Its the major reason why I am going - we seldom get the opportunity to see the very best players in the flesh. In Thurston you have the very best and in Matt Scott another really top player that I am looking forward to watching. Perhaps if you opened your mind to the game as a whole and not let it solely revolve around Leeds you might have a more rounded view on some matters. What has Thurston's hair got to do with anything for goodness sake!!

As you seldom actually attend a game you hardly in a position to criticise the rationale of those who do

Technically the Aussies are so far ahead of us in the positions that matter i.e. 1,6,7,9,13 - which is why your point about Galloway, Falloon, Moa etc is nonsense. It is obvious - even Stevie Wonder can see it - they are better physically prepared this is demonstrated virtually every time these games are played also in internationals that matter.

It isn't about ting themselves - sometimes the opposition are far superior and if they have come with the correct mind set i.e. this is bit more than a training run, isn't a lot you can do. Especially now the Aussies have started to take it semi-serious.

Saints can be very hit and miss but it maybe OK to have a slow loose forward at 6 in SL it just doesn't work against faster more technically adept teams.

If these games were played in Australia in April it would be even more embarrassing. If North Queensland are anything close to top form on Sunday the Saints result will look good by comparison. They have been here for a week so they will no excuse. McDermott's interview suggested he thinks something bad was coming over the hill his body language was terrible

In fairness Saints made Salford look like NRL Premiers last week.

I think we also really need to just look at how totally awful Saints were. They look small and flimsy in the outside backs and the forwards dropped off tackles like they were being paid to.
Pressure was all on them as well and they couldn't handle it. Roosters were just having a jolly.

I don't think you really know what your talking about mate...

The aussies have better halves and fullbacks I agree in general, in terms of that the majority of NRL players in these positions would get in the England team
However they dont have a monopoly on good 9s, 13 hasn't been a key position for about 15 years in the NRL and the best 13 is English anyway (Burgess!), also Hardaker is a better fullback than Coote who for me is the weak point of their spine

Also the opinions that we will get heavily beat, and that your going to watch Thurston, are contrasting
Thurston is such a great player because he wins tight games, and its in tight games when he shines
If we get heavily beat you probably wont see him stand out too much (except for the occassional good kick/pass), the way they would heavily beat us is if their pack gets on top and Granville and Morgan demolish us with their speed around the markers and A defenders

Your right mate, those 2 England captains would never have made it down under
Also our treble obviously had nothing to do with our (young) backline or our freeflowing style of attack

Guess you wouldn't know as you were apparently forgot they were playing in 2015
Im sure youll admit you were wrong if we win though right?

Deary me, what an embarrassing post, even by your standards. You do realise you just proved Printer's point?

If the Aussies are so far ahead why have they only won 6 of the last 12 WCC matches? Were they not trying in the other 6?
Leeds have been in 6 WCC games, winning 3 of them. How the hell did that happen against such a superior competition?

The last time we, England, played the Aussies in a game that "matters" we were a finger tip away from knocking them out of the 4N and putting us in the finals. And that's being polite because we all know that try should've been given

Unlike you I'm going on Sunday to support my club and hopefully watch them record a memorable win against the NRL's best. That probably won't happen but to be fair we're missing more than half of our GF winning team whilst the Aussies are playing the same 17. If that was reversed then we'd all be expecting a comfortable Leeds win and you'd be spouting some garbage about the Aussies not taking it seriously and only sending half a team over....

Of course it'll be nice to JT play again but you sound like a little girl saying he's the reason you're going. I'll look out for you jumping up and down on the spot, clapping like a seal and screaming, like a Belieber, every time he gets the ball.

What's changed in the last 3 years, surely neither competition has change quality too much?
2012 beat pretty much a full many team
2013 lose by a couple of points to a full Melbourne team, in a game where we actually bombed a couple of tries and was missing Hardaker
2016 SL teams don't have a chance??????

The other side of the raising the salary cap argument is if it were increased it would allow SL clubs to attract some top NRL players who will bring their superior skill set that you mentioned for the benefit of the SL paying public (it is after all an entertainment business) and perhaps it would even increase attendances. Also some of the NRL recruits attitude and professionalism would rub off on our younger players leading to an improvement in standards at SL clubs.

We've been worried abut playing youngsters in the halves, yet the Rooster's halves last night were I think 19 & 20 plus they had an 18 year old centre.
There are 2 major differences between us & the Aussies, the length of the off season allowing them much more time to spend on conditioning & skills development & the overall RL infrastructure. Until we address that we will never regularly compete with them at club level.

That is the last thing the game can do, its what it been doing or 40 years. We can be better. We can beat the aussies. We can be the best and biggest RL nation in the world and we should never stop trying and never accept anything less. 'Good enough', is never good enough.

A few observations to go along side Seth's and other's - The salary cap does have huge influence in terms of pool of top class players available to NRL v SL. Anyone who has spent time in Oz knows that Saturday mornings you will see all green spaces around in the suburbs are sports facilities and are full of youngsters enjoying a session of some sport training, skills sessions etc.- all year round! Parents spend their weekends ferrying kids to and fro. If not on these green bits then they are on the beach doing something else athletic. The kids are not ploughing through mud, freezing their little bums off, crying with pain when they get kicked, get a clod in the eye etc. Our kids are great and our parents, who do stand on the touchline shivering, are great BUT we can never compete with the conditions that our youngsters grow up in, learn skills and tactics in etc, and if they make it to the top in SL it is a special thing. In Oz it is not so surprising. In the UK the majority of youngsters, especially south of Yorkshire, of course, are probably either still in bed, playing with their phones or ipads or their interest in sport is confined to the overpaid, shamsters chasing a round ball around. This country's obsession with soccer, the size of the crowds, the vast amount of money invested in advertising, players, TV rights, the high focus on any related story etc etc is staggeringly incomprehensible. The virtual ignoring of RL, by comparison, is another factor.
Generally we are not on a level playing field with NRL except for the passion and desire shown by our best and most talented. Sadly Saints forgot that last night and KC's delusion probably added to that. He did, after all, look and sound as if he was about to open up at the Car Boot Sale!

It is pretty obvious - the quality of NRL player coming to SL has dropped off significantly due to our inability to compete financially. As a result the overall standard of the league has dropped - the reverse has happened in the NRL i.e. retaining of more quality and an increase in the overall standard of the league. Simple really.

Give Leeds Sam and Tom and Wigan George Burgess, give Saints Graham back, Let leeds bring back Hodgson instead of bringing in Falloon and Saints keeping eastmond instead of bringing in Burns and we would be a lot closer now.

Makes no sense for the game to be spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on coaches, facilities, and wages to develop a young player who leaves before his peak to go and strengthen our competitors.

About 2mil extra cap has been added to the oz cap in the meantime