So the way most see it as we don't produce enough quality playmakers ? , but then again when you have clubs lumping all the best players in ' Super ' amateur clubs , you have a situation where these young players don't need to learn how to play under pressure , because they have all the best players already in their teams

It's all well and good saying we need more youngsters playing the game. Unfortunately, have you seen many of the young lads of today ? Many are too weedy and most are too interested in 'virtual sport' via their Playstations than competitive sports. Playing rugby is far too brutal for them.

Over the last 20 years our amateur game has shrunk, and with minimal media coverage as we are the illegitimate code of Rugby according to the 'mass media'. we have a major struggle on our hands.

Compare that with Australia where RL is the major sport in their 'capital' city- Sydney. Lads are queuing up to play RL there, due to the glamour and prestige.Their 'mass media' focuses on RL whereas here we are lucky if any daily newspaper gives us any column inches and as far as TV coverage over here ?

To put it mildly, our TV coverage here in the UK is woeful and always has been.

Intensity and competitiveness are crucial. Look at some of the results in the Valvoline competitions, they're embarrassing. When I was home in the summer I managed to catch a Wigan u18 game against Bradford. It was so one-sided the Wigan players were laughing and joking with each other while the Bradford lads were flat and hardly lifted their heads. As Wigan switched off (another problem with a lack of intensity) Bradford ran in some late tries to make it look a lot closer than it really was. Wigan won 64-34.

Australian forwards are so much more agile, fast and skill-full. They are all around a better attacking team.

We need to drill this into our players at a younger age.

I'm sure in some areas of Australia, juniors play tag until they are 12

they could always try to teach tomkins to catch a high ball

Yeah cos that was what cost us the game!

Initial thoughts.

Half backs aren't good enough.
We make stupid mistakes, at important times, graham offloading after the try, Buchanan passing from dummy half, Ellis knocking on with the line in front of him.
Sinfield is not a half back. I don't watch the nrl, but god knows how widdop makes the team, he's not had much game time, but he's done little in the time he had.
Too many stupid penalties at the play the ball.
Mcbanana has to go, poor team selection, and substitutes. Wilkin was having a belter, he brought Wilkin and graham off with 25 to go (still 8 , I don't see what he's done for us

Were still years behind the Aussies, their centres are bigger than our props. Their props are as fast as our wingers.

Still a pleasure to say you've watched lockyer's last game, but if we had a halve as good as lockyer, we wouldn't see another for 20 years. The Aussies have probably three in the wings..

england needed a leader of men controlling the game, it didnt happen tonight and were punished

sadly, we'll have a inquest for a week or two, calling for a reduction in overseas players, do this and that.. then we'll be thinking about our clubs again, and thinking, i'd rather have a 30 odd year old aussie, instead of a 21 year old rookie..

the fact is, we're not producing enough players, especially pacey back and skillfull halves..

another point, i've seen superleague turn into an absolute borefest for the last five years, slowing the play the ball down, in the hope of "making half backs unlock defences" and it's just not working

We need to play a half back !

I've said it for about the past 10 years but there are too many teams in SL - we don't have enough decent players for 12 or 14 teams which means the majority of game are of low intensity meaning that come international time we get our s kicked when it really matters.

SL 1 - 10 teams
SL 2 - 10 teams.

what we need to do is this...


change the challenge cup so that the SL clubs enter at the round 5 stage instead of round 4....that will free up a "empty weekend" we should also have "empty weekend" for the exiles game.......stick the 2 together and we can have a back to back 2 game series against the exiles...

we should also have the england knights play curtain raiser against france,wales etc..prior to england v exiles games


that would be a start imo

Australia are miles ahead in the key positions of halfback/hooker. No disrespect to Sinfield/Chase, but Lockyer/Thurston plus Smith is way ahead. It won't change when Lockyer leaves either - Cronk/Thurston will soon be just as good. What helps them enormously is the fact that the rest of the team know exactly whet they're doing in attack - running off the ball, making sure the halfbacks always have options. That's the main area where our pack is vastly inferior. Too many of our forwards are happy to trundle the ball and make nice yards, but they simply don't do enough work off the ball in attack.

Defensively the issue is simply too few players facing the kind of skills Australia show with any regularity. When you add in unforced errors, it magnifies faults a lot.

Given that we didn't win or make it close, we need to look at the players that are good enough and build around them. We do have more young outside backs coming through, so hopefully we won't need the likes of Yeaman in the future. Oddly, if Widdop continues to develop, our main problem may be the forwards in the not too distant future.

As somebody else said, league is an unforgiving sport. Qld have dumped on NSW several times recently, and england would not have lost a lot in comparison to some of the poorer Origin teams over the years. We just don't have the class in key positions that Australia has. So whilst I think there are a lot of areas needing work, there is more hope this year than for some time.

Finally, looking at the crowds etc for this tournament, anyone who thinks international RL is not important is an idiot.

One of the main issues with RL in the UK is that we dont provide a good enough career pathway for people to make a conscious decision to try & make a living within the game throughout their working life. Quiet simply we need to creat an environment so that as broad a base as possible of say, kids at u7s think that they could make a career within the game. Too many times we have lost erreplaceable quality & experienced people not only to other sports but to other walks of life. So many Amateur Coaches & Players etc do not even consider trying to make a living within the game, simply because better opportunities lie elsewhere.

One of the most alarming things evident last night imo was the physical difference between the teams. Pretty much every Aussie appeared bigger & stronger than his opponent. I lost count of the number of times Thaiday, Gallen, Yow Yeh etc were able to dominate the initial contact & left one of our guys on the floor.
Tony Williams was fairly quiet last night, but his swatting of Chris Heighington at Wembley was Mal Meninga / Les Dyl all over again. Only injury prevented Jamal Idris & Dave Taylor from playing the 4N. You can probably add Ryan James in a season or two. These guys are monsters compared to anything in SL. Why haven't we got players like this?