Quote ="lefty goldblatt"There WAS a rumour that one of the RL clubs were siffing round Carling (Leeds??), but old William was made "comfortable" by the RFU, if you know what I mean'"
I read something Carling said about this, he did get approached by league clubs but he thought 'going north' would just mean having everyone in league smashing him to prove a point. Which is probably a fair point - he would have been seen as the ultimate representation of the RU establishment (even though he ended up annoying the RU establishment).
Also regardless of whether or not RU was paying its players, remember that back then, other than Wigan most of the RL teams were semi-pro anyway, it's not like they were paying life changing sums of money. Turning pro was more attractive for Welsh working class lads than university-educated middle Englanders, who had side careers away from rugby anyway, and for whom England RU call ups were a good way of raising their profile and giving them networking advantages for their future careers in consultancy / media etc. Imagine the events they would get invited to and the hobknobbing they could do with rich clients. Why would you give that up to play league and have Des Drummond tackle you with his head and get abuse by a load of northerners.
