The Dragons are not a good team, they dominated possession, completed more sets, had a higher completion rate, made more meters yet lacked any ideas in attack close to the line. They have been massively overrated by some. I think currently they are around 3rd/4th favorites for the wooden spoon. This is far from a great Melbourne team, and certainly far from what they were just a few years ago. Many have tipped them to miss the 8 this season. This game was a poor scrappy affair and far from 'a good team that got within 8 points of a powerful team'.

I think we have to be careful when assuming a forward has gone up a level just because he's pulling up trees in the NRL. British forwards generally find the transition fairly easy and dominate quite quickly. I'd only pick the really exceptional forwards from the NRL for the England team, Jammer, T & G Burgess and otherwise stick with SL forwards.

Different story with the backs.

British players dominate quite quickly? You didn't see Flanagan or Edmonson then. Its a different style of rugby - the NRL is actually very physical and a lot of the focus for forwards is a very low error rate. Some SL players will do well, others poorly. Its a much higher standard competition than SL in general - an average NRL player is better than an average SL one. Cooper's done a bit more than that, regularly rating as one of the Dragons' best.

Widdopp is slightly worrying to me as an England supporter. He looks the part, but occasional flashes aside doesn't dominate games or create much. He's starting to look a bit too much like Ben Walker.

I think Widdop is a good solid half but a little bit over rated. He is never going to be in the same class as a Thurston,Cronk or Johnson who can dominate and win matches on their own, and on a regular basis. He is still the best option we have right now though and by some distance imo.Now if only we could find him a quality partner.....

Saint George-Illawarra

I said British forwards dominate quite quickly, which they do. We need to stop assuming that everything about the NRL is vastly superior. Some parts are, their defensive organisation, their outside backs, their hookers/halves, but I don't see much evidence that their forwards are better, apart from the hookers. In fact I see quite a lot of evidence that our forwards are better than theirs (maybe in smaller numbers though). Mike Cooper, S, G, T Burgess, Ellis, Morley walked into NRL sides and became among the best, and in some cases THE best forwards in their squads without needing much time or super duper NRL coaching.