I think it probably would have been Evans, a very good prospect for us and fingers crossed he continues to improve under TS's coaching.

Arguably Davies would walk into the aussie team today, the guy had it all, pace, passing, vision, kicking game and was a decent defender to boot. Could play pretty much anywhere in the backs better than so called 'specialists'..

In 1989, Balmain were pinning their hopes of a finals run through to Grand Final success on their star British import – one Andy Currier. Back then as now, I need to ask the question... if that competition is so outstandingly good, how can average British players star in it?

Completely agree... and further proof that a few months of ‘magic’ coaching in the NRL has not turned him into a better player. He is simply a good rugby league player playing well in a rugby league competition (the same competition that people claim current English international players couldn’t play in!)

Luke George

Currier was the league's joint top points scorer that season. He could kick afterall. 89 GF also had Shaun Edwards in that side.

On the English theme. Canberra's fitness, strength and conditioner was the Englishman, Kelvin Giles.



I still maintain that if the seasons ran at opposite times, we'd have more poms over here like we used to.

I think pretty much all of the England Elite Training squad, plus a fair few of the Knights squad are good enough to start regularly in the NRL for at least one team, should any teams show an interest. The difference is that the talent pool in Oz is bigger and deeper than the talent pool over here so there's no need for Aussies to look over here too often, except to take a punt on the exceptional talents like Graham and Sam Burgess, and even then those two look a cut above the majority of the players they come up against over there. The NRL isn't that much better at the top of the table, as recent WCC games show. The difference is that the teams at the bottom of the pile are ten times better than in SL. There genuinely are no easy games over there and it's both rare and surprising that a team runs up a 50+ score on someone, something that is a pretty regular occurence in Super League these days

There's a gap between the top NRL sides and top SL sides as well. If Leeds were in the NRL we'd get a few wins but we'd also take a hammering or two through a season in part because our top sides aren't used to needing to be anywhere near 100% evey week. There's a huge difference between getting up for a one-off game and doing it for 20+ weeks.

Should point out that Luke Burgess wasn't a star by any means last year. He looked pretty solid in one of the worst teams in the competition. Its also notable that nearly all the players we are talking about are forwards. we have backs with real potential, but the only ones I'd bet money on being able to star today would be Tomkins and Hall.

www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 1unc0.html

www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 1unc0.html

I regularly hear this argument about our teams not playing to the same intensity as the NRL every week and therefore wouldn’t cope with the NRL. While I fully agree that the NRL top to bottom is more competitive than the SL, I’m not sure that it would take teams that long to adapt? Leeds don’t play at the same intensity level every week because they don’t have to, not because they are not capable of it – if they were to play Wigan one week and then Warrington the next, they won’t say “I’m sorry, I can’t play t the same intensity this week as I did last”

Morley, Burgess, Ellis (and I am sure Graham now) have shown that the players can play at this intensity week on week so why can’t we extend this logic to a whole team?

Many Super League coaches rate Briscoe as the finest athlete in the league – he is unbelievably strong for a winger and has a proven scoring record. He is still a bit raw in defence and he needs to work on taking the high ball under pressure but people forget that he is an established international and still only 21. I think he would handle the NRL just fine but I would prefer he stays in the SL... alongside the likes of Charnley, Hall and McGillvary. We are now seeing the best generation of wingers in England since we had the likes of Robinson and Offiah and that can only be good for our game

Hull KR

Briscoe has looked poor and out of his depth everytime he has played against New Zealand and Australia. He seems to be one of those players that doesnt have the skills to be a decent centre nor the speed, acceleration or agility to be a top winger like Hall or the potential to be one like a Charnley or McGilvary. For me he is solid enough at SL level and does a job and thats about it. After watching the NRL the last couple of weeks I certainly couldnt see him successfuly being a winger there.

Id take Briscoe over Charnley every day of the week.

Is this the same Charnley who embarrassed Ryan Hall in Round 2 by scoring a hat-trick past him along with another effort which was incorrectly ruled out?