League is a lot less obviously nuanced than Union, but there's a lot more to it than that. The game is much more about how teams approach the tackle area and the speed they use. Watch this year's NRL Grand Final without checking who won, it's a heck of an advertisement for the game
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As for Hayne, he was awesome in the pre-season, but now not so much it would seem. That said the whole team are pretty crap from what I hear, and players like him get all of about 25 seconds to impress in a game.
Either way though, it's a pretty solid effort for him to have made an NFL team within 12 months at 27 years old despite never having played the game.