Talk:Oxford Cavaliers

It is clear the offical amateurism of rugby union restricted rugby league in the south. That there has been considerable growth in rugby league in the south since 1996 demonstrates this. A fledgling rugby league team would have to recruit a team who were not interested in rugby union, yet were in rugby league as they would have to be willing to risk never playing any form of rugby again should the team not survive. This is because playing rugby league was to earn a ban from playing rugby union.

A ground would have to be obtained. This could not be from a school, as that would jepordise help from the RFU, so it would have to be a council that had a rugby ground, but would not listen to the objections from rugby union. It happened on a handful of occasions (eg Hemel Hempstead), but when the council were actively attempting to undermine rugby league (eg Cheltenham) this was not possible.

This is well worn stuff. Please continue this debate on the shamateurism page. This is an attempt at a reasonable entry for the team and the reason as to why several teams suddenly emerged in the south in 1996 is relevent to the history of the team.

I concur. Although the RFU's policies were not the sole reason for the failure of rugby league to expand in the South they were the primary one. The fact that you could be 'professionalised' for playing rugby league even at an amateur level was key.GordyB 09:59, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

The way that this entry is presented is akin to a bear faced lie. That is why I simply take it out. Mention the history of RU by all means but to present the amateur status of RU as the sole reason for the lack of RL development for 100 YEARS is to totally ignore many of the parochial failings of RL itself over the years. Either be more thorough and include all the reason or do not include them at all. That is my point, I am not anti-RL.

New: It is not stated that it is the sole reason, but it is clearly the major one as we can see by the huge numbers of rugby league clubs in the south of England after 1996 as compared to before professionalism.

I play rugby league and rugby union and was involved in rugby union in the south when the rule changes came about. I assure you that at the time it was seen as a major reason. If you wish a fuller discussion, perhaps you would like to suggest what else has changed since 1995?

"You infer that RU actively stopped RL from setting up clubs in the south of England when it did not. You also imply that the only people who could possibly play RL in the south were RU players"

Where rugby union was the dominant code, it was in a position to prevent rugby league developing. The sports are similar and the idea that there would be many people in the south who would strongly dislike rugby union, but fancy getting invovled in starting up a rugby league club. Secondly thtey would need somewhere to play and they would need someone to paly against. It happened, but until 1996 it was rare.

"You quite wrongly imply that RU was solely responsible for the lack of RL spread in the south pre-96. It was not. List other causes to give balance" Other significant reasons for the sudden increase rugby league in teh south of England since 1995 would be of interest, but I struggle to think of other significant events.

So you are implying that the only way that RL can expand is to piggyback onto RU clubs and use RU players? This is an extraordinary claim and a fairly big indictment of how attractive RL is as a game and of what RL did to promote and expand itself for 100 years. How many new RL clubs are there in the south of England that play RL in the season Sept-April? Has RL really expanded or are RU clubs merely sweating their assets for 12 months of the year? I find it ironic that a RL fan can complain of vandalism when all I want you to do is to be honest and to give some balance to the reasons why RL was so parochial from 1895-1995. Sure, RU players were banned from playing the code of rugby that was administered by the "open" RFL and under the rules of RL but it is stretching the truth to place all of the reasons for RLs lack of expansion down to just this reason. Your entry suggests this. Either be thorough and go into more depth or don't mention any reasons at all. That is my point. Hardly vandalism.