How to turn a Rugby League player into a Rugby Union player.

Rugby union and rugby league have a long and a fraught history. Ever since the split in 1896 between the clubs (mainly from the north of England) that want to be able to pay their players and the clubs that at least pretended to stay true to the amateur ideal, the two codes have pursued separate paths. Quite soon after the split, league had abandoned line-outs, eliminated the flankers to leave only thirteen men on the pitch, and introduced the distinctive "play the ball" that resembles the "down" system in American Football.

More recent changes have been the introduction of the "six tackle" law, limiting how long a team can retain possession for, and the de-powering of the scrum, so that now it merely serves to create more space on the pitch rather than act as a contest for possession. However, all of these changes have been in place for long enough for the requirements of each position in league to start to diverge from those needed in union.

To be more precise, any league player must have very similar skills in attack and defence. Ideally, they will be able to defend very well in a one-on-one situation, and on attack they will practise beating their opposite man in the same one-on-one situation or passing the ball out of the tackle if it is safe to do so.

Though it is important that the scrum-half and stand-off are able to put in a cross-field kick or a little grubber kick to turn the defence on the sixth tackle, the ability to kick for distance is not very important, and because the laws discourage kicking by the wings and full-back they need to do relatively little work on this skill.

By contrast, whilst all professional union players need to be able to tackle and pass well, the ability of the tight five forwards, in particular the props, to make big runs is far less relevant, and all players must master the additional skills of being able to participate in a ruck or maul, and to set the ball appropriately when they are tackled.

Furthermore, additional skills are emphasised in each position. The forwards all have their individual roles, and the range of kicks that the halfbacks much master is far wider. Though the centres in both codes have basically similar roles, the wings and full-back in union must have the ability to hoof the leather off the ball if they find themselves without support and the defence moving up on them rapidly, and to catch high balls kicked away by their opposition.

The reason for this long digression about the paths the two sports have taken is the wealth of recent speculation about players moving from league to union. Until union became professional in 1995, the traffic was all one way. The best union players were offered the opportunity to earn large sums of money, and regulations that prevented professional players returning to union meant that there was no return traffic.

Once the sport went open, big names such as Jonathon Davies, Scott Quinnell, Scott Gibbs, Martin Offiah, John Bentley and Inga Tuigamala returned to union, and a few pioneers such as Henry and Robbie Paul and Jason Robinson were signed on short-term contracts to try out rugby union in the league off-season.

Whilst the former union players mostly remained, and in many cases resumed thriving international careers, league players who had signed up for a new challenge returned to their league clubs at the end of their brief contracts. Though they had often shown flashes of brilliance, they had not fully adapted to the challenge of playing a new sport.

In spite of the many similarities between the two codes, it was apparent that it was as hard for players to move to union as players who had opted for professionalism had found it to adapt to league. However, the obvious exceptional abilities of some league super-stars continue to prove attractive to union, and because of the thriving international scene in union and wider audience there is enough money available within the game to consider cherry-picking the other code's stars.

The similarities between the roles of the backs in the two codes are close enough that if signed on a long enough contract the very best league players might transform themselves into exceptional talents in union. This belief was fuelled by the success of Andrew Walker, a union player in his youth, who'd played league since the age of 18. The Australian province ACT signed him up at the end of his league contract, and he topped the try scoring chart in the southern hemisphere Super-12 competition in 2000.

As a wing, and also a union player in his youth, Walker found the switch particularly easy. He has been followed by Brad Thorn, and Jason Robinson, and this select group of converts will soon be joined by Wendell Sailor. These three players were all genuine stars in rugby league, but all have posed a problem in terms of finding their ideal position in union.

Thorn was a forward in league, but the specific skills required in union are new to him. When he has had the ball in his hand, his strength and skill has been evident for New Zealand's Canterbury Crusaders. But his lack of experience has been visible in his lack of positional sense, and he has been on a very steep learning curve as he has tried to acquire the skills that a back-row forward needs to succeed.

Robinson was a wing, but in spite of working very hard on his positional sense he was not receiving enough ball to show what he can do whilst lurking out on the wing for Sale (an English club). Instead, he has been moved to full-back in the hope that the opposition will kick enough ball to him to let him do his stuff. In addition, at full-back it is easier to see where the gaps on the field are, and so he can more rapidly identify what he should be doing in any situation.

Nonetheless, even after most of a season for Sale, and having received three caps as a substitute for England, thrilling the crowds on each occasion, Robinson still thinks he is a year away from reaching his best at union. Sailor will pose similar problems when he moves to union later in the year. In league, he is very effective running from dummy-half at the play the ball, but such situations rarely arise in union, and he may find it hard to get involved in the game initially if playing a traditional winger's role.

The mixed success of shoe-horning former league players into traditional union roles suggests that trying to find an equivalent position and putting a player there is badly mistaken. In particular, league forwards will be initially be ill-prepared for the technical aspects of scrummaging and the work that they need to do at each ruck and maul. Clubs signing up a league player should instead look to the experience of England's most successful club in the professional era, Leicester.

The Tigers have just won their third domestic title in a row, and have just reached their second European final. Leicester faced a similar problem in utilising one of their England stars, Austin Healey. Healey was in his youth a winger, but had moved to scrum-half before he arrived at Leicester. However, such is his range of skills he is capable of playing at fly-half, rugby's equivalent of the quarter-back, and has done so on the international stage. Leicester decided to move him back to the wing, but with a "roving brief."

Allowed to range freely around the pitch, Healey is able to pop up where he's least expected, using his pace to make devastating breaks or, taking advantage of his superb ball skills, to act as a link man. Such has been his success in this unorthodox role that in spite of playing last season mainly at fly-half for Leicester, and this year at scrum-half, he has continued to be selected for England as a winger with a right to roam.

The advantages of easing players transferring from league into union in this way are obvious if we compare the moves of Apollo Perelini and Freddy Tuilagi late in 2000. Both had been back row forwards for Samoa in union before moving to league, where both were forwards. However, whilst Sale used Perelini as a back-row forward, Leicester eased Tuilagi back into union by playing him on the wing.

Perelini had to immediately try to recall skills that he'd left behind years before, to be defensively secure in complicated situations around the scrum and tackle situation, and to concentrate hard on playing in the "right" way in a specialised position. Tuilagi was allowed to pop up where and when seemed appropriate to him, had only to ruck and maul when he was closest to the breakdown situation, and usually only had to defend in the kinds of one-on-one situations he had frequently faced playing league.

Though required to field kicks, this skill was not completely unfamiliar to him as a league loose forward, and Leicester had two international full-backs (one playing on the wing) who could cover some defensive lapses on his part. In spite of having been injured for the later stages of the season, Tuilagi has had a far greater impact and made a much better adjustment than Perelini has with several more games under his belt.

Tuilagi's experience perhaps offers pointers for teams hoping to convert league stars such as Keiron Cunningham, Iestyn Harris or Andrew Johns. Rather than hoping to find them an appropriate position immediately, use them in the kind of roving wing role that Austin Healey has made his own. They can pick up the new skills of rucking and mauling in a position where not being perfect at these tasks will usually not be shown up too badly, learn the patterns of play in rugby union, and can still make a significant contribution to the team that exploits the ball skills and running ability that attracted their employers to them.

Even genuine wingers such as Jason Robinson or Wendell Sailor would be better employed if they were instructed to go looking for the ball in this way: Robinson's early attempts to play as a "classical" union winger were a waste of his talents as the team he was playing in were unable to get the ball to him frequently enough. Once they have settled into union, the club can then look to find them an appropriate position, but the player will only need to learn the specific skills of the position rather than those skills and how to play union simultaneously.