I disagree. Look at the finishing positions of teams coached by English coaches this past season.

Only the very experienced ones (Noble and Kear) made any real impression on the competition. By contrast the likes of Morgan and Matterson have made their more limited coaching experience go further - probably because of their backgrounds in the Australian competition.

At the moment we need a steady influx and rotation of Australian coaches from the NRL, just as it is desirable for the best English players to test themselves over there.

As G1 has stated, cutting back on overseas players in the key positions is what is needed. Perhaps an overall competition quota for the number of half-backs, hookers, and full-backs is needed. It could be tweaked every now and then according to other perceived weaknesses (i.e. outside backs). Hopefully the new quota rules will start to bite soon so this may not be necessary - although as Leeds now have the highest number of overseas players in their squad than they have done for some time I think we still have a way to go yet.

Easier said than done though isn't it, I have no idea what the numbers in difference is between here and Australia but football will always massively dominate over here, not much the rfl can do about that.

True, but theres still plenty of the country left that isnt really playing RL. There are many more lads in Wales playing RL now thanks to the effort the RFL has put in there.
The difficulty will always be overcoming the rugby union bias in certain regions, and as always the lack of cash available to the RFL compared to Union and Football.

Thanks for ignoring the first half of my post. I never said there was a better option. And I didn't even mention any of the other players there so I'm not sure what your point is. I was responding to someone talking about how Senior used to get stick a couple of years ago (and last year) and now McGuire is in the firing line.
You can easily go back a few years on the Virtual Terrace and find pages and pages of Long bashing.

Some of whom, if they get the right opportunities and coaching, could turn out to be a bit special if that second forty against Ireland is anything to go by.

It'll be really hard given the competition over here from other sports. However if we get our own house in order and bring in new areas we can get much closer. It wasn't so long ago that we were almost there (the early 90s). It'll take time though, there's no overnight solution to this.

I think you have taken that a bit too personaly flower.

My point was about the best British player looking poor on the international stage and I was agreeing with you more than anything.

Of course there is. Its' called Sam Tomkins.

Just keep the useless Leeds players out of his way and the 4 nations, ashes and World Cup are ours for the taking.

However, all the kiwis have to do is button up their shirt collars and he won't be able to make a tackle.

No offence taken, and glad to hear someone agrees with me. Maybe I should have clarified by putting "particularly w**k". Long in particular was less able than most to translate club form to international level IMO.
Myabe that's the difficulty all halves have?

Work is ongoing, but it takes time. I know in Nottingham, a lot of the guys at the club do work in schools, and are actually getting the schools playing the game.

But this is mainly due to dedication of certain individuals to get the word spread about the game. A large proportion of guys who come down to Outlaws are union converts, who very quickly realise that League is a game worth playing.

However, I am tempted to think that although stuff works well in Nottingham, its a fairly rare case, certainly outside of the heartlands.

the RFL needs to target clubs in cities like Nottingham, and get more kids playing the game.

Indeed. Ours is one of the biggest comp schools in the area and attracts kids from all our neighbouring villages from 5 years to leaving school including a 6th form college and even though their are a few in the school who support Leeds and Saints they school only plays Union. My lad has even asked the school if they could try it only to be told no one would understand it.

I went to school in Pudsey in the 80s and the head of PE would only allow union to be played. It put a lot of us off playing completely. This was in Pudsey FFS not somewhere outside of the RL heartlands.

In the end a protest by lads a few years younger than me meant he had to give in as they refused to play union for him and the school team was seriously weakened. One of them went on to join the Rhinos.

judas.