I personally think the game is just a lot more defensive now and the fear of failure stops creative players from chancing their arm as much.
I watch nrl as much as sl and tho the standard is better, their game is first and foremost about defence and some games are little more then 5 drives and a kick and not great to watch. ( tho some are outstanding open rugby matches)
Unfortunately i think maverick half back play is considered too risky by most coaches in favour of safe get up field power house style rugby.
Dont know if the standard has got as low as some think .
Defo dont buy into the too many games excuse. The better nrl players at good sides prob play almost as many as ours if you include play offs and soo ( and most back up with club games a few days later)

It's rare to find a thread where I agree with nearly every post!


Except for the one about it being all Wigan's fault!



I fully agree that poor showings by Wigan, Saints and Leeds has coloured people's view. There has been some good footy played, if not by the usual suspects.

The abysmal officiating is causing extremely untidy rucks and making the game a complete mess.

Refs are coaching players through games instead of doing their job and using the thing that makes a high pitched noise that they hold in their hand.

If at the start of one season the refs actually applied the laws of the game from the get-go - if they're holding down, use the whistle and give a penalty; if they've got hands on the ball, use the whistle and give a penalty; if they're lying on, use the whistle and give a penalty; if they're turtling, use the whistle and give a penalty; if they're not standing square, use the whistle and give a penalty; if they're flying out of the line, don't shout "hold..HOLD", use the whistle and give a penalty; if players are moving off the mark, use the whistle and give a penalty; if a player is trying to milk a penalty, use the whistle and reverse it for unsoortmanlike behaviour; if they're telling you to " off", use the whistle and give a penalty...etc. and do it every time a player does it - our league would improve. It might be a penalty fest at the start of that season but after a while it would just become second nature not to push the boundaries.

Do not complain to players that they're doing something wrong and come out with "that's the fifth time you've done that and I'm getting sick of it". It's the fifth time, Mr referee, because you've allowed the other four times to go unpunished. APPLY THE RULES! Then when it's ingrained in the players psyche they will not be doing things wrong over and over again because they know they won't get away with it. At present players just push the boundaries willy-nilly and it is making the game a farce at times and simply a mess at others. Five years of the rules being applied properly and our product would be far superior to what we have now.

An example was Hicks today. He told Dixon "that's the fourth time you weren't standing square and I can't let it go anymore" - don't let it go at all you tool! Penalise him the first time and he won't push your weak officiating to see how much he can get away with.

I think that is the number one thing making our sport worse than it should be at present. Refs need to shut their mouths, stop pretending to be a coach on the pitch and simply apply the rules properly at the ruck and our sport would improve ten-fold.


We also need a bit of biff back. The shoulder charge rule is the worst thing I've seen changed in our sport. A fair, body height shoulder charge that isn't late is a joy to watch. By all means penalise shoulder charges that are above neck height, late and/or from behind. But let's bring back the front-on-front two men charging into each other at full pelt, please?!

I mean, everytime the man with the ball runs in he shoulder charges the defenders anyway, so what the difference if the defender shoulder charges [fairly! the attacker? There's no difference that's what!


One other thing is that I think many players are very out of shape. I watch the NRL and some Union (barring the porkers in the front row) and they seem to be far more muscularly developed and cardiovascularly fitter than Super League players on the whole.


Other than that I think the game is great. We have some cracking players in this league, they just need to be given better opportunity to show their quality by the game being properly officiated.

One of the main reasons why it has gone poorer is because our game no longer attract star players from Union as a result of it going fully professional in 1996 and the only players from down under who come to play in the Super League are mainly, with the odd exception, rookies, fringe players and players past their best.

As a result, less crowds and not the same atmosphere like the seasons prior to 1996, and the situation has not been helped by the playing of games in the evenings as unlike Sunday Afternoons, supporters cannot make a day of a fixture. Instead many who work have to rush around to get to a game and have no time to socialise before a game.

Plus now there is more games on Sky TV which has not helped the attendances of evening games. In my opinion there should be only one on a Friday evening.

With the exception of the games on TV, all Football games are played on a Saturday afternoon with a standard 3.00. kick off and our game should be doing likewise by staging all League games with the exception of the TV games on a Sunday afternoon with the same standard 3.00 pm kick off. BBC coverage to be on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and never Friday evening like the recent Hull v Wigan game.

I knew someone would find a reason that the occasionally low skill levels on display were all down to the referees

I would disagree strongly with this, if not only because this isnt a 1 year thing. This isnt the first year that there have been complaints about about the playing standards

The refs should be allowed to apply the rules , simple as , we then might see less substandard coaches just coaching players to constantly cheat

That is the point he is making

Just out of interest compare the ruck and PTB at the matches on TV this weekend , it will all become much clearer

Addional defenders falling onto their own man in an already completed tackle should be penalised every time.

The reason the league is "perceived" as poorer (personally, I think it's been far better these last two years than the previous 6) is IMO down to how far ahead the NRL and union have progressed in comparison to us. We can't afford the best. We can't keep up, so the players we have are subliminally seen as "worse" before we even watch them play.

We need a world professional club rugby approach IMO. The international game is what will increase our interest and it won't develop without the club game producing the players. The money to keep them won't be there either if the league is perceived as second rate.

I don't have the answers, just my two cents.

If you look at both the quality of defence, and attack is the game really poorer overall? Him gets it right, when he says defences are now much tougher, and much more organised. The days are gone where all a HB had to do was throw a dummy, and ghost past the big men, and pass the ball inside for the support player to score under the posts. Even the way teams defend breaks has improved out of sight in the last decade.

Over the last few seasons the amount of injuries seems to increased significantly. Our season is definitely a month too long IMO, but I don't think we'll see a reduction in games anytime soon, as the game simply can't afford it.

As should attempts to milk a penalty, or move off the mark. Watched three games of Nrl and our Ruck is so slow and such a mess in comparison that I might as well be watching RU when I watch super league.

A bit Off topic but the Nrl seems to have gone to the interpretation we had a couple of years ago regarding obstruction. Seen some good tries chalked off and commentators going mental. Shows nothing is perfect.

are defences that much better? We have conceded an average of 32 points over the last 7 World Club challenge/series. We have scored 7.5. The previous 7 we conceded an average of 16.5 and scored 16.25. If we have taken a great leap forward defensively over the last few years, everyone else has taken 4 or 5.

Wigan got 60 put on them by Wakefield, then put 60 on them themselves, within two months Wigan had 60 put on them by wakefield, Wire got 40 against them, Hull 30, and then they put 40 on leeds. In successive weeks Cas scored 46 against Wakefield but had 42 scored past them by Wire. Within a month Cas conceded 58 against Hull KR and scored 52 against Leeds. This doesnt seem to me like a league whereby the balance has tipped in the favour of defence.

You watch say Wigan v Widnes from last week, 6-8 and you arent seeing a defensive masterclass, you arent seeing a speed and technique which is a step above what has gone before, you are seeing unforced errors, two teams who could barely hold on the ball, very little creativity and a bucketload of penalties.