oh is that right mr smarty pants??

seems enough of your lot out here after upending their entire lives, leaving home & families etc just to move to the other side of the planet for a little sun & some skin cancer

My point about Kear was more that we can't keep blaming the Australians for not giving us the attention we think we deserve when the European nations simply can't keep up with the standard they are aspiring to. That's nothing to do with the cost of living in Australia.

Kear has (as, have all British coaches) been involved in elite talent development for the best part of 20 years, and yet we still can't build a competitive side - that's a failure of the game in Europe. Our best talent has to go to Australia to earn a fair salary - that's a failure commercially at club level (although I know people prefer to use the RFL as a lightening rod on that one).

We can't keep blaming the Australians for showing no interest in international RL when we're providing no reason for them to take any interest in us. England hasn't won a single fixture against the Aussies in something like 11 years - I can't think of another sport where arguably it's biggest rivalry is so pathetically one-sided.

Well Queensland won 8 consecutive series in the State of Origin games.

But they weren’t all 3-0 series whitewashs. When did Austrailia last lose a game? The best thing to get Austrailians interested in watching international again would be for Australia to get knocked out in the semi final, that would take some of the arrogance out of them.

Well that's the AB's buggered then isn't it

Having watched Australian touring sides since the early 1960s my thoughts are that whilst they have typically been better athletes than their UK equivalents it's changes to the game which have increasingly allowed them to utilise this to their advantage. For example playing on mud patches in the middle of a UK winter played in our favour. The days of contested scrums and lumbering forwards also favoured us. Finally the introduction of multiple high definition cameras has seen the end of the brutal physopath type of forward which was also a great leveller.

Agree silver - international RL exposes gaps in quality far more than RU. The muddy pitches may have gone from RU, but the ability to play a forward oriented game and starve the opposition of possession means a team with relatively poor backs can beat one with much better backs. Can you imagine the All Blacks backs vs any northern hemisphere team at RL? Wouldn't even be close.

The problem is the Kangaroos are that much better than England, but in RL there's no way to hide the gulf in class. Oddly enough I do give us half a chance in this WC, if NZ can turn the Aussies over. They were looking really good until half time vs Tonga, and they genuinely have a chance vs Aus. Whilst on paper NZ are better than England, we don't have the same mental block with them - most of our players have played and beaten them before.

If the "best side" always won then we'd have a very boring sport.......2008 and the Kiwis had no right to win the game but they did.

I'm in Aus right now for the WC and it went pretty well in Perth yesterday, stadium was the right size so that just under 15k was a good crowd. Commentators here think it's all about TV: audiences for this have been strong, but it is at the expense of any midweek games. For us, for instance, this means we move on each time after just one match and wait until the following weekend for the next one.

However, despite the doom and gloom on here, there is one clear, logical reason why the NRL should embrace international RL with a renewed passion: they are in a bitter fight with AFL (Aussie Rules) for sporting dominance. the one thing AFL CANNOT offer is international matches. They used to try some 'hybrid' games against Gaelic football teams but even that was weird. International sport is always the biggest game in town and the NRL could win this fight for good if it encouraged it more.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... -australia

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... -australia

Australia isn't "obsessed by NRL". That makes it sound like it's football in England, which it isn't. I was critical of the Aussies for not selling out the England match, because if they can't sell out WC matches against England and NZ in stadiums that are less than 30000 capacity, then there's something wrong. But I think bashing the Aussies for not falling in love with the tournament itself is just ridiculous. I can understand why overall they rate and like the NRL or SOO more than the World Cup. That doesn't mean they don't want to win the WC or that they won't be interested in the semi final and final. I'm sure those games will have good attendances and good TV viewing figures. Let's be honest, a lot about the WC is contrived. Wales, Scotland and Ireland teams that barely contain anyone who has an accent from any of those countries. They're joke teams and it's no surprise that there's very little interest in watching them or supporting them.

The Kiwis are generally a nation that punch well above their weight in most sports....they're currently handing the Aussies their butts on the Basketball court, they own the bloodyslow cup, they are the #2 ranked RL side, they just held the #10 ranked FIFA side to a goalless draw, they have the americas cup, are pretty good at rowing, rally driving, the world endurance car title including le mans......

as for the Warriors......every comp needs their own version of Warrington. Next year it'll be us......