That's nonsense. Who plays for the bottom clubs in that example? A load of very poor players and there is a blowout scoreline every time a top 5/6 side plays one from below. Those clubs see their crowds go down and the cycle repeats. You end up with four or five strong clubs who get thrashed by the NRL sides as they go six between decent games, whereas the NRL sides play at a high level week in week out.

What increasing the cap would do is mean the current players getting paid more. That will not improve them as players at all. Your scenario of the best players being spread out is what we want, it's how the NRL works. There are genuinely world class players in every single side over there. JT plays for NQC who have been whipping boys for years until recently, you had Andrew Johns at Newcastle, Paul Gallen at Cronulla, Benji at Wests. Clubs in the NRL can go from bottom to top in a season with the right recruitment, coaching and a bit of luck as the quality is consistent throughout the league. In SL Wakefield couldn't go from bottom to top ever as there is such little talent about.

The problem is depth. Depth, depth, depth. We don't recruit the best athletes as a sport in this country. This country has produced it's own Greg Inglis, Billy Slaters and Paul Gallens. Instead of playing league they will be playing Sunday league football or working in McDonalds. Even if they were brought up in the heartland areas they probably wouldn't play league. One of my lads plays for a Under 11s football team in Warrington. They have two lads in that side that are just outstanding athletes, borderline-academy quality. They might eventually get scouted but they won't play professionally. Those kids shouldn't be allowed to leave primary school without being abducted by league talent scouts and coerced into playing the game. Clubs should be mining the primary schools for the athletes and those with good coordination and general skill levels and introducing them to league. Those two kids aren't playing the sport as their parents aren't into it either so they don't watch it. My lad is the smallest on his football team by about half a foot, he plays RL as well and he's the same size as 3/4 of the players as the best athletes play football. If you grew up in Chester, Manchester or 90% of the rest of the country it would probably never cross your mind to play League. With that amount of talent being wasted, it's no surprise we're so far behind.

The surge in British coaches at SL level is another concern. The main characteristic that British coaches share is that they are idiots, dumb, pigheaded idiots. When you've got Shaun Wane who doesn't have the intelligence to open a tin and KC who is three sheets to the wind coaching versus people like Wayne Bennett and Trent Robinson, it's not surprising our players don't develop.

Do we have enough quality players to spread out over 12 or more teams? clearly not so the salary cap just drags back the teams that are successful and generate more money
my point is that the SL is becoming a tighter competition because the top teams are getting worse not tha tthe bottom teams are getting better
in the NRL they do and can impose a cap (that everyone can afford) to make sure they are spread

I agree with Saddened. The idea that raising the cap would change much is plain silly. It may prevent a few players going to the NRL but you'd have to raise it to astronomical levels to get star Aussies - or more importantly for England star RU players - to join SL. Far better to focus as much as possible on juniors.

I also agree that the British coaches are worrying. Robinson and Maguire stood out in SL because they were good coaches, representing the next generation of Aussies. I have no idea why SL clubs have moved away from getting this sort of young Aussie coach. The only limitation is that they want an NRL head coach gig which limits their lifespan in SL.

The only thing I'd add is that I'd be looking to get one or more of these very good technical Aussie coaches involved with juniors. From what I've seen SL Academy players desperately need work spending on core skills (and for halfbacks game management). Whilst you can't produce freak athletes from nothing, its absurd that a supposed halfback can get a pro contract in 2016 without any kind of passing ability.

Where is the evidence that DEPTH plays the deciding role in international sporting success?

How many union and cricket players are there in England? How many in Australia? Which of the two nations has had the most success over the last three or four decades?

How many fully professional football clubs exist in England? Compare that figure with, say, Italy or Spain or France. Compare the FACILITIES at those clubs with lower league clubs in Italy, Spain & France.

As for coaching - we are talking about FULLY PROFESSIONAL clubs here. Assuming that our guys are not rolling up each day half sloshed there is absolutely NO REASON to assume they aren't seeking to refine their craft in precisely the same fashion as their colleagues in the Southern Hemisphere. There's nothing stopping them from even EXCEEDING their abilities should they feel inclined (as I assume all of them do).

This coaching issue is used far too often as a stick to beat SL. When our teams win everyone shuts up. When they lose they start bleating again. I'm not saying there aren't issues which need to be addressed in SL - but it's silly to keep on harping about a problem whose existence [iwe really have no reliable means of testing.[/i

The salary cap hinders the top teams and stops them hogging all the best players and signing Southern Hemisphere stars. As a result of this, they've had to bring through more kids into the first team. So the very thing that has hindered the club teams has improved our national team. We are now spoilt for options in most positions and I believe we are more competitive as a result. We need a strong national team to attract bigger sponsors and media recognition...no matter how good our club sides are, the names of St.Helens, Wigan, Hull etc are never going to grab the imagination of people who live around the country...only a national side that's sticking the boot in on the Aussies and Kiwis will do that.

I think it'd be crazy to get rid of the series because of a bad series this time round. Last year it was only us who got a hiding with the other two games being closely contested IIRC.

With the salary cap as it is, the only way we will get better is to carry on playing these sides and get used to that intensity of a game. Over time you'd like to think our better teams will put up more and more of a contest the more games against these types of opposition they're involved in.

Stick with the series and it may improve in time. To just get rid of it because we've lost a few games seems incredibly narrow-minded, short-term thinking.

One of the major critism's by fans of RL is the constant chopping and changing.
So what do fans suggest?
More knee jerk reactions to chop and change again.

It's like when you used to play games at school, oh we've been hammered lets not play anymore.

The sporting reaction to suffering a defeat is to address the issues, whether that be at the individual club or as a league.

It was a painful weekend for SL, but one from which it can learn. Obviously there are plenty of deep-seated reasons why we have an inferior competition, and they're going to take a hell of a lot of working out to get right. But we can pick things up that will help to improve us. The thing that jumps out most obviously from this series is the way the NRL ballplayers have multiple options on pretty much every play, even when the play is a simple hit up. It's a pretty simple thing that we've obviously lost sight of in this competition, but it puts considerable pressure on defensive decision-making (pressure that our sides weren't able to withstand) and makes it very difficult for teams to commit numbers into tackles. If Saints can take a lesson from that and start running in twos and threes then the whole thing will have been worthwhile.

If the Superleague standard stays the same we can be pretty sure the world club series will always be a whitewash. The RFL needs to speed up the game, first and foremost we need to increase the intensity of the game, for the last 4 or 5 years the game has been "dumbed down' to a time wasting and boring spectacle at times. Our game has turned into a slow arm wrestle, interference at the play the ball, flat attacks, slow scrums, slow field penalties, slow drop outs. The match officials need to speed up the game and in the short term penalise every infringement in the tackle and play the ball, stop the time wasting techniques, I would also run with 2 refs so the attack and defence lines are set quicker.

Then its up to the club coaches to learn from the World Club Series how to improve positional play to create potential try scoring options. On the other hand we can "stick our head in the sand" give up on the idea and just play in our own "super league bubble" for a couple of years ready for the next future deja vu.

I don't think holding this fixture at this time of year helps anyone. It's invariably cold, wet and miserable. I'm not saying it's impossible to play good rugby but I don't recall too many people celebrating SL in the opening six weeks.

The aussies scored some good tries ?

Maybe play it in October when the weather is better

Totally agree.

If we want to grow as a sport then international fixtures are the way. With France being decades away from having a competitive league the only option open is Australia.

The only people is really helps are the Aussie teams,Brisbane said it helped them last year and this year It was said it was valuable to the Roosters to in getting prep done.

I think the 3 Oz teams said they had built the event into there training patterns and the weather wasn't much of a problem. I should imagine its easier to train at a constant 80 degrees then play a game at 50 degrees, than train at a constant 50 degrees and play a game at 80 degrees.

Oh dear. After all these years and the obvious failure of the Salary Cap it still has defenders on this board. You couldn't make it up.

As for Saints at the moment, you are a very average side but the standard in SL has slipped so far that with better coaching I think you could be in with a real chance of winning something. Thanks to the SC you don't have to be good to win a trophy. Not sure I understand the despair on this issue, just replace KC with say a talented young Aussie assistant coach looking to prove himself at head coach level and you'll be ok.