What have the Romans ever done for us?” asks Reg, the anti-imperialist Judean revolutionary, during one of the many quotable scenes in Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
His fellow conspirators are not exactly stuck for answers: sanitation, roads, irrigation, medicine, education, public order, wine and peace feature prominently among their responses. “Alright”, says an exasperated Reg. “But apart from that…”
There has been many a moment over the last couple of decades when Rugby Union followers have asked a similar question of Rugby League, without identifying anything like the same number of ...