This is quite clearly not true as all the evidence shows that the game is thriving and expanding at the grass roots in the UK

But perhaps more importantly for me – as a Rugby league fan, why do appear to take such pleasure out of this where it to be true?

I am always the first to want to see England beat Australia in test rugby or the WCC but as a Rugby League fan, I am proud of the fact it is such a successful and vibrant sport in your country

I know when a project gets less money each year its not a good result for any sport

Me?
Fed up with England/GB being also rans and killing the game at International level.
Clubs that buy old Aussies or fringe Aussies to cover their lack of Junior development.
England does not build foundations and a handful of prospects that may well be smashed at Test level is a sad Inditement of the game at SL level.

Good job the English Academy team won the last series against the Australian Schoolboys with two comfortable wins then isn’t it. Although I’m not sure how they managed to do it with no junior development in the country – I’ll have to check

Maybe you should check what each team represents and what age each team is also.
Australia has many levels of Juniors from
Schoolboys
AIS
State Juniors
Often Australians play English teams that are 1 or2 years older than themselves.
Apples and Apples is always good.

Show a team of the same level and age and the result and I will agree with you.

You see, this is what frustrates me so much about the Australian attitude

For decades we have been told that the Australian Schoolboys represent the elite of the talent in the Australian and game and when our youngsters were getting hammered year on year it was proof that we were miles behind in player development and it was indicative of the lack of talent and structure in the UK

Now that our elite juniors beat the Australian Schoolboys comfortably in a series, the story changes to “we have many levels of juniors blah blah fecking blah”

You got beat

Our junior players are better than yours

Live with it

You may not realise this but there is Australian Schoolboys and there is AIS etc.
Your Junior players are hardly ever if ever better than Australians.
Name the teams and the ages of each team they played and what they won?
Are you claiming a University team or Police cadet team won something?
British teams have won some games in recent times, hardly been dominant though.

Yes, I do realise that there is the AIS and the Australian Schoolboys. I have seen them both play

The AIS play against the England Academy under 17 team

The Australian Schoolboys play the England Academy under 18’s team – both teams are under 18’s and both represent the elite level of junior talent in each country

Argue all you want but the Aussie schoolboys are your elite junior team and they lost the series 2-0 against our team

In that case you will be winning the Four Nations in a couple of years time.




As If.....................

Dunbar,

Australian Schoolboys does not represent the best junior players in Australia.

Well why the hell are they representing Australia then??? Do you feel sorry for some so put them in a national team?

Because it is players taken from Australian Schools, the England Academy team is the Elite standard for that age group all the players are with a SL club and 4 of the last team that played have SL experience.

So who [idoes[/i represent the Australian elite?

So thats a no then.

Strange how I find it difficult to believe a word you say isn’t it

Here is the Australian Schoolboys team of the century... not a bad side is it

1. Tim Brasher
2. Andrew Ettinghausen
3. Mark Gasnier
4. Justin Hodges
5. Greg Inglis
6. Brad Fittler
7. Greg Alexander
8. Craig Young
9. Danny Buderus
10. Les Boyd
11. Steve Menzies
12. Paul Sironen
13. Bradley Clyde
14. Tonie Carroll
15. Ian Schubert
16. Matthew Gidley
17. Brent Tate

Other names of note. Trent Barrett, Greg Bird, Phil Blake, Darius Boyd, Nathan Cayless, Matt Cooper, Jason Croker, Ben Elias, David Farleigh, Andrew Farrah, Brett Finch

I stopped going through the alphabetic list as the F’s because it’s quite clear that you are wrong and I’ve wasted enough time on this