out for professional fouls when needed, something that needs to happen more in SL IMHO. In contrast, the SL games so far look to still have much messier