back to article Football club catches, then punts, Kaspersky name

Australian Rugby League team the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles has changed its name to the Kaspersky Sea Eagles, only to retract the name change hours later after a backlash from fans. Rugby League is a 13-a-side version of rugby. The sport is popular in northern England and the east coast of Australia, where interest is …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    I know what I'd do if I was Kaspersky

    I'd show my appreciation by fucking right off with my sponsorship money.

    1. Lamont Cranston

      Re: I know what I'd do if I was Kaspersky

      Then again, you really can't buy this sort of publicity!

  2. ElReg!comments!Pierre

    13 FTW!

    >Rugby League is a 13-a-side version of rugby. The sport is popular in northern England and the east coast of Australia

    It also very popular in southern France. A lot of the fast'uns began with 13. It trains for speed and agility (besides impact, which is always important of course). Not so good for 15-trained props evidently, but some good locks came from "le jeu â treize". Not to mention wings.

    1. Patrick Finch

      Re: 13 FTW!

      "The sport all-too-modestly known as 'The Greatest Game' " (to quote "When Push Comes To Shove").

      Rugby league has always been disadvantaged by the establishment- until 1995, rugby union banned players for being paid to play league. And then, on signing a TV deal with Rupert Murdoch, the moral objections of a century evaporated overnight. But that's nothing compared to the game's history in France:

      http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/qa-rugby-leagues-nazi-business----and-the-pingpong-flipper-1407156.html

      1. TeeCee Gold badge
        Meh

        Re: 13 FTW!

        until 1995, rugby union banned players for being paid to play league.

        They should have stuck with that. There's too much of that "run straight into the opposition" shit in Union these days. It was mind-numbingly tedious to watch in League and it hasn't got any more interesting in changing codes.

        I wouldn't mind so much, but in Union they get to do it more than 5 bloody times without giving the ball away!

  3. Kevin Fairhurst
    Joke

    The 15- game

    is where the best 13- players go to when they retire. When you're too old and tired to play rugby league, don't worry my son, you can still be paid silly money by the union mob!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The 15- game

      Rugby league, for those who can't be taught to play proper rugby....... or those who only have 12 friends....

      1. Tom 38

        Re: The 15- game

        I was brought up playing union, but league is definitely faster, more skilful, more physical and demanding. Tackling is better and harder, there is none of the silly playing on the floor that makes union so dull sometimes.

        It's a proper tough man's game, if you can play league, you can play union no bother, but only a few union players can play league, it is just too physical and technical.

        1. asdf
          Trollface

          Re: The 15- game

          13, 15 hell even 7s are all worlds better than the flop grab your shin and whine game of Soccer.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: The 15- game

          This would explain why so many union people make it in league, but so few league people make it in union presumably? Screw your northern head on the right way around and look at the facts : League is a mind-numbing game to watch, it's certainly physical but what else? The game is shit, let's be honest, spectator sports such as paint drying has it beat by a mile. Union has, sadly, been infected by league in recent times but it's still a far superior game. I will give you one thing - the funniest comment on El Reg this year :

          " if you can play league, you can play union no bother". Ha-ha -fecking-ha!

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: The 15- game

          Dai Watkins and Jonathan Davies were "physical"?

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: The 15- game

          Name the top league players that have made it into top level union then name the union players that have made it into top level league. Then name the league players that have failed abysmally out of their small pond.

        5. ElReg!comments!Pierre

          Re: The 15- game @Tom 38

          > if you can play league, you can play union no bother, but only a few union players can play league, it is just too physical and technical.

          Not entirely true. A league player will never make a very good union prop. For the fly-half or the fullback it usually doesn't matter much as the expectations are roughly the same. But if you need a wing who can be very fast AND hold his ground against the opponent's props, then a league player is what you want. If you need a lock who can trample the opposition's wings AND gain ground on impact against the opposition's ... well, whoever really, then a league player is what you want. If you want a prop who can stop whatever is thrown at him, while trampling the opposition's locks, wings, and props, then you need a proper union prop.

  4. Tom 260

    Other sponsorship

    >"Kaspersky also sponsors the Collingwood Magpies, the richest and most-hated team in the Australian Football League."

    They also are one of the sponsors of the Ferrari F1 team... bit of a pattern there...

  5. Anonymous Coward 101
    Pint

    Why...

    ...is a Russian security software company sponsoring Australian sports teams with a (presumably) large working class following? Would it not make more sense for them to sponsor golf or yachting? I'm being serious here.

    1. Adam 1

      Re: Why...

      When think of the working class, my mind goes straight to Manly.

      And I am not being serious.

    2. Lamont Cranston

      Re: Why...

      To attract the attention of ill-educated bogans who don't realise that you can get free anti-virus software?

      Apologies if this is either racist of class-ist. It's probably a bit of both.

      1. steve876
        Thumb Down

        Re: Why...

        You work Lamont, I assume?

        By definition then, you're working class.

        The Middle Class moniker was created by the idle rich aristocracy so that the more educated working classes thought they were a class above their peers, and therefore had less incentive to rise up thus losing the bourgeois scraps they'd been thrown.

        1. Lamont Cranston
          Happy

          @steve876

          I know my place.

    3. David Nunn

      Re: Why...

      Whilst you are correct about the class issue in Rugby, Australian Rules football is mostly classless. It's one of the things I found most refreshing about moving to Melbourne in 2002 - at any given game, you could find someone like a High Court Judge on one side of you, and a repeat County Court defendant on the other. These days there is almost never any violence at a game, even at the serious end of the season.

      It's not completely classless - the reason the Pies are the most hated team is because of their historical ties to the working class Irish Catholic suburb of Collingwood. Melbourne (second oldest continuously operating football in the world) are quite the posh team. But they're shit, and the Pies regularly flog them.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rugby League?

    Here be ground shaggers......

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