The sport of Rugby Union has been openly and fully professional for the last 16 years. This period has also seen significant growth of the sport of Rugby League where it is now played the length and breadth of the country across amateur, school and university clubs... If League was going to be “on its knees in England”, it would have happened in this period



Now, potential rugby players across the country have the choice of which code to play and it is ‘may the best game win’... I firmly that game is Rugby League

I'm sorry but that is just dillusional. Money will win, and money is on RU's side.



If I was an RL chairman, after recent embarassments in RL, Crusaders demise, Quins changing their name again, clubs going to the wall, the club call joke, and developing players only for them to chase money to the other side where there would be a pot of gold waiting for my club to watch the best players. I would be considering pushing for a merger to secure my club in sports long term future.

It’s not delusional at all. Your thinking of professional clubs – I am thinking of the game as a whole



The RFU have always had more money than the RFL and yet the recent expansion of our game across the country has been fantastic



Stop thinking about ‘my club’ and think about ‘my sport’

The only surprise to me is that the likes of wigan,leeds and hull have not already gone back to the mother code.

Aye those are pretty much the positives I elluded to and to add to that a lot of countries are starting to take the game up. I mean we just had Canada vs South Africa, Serbia vs Ukraine, Denmark vs Norway. Why would the people who are working tirelessely at grassroots level around the world suddenly want to merge with union. They obviously wouldn't as league is the game they've chosen to play!



Besides the premise of taking on football as a reason for merging is a pretty awful one. We don't need and can't possibly be the biggest sport in the world, we jsut need enough grassroots and commercial growth to sustain our game and keep it as entertaining as it is and continue to produce some of the most exciting and althletic players in world sport that sadly don't get enough recognition.

Basketball and Netball are to merge...

The answer to the title of the thread is "No"

What do you think they'll call it?.

Because we love League, Union in Hull is smaller than ice hockey. We have the greatest game of all. No need to merge with Union, how would it work anyway? No body would want to change the rules so vastly, there would be other break away codes.

No sugestion of a merger from me.

Some rl clubs will be like the players,they crave more wealth and prestige.Its been pretty obvious that rl can't give them what they desire.

RU in the North of England is at a very low ebb at the moment. Despite being 4th in the Premiership at the moment just watch Sale drop like a stone now that the international players of other teams are returning. Newcastle will probably get relegated at the end of this season (despite a new owner). Leeds will be nowhere near promotion this year, so that will leave 1 side in the North in the top flight.

Half the sides in RL make no effort to sell themselves and the game as a whole seems to look to evening everything up by not changing the SC for years, the strong get weaker whilst the weak just stay where they are. There needs to be a big effort to get the weaker sides up to the standard of the stronger sides, not the other way round.

I know this debate has been done to death but there is only room in sl for ten teams max.