There was an article in the Telegraph a few weeks ago which said that in RU teams have now found that passing it from side to side did not work - mostly because ex-RL coaches had taught the backs to tackle and get their defensive positioning right - therefore they were now trying waves of vertical attacks - where they repeatedly attack the ruck area. Seems to me that this will make RU even more boring to watch than it is now.

The majority of English wingers and full backs have howlers under the bombs at the start of there career, likewise Monye does, once he improves this he'd easily walk into the England RL side and comfortably be the best player.

As for Armitage, he is no Slater, but he would walk into the England RL team. He is a good runner, good under the kick, has a good kicking game and has good vision.

I'm far from convinced on that. Despite what we may think the games can be very different.
I don't see any reports that SBW is setting the RU world alight as he did in RL. Likewise I watched Stade Francaise at the weekend & Gasnier who IMV was an outstanding RL player just did not stand out.
I also recall the greatest rugby fullback in the world at the time, signing to play RL & he made no impact except on his own head. Arguably a better player than Armitage.
All irrelevant & academic since there isn't a chance that we'll ever find out how good or bad he would be.
Al least with Lee we'll soon know one way or another.

This is a troll, isn't it?

You don't seriously believe that Ugo Monye would be a better rugby league player than Gareth Ellis or Sam Burgess - do you?

As I said Armitage maybe able to catch a ball unchallenged and boot it 30 metres unchallenged that is the lot of RU fullback - that is not what is required of RL fullback.

How often does Armitage get tackled in a game? I bet their are a number of games where he doesn't get tackled once - retaining possession in the tackle is vital in RL in RU you simply turn on your side and release - completely different skill set.

Yep, not to mention that his passing and handling would have to improve along with lines of running and support play as most full backs are often used in the 2nd phase of an attacking line nowadays.

I think sometimes people see Union and think its relatively similar to league with only a few differences, but those differences affect everything else. Passing, tackling, defence, lines of running etc all are different in league than in union.