The "Beer" Facts

They mix together like champagne and wine cooler ? and now beer has driven the wedge deeper between Australian rugby and rugby league fans.

A cultural divide between followers of the rival codes is ever-present, particularly in New South Wales where gentle ribbing can manifest into barefaced animosity.

While league's domain is perceived as the blue collar heartland, rugby union's scarf-wearing "rah-rahs" loll on the northern beaches' cafe circuit.

Devotees of the 13-man game have long bemoaned their "inferior" status and now management at a stadium both codes call home appears to have reinforced the view.

A form of beer apartheid is being enforced at Sydney's Telstra Stadium, and league fans are livid.

While spectators at the Australia-Wales rugby test on June 14 could buy up to four beers at a time, supporters at league's State of Origin II ? 11 days later ? were rationed to just two.

The stadium's management insists the restrictions are about managing different styles of events and not about penalising a particular code.

"Origin is on a Wednesday night and it's traditionally full of emotion and intensity," Daryl Kerry, executive director of event and facility management, said.

"Rugby union events are just a different arrangement. They are on Saturdays, it's a different demographic over a different period of time."

Australians drink every day or night of the week, league and rugby games both run 80 minutes ? so "demographics" appears the rationale to the differing policies.

The inference is league fans are more likely to cut up rough after a few beers, and Kerry admitted as much.

He revealed the two-beer limit had been in force for National Rugby League (NRL) double-headers and Origin crowds since early last year following "risk assessment" talks with police.

At matches considered high risk, bars were closed 10 minutes into the second half, compared with 20 minutes for a standard match.

Stadium season ticket holder Les Gibson appreciated the need for different limits although he was immune as a "jack and coke" drinker.

"I go to watch both but the league crowd is different, let's say they're more boisterous."

The Sydney Cricket Ground and Aussie Stadium has no rules for specific codes ? the limit was four beverages per person.

At Origin III in Brisbane tonight spectators at Suncorp Stadium can buy a quartet of mid-strength beers at a time.

In Melbourne, discrimination also exists ? it's open slather in the members' section but crowds in the outer at the MCG can only drink mid-strength beer when watching a night game of Australian Rules.

Telstra Stadium is still determining its policy for the Bledisloe Cup rugby clash on July 26 ? a test sure to be brimming with "emotion and intensity".

Then there is the Rugby World Cup to consider.

While mulling over those events Kerry had positive news for league fans whose teams make the October 5 grand final. The beer limit is likely to be four because the occasion is more "family-orientated with a much more diverse mix of people".

League "immortal" Johnny Raper remains unimpressed: "Two beers is like two glasses of water to an Aussie bloke."

There was no difference, Raper said, between the behaviour of rugby or league supporters.

A Sydney Morning Herald newspaper poll started yesterday disagreed.

From 4300 initial respondents, 39 per cent thought league had the worst behaved followers among the major codes, AFL rated 7 per cent and rugby just 5.

The National Soccer League ? poorly supported but split down ethnic lines ? led the pack with 46 per cent of the vote