No having watched the NRL all season I too wasnt impressed by the Aussies, but lets be honest they get better in tournaments never worse. I didnt see the Tate inclusion coming or possibly Corey parker, but I still maintain this is possibly the best Australian squad ever. Even Luke Lewis was quiet and he is normally a handful when he plays against us.

Expecting big things from Tonga.
The game V Italy on the 10th looms as a final , winner goes through , loser goes home ( only one team can progress from their group ).
The gap in the rugby league world might be closing , I hope it is , we'll see with the big boys versus underdog Samoans today....hopefully Samoa can pull off a special and make it competitive.
Put this way , Italy's win over England was not a random anomaly they are good / will beat anyone not on their game.
If Tonga and one other team are there or thereabouts the international game would go from three teams to five or six.

How good would that be ?

I think its up there but for me the best Australian squad ever was the one that came over in the last World Cup in England in 2000.

The Aussie team that beat us 22-2 in the opener at Twickenham in 2000 was:

Darren Lockyer
Wendell Sailor
Matt Gidley
Ryan Girdler
Mat Rogers
Brad Fittler (c)
Brett Kimmorley
Shane Webcke
Andrew Johns
Robbie Kearns
Gordon Tallis
Bryan Fletcher
Scott Hill

Jason Stevens
Darren Britt
Jason Croker
Adam MacDougall

In their squad not playing that day was:
Trent Barrett
Michael Vella
Craig Gower
Ben Kennedy
Nathan Hindmarsh

I don't know what the state or standing of rugby league is actually in Italy, & obviously most of yesterday's team was made up of NRL Italian extract Aussies ,but judging by the way Italian Union players like to throw the ball about , League should be a very attractive alternative to Italian sports fans. They would also have the French rivalry to produce entertaining matches.

I read a really interesting interview with Italy RL's Chairman/Chief Exec in a magazine a couple of months ago, I will try to dig it out. Essentially it read that in the early 50s (I think) RL was thriving, but with help from the government it was all but killed off to the point of extinction. Sound familiar?

Really sad to think how great the international game could be right now, had it not been for the above and the well publicised demise of French RL, which to me is one of the biggest sporting disgraces of all time. To this day it is still happening in nations where the game is being developed, South Africa has spend years trying to get recognition for the sport and a student tour to somewhere in Africa ( I forget where) was recently blocked by the RU.

All this just shows how important it is that we develop the game internationally.

So Mr Ganson, what you are saying is that RL will be allowed to prosper in a country as long as there is RU approval ? Is that revealing an insecurity among the Union hierarchy to an extent that they feel threatened by what they see as an inferior code which appeals to men in cloth caps ?

I must say though that if we can encourage non heartland spectators to events like this then it could mean that support for RL is better than it appears & we do have a healthy product. One obvious attraction though are price reductions but at least people are interested in going & seeing what the game is all about which can't be a bad thing.

Agree with this to an extent, some of the forwards and three-quarters are good rather than great e.g. Morris, Boyd, Bird, Thaiday, Tamou etc. However on the other hand the spine even with Cronk instead of Lockyer is one of the greatest of all time.

The wingers/centres would look much better with Hayne, Jennings and the injured Hodges in there. The outside backs which took the field yesterday weren't streets ahead of England's like they usually are.

Didn't see the Wales v Italy game but Guerra is usually a second rower for the Sydney Roosters - impressive player though.

Inglis is the best centre in the world by a mile (apart from the semi-retired Jamie Lyon) but perhaps isn't fully-fit coming into this tournament.

put jennings in for tate and hayne for either boyd or morris and then their at their best, but england have a few stronger players to come back and the gap has closed a lot.

On the day yesterday he had the most impact from that position in either game. If he is a second row by trade that is even more imppressive!

If you are interested, I suggest reading the Forbidden Game by Mike Rylance, not a light read but really interesting and well put together.

Union will always be the sport of the establishment, and they will find ways to try and hold back League as they have done since 1895. I have a lot of respect for treizestes across the world standing up for TGG and they deserve all the support we can give them.

On my bucket list Ganson !

Quote: ninearches "On my bucket list Ganson !'" I enjoyed reading this last night- www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 2w8ek.html

Quote: ninearches "On my bucket list Ganson !'" I enjoyed reading this last night- www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 2w8ek.html

Just so you know there isn't much rugby league in Italy... They have around 4 teams in a comp that lasts 2 weeks... basically union players playing for a bit of fun. They rely heavily on aussies and aren't that interested in expanding the game in Italy.. There is a 'rebel' federation in Italy that is developing the game really well though. But unfortunately they are not recognised by the RLEF/RLIF. Unless Italy start trying to develop in their country we will only ever see Australia C playing... If you watched the game you will have seen that no-one was singing the anthem.

They are representing italy, not Italians!