Andy Farrell One of the greatest

[ookook]

To get back on topic Andy Farrel was a superb League player who in my opinion was marginally past his prime when he switched codes and then got quite severely injured which compounded the damage picked up over his many years in the League. Don't forget he was in the national League team in his late teens and League is a more physically punishing game than Union so the players tend to have shorter careers as a result.

Totally agree, a fantastic League player and his unsucessful Union career will never overshadow all those years with Wigan and GB.

[TykeMerc]

I agree wholeheartedly. Union was reserved for the professional classes, and League was for the builders and milkmen etc. However, League was always the better spectator sport, at least at local level.

WYS for the rest of your post, really.

Rugby League is a far better spectator sport than Union and it shows Association football up as incredibly dull. Purely personal opinion, but I feel its only rivals for entertainment value as field sports go are the Gaelic (football and hurley) and Aussie games.
I've never understood the hugely dominant popularity of Association football when there are far more exciting games on offer.

[Sysman]

This is my view as someone who used to play Union at a fairly high level before a nasty knee injury and is a firm fan of the League game as a spectator sport ...

I agree wholeheartedly. Union was reserved for the professional classes, and League was for the builders and milkmen etc. However, League was always the better spectator sport, at least at local level.

WYS for the rest of your post, really.

[TykeMerc]

I've met a few although only really union players (with the exception of Jason Robinson) and they have all been pretty intelligent.

Maybe the League boys just aren't as clever as the Union boys.

This is my view as someone who used to play Union at a fairly high level before a nasty knee injury and is a firm fan of the League game as a spectator sport.

To a fair extent what you said used to be true, prior to the Union allowing professional payments all of their top level players were either independantly wealthy (so well schooled), professionals like doctors, lawyers, accountants, civil servants or well paid employees of firms run by Union fans, the vast majority of them were the products of top end Universities and Public schools where they take time to play the game. These were the only people who could afford to play the game at the top levels, take time off for international tours and training.
The League players were up until quite recently semi professional players who held down "ordinary" jobs, Carl Harrison (former GB captain) was a plasterer and general builder, Mark Preston (GB winger) worked for AXA as an auditor, Dave Watson (Kiwi Center, but played in the UK) is a Policeman. While some of the League players were University educated it's fair to say that most of them were in ordinary jobs and trades.

There certainly used to be a bit of a social class and education divide and it's reasonable to argue that it still exists to a certain extent.

To get back on topic Andy Farrel was a superb League player who in my opinion was marginally past his prime when he switched codes and then got quite severely injured which compounded the damage picked up over his many years in the League. Don't forget he was in the national League team in his late teens and League is a more physically punishing game than Union so the players tend to have shorter careers as a result.

[Churchill]

I've met a few although only really union players (with the exception of Jason Robinson) and they have all been pretty intelligent.

Maybe the League boys just aren't as clever as the Union boys.

Probably right.

[cailin maith]

I have met him and like many top rugby players he is quite inscruitable/strange with a sort of mad streak in him. Most of them are just plain thick without any personality.

I've met a few although only really union players (with the exception of Jason Robinson) and they have all been pretty intelligent.

Maybe the League boys just aren't as clever as the Union boys.

[DodgyAgent]

He's also a qualified solicitor, a qualified manicurist (!) and wrote a wine column as well as his sports column. I actually think his Telegraph column is one of the best around; he writes very well.

I have met him and like many top rugby players he is quite inscruitable/strange with a sort of mad streak in him. Most of them are just plain thick without any personality.

[interested]

I have to disagree. Brian Moore is quite the opposite to being a one eyed xenophobe. He is the first to criticise England when they play badly and he is the first to praise English opponents when they play well. He was the scourge of the Welsh and the Scots both in competition on the field, verbally and in the press, however he is quite magnanimous in his praise for those who do well who are not English.

He's also a qualified solicitor, a qualified manicurist (!) and wrote a wine column as well as his sports column. I actually think his Telegraph column is one of the best around; he writes very well.

[Churchill]

I have to disagree. Brian Moore is quite the opposite to being a one eyed xenophobe. He is the first to criticise England when they play badly and he is the first to praise English opponents when they play well. He was the scourge of the Welsh and the Scots both in competition on the field, verbally and in the press, however he is quite magnanimous in his praise for those who do well who are not English.

Farrell was a fantastic League player!

[DodgyAgent]

In all fairness though, who would seek the views of a neckless xenophobe that spent most of his career buried in a mound of writhing wobblebottomed forwards as to just who was a player worth watching in either code?
Moore should stick to what he knows best...........whatever that is.

I have to disagree. Brian Moore is quite the opposite to being a one eyed xenophobe. He is the first to criticise England when they play badly and he is the first to praise English opponents when they play well. He was the scourge of the Welsh and the Scots both in competition on the field, verbally and in the press, however he is quite magnanimous in his praise for those who do well who are not English.

[FiveTimes]

Thank you Brian Moore

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rug...by-legend.html

One of the greatest union flops?

He might have been a "flop" at Union but he was a legend and a great league player for Wigan.

[shaunbhoy]

Thank you Brian Moore

In all fairness though, who would seek the views of a neckless xenophobe that spent most of his career buried in a mound of writhing wobblebottomed forwards as to just who was a player worth watching in either code?
Moore should stick to what he knows best...........whatever that is.

[oracleslave]

Thank you Brian Moore

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rug...by-legend.html

One of the greatest union flops?

[DodgyAgent]

Thank you Brian Moore

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rug...by-legend.html