What three things would you put in place to start the process of catching up?

How do we make that jump from where we are, to where we need to be. What is stopping us producing enough players to win those games?

So what next? What do we do to move forward from this point and not only match, but beat the Aussies?


A couple of things I see, Firstly: Sports Science, the Australians are miles ahead in this, and it seems an obvious way to me, where we can catch up. I think the RFL should have heavy links with our premier sporting universities (like Loughbrough and Leeds Met), working with their sports science departments, but also other sporting establishments like the NFL, UK athletics etc, so that we are at the very forefront of everything that happens here. I would also create a 'department of sports science' whose job it is to go around and learn everything there is to know about every aspect of sports science, from the physical and nutritional to the pyschological and disseminate that information to anybody in RL who wants it. No competition, no secrecy, a tool for everyone to use from the national team and SL coaches to youth coaches and amateur players.

Secondly: Coaching, there is no reason Sam Tomkins cant be the best RL fullback in the world, he has all the natural ability but what he struggles with are the things which should have been drilled into him, and would have been drilled into him in Aus. Nothing highlights this more than Saturday night. Tomkins struggled disastrously with Lockyers kicking, but to be fair to him, how often has he faced kicking of anything like that quality? How is Tomkins supposed to learn how to defend against kicking like that when nobody within 10'000miles can kick a ball like that? How are Tomkins coaches supposed to teach him to defend kicks like that when there isnt a coach in this code, in this country who could kick a ball like that in a month of sundays? Add to that who is Sinfield or Mcguire or Brough, Lomax or Gaskell or any other halves you want to name supposed learn how to kick a ball like that from? Lockyer didnt just appear from nowhere with these skills, he learned them. We need to be providing our young players with the best possible coaches, and we need to improve on two levels, 1) we need more, better coaches at youth level. I dont mean for SL academies, I mean at our amateur clubs. Most people coaching youngsters at amateur level are well meaning parents, and I salute the job they do but it is too easy for them to pick the biggest kids, teach them the basics and let the rest get involved when they can. We need good coaches, teaching kids the basics of passing, of defending set players, of sliding defences, of tackle technique, kicking so that when the big kids hit 14/15/16/17/18/19 and their size starts becoming less of a benefit, then we have kids who already know how to unlock tight defences through passing plays, or intelligent kicking, and we are already passed the give it to the big kid and let him run bit. For that we need more development officers, and more, better coaching courses.
2) we do need better coaches at Academy level, we need specialist skills coaches, We need the very best to be teaching our youngsters. I think the RFL should go out, speak to Alfie Langer, Andrew Johns, Lockyer now he has retired, Renuef, Maninga, Pearce, Elias etc, and get them to come over and work with our young players. It doesnt have to be a full time thing, but get them out on the field with the kids and get them learning the tricks of the trade.

Thats the three i would go for.

What we need are juniors in the NRL development system.

Imagine if aged about 16 Tomkins had gone to the NRL for a couple of years playing lower grade RL.

$1bn TV deal.
Country-wide exposure of the game, with TV companies fighting for coverage.
Compulsory schools curriculum

Further - we need better coaching and a proper infrastructure at school and jr level; from personal experience, I know that there are some utter tools coaching kids up and down the land on a weekly basis, such that many have their enthusiasm for the game sucked out of them, their parents get sick of the amateur dramatics that go with many jr clubs and stop taking them, or the coaching is so flawed that by the time they reach academy age, their game is fundamentally broken.

The 3 things we need to concentrate on are:

Tackle

Pass

Catch

Its not hard - the gap between the 2 continents on the basic skills are immense. If we focus on getting the juniors doing those 3 things as well as the Australians and we stand a chance of competing

Get our forwards to be faster, more skilful and more agile

Reward amateur clubs that produce players that go on to play for England with improved facilities.

No doubt, we are playing catch up from a very early age. Our coaches are at academy level are teaching kids stuff they should already be second nature to them.

But how do we do that? The coaches we have at amateur youth level do it out of kindness after all. The volunteer and step in when very few do.

And how do we do that?

Bill Gates buying a Sky subsciption, loving the game and thinking he can turn it in to a better more worldwide product.

To be fair, I expect that would simply see us replaced as the third best nation by the USA, wouldnt really help us catch up Im afraid. Unless it turns out Bill Gates just really likes white shirts with red crosses on it.

Agreed - perhaps the RFL needs to do more with the resources it has at it's disposal?

A proper partnership with schools and some assistance for junior sides would be a good start, at least to get coaches properly qualified and to provide access to updates on coaching techniques for basic rugby skills; maybe if jr coaches were using consistent benchmarks and methodologies around basic skills, the randomness would be partially removed from a young lads RL development. A national curriculum for jr coaching if you will?

The single biggest issue is the level of high quality pe in primary schools (key stage 1 & 2). The fundamentals (physical literacy skills not sport specific) at this age are criminally over looked with children not reaching their maximum physical potential in the early long term athlete development phase. After this point, you can coach all you like and they'll still never reach that potential.

Sport in this country is always funded through justifying health agendas etc and not for it's own sake. You can't fully address the adult provision and elite provision til this is improved.

The other big one is the number of uneducated parents coaching at junior clubs, of course their time is appreciated unfortunately the quality is very rarely what's needed- like trying to run hook, line and sinkers before the can simply run on to a ball with a good catch.

Agree 100% with you, geting juniors from the age of five upwards to regard sport as natural as breathing is the way we should be pushing, The RFL should be pushing cash into providing propper training for coaches & using government schemes to get thier parents educated to the benafits of sport for thier kids as well as for them selfs. It will be a long slog untill we see any results but it should be persued.

IMO it requires a fundamental shift in thinking from everyone involved in the game from the grass roots up, to regard the elite international level (and producing players for it) as being the most important thing in the sport.

There are always going to be levels below that for those who want to enjoy the game on a social or recreational level, but the thought process in any strategic decisions should be "how will this make the international side better?"

At the moment, the international game is very much an afterthought - see the number of players who put off minor surgery until the end of the club season, thereby ruling themselves out of international consideration every year.

Until the "my club first" mindset is broken at both amateur and professional level, the game in this country will remain stagnant.