What this weekend has proved is just how far behind the aussies our game is....yes our 2nd and 3rd best teams gave their mid table sides a run, albeit in defeat, but the game between the champions is like SL v Championship in the cup....Saints are absolutely nowhere near Souths, they haven't looked like threatening their line !
We need to stop pretending we're getting closer and embarrassing ourselves. Maybe next year we invite some of their feeder clubs to partake to actually give our top clubs a chance !

Who is pretending? (apart from the circus SKY team) We have always been capable of running the Aussies close in one off games, still are, but there league and top teams in particular are far superior, and it doesn't take a brain surgeon to work out why. it has been the case for the 30 years i have watched the game and will probably still be the case when im long gone. Not point getting down on it.

Saints have been awful though, shouldn't have been a blow out

Don't think anyone needed this weekend to know that.

Sadly Saints are the weakest SL champs for a few years, and it has shown tonight.

Class act Souths though. Miles ahead anything we have got.

What is the difference in salary cap between SL and the NRL?

We are miles behind Souths, but then so was most of the NRL. They are a team of freaks with a genius coach.

£1.65m vs. £3.57m

They will take some stopping.

I liked the look of St George though, Widdop and Benji will work well imo and Mcgregor should be good for them.

I for one feel slightly embarrassed that we are the equivalent of 0-39 behind the Aussie game, I really didn't think it was so far apart, thought Warrington and Wigan would have won anyway.

This is certainly an argument for an increase in the salary cap.

Just paying somebody more money doesn't make them a better player

South will win 2-3 more titles in the next 5-6 years and be up there with parramatta, Canberra and Brisbane sides of 80's and 90's.
Saints will not. They were a poor side tonight and are indeed week champions.

The Roosters and Canterbury will run them close this season

as wilkin said at the end what this series has shown is that if you make silly mistakes the top sides will punish them. in superleague you can get away with making mistakes, in the nrl more often than not you get punished.

on a different point i was disappointed with roby tonight, was easily outplayed by luke. was ok in defence but took a lot of wrong options in attack. hope he's not another one who is found wanting at the very top level. to be fair to him its a difficult game when you are losing the ruck

It's important to remember that Souths are miles ahead of the majority of the NRL teams too, and physically nobody can match them, even their scrum half is massive for FFS.
What has been evident in the games though is how small some of our backs are in comparison, and the ones that can match them physically lack the class to go with it.

I agree with you about Roby but then you have take into account he was playing behind a beaten pack behind the 8 ball with practically everything on his shoulders. A big burden

Be interested to see what the RFL do with this game/series next year. The crowds and interest have been good, and I'm sure SKY will have got good viewing figures, but I'm not sure if the credibility can recover from tonight.

We can gloss over the fact that St George and Brisbane are mid table teams and that Wigan and Warrington ran them close and get away with it, but you can't disguise an 80min drubbing in the game that actually mattered.

Roby is a work horse but his attack is one dimensional, just relies on the quick scoot after quick play the ball. They never got that tonigh so he was ineffective.

I think we tend to convert our physically bigger kids into back-rowers rather than teaching them the skills to make it as a back.

I can't think of many big English backs other than Atkins and Hall.

A couple of sides might get close but I'd be surprised if they don't win it again tbh.

I mean they beat the Bulldiogs 30-6 in their GF so i don't think we should over think this . We know the salary cap difference and generally it's a tougher comp but I wouldn't go as far as saying we're miles behind, although Saints were tonight.

Stick with it.Its been a great weekend despite the flat end.Fans have backed it and the games have been by and large entertaining.
Keep it going imo

To be fair St George and Brisbane were mid table last season. I think they'll comfortably make the 8 this time around.

Agree with all that.

Oh what a joy to watch, well done to The Bunnies

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To all those deluded individuals who think their own team could compete week in, week out, in the NRL, this has to be a wake-up call

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Agree with this.

I said on another thread that, in patches, Wigan, Wire and St Helens all looked capable against their respective opposition. Forget the arguments about preparation, flights, weather, etc - all three teams showed that they could compete to a degree with the NRL sides.

In all three games the SL teams made mistakes that, in all probability, wouldn't be punished. Similarly, Souths today made mistakes that in the NRL, probably would have been punished.

What has let the SL sides down this weekend is the fact that, for about three years, the top sides have had nowhere near the level of week in, week out intensity that the NRL teams experience. We have talked at length in that time about teams being able to coast into the play-offs, play badly and win, and 'peak at the right time'. Teams in Australia are instinctively ruthless, because their competition demands that they are. The Super League doesn't demand the same because, in all likelihood, if you make a mistake, the team you are playing isn't good enough to punish it.

That isn't an issue of salary cap per se, it's an issue of having a competition that doesn't demand the best of its clubs, its an issue of letting the tail wag the dog and its an issue of too many clubs being too badly run for too long. When we have 12+ clubs that can regularly compete, we'll have teams that aren't suddenly shocked when they come up against the best in the world - at both club and international level.

The commentary was almost as embarrassing as St Helens performance. British RL is so bush league.