I see the pie eaters are chuffed he's gone, the bitterness on there forum to all things Wire is laughable, and apparantley now, no Wire players will be in the international set up again.

Yep true, when the camera panned into the crowd last night and it showed you the players who the Aussies had in reserve, Cooper Cronk and a few other top players, it shows you how far we are behind.

I'm not sure if we are light years behind. Rugby League is a game that at the very top level punishes every single lapse in concentration and that's what happened last night.

If you go back to 1982 and 1986 then that was when the British game was truly light years behind. After 50 minutes of the game last night I thought England has a very real chance of winning that game. One single individual error at the play the ball and six tackles later the Aussies are scoring at the other end of the park. A couple of minutes later and a momemt of individual brilliance took the game away from England. I was then disappointed that England then fell away and into what I consider the "traditional northern hemisphere game" of going off-script with short kick-offs etc.

The difference was when they had a chance the Aussies played at 110 mph. As a team they were able to step-up a gear and throttle the life out of the opposition. That is what the NRL conditions them into being able to do. Encourage British players to follow the lead of Morley, Ellis and Burgess and test themselves and challenge themselves to raise their games. The more that do it the better our chances will be to match the Aussies at international level.


As an aside I can't follow the logic of more English players in Super League sides will raise the standard of the international team. Surely the best 17 will still be the best 17. All the restrictions will do will dumb down Super League further in comparison with the NRL and make the northern hemisphere more insular just as it was pre-1982.

Anyway I enjoyed the game last night for waht it was an opportunity to see the Greatest Game being played by its greatest exponents.

] I know what you'r saying, and in general terms I agree with muh you have posted. However how will the top eschelon of players going to the NRL make our own competition better? Surely that will 'dumb down' the competition in exactly the same way as you feel the restriction on foreign players would? Also, who do you suggest should go? Would you be happy to lose all your best young players (Myler for example would come into your list of players who should go) and watch an inferior product week in, week out just so we can compete better in 1 or 2 games a year at International level?

The truth is, it's one of Australia's major sports and in Britain it's stil a minority sport. The only way to readdress this is to grow at grass roots level. It was interesting to read the piece the other day about RL becoming the top sport in several schools in the South. This is the way forward. There is no 'quick fix' and, perhaps, we shouldn't even be looking for one. Let's not forget that NZ became World Champions without ever being, in real terms, 'better' than the Aussies. The best players don't always win the trophies. If they did, Brazil would win the football WC every year and, of course this doesn't happen. The answer, short term at least, is to work out how we can become a better team than the aussies and maybe a good place to start would be by playing more games, have more training sessions etc as a team rather than always going into these tournaments on the back of a week together at the end of the season and 1 half hearted warm up game. This is something for the RFL to sort out but my feeling is, as ever, they'll wait till next year without putting anything into place and we'll be back here again in 12 months time wondering 'where we went wrong! " I know what you'r saying, and in general terms I agree with muh you have posted. However how will the top eschelon of players going to the NRL make our own competition better? Surely that will 'dumb down' the competition in exactly the same way as you feel the restriction on foreign players would? Also, who do you suggest should go? Would you be happy to lose all your best young players (Myler for example would come into your list of players who should go) and watch an inferior product week in, week out just so we can compete better in 1 or 2 games a year at International level?

The truth is, it's one of Australia's major sports and in Britain it's stil a minority sport. The only way to readdress this is to grow at grass roots level. It was interesting to read the piece the other day about RL becoming the top sport in several schools in the South. This is the way forward. There is no 'quick fix' and, perhaps, we shouldn't even be looking for one. Let's not forget that NZ became World Champions without ever being, in real terms, 'better' than the Aussies. The best players don't always win the trophies. If they did, Brazil would win the football WC every year and, of course this doesn't happen. The answer, short term at least, is to work out how we can become a better team than the aussies and maybe a good place to start would be by playing more games, have more training sessions etc as a team rather than always going into these tournaments on the back of a week together at the end of the season and 1 half hearted warm up game. This is something for the RFL to sort out but my feeling is, as ever, they'll wait till next year without putting anything into place and we'll be back here again in 12 months time wondering 'where we went wrong!

I never said it would. The question was how to compete at international level.

The question of how to raise the level of Super League to that of the NRL is a whole different puzzle that is probably more difficult to achieve if its to be done hand-in-hand with the levelling out at international level.

Good news for England fans then!

yes.. we can recall gleeson cant we might as well call back wellens pryce burrow gardner senior long harris deacon... list goes on and on.

bridge has had a great year for wire and deserved is place regardless he plays for us.

Sorry, I probably didn't phrase that correctly. What I meant to say was that, given you think that 'dumbing down our own comp' would harm us at International level, don't you think that the sending our best players across to the NRL would have the same impact? We may end up with a couple of 'better' players, but as the overall standard of the SL would by definition be worse, the strength in depth would be compromised irrepairably. In other words we'd end up with a couple of decent players and a sea of dross.

At the risk of doubting the honesty of that post, can you name me a single 'pie' who considers Fielden or Coley to be international class, or think that Mossop is ready (not having made a first team shirt his own this season) or that Joel Tomkins had a good enough season last year to merit an England call-up? I'd love to have a discussion with these imaginary 'pies' of yours.

Touche! If that's the case I apologise. Couldn't supply me with the link by any chance...there's a thread I'd like to put my two cents on!

Edit: Just been back on the Wigan board and I still can't find it. Wouldn't mind that link if you will.