Heritage and Outlook

Quote: Wires71 "I completely agree, but wasn't it always the same in the past? When Sean Long was coming through (for example) there was pro RU, Premiership football, central contract cricket, pro golf, pro athletics and lots of pastimes.

I think the problems in our game are that

1. The top home grown talent now seems to head to the NRL, depleting our domestic game.

2. The development of youngsters seems to focus on physique and power at the expense of guile and skill. Big, athletic and powerful lads at second row, prop are ten-a-penny but how many Longs, Maguires, Robys or Clarks do you see? The relegation of the loose forward in the modern game to that of a 3rd prop only serves to illustrate the point. But this is not the fault of the clubs but of the nature of the modern game. Robots bashing robots for 20 minutes before a fresh robot is brought on meaning more robots are needed than any other position.'"

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.