Is Rugby League safer than Rugby Union?

Interesting question. I haven't actually seen any sports medicine studies which compare League and Union -- the research tends to orient more towards comparing Union with gridiron football.

You're right in one sense -- League scrums aren't physical at all and some of your more catastrophic (although fortunately, very rare) injuries in Union come during a scrum collapse. And I've seen a number of broken collarbones as a result of jumpers coming down hard (or being outright dropped) during a lineout, something else which League players don't have to deal with. Rucking , on the other hand, looks dangerous, but if you don't count the basically cosmetic cuts and scrapes that come with getting stepped on -- well I've never seen someone actually have to leave a game as a consequence of a rucking injury.

All that said, the nature of the tackles in a League game are different, as it's more important with the six-downs-to-score to stop the runners forward progress, particularly as you aren't allowed to swipe the ball after the tackle. And League defenders do get more of a run at their opponents as they have to get back ten metres after a tackle, rather than the two or three metres more typical of a Union rucking situation. This is an issue the NRL addressed recently when it banned shoulder charges.

It would be interesting to see a scientific study, but in my own (utterly unscientific) assessment I don't really have any sense that either version of rugby is significantly more dangerous than the other.

Edit@Uncas. You're a little out of date. Like I said, the NRL has banned shoulder charges.

In Rugby League there is no rucking, therefore that takes a lot of danger out of the sport as people have been know to break there necks or have other serious injuries in rucks. However the tackling is very much the same n both sports, the reason you may have seen people get up straight after tackles i League is because the person who tackled them has to straight away get of the player. Also the men in League tend to be smaller than the men in union, therefore tackles no hurting as much. But yes over all League is safer than Union.

In my opinion i think it depends on if you are a back or a forward, the most serious injuries happens in the scrum so there union is much more dangerous but in league tackles that would have gotten you yellow in union is allowed so i think league is more dangerous for the backs

no because in Rugby league you can do shoulder charge which is very dangerous while in Rugby Union you can't

yes, rugby union is such a physical game!!

It is for flankers.