Quote: Roy Haggerty "The Origin stuff is a red herring, in my view. The Kiwis are now way ahead of us, and their players don't play Origin. The Aussies don't get their better skills and mental toughness from three mid-season matches, either. The reason they're better than us is that every week they play to a higher standard, consistently, and they have tremendous pressure from below for their jerseys, so they can't afford a loss in form. There isn't a club in SL whose fans wouldn't be able to point to two or three players they carry as passengers every week after a loss of form. For example, at Saints, Gidley's been effectively non-existent this year, yet he's been on the field every time he's been fit. Why is that ? Because either we don't have anyone better, or our coaches are too conservative to risk throwing kids in. [iAnd because it doesn't matter [/i!
Saints can still finish second top even with passengers, and even with another second-row filling in on the opposite centre for much of the rest of the season. Think about that, for a minute. Saints played much of this season with one semi-retired Aussie (Gidley) one one side, and a solid-but-unspectacular second-row (Flannery) or crocked young stand-off (Wheeler), on the other. Every opposition team knew this, but Saints still won the great majority of their games and finished second. That tells you everything you need to know about why we can't field decent backs against the Aussies and Kiwis. It's got nothing to do with whether there is or isn't a spurious extra competition in mid-season. It's got everything to do with the fact that there are no decent backs out there.'"
difficult to disagree with any of that - Saints did remarkably well as you are indicating despite the failings of certain players and I would include Jon Wilkin to that list,for me a dissapointing season from a top player,not to mention the loss of Leon & Kyle for many games - we do appear to have the youth at our disposal and I too am bemused how Matt G kept his place.How do we raise the international level ? well,keeping the Gidleys & Menzies etc of this world instead of bringing in the kids through isn't helping - the old chestnut of too many overseas players is a factor of course tho' we need to regulate a bit more strictly the amount allowed at any given time - the Crusaders squads of recent years for example,have been a sad endightment of the younger british talent that is coming through the youth systems - looking at the Saints,Wigan,Wires & Leeds to name but a few) youngsters coming through means the future IS bright so,give them their chance.
