England team for 4 Nations

Quote: The Nihilist "The standard of players in the NRL is not falling at all. A lot of positions over the last few years have evolved. Ball playing loose forwards don't exsist anymore in Aus, the stand off role is more of a third centre position now, and back rows are now far more mobile and athletic than they once were. Whatmough is not as good as Hanly was but as modern day 2nd rowers go he's top class.'"

Your comments about Whatmough, help me prove my point. You call Whatmough 'top class' yet he is relatively poor defensively. How can someone be a top class forward and not be able to tackle effectively?

Australia do not have a scrum-half at the moment who would have been a Kangaroo tourist between mid-70s and early noughties. Not a chance. I would also question whether any of the props, centres, second-rowers and hookers would either. If you think this squad stands up to squads, even from the mid-90s...

I think you are on the wrong-track, trying to convince me of how the game has changed. I am not making reference to loose-forwards and stand-offs in todays game. I would take you up on your point though. I watched a fair bit of junior RL in Australia, and you could see that the players lacked creativity with ball in hand. The players can off-load, to an excellent standard too, but there was a real lack of spark, creativity and off-the-cuff play. And these games I watched were in areas in which junior talent is very good - Sutherlandshire and south and east Sydney. However, I will say that all of them were athletes, powerful and could defend.

Why don't the ball-playing loose-fowards exist? IMO it's because they don't have any. I can think of a not so long ago retired loose-forward, who played for the Roosters, that the NRL would love to have in their touring party. He was a ball-player, he was also very mobile and athletic.