Thought Owen Trout was superb.

Historically we have always done well against them. Difference is most of their team will go on to do really well in NRL whilst the majority of ours will end up in the championship or on a building site

Unfortunately I agree with you - not just a RL thing as its common in many other sports. Our inability to turn boys into men is shocking.

this was the worst Aussie junior side I've ever seen. nothing about them whatsoever

Well that's not true really.
Historically they have been undefeated. It was years before anyone got a win and NZ was first.

Some get to NRL but not many.

However, I agree we need to make sure ours do. Historically we don't develop our players like they do.

i agree, its also seen in tennis, athletics and football, probably others too. don't know why, coaching? motivation? rewards? too many cheap fix imports?

i heard that the aussie team is not necessarily the cream of their crop, as some others are tied tightly to clubs and are not picked for these tours. not sure how true that is. some of our aussie based friends might know more

Probably a combination but one more factor that isn’t blameless are the fans. They can be very guilty of judging a youngster not good enough when he does make it into the first team when he’s still learning and far from the finished product, whether it be that players own fans or opposition fans. In 2014 Ashton Golding was player of the series against the Aussies and a youngster that actually got given a first team chance at a young age and has faced plenty of criticism from both Leeds and opposition fans because he wasn’t as good as Hardaker.

and what happens if a young player has a bad start is often the coach will panic because it is his job on the line if the team loses, so they go for more experienced players to step in. in the mind of a younger player he might think 'i'm not good enough'

Sometimes yes it’s the coach, sometimes not, sometimes the coach sticks with player even through all the criticism his selection of young player gets.

The Aussie mentality is when they lose, there has to be a reason - any reason.
They don’t mention that they have 10’s of thousands more players to choose from and even pick off the best Kiwis, put them through the school system which makes them eligible. Star To’a being a prime example.
They lost fair and square and England don’t deserve to have their achievements downplayed.