Geographic split?

The electronic gripe speculated whether our so-called scant coverage of national Premiership side Leeds Carnegie was due to northern bias against rugby union.

A genuine response would be that while The Press does not cover Leeds’ principal 15-a-side professional team, it is equally true that the exploits of Leeds Rhinos, the West Yorkshire city’s eminent rugby league club – clearly more popular and successful than their union counterparts – are far from exhaustively documented either in our pages or on our website.

And the answer will be more to do with the not inconsiderable and undeniable geographical fact that we are a media organisation representing the good citizens of York and North Yorkshire. Leeds is in West Yorkshire by my last look at the map, though I have to admit a poor general knowledge of geography.

Aah-haa – as a fictional East Anglian radio show host or former Swedish pop combo may exclaim – Leeds United are accorded heavier coverage of their footballing endeavours within the editorial borders of The Press.

True, but whether it is liked or not liked, football has a far greater fan-base than either of the rugby codes, and, sad to say, as it rebounds on the likes of the Blue Square Bet Premier outfit housed at Bootham Crescent, there is a significant York-based following for those whites in residence at Elland Road.

I would contend there is far more interest in York, indeed throughout North Yorkshire, in Leeds United than Leeds Carnegie or Leeds Rhinos due to the influence, benign or malignant, of football. So there.

There can be no suggestion of northern bias given The Press’ coverage of the 15-a-side version of the game at its less elite level.

Each week of the rugby union season, The Press extensively charts the activities of a pack of clubs in our sphere who ply their ruck and maul trade in the Yorkshire Leagues.

That coverage extends from the senior XV to a legion of youth brigades comprising hundreds of enthusiastic youngsters opting to follow the egg-chasing XVs.

And just right now there is a positive glow to several teams in our locale, led currently by the juggernaut that is Malton & Norton RUFC’s senior side. Nine league games into the season, The Gannock crew head Yorkshire One with nine successive triumphs marking a rousing renaissance from relegation fears last year to title aspirations this.

So no northern bias then... well, on the weekend when international rugby union resurfaces among the hype accorded by the BBC, admittedly small-scale, and Sky, on a mega-scale HD 3D, I have a confession to make.

I am biased against rugby union.

In any choice between the two I would plump for rugby league, the 13-a-side code winning me over every time.

No matter how many times I try, Roger Millward would supersede Roger Uttley, Clive Sullivan would eclipse Clive Woodward, Jonathan Davies of Widnes would always be preferable to Jonathan Davies of Llanelli.

Why? Maybe it goes back to school days and attempts at keeping up a grammar school tradition in a comprehensive school whereby winter was for football and union, while summer was for athletics and... more athletics.

From my experience, union was just an excuse for licensed thuggery. And I got enough of that outside school on the Merseyside council estate on which I grew up.

Any so-called path to Twickenham was more a smack in the gob route to bloodied and muddied mayhem.

As I got older there was the near obsession of national newspapers with union, while league was relegated to down-page columns, if it was lucky enough to appear at all.

You can safely bet tomorrow’s and Monday’s nationals, especially the broadsheets, will devote reams to the public school pastime of bashing opponents. In contrast, England’s rugby league showdown against Papua New Guinea will barely register a quarter of a page. Now is that not southern bias, or certainly public school bias?

So as for northern bias against rugby union? Personally – guilty on all counts.