Southstander is simply reflecting the frustration of fans who are experiencing a significant dilution of quality whilst still being asked to pay the same price if not more. What should have happened was a building on a foundation created from 2003-2012 with standards increasing - sadly the reverse has happened.

I disagree and think the quality is increasing and it's becoming harder to win every game. With top class players being enticed to Australia and NZ (when in the past have we had so many go over and play at the same level as our antipodean cousins?) our pool of talent is growing every year.

10 of the 12 Super League coaches are British, where as 10 years ago it was 2. Building quality takes time and I believe we are now seeing the benefits of the last 10 years with more clubs producing players, some even coming from the championship and making it.

I for one will be renewing my season ticket and enjoy the rugby on show, win lose or draw, because I'm a fan of Rugby, England and Leeds. Yes there are problems to work out. Yes every game is not edge of your seat, going down to the wire, mouth watering style on display stuff, but what sport offers that week-in week-out? If you think that's sport then your are deluding yourself.

You must be watching a different game to most of us - the general view was that 2014 was the worst season for quality for many years - I don't see standards rising - I am also failing to understand why having British coaches without any experience of the best competition in the world is a good thing? Losing our truly elite players to the RU and the NRL and an inability to recruit quality players from the NRL has impacted the quality on the field - even you must see that?

I'm sorry but Southstander does not represent the whole of rugby. Go do some scientific research on public opinion and I might agree with you. But, if your formulating your general view from people on the internet, you must also believe the moon landings were faked and that 9/11 was masterminded by the United States government.

Also, if you're comparing 10 years of data to one then this is not a logical comparison. Come back in 2023 and compare 2003 - 2013 and 2014 - 2023, this would then be logical. Yes, I do see having more British coaches as a good thing as it means they get experience of coaching at the top level.

My point is we shouldn't recruit more top quality players from the NRL, we should export them as we are so they gain experience of playing in the best RL competition. They then return home and share said experience and increase the quality of our own competition.

I think you will find there is one "truly elite" player that has gone to RU, not players. The rest of the players that have gone to RU have been chances taken by the RFU and most of them have failed. What other "truly elite" British player has gone to RU in the last 10 years?

The only way you increase quality is increase the pool of talent you select from. In 2003, only a few clubs had academy's feeding their 1st team. Now there are more. These lads are not going to be world class now but if the increase in academy products continues, I believe in 2023 we will be looking back saying "Wow, what a 10 years of amazing sport we've seen and that player and this team and England are now competing on a world stage". If I'm wrong, may you quote this post in 10 years time and prove me wrong.

That was my point. There aren't, & never have been 8, or even 4, evenly matched teams full of world class players. Last season was the most even season I can remember with Leeds having dropped to the level of the rest. I'm still struggling to see the relevance of how many world class players Cas have though. But seeing as you seem to be fixated on it, at the moment only Shenton is arguably world class.

'World class' players are a class apart - if every team has several 'world class' players then they can't actually be 'world class' players because there are so many.

It is the thing going on in football punditry at the moment (the Guardian has had a few articles in the last year discussing this) - how because pundits so regularly call players 'top players' (or suchlike) that they now also have 'top, top players' and (for some pundits) 'top, top, top players'.

Whereas the reality is that if they were just more selective on who they applied the 'top' or 'world class' monickers to to start then these issues wouldn't happen in the first place.

There is nothing wrong with just been a 'solid' or 'good' player in a professional sport; it seems to be a commentator's thing at the moment though to emphasise how spectacular those we watch are which then ironically renders such terms useless as 30 - 40% of people within every top flight team are labelled as such!

World class for me is a player who has the ability to stand out amongst others even at the highest level.

In SL right now the players i would regard as WC are: Roby,Hill,Hall,O'Loughlin,Hardaker,Todd Carney,Clark,Sarginson and Walsh.

I think there should only be 13 players called world class each year. The best in that position. All others a good, solid, talented etc. Like said earlier we don't want to be getting to a "world, world, world, world class" player.

Southstander is not meant to represent the whole of rugby, it represents the sentiments of one club. That club has declining standards of play as its core players age and their abilities fade.

On British coaches - I would agree with the correct training that would be a great thing, sadly most haven't had the training within the really elite level i.e. the NRL. So we are entrusting our elite youngsters to sub-standard coaching IMO.

Elite players that have gone to RU - Kyle Eastmond, Joel Tomkins, Sam Burgess, Chris Ashton (would have been an elite player if he had remained)

I agree with your point about developing talent however we are in the entertainment business and customers expect a certain standard to be maintained whilst this development is on going. Secondly one of the benefits of bringing top NRL players is the impact they have on youngsters and their development. I would find it hard to believe that you would not learn from a Michael Monoghan or a George Carmont or a Danny Buderus?

Who, exactly are you talking about here? In recent years, which players have gained experience in the NRL then come back to SL and imparted their new found wisdom to increase the quality of our own competition?

Richie Mathers, Jordan Tansey, Adrian Morley... who exactly?

Spot on, although whilst I'll not align myself with the wrist slitters I don't enjoy it as much as I used to but that is because of me growing up, being less partisan and not because of this so called decrease in standards. I agree with you, standards are far better.

I agree, and whilst part of not enjoying it as much I'm sure is to do with the things you say, I also think that it's often not as good as to watch despite being a much higher standard.

It's partly why I've come around to favouring having "proper" scrums in an attempt to open the game up a bit more and maybe adding a slightly different dimension to the game.

Not sure you can use that as a general rule in all fairness. If that were the case one or the other of Greg Inglis and Billy Slater would not be world class for example and that's clearly not the case. Ditto Jonathon Thurston and Shaun Johnson, Cameron Smith and James Roby etc. World class is, of course, a subjective description but I don't think it should be subject to an arbitrary number limit. It is entirely possible to have a 'golden era' for a given position, such as the time we had Wally Lewis, Alan Langer, Peter Stirling et al. plying their trade at half for example, and I don't think it right to say any of those weren't world class but someone else of lesser ability from a different era is, just because there happens to be no one better at that particular time.

The point about falling standards is an interesting one - I agree with Gareth the game is of a far higher standard now than it was in the 70s and 80s. I don't think the current standard of the league is as good as it was in the early to mid 2000's. There has been a definite drop off due to the lack of quality from overseas, the increase to 14 teams, top players leaving for the NRL, RU and the general lack of good coaches.

World class means you can mix it with the best in the world and still hold your own. To say "you're not a world class player because someone else is slightly better than you are" is just plain ridiculous.