Finely the English have seen the same think in league as the aussies have come to notice. League is for thugs, losers and unskilled pub drinkers. Union is a game for real men that put their heart and soul into the game.
I think it fair to say that the League game only enjoyed the popularity it did in England because of it's openly professional status while Union went throught its' amateur/shamateur stage in the 1970s and 80s. But when the Union game went openly professional in 1995, League (in England at least -- Australia is a somewhat different story) lost it's entire reason for being -- a fact reflected in the SuperLeague's subsequent switch to a summer season. The SuperLeague powers-that-be are well aware that they cannot compete with the RFU Premiership in any head-to-head competition.
