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

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.

There seems to be a lack of good halfbacks in the league and its popular to play potentially good halfs at fullback. I also think the wrestle around the ruck is ruining the game and the officials are incapable of refereeing it. Hicks was shocking in the game this weekend. He gave penalties with absolutely no consistency. We're also starting to see superleague players diving to win penalties from incompetent referees. Get rid of the dominant tackles and have a consistant time allowed in the tackle

Rucks in RU are getting a lot quicker where rucks in Superleague are getting slower, if the trend continues we won't see much time difference between the 2 codes.
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We are also getting players from the attacking side joining in with the player with the ball to get a shove on to gain more metres, The referee has near enough lost all control in the ruck area, we quite often see 4 defenders and 2 attackers in the ruck area, the ball comes loose and it becomes a lottery whether its a strip, loose carry with quite a few "backward knock ons".

I think the main reason SL is light years behind the NRL is the lack of players in motion off the ball. I'm a now and then SL viewer, and watch nearly every NRL game. Now when I make the effort to stay up late / get up early and watch the SL - I can't get over how much slower everything in attack looks. So static at times.

I think SOL said it in his post-game interview after Wigan were thumped by Brisbane (who TBF started 2016 on fire) - something along the lines of: "They didn't do anything we haven't seen before, they just did it really well.". Brisbane were still in pre-season and playing in a British winter. Says it all for me.

Agree...I almost never watch union currently but did tune into a NZ club game on Sunday. I remember the bad old days of rucks and mauls in union but in this game as soon as the attacker hit the floor the ball was released to be picked up by a team mate and the attack continued almost instantly. Quite frankly it put our ruck and PTB to shame. We need a re think here. In fact I believe historicaly league never really solved the conversion from the RU / NU ruck to the Playing of the ball with the foot. The whole area of the PTB needs a re think, as does the awful "scrums" that blight our game.

The NRL is a hell of a lot more physical than SL as well. Hardaker, supposedly a strong defender looks as weak as water in defence for the Panthers. It took almost all year for Joe Burgess to be anything other than a liability returning kicks as well - and he's physically easily big enough.

One thing I don't think we give enough credit for though is that almost despite itself SL is producing good players. Not in enough quantities, but we seem capable of producing forwards and outside backs who are pretty good. When we look back at the supposed glory days its amazing just how reliant we were as a sport on union converts (particularly Wales) for so many of our best players. The loss of that source plus losses to union and NRL and a decline in NRL backs going to SL was always going to cause a fall in standards - I guess the only question is whether its a permanent fall or whether we can eventually produce enough quality youngsters to bring standards back up.

Oddly enough I do think we can produce enough quality kids, certainly on a numbers basis. Where we fail miserably though is in the creative positions. Right now Josh Hodgson is easily the best England-qualified halfback, and he doesn't even play there.

Oh, and I think the standard of SL coaches is dire. Which doesn't help.

Hi Smokey,

Which of our best players have we lost to RU and does anyone have a list of SL players who've moved to the NRL?