Talk:Comparison of rugby league and rugby union

Obviously there is an immense chance that this page will generate ridiculous amounts of vandalism and edit wars but I felt that this is a subject more than worthy of an article.

Could contributors please read NPOV before editing and generally try to avoid slagging off the other code. You don't have to like 'kick and clap' or '5 hits and a kick' but try not to show that in your edits.

Please don't use the word 'rugby' without clarifying it as 'rugby union' or 'rugby league' as it will get very confusing.GordyB 14:18, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

See also

I think links to the other comparison articles should be restored. THe articles compares the six tackle rule to the downs system in American football, but there no longer is a link to the Comparison of American football and rugby league.GordyB 07:52, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Match duration

I think an important aspect that warrants mentioning in this article is the difference in match duration between the two codes. Whilst rugby league is strictly 80 minutes (unless golden point extra time is needed), union matches tend to be extended because of penalty/injury time or whatever.--Jeff79 01:27, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

It's also true that the ball is in play much more of the time in league than in union. I think 60% of the time the ball is in the stands, in the scrum, at a line-out etc whilst it is about 20% for league. We'll need references though.GordyB 07:20, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

I think you only need to reference things if they're likely to be disputed. We just need someone who knows enough about union. As long as it's accurate enough it should be alright. (Wikipedia:Citing_sources#When_you_add_content)--Jeff79 20:05, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Summary Opener

I'd like to request/recommend that the opening paragraph be preceeded by a new one, in which a short 4-or-5 sentence summary of the differences are described. This would help set the tone for the article, and give the interested reader a starting point/framework through which to understand the rest of the article. This section might, for example, note the differences in scoring and the resulting difference in style of play, the difference in how possession and loss of possession is setup (and the resulting "broad brush" difference in play this results in), and a few other generel things that cover broad areas of the topic. This new paragraph would be something that, if a visitor to the page read only it, they would walk away with a brief, general, and accurate understanding of the differences which are discussed in more depth below. Dxco 16:57, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

I have added one sentence in the lead section about the principal distinction. I think 4 or 5 would be too many, this section should be kept short. Rexparry sydney 03:55, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Number of tackles

I agree that there probably are more tackles in league than union (if only because the ball is in play much more) but the cited numbers are unreferenced and in the case of rugby union almost certainly wrong. There are an awful lot more than 47 tackles per game. I will be removing the numbers unless a source can be found for them.GordyB (talk) 09:55, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I agree, the union numbers are without a doubt wrong. To give some kind of idea this article (http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/news/centre-of-attention/2008/03/23/1206206925071.html) states that the average amount of tackles made per game so far in the Super 14 per game is 127. Jollyfatmantom (talk) 12:49, 25 March 2008 (UTC)