WHAT a 'barefaced cheek! Rugby League authorities are actually complaining about Rugby Union snatching their best players.

How times change. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

The league game obviously has short memories, they conveniently forget how they spent years living off the backs of union.

League is a game confined to one small part of England and a handful of other countries.

Yet they can't even develop enough players of their own, and for years they absolutely raided Wales to deprive us of our best players.

A whole host of Wales' best union players have been snatched away when they've been in their prime to bolster the league game.

I remember how feelings ran so high when David Watkins was tempted north by Salford that Newport fans wanted to burn their clubhouse down.

That was not the idiots who vandalise everything today, but a mere expression of anger, grief even, that fans felt at the time over the loss of one of their leading lights.

It was-typical of those times as Maurice Richards, John Bevan, Jonathan Davies, Scott Quinnell and many, many others were all tempted to turn professional.

The major reason was, of course money - as players were offered vast sums to turn to rugby league, often - giving them and their families security for life.

But then came the revolution, as rugby union became professional, big money game into the game via huge audiences, sponsorship deals and the support of big backers at club level.

There was almost at a stroke more money in union than league, and of course the game enjoyed a bigger appeal worldwide because the game had a higher profile.

As union, started to find its feet on this new exalted stage, so it broadened its appeal and its interest.

It became a natural extension to look at the league game and those players who could easily make the change of codes, just as 'union players did to league in days gone by.

Initially players gradually returned home from the north, Scott Quinnell, Scott Gibbs & Co.

That was bad enough for the league authorities to stomach, but it was another thing altogether when players considered to be league through and through made the switch.

Jason Robinson broke the mould when he turned to union from league, and of course, became a major success not only for England but for the British Lions in Australia this summer as well.

And only last week Henry Paul, another league star, joined Gloucester from league.

England chief Clive Woodward has pledged that his raids won't stop there, while Wales are in the party too.

League superstar Iestyn Harris is on the point of leaving Leeds and joining Cardiff, though the WRU are paying out a massive sum to help bring him to Wales.

League doesn't like what's happening one bit and have spent the last week whingeing.

It's all a delicious irony and it's about time, too. Union has for too long been deprived of its best players by raiders from the north.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot no-one here is moaning. I reckon it's a damn good laugh and would say it's about time union got a bit of its own back.