Did you actually watch what happened on Saturday night????

The reason why we lost on Saturday is because they have developed a back line to die for. Until the british game has more than 3 centres and wingers we will never compete. I cannot think of one british player who would get close to 1-5 of the aussies and thinking they will come over to develop our youth is deluded.

We have to do it ourselves and stop buying talent - how is Matt Orford comming over going to help us?

That however doesn't detract from my original; comment until we have players who can run, pass, catch amd tackle to a high standard for 80 minutes then we are wasting our time even contemplating bringing overe quality to develop our youth.

Hang on, how are we meant to develop these players then? You want them playing in a lower quality competition with less skilled players and you somehow think they're going to magically get better?

Players like Matt Orford will help our youngsters because they will train together. They will see what they do, how they act, how professional they are, etc. As well as these players offering advice to their team mates to help them develop. This is how we learn and get better. Self-teaching can only get you so far.

If you took out all the imports, we'd be even worse against the Aussies in a few years.
Fill us up with imports, and we'd have no team to play the Aussies.

There needs to be a fine balance, which we are beginning to achieve (as it's difficult to get around employment law). But as usual, people over react and go with the "everything or nothing" type argument, much like the "flatcap vs " type arguments. This isn't either/or. It's this much is too much and this little isn't enough and are they good enough?

Mainly because teams would lose players in the summer months for holidays and such and the fact they would have to have some sort of back to back season to adjust


I know kids upto the age of 11 play during the summer though

I can do all of those things to a good standard but I'll never play International Rugby as long as I've got a hole in my . It's not as easy as all being able to learn the basics. It's the whole sporting culture that needs to change.

edited for accuracy

I would've thought that a summer season would benifit the teams as they'll have more kids available who play (in particular) football in the winter.

What ever some posters say about kids choosing to play football because of the prospect of becoming a multi millionaire proffesional, if a kid gets experience playing two sports, he's likely to stick with whichever one he enjoys more, not the one which pays its proffessionals the most.

Well you could bring it in gradually from after age 11 then if back-to-back seasons were a problem. That way they would always be playing in summer.
Either that, or bring in a short season from August to November, then start the new season in March.

I don't think the holidays thing would be too much of an issue, unless they all go on holiday at once! It's not like kids don't have the odd reason not to play games in winter.

I think the main issues would probably be pitch maintenance (i.e. not playing on concrete-like pitches on really hot days) and adjusting to the heat so kids aren't getting heat exhaustion or sun burn.

I don't think they're saying it's to do with becoming a millionnaire. I think it's more the fame, as well as the media presence. Not to mention they have far more opportunities to go pro/semi-pro than us. All their friends will play it. There are more modified versions of the game easily available at recreational level. Loads and loads of cultural reasons.

There are so many little things we need to work on, which is why it drives me mad when people keep thinking things like County of Origin and banning the overseas players will answer our problems.

Agreed. Rather than banning overseas players we'd potentially be better off trying to find some 'English Heritage' for a couple of NRL players who are really good but realistically never going to play Rep due to being behind the likes of Inglis and Slater.

I'd get Gareth Widdup involved in the England squad ASAP, even if it's only in the 'train on'

Were they comparative levels though RB, or were the Saints lads playing the equivalent of BARLA district sides rather than the academies of NRL clubs? I noticed one of their games was against Balmain for example.

It's similar to the supposed "successes" at Academy level, where GB players with a couple of years experience of being full time at pro clubs were playing against Australians who were effectively still in full-time education.

Good is not good enough...I said consistantly high standard

You are right about the culture thing but as we saw on Saturday night - England got tired and the basics went out of the window. The basics are where it has to start.

Doing the basics will not make you the best in the world. You are ignoring what makes a good performer different from an expert performer.

I’ve played winter rugby league and it put me off for life. I would of taught them Aussie a lesson or two if I was still player rugby league on Saturday!

1 THEY HAVE BETTER CONDTIONS TO PLAY AND TRAIN THATSWHY WE CANT BEAT THEM IT.

i dont know how it works on humberside hutchie but in the yorkshire league kids from ages 6-12 play through the winter months.

this seasons league games started in september and runs through until the weekend before christmas,at that stage each team will have played 14 games,they then return the first week in march and then they play until the end of june by this time they will have played around 30 games.

it is erratic stop and start and imo has a coach it should be played from april until the end of october and then stop,you could have a 2-3 week break during the school hols and then we would start to see an improvment in skills of players.

my kids are at u10s and through the summer we train twice a week mondays and thursdays and play on saturday mornings,from last week we have had to drop it down to just thusdays because its just a waste of time trying to spend time doing the more detailed stuff cos its too wet cold and muddy.

i also feel we need to have some sort of centre of excellence where our top youngsters can go and train with other top class players and coaches so they can feed off one another maybe from the age of around 11-12.