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.

This cry has been heard since 1982 and..................................

I will Orbit the moon from a standing jump and become Pope before that argument has any more merit!!.


Take the blinkers off for crying out loud.


Signing Orford and his like is DEAD MONEY to the game in this country can't you see that?

But he is better than anyone else who was available to Bradford. With their poor season this year you can't blame them for wanting a quick fix. It should be up to the RFL to sort out the problem and not the clubs.

Err it's the clubs that run the RFL!!!!

Yes, bar one. Cronulla's was a development squad which is to see who will play in the U18s SG Ball comp next year. The others were the exact Sydney equivalents.

As for Balmain. Balmain still play in every grade except for U20s and first grade NRL (which they now play as Wests Tigers). They still supply players into the NRL in the same way that Wests, Norths and Newtown do to this day.

Please don't presume because we beat Australian teams they couldn't possibly have been the real team to play against. Saints even beat Penrith, the largest junior dev area in Australia.

Because at youth age, us and the aussies are physically similar. But then the aussie backs grow up whilst ours remain 5"8, 13 and a half stone and with sparrow legs

The key 'missing link' - apart from the pure issue of numbers of juniors and finding genuine athletes - seems to be in turning our best 16-17 year olds into star players. The gap between Academy and SL is huge and it shows when you get kids into the first team that can't do the most basic things.

How many new young centres do you see that seem to know how to put their winger into space? How many young halfbacks have good all-round kicking and passing games? From what I've seen most young centres seem to be basically clueless in terms of setting up play, and we have halfbacks that are 'one trick' ponies without a rounded skill set - that's my worry about the future development of both Tomkins and Eastmond for example, that they have the same basic flaws they do now in 3/4 years.

Without those basic skills for their positions they wouldn't get many chances in the NRL.

Sending these kids to Australia for a year at 17 to refine their skills would make a world of difference IMO.

Re the argument about the best Aussies coming over. Playing with and against the very best will undoubtedly help everyone. What p*sses me off is the idea that young players can learn by simply watching and training with class players. That has been and always will be absolute rubbish. If watching was all that was required or 'seeing how professional' someone is then buy a subscription to watch the NRL, and at every club there will be absolute pros in the training department - I suspect there wouldn't be many better role models in terms of training than Sinfield and Peacock at Leeds for example.

Here lies part of the problem. You can't stretch our players on a torture rack, but when I cast my mind back to playing at junior level, the coach used to shout at his son for constantly doing what we know today as 'GUN SCULPTING'. Whilst completely ignoring the rest of his players.

So when people mention on here about grass roots rugby maybe the coaches out there should look around and see what their players are doing. Teach the younger lads how to squat, clean and snatch, all the things that will make a strong athlete/rugby player. There are courses out there if you don't understand what I'm talking about. England athletics do some very good courses.