C’mon Scotland

The famous Brechin Hedge

 

Ian. Just on the minor dispute about ‘codes’. League at Club level is excellent. A real experience and some quality play from a considerably fitter bunch of athletes - though less so since Union became professional. The tacking is truly bone crunching and the supporters are the same as you’d see at Oakwell (when it’s open). League at international level - dreadful.

Played Union at school (ironically in Featherstone). Dreadful game to watch at Club level unless it’s at European. At international level, can be excellent. The crowd is very different at Union! And not always in a good way.

 

I’ll tell you what mate, that’s a wonderful Bush!

 

I’ve never been to any rugby game and tbh I’m surprised at what you say about some union crowds. I always thought them to be possibly the more sporting.
In days long gone I used to watch floodlit Rugby League with the great Eddie Waring.
I have no rugby clubs around Dundee. Mostly contained in and around the border region and Glasgow and Edinburgh sides.

 

Why does Barnsley not have a rugby side?

 

They can be more ‘sporting’ Ian. It’s just that, in my experience, you can get quite a few, how can I put this to paint you a picture, that are a bit like a combination of Nigel Farage, David Cameron and Tommy Robinson.

 

Would it not have been easier to say Obnoxious ********?

 

Think league would be the game for me

 

They do. Union. It’s often the case where football dominates, that it’s a struggle to get significant numbers interested in Rugby - either code.
It works the other way though. If you’re in a Rugby town/city, the football equivalent are often pretty crappy. The best example being L**ds - a proper Rugby city.

 

We actually do have a union side. Dundee High School former pupils.
A fee paying school so reserved for the Tory toffs.
So obviously I don’t like them. But not sure what league they play in. And don’t care.

 

As far as I'm aware, The Reverend Preedy founded Barnsley St Peters (as we were called then) as he was worried that rugby was taking a hold in the area and he didn't like it. As for the modern era, I guess it's because Wakefield and Featherstone are the traditional rugby towns and they're only a few miles away. Most Barnsley folk who are also into rugby travel somewhere nearby to get their fix.

 

Talking about Twickers being shabby. You've never lived if you haven't been to Tattersfield (RIP). Some great Sunday afternoons watching the Dons there, even though we got tanked more often than not

 

Good question Ian. League has a strong correlation with mining towns, though in more recent times the M62 corridor. As somebody else has said, we have a decent amateur set up at Shaw Lane for Union. I usually go and watch Huddersfield Giants a couple of times a year. We didnt play rugby at our comp in the seventies. I had a dabble with Wakefield Trinity in the early eighties. It's a different game now though, the pace is astonishing. It doesnt get the wider coverage because I think it's a perceived as a northern working class thing (which it kind of is). Wakefield have used our ground before (theirs is a dump) and as it's a summer game that might work going forward, although we cant manage our pitch just for football at the minute

 

We used to have one but very low down in the league pecking order ,
I think they were based at the Old Farm Road WMC years ago so don’t know if they still going or not .
Barnsley rugby union used to be based at the side of the old canal in Stairfoot but Tesco’s bought them out and they moved to Shaw lane .
They had a hut that used to be the social club and had many nights int there .
Used to get away with drinking after hours because a few cops used to go in and it were in middle of nowhere so no residents to disturb .

 

I just found it strange that the smaller places like Featherstone, Wakefield and Leeds etc had rugby sides but Barnsley didn’t. From the same region and a working class mining area. Anyway a few posters have enlightened on a few reasons why a club does not exist.