Average and poor relative to NRL standards, but not to SL. Look at how many NRL nobodies are playing in SL. That's what belittles the SL and players brought through here. Not what someone might 'think'.

Tom is still abit raw for me, but isn't far off. He's massive, never put a foot wrong yesterday.

Luke was average over here but I think he'll push on down under and become a top prop around the age of 28/29.

Its easy being a forward in the NRL, run forward, play the ball, run forward play the ball. If you make an offload now and again they'll think you're a genius. Which is why our forwards do so well over there, they actually have some footballing ability. I love the NRL, but its a myth that it's tougher in every way than SL. Their backs are way better, but most of their forwards are just workhorses.

Carry on believing that when the Aussie pack steamrollers ours again.

Its true that not all Aussie forwards are world-beaters. Some of the British forwards are just as good (or can be with NRL experience). But the skill levels in the best NRL forwards are way better than 'workhorse' levels. The difference is that they play to a structure in the NRL - daft offloads get punished. Have a look at Ellis for Wests. His offload game is drastically lower than it was for Leeds/Wakey. That's not because he can't do it, but because he knows better than to throw dumb offloads every match.

The other thing the Aussies do is play as a pack. GB/England in recent years have tended to play like a bunch of individuals out to get good stats - making tackles and yardage. But the off-the-ball work is generally non-existent, meaning our backs look even worse than they are.

Tom's coming on nicely but is a long way from Test football. Give him another year and maybe...

It is the main reason that England/GB are always second best.