union vs league:

"Rugby originated in a school in a town of the same name viz: Rugby. It was started by those whom you seem to despise so much, namely wealthy toffs who couldn't be bothered to try to kick a round football around in very muddy conditions so some brightspark picked the ball up and ran down the wing carrying it. Quite why the ball's shape changed to oval escapes me but essentially that is the origin of rugby. Now, Rugby League came about in the working towns of northern England where rugby Union wasn't played due to the shortage of wealthy toffs so some bright spark decided it would be a good idea to pay some of the local yokels to play, in an attempt to keep them out of the boozers. It took me a long time and a huge amount of research to find out why league is played with thirteen men as opposed to fifteen. As it turned out the answer is really very simple. When the first two teams were selected four of the players were told to play on the flanks and two were told to play at number eight. To the four, a flank was a side of beef and so they immediately left the ground for the butchers and the other two, being so poorly educated couldn't count to eight, assumed the man in charge was taking the piss and stalked off in a huff. In actual fact they were called back and given an explanation of the position but refused to stick their heads up somebodys arse and stalked off again. I believe the words that were used were, "I ain't gonna shove my fookin' 'ead up anybodys fookin' arse for two fookin' bob, I'm off". In order to get the game going the two twin boys of the local mill owner were drafted in to the side. These two were well known in the area for being willing to do almost anything to please anyone. Due to the positions they were playing in and what had been said by the first two boys, this event is considered by most scholars to be the origin of the expression, "Brown nosing". Nothing to do with rugby but I thought I'd throw it in."

steht so im forum von rucku.com