Do you seriously think that if Rugby league became our national sport, we'd struggle against Aussies as much as we do?

Look at Rugby Union. Whilst not very good atm, England still manage to turn over the Aussies quite often e.g. the last two world cups.

p.s. Burgess is a good as anything the Aussies produce in the forwards.

It has everything to do with it.

In every group of people there are the real freakish athletes. People like Ryan Giggs, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Linford Christie, etc... People born with true speed, balance, spacial awareness and the ability to see a game like football or rugby differently to the rest of us.

At the moment British RL is in no shape to attracted the majority of those players to our sport. I'm willing to bet that there's no region, town or city in which RL is the most popular sport in the UK.

By contrast, at least in the Sydney area and parts of Queensland RL is the major sport and they attracted the freak athletes. Hence why players like Lockyer and Billy Slater play RL. I'm willing to bet that if they'd been born in England they would have been drawn to the round ball game.

How can the environment in which young players develop their skill aquisition have nothing to do with the quality of skill they produce?
They are better players because their skills are better!

These two statements totally contradict each other!

I think smith made a mistake picking tomkins and eastmond as the halfbacks last week and this week.

We got away with it last week as sinfield was running the show and moving us round the field from dummy half.

Eastmond for me should have been centre or on bench as we needed a scrumhalf that can direct the team round pitch and also have good kicking game.

I just feel they wasn't ready YET to be our halfbacks but who else do we play as myler IMO ain't ready just yet either.

IMO brough may have done a good job with the direction and kicking game but is he good enough?

I'm sure eastmond and tomkins over next few years will be a killer halfback pairing.

Looking around the internet:

Registered players in Uk

Around 40,000 (200icon_cool.gif

Registered players in Australia

Around 172,000 (200icon_cool.gif

Surely the statistic alone tells you why we struggle.

Football is by far biggest sport in England and prob the world but England football team can't produce a team good enough either.

In oz rugby union is as big as league and so is aussie rules yet they still produce the best rugby league players in the world.

I would say Brough is good enough, if he was at Saints or Leeds he would be hailed as the best 7 we have in this country. The fact that he plays for his home town club in Wakey means he doesnt quite get the recognition he deserves.

You dont see Australia throwing 2 kids in at half back, you can get away with doing that on the wing but in such key positions you need a more steady player and i think Brough would have been a better option.

Eastmond and Tomkins are going to be fantastic but not just yet at international level.

In football though, England don't have the most players available. That falls to the likes of Brasil, shockingly the best team in the world.

I don't see your point about Union, though i don't think you have one.

We could debate all night but it all boils down to we just can't compete for 80 mins against these convicts.

I enjoyed the game and the scoreline was'nt a fair reflection.

We gave it a good go for 60 mins but the way they picked up the pace on the lead up to the 2nd morris try was frightening...they are just too clinical.

Close to the tryline we try moves more in hope,where there's appear to have been practiced to perfection.

There has been good points posted about how the international side can improve,i'll add that the overseas quota is cut to 4...and that includes kolpak,european passport holders,parent/grandparent etc in that. Gives more english players oppotunities in s.l

I think going a little bit over the top the game changed when a player was knock clean out and took the sting right out the game i dont even think that the Ausies are that good apart from Inglis which makes a 1 man team will we ever catch yes just a matter of time but it defo time.

The game changed a good 5 mins before that.

My point is that Aussie rugby also has to compete with union for players.

Is rugby league the number 1 sport in oz? I'm only asking as I don't know.

Football is our national sport and we have thousands and thousands of young kids playing football all over the country yet we can't compete in big comps like world cup and euros with smaller countrys.


Don't get your point about Brasil? I don't think you have one!

It is the biggest game in NSW and QLD (well over half the national population), nothing comes close. I know it might be hard for Ingerlanders to understand but soccer isn't the most popular sport _anywhere_ in our great nation. Ditto Union. It's either RL or AFL.