For example, take the current England international scrum half Matty Smith, full time player, oodles of time to train every facet of his game ,massive facilities at his disposal, sports science , numerous conditioners ,trainers , physios, doctors etc etc etc every advantage a player could possibly wish for...plays maybe 25 to 30 times a year on superb surfaces , with massive recovery resources.

International scrum half of the 80s Andy Gregory, part time in a non science era , very little back up apart from the odd physio , trains on dark nights for a few hours, plays on mud heaps at various times in a 40 plus game year, playing very often 3 times a week with no recovery resources.

Given those two scenarios i would suggest that Gregory is still some distance in front of Smith as a player...despite Smith having every advantage going over Gregory...

Now swap the scenarios around, give Gregory ALL the advantages, transport Smith into the 80s with all the disadvantages..what would the gap in quality be then..????

I watched Roger a lot and whilst he was a good player not in the same class as others of his era or thereabouts even at half back - Murphy was different class.

Of players I've seen in the flesh it would have to be Ellery Hanley and Mal Meninga.

I was fortunate that when I was taken to my first St Helens game as a kid was during Big Mal's season at Saints.

Of Aussies in last 30 years I'd say Big Mal and Fittler for consistently come up with the decisive play when the chips were down in big games.in an earlier era, Reg Gasnier stood out. Best Aussie of all time - Brian Bevan.

As a kid the only RL I watched was GB v Aus. My favourite players were Hanley and Offiah. I liked Little Andy Gregory too. I think Little was his first name anyway - Ray French always called him that.

Mal Meninga was the player I remember most from the Australians. He was awesome.

well he'd only need to watch a reserves game to see better players than friggin chariots wouldn't he??

If he names Offiah, then i'd have to assume he has at least seen one game so that rules him out