Agree.

I think we should have England Fakes vs England Shams

Could have a potential matchup between Mace the Ace and Stuart Fielden

I will sponsor the game and provide a box for rlfannies, make it happen.

Yup. I'm all for giving him, Wheeler, Myler and a few others a go in France. In fact, I think it would be ideal. But that's just me.

Its not just you, its me too!

What's really needed is an U21 (or U23) team and let them have an Aussie / NZ Tour.

o.k. we would miss the players for about a month but it would give them great experience and let the selectors look at them in a really competitive environment.

I've also advocated for years that every Superleague Club should form an alliance with an NRL club and each year send a player from the Superleague clubs academy to Australia to a 12 month scholarship (maybe an exchange system would work)

Next step, send our academy coaches over there in a similar manner.
If we want the International game to move forward, then things like this have to be done.

I love this game of ours (I'm not JUST a Wigan fan), but tough decisions need to be made.

Rant over.

Thants a great idea, but would teams give up their players? It could become a condition of franchising.
Another thought i had is England U23's v Full senior squad. I think the result could surprise a few.

The problem with that is what is the incentive for the Aussie clubs? Bar the option of picking up our best then there isn't any really? They won't want to send their youth to play in our substandard reserve competition.

Whilst the idea of sending our young coaches to Australia is understandable, again, what is in it for the Aussies? They don't want to train us up to become competition for them, they're too inwards looking for that. Better that the RFL scour the globe for the best training techniques available, taking in football, american sports, etc. They are at the cutting edge and aren't in direct competiton with us and therefore are far more likely to give us information to improve us. If we keep trying to copy the Aussies we'll [ialways [/ibe a step behind them. We need to take these techniques and teach them to the young coaches coming through in a central academy, even if it's only part time and they then work with clubs week in/week out.

I think part of the problem is that we are [itoo [/ifocussed on what the Aussies are doing at times.

It all depends if we (and the Aussies) want competitive International Rugby League.

Do the players want it?

One of he carrots always dangled by Rugby Union is International Rugby.

If we don't do something, then I fear more 2008 World Cup humiliation is ahead of us, and I want us to beat the Aussies before I type my final PM.

You know they don't.

They are quite happy to tonk us every time they play us and then push their own comp as the highest standard.

What's Clive Woodward doing these days?

I agree with that.

A simple example is how this season our ruck has slowed and wasn't that in response to the wrestling used by the Aussies in the world cup? Instead of doing what I suggested (

) and ignoring the Aussies, the RFL have slowed down the ruck (presumably) in an attempt to compete with the Aussies (bearing in mind this has happened post world cup). Kapow! What's happened with the Aussies? Their executive decision to have two refs (because since when have the Aussies taken a blind bit of notice of anyone else?) has speeded up the ruck. So now we are all out of step with the Aussies again. Had we just ignored the Aussies we would have still had an exciting game to watch and we would now be playing on a more level playing field so far as the ruck is concerned.

I do wish we would respect our own game.

Until we can develop athletes like the Aussies we will have no chance. They have backs who are as strong as our forwards and forwards who are more atheltic and as quick as our backs.

i think hargreaves wouldnt do badly against the french, aussies and kiwis not sure,

however could be worth ago i think people looks straight past him to graham as he over shadows bryn,

but bryn carts the ball up makes good metres, doesnt give pentalties away, i cant remember the last time he made a mistake, never misses tackles, he plays a lot of minutes on the sly,

and a massive plus for bryn is that he always always wins the floor more so imo than graham, he allows roby chance to scoot as his plays the balls are rapid. but i think because we have graham he gets over looked.

if crabtree and fielden are in with a shout then surely bryns up there as well

[url=http://www.superleague.co.uk/statistics_player.php?hs1=2009&hp1=1885&hs2=2009&hp2=2018&stat=tries&season=2009Jammer vs. Bryn: The Comparison.[/url

Thats not a comparison, its a bench mark!

Nurse!

Get the mop.

There's been a spillage!

A very good post, I agree in the most part. His lack of mistakes is something that may be overlooked, but is very relevant if you're comparing him to someone like S. Fielden.

However, while he won't let anyone down, I have the following reservations:
- he can look a bit toothless in the really tough games.
- he's not realistically going to be one of the top 6 british props by the end of the season.
- every club has a Bryn Hargreaves.

But, looking at it from another point of veiw, he's still very young for a prop - what level was Fozzard at when he was his age??

i agree every club does, but would we not need someone as solid as that in the england team who can play anywhere in the pack, whilst you assume morley and graham possibly the starters at prop and peacock at 2nd row,

morley - always guaranteed to give penalties and ageing
graham - winner a club level minutes wise can he do it international level
peacock - fantastic player but no spring chicken
burgess - can he bounce back

so then you look around the grounds for other young ? english props who can compete

personally i think bryn is at the top of a list of props with a ? next to their name

bryn
luke burgess
lynch
crabtree
personally not a fan of coley carvell and thackaray so from list of names there you are going to have to replace peacock and morley in the near future and i think bryn heads the pack, solid will do the job for robes , etc to get a roll on

in my opinion anyway

I don't think you can tar all Aussies with the same brush. Whilst I'm sure there are many who are solely interested in their own competition, there are others - such as Wayne Bennett - who can see the benefits of a vibrant international game.

I agree. Watching the Aus vs NZ test from the week past the one thing that stood out is the sheer athleticism and intensity of their players. Bar Lockyer, every one of their squad looked massive but extremely quick with it, and even Lockyer at what... 32? looked as fit as a fiddle and threw himself into everything.

The intensity and determination shown by the aussies (and kiwis too) for 80 minutes was a joy to watch and for me is where we are so behind on the international stage. That and the fact that the majority of their attacking/creative players would probably cope well in each others positions.

Got to agree with this too, and have said as much since i saw the first NRL game this year. Even though the test last week was played 'to international rules' i.e. one ref, the play of the ball was a hell of a lot faster than during the world cup.

Only thing that doesn't indicate is minutes on the pitch. I'd like to see the difference, but it does clearly show how much work Graham gets through!

But what is the reason? Why cant we produce the same calibre of atheletes? Was watching that four corners docu on the scandals in the NRL and it had the newcastle under 20 squad on it and they looked far older and bigger than their english counterparts. Obviously there are exceptions like Sam Burgess but in the main, we are just light years behind.

They are few and far between in the key positions that matter though.