Well said.

People back home believe that the aussies have far superior coaching, training, conditioning etc. etc. Which is an absolute myth. Yet people will argue the case despite the fact that they haven't been coached or trained in Oz at an aussie club. We have to have a reason for why we lose series, not tests, and the answer they come up with is "they must have better etc. etc."

If only we realised that a lot more people play it in Oz and the numbers of gifted players is far greater. They get 17 players on a park that can beat our 17 more than we have them since 1970. The aussies have a lot more to choose from.

Then we can drop the "aussies are superior" nonsense and believe we can win.

On a positive note, remember Australia hasn't beaten GB in Sydney for a decade now.

I wouldn't want to distract him from curing cancer and ending world peace, we have to put Schofield pbuh above the mere good of our game.

I think at a SL level the back room facilities are not significantly different to the NRL, with a first grade squad there are only so many physios, dieticians and strength coaches you actually need, and whether the club has it's own gym or uses subscriptions to a private health club the access to equipment and professional trainers is not going to be materially different, so money really can only buy so much in that respect. Where the difference comes in is at the lower levels of the game, where the investment in equipment, facilities and coaching is missing, and that feeds through. Unless picked up by a SL club youth set-up at an early stage it is unlikely a player will progress to first grade, and we don't have a wide enough base of grass roots clubs with excellent coaching facilities to prime the pump.

Spot on. Sadly, at lower level, much of the coaching is rubbish.

Alan Tait - not in the same class as Hamson or Chris Bibb
John Devereaux - very naive - reponsible for Oz winning at Wembley in '92 when Renouf made him look like a monkey
David Bishop
I'll give you Scott Gibbs and Davies - both excellent converts, Davies possibly the best I've seen since Lewis Jones. Offiah was quick. Once he stopped being quick his career was over.

Better than both for me. You can make an argument for Hampson but he was just good under a high ball. Tait was a better attacker, runner and defender than Hampson. On Bibb, I'll have to pass on that because I don't remember him doing anything that stuck in my, admittedly woeful, memory.

Its not just the union imports its the players we've lost to union.

You're probably right with the amount of money in the game at lower levels.

But exactly the same applies to a kid if they aren't picked up by an NRL club. The junior rep comp for example in NSW would start at Harold Matts (U16s), though all sides have development squads looking for good players. Before that there are clubs that have juniors. And of those clubs, more and more are disappearing.

One more thing to consider is that with kids, I've seen St Helens come over here twice and beat their NRL counterparts. So maybe the perceived problem is after that.

We've had countless australian coaches go to the UK. Do people really think no-one learnt anything from them if they were so special and different?

/has

I'm not saying Tait wasn't a good attacking fullback - but then so was Chris Bibb - but he was very suspect defensively. He didn't seem to know how to use the touchline as an extra defender -this was badly shown up by Offiah's try at Wembley in 1993 -Offiah was fast but Tait should have at least been in a position to tackle him - he wasn't. I saw Bibb play quite a lot - as a Fev fan I admit I'm biased. But he kept us in games against the top sides in the late 80's by his sheer defensive positional abilities. Devereaux was as you say "ok" but not in the same class as say Henderson Gill, or Robinson say.
Union imports had their place in RL international sides, and there were some good ones - not mentioned - but the core of a top RL side had/has to of solid RL pedigree or they'll never really win anything. Look at the Salford side of the seventies, stuffed full of Union talent. Maurice Richards, Mike Coulman, David Watkins, Keith Fielding, and what did they actually win in the end? Same sould be said of the80's/90's Leeds sides. packed with big name Union players Gallagher, Young, Fallon - what did they win?