I'm not sure what's most lacking in the England/GB set-up right now.

We seem to lack any players with the X factor with the possible exception of Lomax (who is also exposed as a bit of a runt at this level) - the losses of Burgess, Tomkins, Hall, Graham, Watkins etc in their *prime* are huge. The current NRL contingent are all solid club players but don't seem to have as much cutting edge at international level as they should - at least compared with their Kiwi and islander counterparts. Not sure Wane can do much with this, or Bennett for that matter.

The collective attitude and spirit on the tour doesn't seem strong enough either. Yes, they looked professional for most games, and the defence held out better than that of many past touring sides, but where was the spirit shown by Tonga and PNG? The coach must take some responsibility for this, and arguably Wane would be an upgrade on Bennett here (potentially at the risk of major blow-out scores returning next time we play the Aussies). But we also need proper on-field leaders - a Peacock/Burgess type, and maybe a Sinfield type too. As much as O'Loughlin is physically past it he could have offered something here.

I'm not too fussed about the heritage players, but the bottom-line has to be that they must perform in the shirt. Hastings and co. were big disappointments, which has tended to be the case in the past as well.

If anything, the performances of Tonga, Fiji and especially PNG should give some hope that success at international level isn’t only about having the best / highest paid players.

Where do we go from here? Well firstly we have to assess the brutal reality of where we’re at and drop the rose tinted glasses. We are currently a second tier nation and being overtaken by Tonga in particular.

The English game is not in total meltdown, we still produce fantastic players (occasionally) and have a proud tradition, but we are not competitive. I don’t know how many times we need to fail before we get real here.

Funding is certainly a big part of the equation. Our youth side recently beat their Aussie counterparts - but that’s not regular and it was in freezing conditions in our Winter. Are all the players in that Academy side getting access to the same support and facilities as the Australian lads? Probably not and that gap then grows over time.

On the plus side I think the continuing emergence of these Island sides is fantastic.

Our club (RU) received an RFU grant to build a 4G pitch and new floodlights over the summer. It's fantastic. The president of the RFU came down on Sunday for the official opening.
This is a club in SW 1 (tier 6). It's a place you want to go and play and train. The RFU has really gotten its act together in the last 10-15 years in supporting junior clubs. And they are right to do so. Two of the junior clubs I played for produced players in England's starting 15 in the world cup final. The structure and rules of the junior game have also changed in the last few years to bring kids along and develop at a pace that doesn't miss out on kids who don't grow as fast as others. It's also designed to keep people in the game full stop. Players are what junior clubs need, at all levels.

But it's not always been easy, there used to be very little money in Union at the lower levels (and still it's not exactly flooded with money). Our club relies on volunteers, club membership subscriptions and local sponsors. Pretty much everyone does a job for free.

Hardaker with another full season could be good enough to hold his own. We have plenty of wingers i'm not worried about that- Johnson, Makinson, Manfredi and others pushing through; even Jerry Mcgilvary could be still in the mix with a better season in 2020.

Centres i agree but we have always been handicapped there compared to the Aussies who seem to have a truck load who are better than our best.

We will not beat them over a series by trying to imitate them, we must be different, even if that is a risk. They are bigger, fitter and stronger than we are generally speaking, so we have to use that against them. Our game is a little like chess, there is always a weakness, you just need to find it.

Rob Burrow didn’t look like a conventional RL player, but he had his fair share of success and some pretty special moments by doing things differently.

Good post and you do wonder whether the RFL could focus resources on some key hub clubs to help provide facilities for younger players.

What resources?

I agree with the Legend Bennett shouldn't be anywhere near an England or Great Britain team.

Erm...

I've always had my suspicions about you and If you're a Rhinos fan rather than a mischief maker then I will eat my hat Shabzy

Traffic is really slow on here at the minute apart from the LUFC thread
I'm gonna start on page 3 of Shabzy's posts for some more anti Leeds Rhinos whoppers

What you gonna start with?