We were crap before we went to 14 teams. I think in the long term a 14 team league will generate a bigger group of players, but it will take a while.

Again, playing friendlies against France / Wales may not be that competitive, but those countries need to be exposed to the top levels of the game in order to improve.

Wales did much better than I'd expected in the 4 nations, and I'd hope that would have a knock on effect in interest in the game. Shame the crusaders have effectively sunk off the radar.

It's alright, feel free to have your little inclusive redneck jamboree, we didn't want to play anyway!

I have to agree with this.

There just is not the pool of talent to have any merit in playing more games. Whatever the circumstances GB/England/whatever will still depend on a very limited core of 'elite' players genuinely worthy of competing against the Aussies. The extra matches will just burn them out that much sooner.

Until the pool of talented players increases (will it ever considering not many kids have RL as a priority ambition when up against football ?) the SL [ishould [/iface facts and reduce the number of clubs....one sided hammerings should be eliminated as no good for anybody. It makes a mockery of the game.

Money and partisan supporters will always dictate otherwise however.

RL unfortunately is a minority sport in this country and I don't see that changing, despite the persistent ultimately embarrassing failed attempts to change that.

Don't worry, you're in my East v West idea.

Do you seriously seeing anybody identifying themselves with being either "East" or "West" ...and being passionate enough to bother turning up for games ?

Everyone looks back as thinks the County Championship was great - problem was no one thought it was good enough to attend - crowds were terrible why recreate a failed concept.

If we really want to beat the Aussies we have to develop young players and maybe the RFL has to pay for a top coach at each SL club at academy level. IMO these coaches are more important than the head coaches - the Aussies beat us because they do the basics without thinking they are so ingrained.

I think you're right in that more money/better coaching needs to go in at academy level, however I think the bigger problem is before academy age in the amateur game. Sadly young kids simply aren't being taught and encouraged to use passing and handling skills properly in the amateur game. So when they get to academy level the academy coaches are having to try and teach them the basics and the more advanced stuff which they should be doing, and there simply isn't time for both.

It depends on the club / area.

I've reffed a couple of junior tournaments in the midlands, and there is pretty much no focus on the score, its just about getting kids playing the game.

Unfortunately, there will always be the situation where the side with teh biggest kid will win. In many ways, you want to play non/semi contact until the kids are at a stage where enhances the game

Quote: Him "I think you're right in that more money/better coaching needs to go in at academy level, however I think the bigger problem is before academy age in the amateur game. Sadly young kids simply aren't being taught and encouraged to use passing and handling skills properly in the amateur game. So when they get to academy level the academy coaches are having to try and teach them the basics and the more advanced stuff which they should be doing, and there simply isn't time for both.'" So we should applaud the Rhinos for this initiative amongst others? www.therhinos.co.uk/news/17975.php

Quote: Him "I think you're right in that more money/better coaching needs to go in at academy level, however I think the bigger problem is before academy age in the amateur game. Sadly young kids simply aren't being taught and encouraged to use passing and handling skills properly in the amateur game. So when they get to academy level the academy coaches are having to try and teach them the basics and the more advanced stuff which they should be doing, and there simply isn't time for both.'" So we should applaud the Rhinos for this initiative amongst others? www.therhinos.co.uk/news/17975.php

Surely all the imported coaches are in possession of that knowledge already? And in spite of all the enthusiasm amongst British clubs for foreign coaches, we're actually farther away from being able to compete than we were when our coaches were home grown. We simply don't produce enough players with sufficient potential for the coaches to work upon.

If the players were better coached from a young age, would we still not produce enough good players though? It's too late in many ways when they're 17 or 18 and they come into professional academies. We need to start the conveyor belt much lower down.

Also, if the amateur game was a better environment for parents to put their kids into we would probably find a larger pool of talent coming in.

I don't believe the Australian players are superior at a genetic level, do you?

I agree with all your points. I was disagreeing with the notion that sending academy-level coaches to Australia would achieve much. As you point out, sending coaches of younger age groups might.

And no, I don't believe the Australians are genetically superior, at least not in the sense I think you mean. But they do have a substantially larger pool of players from which to select meaning that their best 17 is very likely to be better than ours.

Not saying you're wrong about the pool of players, but what are participation levels like in the two countries, in absolute terms? Are there any numbers anywhere?