Biggest rivalry by decade

[Scott Sinfield]

Wigan v Warrington was probably the biggest rivalry of the 2010s. What were the biggest of the previous decades?

[Padge]

1 hour ago, Scott Sinfield said:

Wigan v Warrington was probably the biggest rivalry of the 2010s. What were the biggest of the previous decades?

How do you work that out?

[JM2010]

14 minutes ago, Padge said:

How do you work that out?

He's

[Tommygilf]

Nah 2010s may have seen the emergence of Warrington onto the scene but surely its Leeds and Wigan? Certainly for the first half of the decade. 

The previous 5 years to that I'd go Leeds and Saints and prior to that Saints and Bradford.

[Tommygilf]

Actually, Leigh and Toronto (which RL has to be the only sport where that is possible as a rivalry)

[Wildcat]

Sir Kevin Sinfield had a troll son. Great.

Is there a biggest derby from the last decade??

 

[Gooleboy]

Cas v Feath, a great derby. I  and many others, both sides of the persuasion miss it so much.

[Man of Kent]

Invicta Panthers v Medway Dragons.

[Mr Plow]

3 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Nah 2010s may have seen the emergence of Warrington onto the scene but surely its Leeds and Wigan? Certainly for the first half of the decade. 

The previous 5 years to that I'd go Leeds and Saints and prior to that Saints and Bradford.

Things have been shaken up since Bradfords demise;
Warrington replaced Bradford as one of the ‘big 4’.  Id say Cas have replaced Bradford as Leeds’ main SL rival/ derby

[M j M]

6 hours ago, Mr Plow said:

Id say Cas have replaced Bradford as Leeds’ main SL rival/ derby

Bradford was a brief fling; Cas has always been no. 1 (at least since 'Unslet disappeared).

[Tommygilf]

7 hours ago, Mr Plow said:

Things have been shaken up since Bradfords demise;
Warrington replaced Bradford as one of the ‘big 4’.  Id say Cas have replaced Bradford as Leeds’ main SL rival/ derby

Yeah I'd agree with that. Although I'd say whilst Cas is the biggest local rival the biggest rivalries are with the other big 4 teams.

[meast]

9 hours ago, Gooleboy said:

Cas v Feath, a great derby. I  and many others, both sides of the persuasion miss it so much.

Back in the 80's, 90's and even until the 00's these local derbies were to savour, the likes of Batley V Dewsbury, Workington V Whitehaven, Warrington V Widnes, Salford V Swinton, Hunslet V Leeds to a point.

Personally, as a Huddersfield fan during this period, I wasn't really aware of the rivalry with Halifax as we'd only played them three times in my lifetime until the 2000's, but along with the "Kirklees derbies" with Batley and Dewsbury, we enjoyed a brilliant rivalry with Keighley throughout most of the 90's, we were both usually at the top end of the 2nd/3rd divisions and both experienced huge crowds at the games, some of these games attracted bigger crowds than half the first division sides, 1995 was a particularly good year with 4 games between the 2 teams, we hammered them 30-0 in the cup, the first time they'd lost or been nilled at home in 4 years i think, they beat us at Old Trafford.

Manufactured rivalries are never the same as organic, local or sporting rivalries

[Click]

Broncos Vs Dragons used to get a bit feisty at times 

[Eddie]

Are there any big rivalries in France that anyone knows of?

[Tommygilf]

1 hour ago, meast said:

Back in the 80's, 90's and even until the 00's these local derbies were to savour, the likes of Batley V Dewsbury, Workington V Whitehaven, Warrington V Widnes, Salford V Swinton, Hunslet V Leeds to a point.

Personally, as a Huddersfield fan during this period, I wasn't really aware of the rivalry with Halifax as we'd only played them three times in my lifetime until the 2000's, but along with the "Kirklees derbies" with Batley and Dewsbury, we enjoyed a brilliant rivalry with Keighley throughout most of the 90's, we were both usually at the top end of the 2nd/3rd divisions and both experienced huge crowds at the games, some of these games attracted bigger crowds than half the first division sides, 1995 was a particularly good year with 4 games between the 2 teams, we hammered them 30-0 in the cup, the first time they'd lost or been nilled at home in 4 years i think, they beat us at Old Trafford.

Manufactured rivalries are never the same as organic, local or sporting rivalries

I don't think we see many manufactured rivalries tbh. I know the Rhinos have pushed the Salford games as a sort of city v city clash but that's the closest its come to "manufactured". 

Personally I've always preferred sporting rivalries that only occasionally have local/historical flavour. Perhaps that comes from the teams I support. 

[Tommygilf]

11 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Are there any big rivalries in France that anyone knows of?

UTC v St Esteve was supposedly a major one. They have merged to form catalans.

[meast]

2 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I don't think we see many manufactured rivalries tbh. I know the Rhinos have pushed the Salford games as a sort of city v city clash but that's the closest its come to "manufactured". 

Personally I've always preferred sporting rivalries that only occasionally have local/historical flavour. Perhaps that comes from the teams I support. 

I'm referring to Sky bigging up the likes of Leeds V Saints in the mid 00's, yes there was a sporting rivalry but Sky turned it into a massive rivalry for the TV, a bit like Warrington V Wigan, again, not so much a manufactured rivalry as one that had been pushed for TV purposes.

[Tommygilf]

Just now, meast said:

I'm referring to Sky bigging up the likes of Leeds V Saints in the mid 00's, yes there was a sporting rivalry but Sky turned it into a massive rivalry for the TV, a bit like Warrington V Wigan, again, not so much a manufactured rivalry as one that had been pushed for TV purposes.

They were and still are big rivalries though. We played eachother in all the big finals and semi finals, including 3 Grand Finals on the bounce. At the 08 world cup the players involved cited that rivalry specifically as a reason for the lack of success. That is more of a genuine rivalry to me than against more local opposition who have struggled to be at that top level consistently. 

[Gooleboy]

14 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

They were and still are big rivalries though. We played eachother in all the big finals and semi finals, including 3 Grand Finals on the bounce. At the 08 world cup the players involved cited that rivalry specifically as a reason for the lack of success. That is more of a genuine rivalry to me than against more local opposition who have struggled to be at that top level consistently. 

Rivalry yes, but not the same as a derby. I was looking forward to my team Featherstone taking on Wakefield in the Cup this season as Wakefield are only second to Castleford for our derby. In recent seasons we have had some great games with Halifax and Leigh. You won't remember, but Leeds used to have some tasty games with Bramley as well as Hunslet.

[Tommygilf]

16 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

Rivalry yes, but not the same as a derby. I was looking forward to my team Featherstone taking on Wakefield in the Cup this season as Wakefield are only second to Castleford for our derby. In recent seasons we have had some great games with Halifax and Leigh. You won't remember, but Leeds used to have some tasty games with Bramley as well as Hunslet.

I agree a derby is different. They should throw form book out of the window (generally due to the nature of the game I don't think they have done for a while but it may be coming back). Regardless of where teams are in the league or indeed in the entire game they should mean something. 

That said clubs can outgrow derbies or they can become fairly onesided. On field rivalries between clubs of similar levels are always the games I look forwards to. That doesn't take away from me enjoying Cas away, indeed its one of my favourites to go to, but its only been that way in the past 10 years when they've actually been able to rise to the occasion. The derby with Bradford got rather sad by the end, I was there for the last one in the league at Odsal. I suppose that mirrors Man U and Leeds. Hopefully one day Bradford will rise again.

It doesn't always have to be top clubs either. Clubs can form rivalries all the way through. A weird one from football is Brighton and Crystal Palace who came up through the leagues together. 

I also think rivalries need a good dose of nostalgia to them as well. This is particularly obvious in football where there are simply more clubs so more rivalries, but in RL we're really not good at bringing out the history and intensity of the games big matches in bitesize chunks.

[Tommygilf]

This has given me a few ideas for some Youtube videos at least lol

[Gooleboy]

3 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

This has given me a few ideas for some Youtube videos at least lol

Leeds v Hunslet, Yorkshire Cup 1992 is on there.

[Tommygilf]

5 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

Leeds v Hunslet, Yorkshire Cup 1992 is on there.

I was thinking more videos to create but thanks for the pointer!

[M j M]

4 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

Leeds v Hunslet, Yorkshire Cup 1992 is on there.

The game which put James Lowes in the shop window - Doug Laughton signed him from the Hun right after that match.

But Cas vs Leeds has always been a competitive derby, since I've been watching in the '80s Cas have won probably the majority of the games at Wheldon Road.

[Tommygilf]

Just now, M j M said:

The game which put James Lowes in the shop window - Doug Laughton signed him from the Hun right after that match.

But Cas vs Leeds has always been a competitive derby, since I've been watching in the '80s Cas have won probably the majority of the games at Wheldon Road.

I suppose thats fair. There's an element of "their cup final" which relates to a lot of derbies in Rugby League. Dare I say for Leeds during the late 80s and 90s we took that approach with Wigan.