the GB students have beaten their aussie counterparts to win the student ashes.....we drew the 1st test and won tests 2 & 3....


from the reports i've read the australian university side had never lost a test at home...let alone a series


SO WELL DONE GB......massive results

Excellent. Good to hear.

Fantastic to hear.

Thats good news, a great result

That is magnificent.

Brilliant! Well done lads, any team to stuff the ockers in their backyard deserves massive congratulations!





[url=http://www.walesrugbyleague.co.uk/article/clive-griffiths-welsh-lads-help.htmlReport from Wales Rugby League.[/url

This is a superb result

I remember going to see the GB students play the Aussies at home probably about 10 years ago (maybe more) and the Australian side were miles ahead – in fact the score ended up 30 or 40 points in their favour and it looked easy

Now, we go over there and win a 3 test series 2-0... it really is a great result

Many people cite the numbers of players in Australia as a reason why we cannot match them and yet now we have beaten them at Academy and Student level in the last 12 months and I’m pretty sure their playing numbers will be greater than ours in both cases

I hope the lads celebrate long and hard

Great result.

which starts to justify the approach taken through talent pathways etc. brought in by the RFL. They take time to produce results and need sticking with.

Two Skolars players in the team: John Paxton and Michael Sykes, who the Aussies thought was man of the series. Good work all round.

There are far far far more players playing at university level in GB than in Australia.

Is that right, I wasn’t aware

Do you have any actual playing numbers I can refer to as ‘far far far more’ is a little too abstract for me?

I would imagine there are far far far more universities in GB than in Australia.

I would be absolutely astounded if the average number of participants was higher in the UK.

im currently looking for figures..........it appears both have really good setups though

"over 100 colleges & universities" in the uk have teams apparently

can i just say though........it's not about quantity...it's quality that matters


NZ has far less playing numbers than australia & england........has'nt stopped them becoming 4nations & world champions...


#justsayin

This argument keeps coming up about playing numbers and how England/GB needs to have greater number of players to compete. You have more than enough players to beat Australia consistently. Look at the number of fully professional clubs you have (NZ has just 1), most have academies and SL will soon have the benefit of the world class Widnes academy.

The real problem is the poor standard of coaching. Watch any SL game you will see countless instances of players lack of confidence in their own ability to execute basic skills.

But most coaches in SL are.........


Well done GB students. Absolutely love it.

Well, there's only five unis that play in the Brisbane comp (UQ, QUT, Griffith, USQ and maybe ACU) and only five in the first grade comp in Sydney. There is a second grade comp in NSW that has a few extra unis in it. But overall there would be little more than 20 university teams in all of Australia that play regular competition. A couple of regional unis get a game or two here and there. My uni only has union teams, although they used to have inter-college league tournaments within the uni and have entered sevens teams in the Uni Games. There have been 3 players that I know of that have played for Australia over the last 10 or 11 years but to do so they have to go and combine with players from other unis at the Qld trials. The population over there means there are just a heap more unis and they are all close enough that they can play against each other regularly. Here there are less unis and they are further apart so they just don't play. For example, there would be almost no way of getting universities in expansion areas like Melbourne or Perth to start playing unless there was some local competition for them. But over there unis in expansion areas like Oxford and Cambridge don't have to go that far to get a game.

Edited for Accuracy

Are there people in Uni in Oz who have played representative football? ie. Played Harold Matts, SG Ball in NSW, or Meninga and Connell Cups in QLD and even some who would have played Jersey Flegg or the now called Toyota Cup U20s?

this is off the AURL site

Quote ="roughyedspud"this is off the AURL site '" Thanks for that spud. So that means people from TAFE can play. So Australian players qualify by going to the equivalent of College or POLYs (if they still exist) back in UK. TAFE NSW has over 130 metropolitan and regional campuses in NSW alone according to their website. web.tafensw.edu.au/courses/find_ ... /index.htm Here are the QLD ones, a quick count shows more than 70: www.tafe.qld.gov.au/about_tafe/i ... tacts.html OK so that's just TAFE and not colleges in 2 states. So even more people can play than ECT led us to believe in his last post. Does this comment still have any backbone now we know how australians qualify? Or is it another guess? Quote ="ECT"There are far far far more players playing at university level in GB than in Australia.'"

Quote ="roughyedspud"this is off the AURL site '" Thanks for that spud. So that means people from TAFE can play. So Australian players qualify by going to the equivalent of College or POLYs (if they still exist) back in UK. TAFE NSW has over 130 metropolitan and regional campuses in NSW alone according to their website. web.tafensw.edu.au/courses/find_ ... /index.htm Here are the QLD ones, a quick count shows more than 70: www.tafe.qld.gov.au/about_tafe/i ... tacts.html OK so that's just TAFE and not colleges in 2 states. So even more people can play than ECT led us to believe in his last post. Does this comment still have any backbone now we know how australians qualify? Or is it another guess? Quote ="ECT"There are far far far more players playing at university level in GB than in Australia.'"

whats TAFE??

Quote ="Rooster Booster"Thanks for that spud. So that means people from TAFE can play. So Australian players qualify by going to the equivalent of College or POLYs (if they still exist) back in UK. TAFE NSW has over 130 metropolitan and regional campuses in NSW alone according to their website. web.tafensw.edu.au/courses/find_ ... /index.htm Here are the QLD ones, a quick count shows more than 70: www.tafe.qld.gov.au/about_tafe/i ... tacts.html OK so that's just TAFE and not colleges in 2 states. So even more people can play than ECT led us to believe in his last post. Does this comment still have any backbone now we know how australians qualify? Or is it another guess? '" Not one single TAFE has an RL team. Not one. And there isn't a single player who has ever played for Australian Universities who is a TAFE student. I know all about the AURL having been involved when I was at uni in Brisbane.

Quote ="Rooster Booster"Thanks for that spud. So that means people from TAFE can play. So Australian players qualify by going to the equivalent of College or POLYs (if they still exist) back in UK. TAFE NSW has over 130 metropolitan and regional campuses in NSW alone according to their website. web.tafensw.edu.au/courses/find_ ... /index.htm Here are the QLD ones, a quick count shows more than 70: www.tafe.qld.gov.au/about_tafe/i ... tacts.html OK so that's just TAFE and not colleges in 2 states. So even more people can play than ECT led us to believe in his last post. Does this comment still have any backbone now we know how australians qualify? Or is it another guess? '" Not one single TAFE has an RL team. Not one. And there isn't a single player who has ever played for Australian Universities who is a TAFE student. I know all about the AURL having been involved when I was at uni in Brisbane.