Can someone please explain the basic difference between Rugby League & Rugby Union?
At its root, Rugby League is a professional sport, with a leaning towards high-energy US-style and entertainment in matches, whist Rugby Union is more complex with differeng rules and interpretations and reflects the traditional amateur game, although the amateur/professional differential largely vanished some time ago.
There is maybe a class issue as well, with the Rugby League heartlands being the working class/industrial North of England, whilst Rugby Union is still strongly associated with the upper/upper-middle classes, private schools and royal-patronised associations and has its heartlands in the likes of the “Playing Fields of Eaton”, the older Universities, Murrayfield in Edinburgh and other more up-market places, although again a working class background won’t hamper a good player nearly as much as it used to.