Nobody mentioned the ARU, french rugby union, Burgess' move to Bath or anything to do with other codes.

This is the wrong discussion to be having.

Thanks for that. Care to enlighten us?

Paying SL players more money doesn't solve anything.

Would having the ability to pay James Graham enough to keep him at Saints not have improved Saints?

Increasing the salary cap would be the death of rugby league in the Uk. It nearly killed Wigan off in the 90s. There would only be half a dozen competitive games a season including the play offs. How on earth would that get us closer to the Aussies when teams would coast through most of their games we need more games competitive not less.

We would need 12 billionaires owning the clubs and be able to play at least 10 non Europeans to compete with down under. Why cant people get real and realize we don't have the strength in depth of home talent and skill.

Exactly. Widening the gap even more between the top 4/5 clubs and the rest will only result in less and less competitive intense games which wouldn't help those teams or players when they play the Aussies and would in reality damage our league......yes we might keep a James Graham at Saints or a Sam Tomkins at Wigan but who wants to see them and their respective teams stroll past half the league even more comfortably than what we often still see now. You want to see those players pushed to their best.....not going through the motions of another 40/50 point battering of some lower placed team.

Newsflash

The top 4 or 5 teams already beat the lower sides fairly regularly and comfortably, how many sides have won SL, the only side not to have won it that could are my own side.

Why do we always have to rip everything up and start again after the inevitable lesson dealt out by an Aussie club or international side? these threads pop up every time and it almost becomes laughable reading them. If Saints had scored them couple of tries they should have in the first half and Souths hadn't got the rub of the green on a couple of theirs and the scoreline had finished at say, 26-12 we are all sat here now saying well done Saints, gallant effort against a great team.And,Well ,Warrington should have won and Wigan only lost in overtime so its been a good weekend and we pretty much matched them.

People need to realise that the NRL as a competion is light years ahead of ours and always will be because they have so much more going for them down there. Doing away with the cap, or bringing back Yorks v Lancs or whatever else crazy ideas people come up with won't make a dent.

Its almost like comparing the Football Championship to the premier league. The Championship will never live with the Premier League in regards to Money invested, TV deals, Wages, quality of team, star names etc etc..They are light years apart like us and the NRL but it is a good, competetive competition in its own right and from time to time the championship side can beat a Premier League team.

I agree with those who say invest in the youth and put resources in getting more youngsters participating in the game. That is the way forward but unfortunately there is no quick fix here.

I know and those winning margins would be even larger if they were allowed to spend more and more.

16 years of falling wages and still some pretend it's not enough. Wigan payout less than half of what they did 16 years ago but any change will send them bust. 60% increase in funding this year but no share to the ones actually doing the work.

People seem to have somehow convinced themselves that everything will be ok as long as we don't spend on players. That the money will be diverted to youth development. Yet they don't see that the clubs spending the SC are already the ones spending on youth development only to see that investment go and earn their worth somewhere else. There is no point in pumping money in to creating a limited and valuable resource only to see that resource up and leave to your competitors.

RL is the only sport I have ever seen cheering from the sidelines it's own demise, celebrating its thrift as it gets left behind.

Tough. It's not the players responsibility to subsidise clubs playing at a higher level than they can afford.

*cough* 2006 Hull FC *cough*

We're never going to get near Saints 2006.

Maybe not, but because Hull FC got to the final, Wire are not "the only side not to have won it that could" as stated.