I'm sorry, but what a load of contrived old boll0cks.

Yes, wouldn't it be lovely if every Warrington player had a WA1,2,3,4,5 postcode on their birth certificates, bit it's NEVER going to happen.
We live in a town where RL is played in schools as a second, sometimes THIRD OR FOURTH sport preference for PE teachers. In Wigan and St Helens, it's the be all and end all.
I remember talking to a lad in 2005 who attended Bridgewater High. He was mad keen on RL. One of his mates had the surname Cullen, who played for our academy. His dad played, and was current coach of Warrington Wolves. That school played Rugby ####ing Union. At the time, it didn't recognise league.

We have Rylands, Crosfields, Bank Quay Bulls, Woolston Rovers, etc. Wigan have LOADS of local clubs PLUS schools. Then there's Stl Helens .

Our marketing dept/promotions/schoolwork still have tons of work, to get even close to them.

Re Briers....it was.
Briers can be clearly heared saying to our players as they prepared to exit the tunnel...
"Relax lads and enjoy the game"!
The biggest load of bollox he has ever issued....

When he ought to be saying.
""Get out there, and rip into them."!!!

The one area that Morgan Smith was obviously strong was his passing from dummy half.

I am baffled by this. Passes to 1 foot or more above first receivers head, denies the first receiver the time needed to do anything plus the chance of error.

I would have thought this was the sort of thing that could be nailed in training, surely? It's not a recent thing either.

...nailed when you are a junior?

This shoddy first play and the fact that it's game after game is really unforgivable

What I don't get is how in England it's always presented as a binary choice: either an athlete with limited skill or a creative genius who lacks physical attributes. The Aussies creative players have superb physical attributes as well! Andrew Johns was built like a loose forward and could king hit people in the tackle. He played hooker at international level for a while and was a tackle machine. And yet he had the complete passing and kicking game. Look also at the strength and speed of Thurston, Cronk, Cameron Munster. These guys have bags of talent but they are superb athletes and physically they aren't lacking against anyone.

Also if you watch the NRL you see amazing feats from their outside backs, unlikely catches to keep the ball in the field of play, one handed offloads and blind passes at full pace, kicks in to space on the run. Their outside backs are built like tanks and incredibly fast but they seem to have these freakish ball handling skills as well.