We need to make Yorkshire vs Lancashire the biggest rivalry in UK Rugby league. It needs to become the number one event for fans above Saints vs Wigan or FC vs Rovers or Leeds vs Bradford ect... They can still be big rivalries as they will be but the fans focus should be on the War of the roses series. That needs to be the big event of the fans season, just as the State of Origin is down under.

It's pitting the best against the best and should be what any fan is seeking in entertainment. Why settle for average just because pride tells you that you have to?

With the injuries and suspensions to players these days then your clubs arne't putting out their best team most weeks anyway, so it doesn't matter if your club rugby takes a back seat and doesn't always have it's star players on show because we already have that now. Instead we'll see those star players playing representive games at a better level of rugby than we see now.

Alluding to the title of this thread versus the game this morning with the Roosters v Rabbitohs, No comparison.

That depends what you're comparing. Klien had no control over the game neither. Sounds similar to Friday.

Sadly all 4 finals games this weekend were ahead of anything I’ve seen in SL this year in terms of pace, power, skill and entertainment.

I’m not sure the NRL is a sensible benchmark anymore.

What we have needs to be improved but it should be judged on its own terms, not something that isn’t realistically attainable.

The need is clear and urgent, which should focus minds and hopefully stop the clubs fudging it up. I probably won’t like IMG’s plan, personally - but it has got to be better than more indecisiveness and half measures.

Surely it should be the sensible benchmark though, it’s literally the same sport. We should be learning from them and we can surely learn more from the NRL than soccer, Union and other sports.

Learn what exactly? Hey guys, be one of the most popular sports and then you'll get the lions share of talented athletes, and massive advertising and tv rights money.

You can't undo a century worth of sports culture. Rugby league is popular (the sport of choice) in a few, economically deprived areas of the country. That's not to say the governing body and some clubs do a good job with the marketing and running of the game, they don't. But there are limitations, and the context over there is totally different and not relevant.

Besides, stuff like that isn't the biggest issue at the moment anyway. The product on the field is crap, and the outcomes are predictable.

Association football is the same in Australia as it is in England, but I doubt fans of the A-League worry massively about the quality of the games they watch vs those in the EPL. That’s maybe a slightly extreme example… but only slightly. We can learn without comparing ourselves to the teacher/example.

Well I’ll certainly agree on that last paragraph.

Agree nrl doesn't have football to compete with like we do over here

Nrl should be a lot more popular than it is given its one or the"bigger" sports in aus

The salary cap difference every aussie team should beat every super league by 80 or 90 points

But we all know when the WWC comes around the aussie team will scrape another 6/10 point win !

The Australia's learnt the game from us and now they do the game much better than us. Maybe it's time for us to learn from them now?

It's not a case of their players are born better, we can produce as good talented players as them yet we haven't beaten them in a rugby war for 52 years.

We have a competition platform to play on with Super league just as they do with their league. So where is it going wrong?

Is it grass roots?
Is it coaching?
Is it standard of refereeing?
Is it money?
Is it leadership?
Is it lack of competativeness in games?

It can't be lack of talented players because you look at recent British players that have gone down there to ply their trade. Sam Burgess and James Graham both big stars down their who became captains of their clubs. Gareth Ellis was his clubs player of the season on more than 1 occasion. John Bateman was awarded their competitions back rower of the season. Josh Hodgson was just a decent hooker in Super League, he went down there and people were putting him on the level of best hooker in their competition alongside the immortal Cameron Smith.

5 years ago we played Australia on their home soil in the World Cup final and lost a very tight game by 6 points. There's no way it should be 52 years since we last beat them in a war.

It’s lifestyle and professionalism. The vast minority of nrl players are dedicated, eat and train right. The vast majority of SL players can be found stumbling around with a kebab in their hand on a Saturday night. Especially around Leeds and Wigan