Poor core skills performed under very little defensive pressure.

Once you look past all the hype, sensationalised presentation, flowery over the top commentary and the studio hyperbole that reaches biblical proportions all provided of course courtesy of the old school boy network and upper class establishment, the actual game itself is terrible.

Scum

This.

In answer to the OP: they were all fairly decent RL players, though none was the best I've seen in their respective positions.

This is a prime example of looking at their game through rugby league eyes, union core skills are not the same as league ones. Rugby league is very reliant on a passing game, Union is reliant on technicality phases. Just look at the scrum which is a very dangerous place in union our rugby league players would suffer from lots of neck and spinal injuries, creating a turnover at the ruck is discipline and technical based, in league we can't even play the ball correctly without a degree of frustration.

Our scrums, interference at the play the ball, time wasting, consistent intensity levels, respect to the referee is now a complete joke in our game.

I think the old school boy network and upper class establishment is well gone, I agree with you with the hype and sensationalism but you can bet the blokes at Red Hall would love to be in that position for our sport. They couldn't even be bothered to retain and direct all that experience from Edwards, Robinson and Faz amongst many others.

Whilst it is our off season and its World Cup Union I,ve watched their game a bit more to understand how their game is played, some games have been a fascinating contest especially amongst the teams I have mentioned in an earlier post. Perhaps you can watch the game with left eye (League) and right eye (Union) and just let the left eye go to sleep for 80 mins.

I'm a Level 3 Rugby League and a Level 2 Rugby Union Coach as well as holding a degree in physical education and a Masters in psychomotor skills acquisition for sport. I feel pretty comfortable with the balance of my views and my ability to judge.

Maybe you should stop assuming that everyone who doesn't conform to your way of thinking is somehow unbalanced or non objective in their views.

I bow to Avenger's expertise here. However, the best thing that could happen is that we now see three skillful, dramatic and exciting internationals between England and NZ, played before before crowds and live on BBC TV. Then we can make some comparisons with what's been seen from the Union code.

This is a rugby league forum so its expected to have this kind of defensive retort. I don't think it will change much to my opinion and viewpoint, probably messrs Edwards, Robinson and Faz have seen it in a similar challenging context. Very much doubt I will watch a live match of Union but it has improved a lot whilst League has lost its intensity and direction.

I very much hope so, our game desperately needs it, hope its an entertaining and "full on" international.

Bit disappointed in Farrell. It seems to be him who actively tries to tempt RL players to Union.
Don't have a problem with Robinson other than his elocution lessons. He shouldn't be ashamed of his roots including his accent.
Don't have a problem with Edwards.

I saw a bit of the 3rd place Union match yesterday and noticed on the ITV coverage they had both Robinson and Gareth Thomas as summarisers. I'm fairly sure they'd both do bits for RL if they were asked and it'd help having a bit of a different mix to the usual Sky or BBC commentary teams which are very northern and very white.

Panface is the only one I actively dislike. He's done nothing but try and poach RL talent since switching. He's also a 5hite coach.

Turncoats!

And what is it with Robinson's accent? What a fraud of an accent, fake posh public school speaking working class Loiner. Yeah right okay Jason!

I absolutely hate Farrell's miserable ing face. Does he have Botox or something? he has that same glum expression on his face constantly and is apparently often trying to get League players to swap codes if you believe what you hear on the grapevine. He can right off!

I have no problem with any of them earning money in RU, but I have a big problem with them poaching RL players. Burgess was a massive loss to our sport, and our national RL team. Farrell can sod off as far as I'm concerned, and Mike Ford too.

Farrell is finished as England RU coach IMO. I do believe his influence was big - you only had to see the negative approach - it harmed back to the days when he captained the weakest British RL team in our history. We had to catch for damage limitation, he's now coaching England RU in the same way despite the fact they are much stronger than their oppositions other than the All Blacks. Shows he has no understanding of coaching. Ford was not a great player, rather a decent one. Farrell and Robinson were very good players in a period of weakness in the sport. None of the three were fit to lace the boots of Adrian Morley or Sam Burgess in RL terms. Those two are the best British produced RL players of the last 25 years by a country mile (although I am a great fan of James Graham who runs them close).

If shaving the rough edges off his accent gets Jason Robinson more media work and enables him to feed his family, why shouldn't he do it?

Bet there are plenty on these forums who have a "phone voice" for when they are speaking to clients at work. This is no different.