Is it time for change starting with youth rugby from the very bottom???

Surely we could improve the skills of our youngsters by movin gthere playing season to summer as well, having coached myself at youth level and whilst some clubs have the facilites and money to train indoors through the winter months many dont

And trying to keep young lads concentration levels up whilst there stood there shivering and freezing isn't ideal, on top of parents when its cold wet miserable nights and there having to take them to training hardly make you want to come in from work and jump and take your lads to training does it

As opposed to the aussies who have far better weather, facillties and alot more funding towards nuturing there young talent than we do???

We also do we need to use the Sculthorpes,Schofield, and some ex players to help nuture this young talent coming through

totally agree.as a coach can you tell me why the move to summer has not happened.it seems like common sense to me.or is that the reason why?

Dont know tbh, maybe something to do with BARLA rather than the RFL, but surely as young kids starting out playing the game and learning the basics its far easy to be able to catch and pass a dry ball than a wet ball, slippery and full of mud

I Know this isn't the answer but for me would help improve the skills of youngsters from an early age

BARLA should play in Summer. Seems pointless to be playing in the rain, wind, sleet and cold on dire pitches in winter.

They need to stop our game being so forwards dominated though in my view.

i was at a forum and paul cullen said much the same thing.also,we might get a few kids down who usually play football in winter.if,as professionals they are going to be playing in summer,then surely they start off as juniors playing in the summer

To get closer to the aussies we need to do a couple of things...

RUN

PASS

CATCH

TACKLE

simple really - untill we have evry youngster capable of doing that consistantly to a high standard we will NEVER catch them. it will be a long time before our 1-7 is fit to lace the boots of those we saw last night in the Australian shirts.

Agree with that forwards we have no problem producing, but gone are the Schofields,Tony Mylers,Jason Robinsons,Joe Lydons of this world we are really struggling to be able to produce something out of nothing, the bit of brilliance that can turn a game on its head

Not knocking Tompkins,Eastwood,Mylers coming through who will all be very good players in there own right but who out of them have them have the ability to unlock defences with with ball in hand and put people through gaps on a regular basis with a defence splitting pass


To me all 3 are indivicual players rather than domanating players imo

agree seems a long way off before we are going to be able to produce a backline capable of ever toppling the aussies

But running,catching,passing,and tackling would be far easy to improve and devolp with a bit of sun on your back than in rain,sleet and snow imo

And also make it more enjoyable for the kids are parents alike

Agree completely with the last bit. But how do we make it less forwards dominated? Are there any quick rule changes we can make to put more emphasis on creative attacking play?

I personally feel we should be using up our overseas quota spots and our salary cap money on world class backs rather than forwards. If they come over, not only will they make our game more appealing, but they'll show our youngsters how to attack and if they're playing in the team they'll be helping to coach the british kids.

This off season has seen some really world class players come over, so we can definitely attract the right quality. The players in the world class bracket though are mainly forwards. Players like Soliola, Eastwood, Fitzgibbon and Dallas Johnson are all quality. Out of the backs that SL clubs have signed how many would you rate as world class, or international level? It's just making it more important to focus on a strong pack to try and stop them though.

Are the rumours true about Andrew Johns coming over to help coach at Warrington in the off season? That's the kind of thing we need. Get the worlds best players in whatever position passing on their tips to our youngsters.

How about the RFL centrally hire top quality specialist coaches such as kicking coaches, sprint coaches, weights coaches etc and get them to work with England, underage representative teams and SL clubs to increase overall standards.

Australian clubs have coaches for everything and you can see the results. Many clubs in England dont employ specialist coaches, either because they cant afford to or see it as not being cost effective for someone that may only do a couple of sessions a week. Most make do with just an all round conditioner who may not even be that well qualified and doesnt have a clue when it comes to specific areas like sprinting. I know Super League players that have taken it upon themselves to go to athletics clubs to be taught how to run correctly to gain speed. This is pathetic for a full time professional sport. If the RFL employ people centrally it makes this more cost effective whilst increasing overall standards.

And therein lies the problem.

Couldn't agree more with a switch to summer rugby. At school it was union in the winter, cricket in the summer. If there'd been another form of rugby available through the summer months I (and a load more union schoolboys) would have biten my hand off to play.

Did you actually read my post before commenting? I never said fill our teams with overseas players. I don't mind if we only have 1 overseas spot available for the whole squad.

The point I made was, don't use the [iavailable[/i spots that we have, for forwards when we already have quality British forwards in the game. If we do decide to get an Aussie or Kiwi playing over here it should be a world class back, that will help to improve our young players in similar positions, by passing on their experience and any tips they have.

Do you seriously think that having no Australian or New Zealand players in our teams at all will improve our game? We need to play against the best players we can week in week out, and learn from the best as well.



This seems like a great idea. How would you run it though? Have like an "elite England squad" or something that meet up regularly, including the top talent from reserve squads and the schools reps?

Or do you mean the RFL hire coaches to work with clubs all the time? So they effectively pay their wages, or a proportion of their wages to help make sure all clubs have a similar coaching structure?

I hear what people back home are saying. But I think people should come here and see what clubs do before commenting. I can't help but notice that over there people have the misconception about how things are done over here.


One more thing to think about.

St Helens just had an U18s come over here and beat all bar one of their australian opponents.

WHY?

The RFL needs to keep more money from the TV deal and invest it in youth set ups. If clubs can pay ageing players $500k plus a year they clearly have too much money!