As a coach, trust me: skill levels are far higher than they have ever been.

What's the relevance of my, or anyone's, coaching methods?

It isn't the method he is querying , it's how you are comparing them to the past he is questioning

Watching the game, or footage of the game from ye olden dayes.

So its your opinion as a ' viewer ' rather than a coach

I am also a RL coach , as I am sure are many others on these boards

As a viewer of ye oldene dayes and a coach and viewer of the modern day.

OK, so we've lost some of the RU legacy skills no longer relevant to the game.
KC would just play another position, in the same way that if he'd gone to RU he wouldn't throw the ball in at lineouts.

The irrelevant skills have been made up many times over by improvements in relevant skills.

I've got to be honest and say that the one skill being lost from the game that I don't lament is scrummaging. Like (I assume) everyone else here I watched the 'classic challenge cup final' replay from 1978 on BBC4 not all that long ago. And my immediate reaction to the scrums in that game were not "Oh man, that's awesome, I wish we had competitive scrums in modern RL", it was "What an absolutely shambolic god-awful mess, I'm glad we don't do that anymore".

I say scrap the scrum. It is useless in my opinion. It is just a way of starting the game up again, this could easily be done with a tap. It is very rare you see a set play from a scrum nowadays as well. Just get rid.

I'd have to agree that the scrum is a joke. Get rid - a complete waste of time.

My view on the game today is that I think the players are a bit too athletic and getting a bit too big. Too much emphasis on strength and conditioning which means I think we end up missing a lot of the smaller and more intelligent players we once used to see. This isn't just a problem in league - the same has happened in yawnion.

One area which I think has been left to rot since the game went to summer is at International level. Is this just a phase or is this a serious decline in the international game? Do any of us still care about beating Australia?

? Tomkins, Burrow, Robinson, Mcguire, Brough, etc?

Do *you* think Keiron Cunningham - at the height of his career - could perform in a contested scrum against a similarly experienced and talented hooker back in the sixties? I don't.



In the modern game it's entirely possible for one player to play - and perform reasonably well - in any position that doesn't exclude his size. Throughout his career I've seen Paul Wellens play full back, wing, centre, second row, scrum half, stand-off and - I think - hooker.

And Wellens is hardly the exception. Just about every club has players who can adapt to four, five or even six positions.

These skills are only "irrelevant" because you are looking at them outside of their context. If we could build a time machine and bring fans of sixties league - who appreciated the intricacies of specialisation, the tactical possibilities etc. - forward are you naive enough to think they'd prostrate themselves in wonder?

This reminds me of arguments I've had with fans new to boxing who think all modern fighters MUST BE light years ahead of their predecessors because they pump iron, eat broccoli and drink protein shakes.