Widdop for the Storm this season: Widdop (25 matches – 16 line-breaks, 16 try assists eight line-break assists and two tries).

Anybody got these stats for Sinfield/Chase?

Sinfield stats from sl.co.u

Games. 27
Tries. 1
Try assists. 22
Goals. 115
Tackle busts. 30
Clean breaks. 7
Offloads 37

What that proves I dunno.

I just thought it'd be interesting to see how these players actually performed during the season to warrant the calls for them to be played/not played.

Whilst Danny Brough proves not to be good enough to be classed as neither. Sinfield is a far superior player to Brough and has proved so for years

Sinfield doesnt need to prove himself better than Lockyer or prove himself a 'real world class player' he just needs to be the best we have available and he is.

Well going by stats chase would be way above windop in the pecking order.

Games. 25
Tries. 12
Try assists.27
Offloads 37
Metres. 2898
Tackle busts . 102


Clean breaks. 14

Even with him in his pomp, we still couldn't the Aussies in a series.

Like I said, he was the exception. It takes 17 exceptional players to beat the Aussies.

Proves nothing in terms of selection criteria IMO.
Rangi Chase for example, had good season stats but they were mainly achieved in the first half of the season when he was in blistering form. That disguises the reality that he wasn't in form at the tail-end of the season.

Sinfield doesn't just point - he creates and scores points


Sinfield had a hand in 62 out of England's 98 points in the tournament with 7 try assists + 1 try created from kick + 15 goals in 4 games.
He also averaged over 26 tackles per game - more than twice as many as any other half-back in the tournament.

If that's not doing well enough at international level I'm really not sure what is.

Comparing stats between Super League and the NRL is impossible because of the quality of the competitions, despite what Eddie says.

In Super League we have teams like Wakefield, Crusaders, Quins, and Salford down at the bottom of the table, while the NRL have Cronulla, Paramatta, Canberra and the Gold Coast, all of which would put 50 on the aforementioned Super League teams.

The quality of our competition isnt good enough, competetive enough, or "British" enough, and that is the bottom line of why we fail at international level, and has been for YEARS! The bottom club in the NRL (Gold Coast) finished with 12 (yes it was 16 really but 4 of those points were for 2 byes) points from 24 games, where the Crusaders only managed 8 from 27 games. This to me is just one example of how the NRL is more competitive. The fact Penrith finished 12th this year having done so well last year is another.

The only reason we are "improving" is because we have players heading over to (or already playing in) the NRL who then come on leaps and bounds, playing in a far superior competition against solid opposition week in week out.

Anybody got the stats for how often Sinfield stuffs up a kick? How fricking hard is it to kick a bomb 15 metres>?

Maybe I'm just a bit slow, but I am starting to wonder if all the Aussie posters on this site are complete nit-picking retards.
Having watched Sinfield all season I'm pretty sure that such stats, if they ever existed, (which I doubt they do for any player), would be pretty favourable for Sinfield.

How frickin easy is it to make your judgment on the basis of the one or two games you've seen him play?

Heh. JB got called an Aussie. Probably the most offensive thing you could say to him.

Sorry, Chief, he's one of yours.

Totally agree, which makes his inability to kick properly during important internationals even more vexatious.

Is Kev a bottler?

haha, I hold both passports so I guess I am as Aussie as Jack Reed is English!

and no I haven't seen him much this season but in the 3 games that I have seen at Int level his kicking was terrible. Maybe it was 3 off days?

What a load of old sh*te.

Wigan, Leeds and Saints supply the bulk of GB players yet you still manage to blame the three clubs who didn't supply any. This is the twisted logic peddled by SL apologists for years and carries no credibility at all.

Oddly the two British players who stood up best IMO were Ellis and especially Westwood and I wonder where they came from. Take a look at yourselves first.

It's nothing to do with the amount of games, quality of games or number of teams. It's far far simpler, we simply do not produce enough players with the bottle or desire to beat the Aussies and no amount of meddling with SL will change that. As a nation, as a sport and a people we have gone soft and simply can't match the belief and determination of the Aussies who are just better in every aspect.

We were like rabbits caught in the head lights on Sunday - it's absolutely pathetic and unforgivable when you consider nearly all those players have contested SL finals, CCup finals and previous Internationals.

STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND STOP BLAMING OTHER PEOPLE.

You've also got to take into account RL is THE sport in Australia and so they have got a far bigger talent pool to dip into

Sadly he isn't, he plays in a better team and is perhaps more professional but superior don't make me laugh. And when at International level has he ever proved it. Broughy has his faults but he's more skill in his big toe than Sinfield has in his whole body.

Like all Leeds fans you appear blinded to the reality that he can't up it to International level. Also your assertion that he is the best available is also flawed. I'd play Tomkins or Widdop at 6 before him - neither is a Cronk or a Thurston but they would trouble them - hell Briers tested them more than Sinfield, now there is a player who can pass and kick.

Get a grip and put country before club for once.

It's just a shame we dont have a Great Britain team anymore.

That way we may have got to have seen a proper 6 cause them some problems and structure some attacks.

Or Rangi Chase if that's the criterion. No, seriously, sorry, I should have said 'Aussie-based' posters.

Maybe it was 'off days', and though I agree his kicking was poor in the final, I'd say it was at worst average in the rest of this tournament.
Sinfield is not the greatest field kicker in the game, but IMO he is one of the best in the English game.

I agree! But i do think the lack of competition within our game has a part to play alongside the fact the aussies are years ahead of us, and all we do is copy what they do, by which time they are onto a new thing (a'la Leeds Rhinos trying to adapt the Storms dominance in the ruck, just as the Storm moved on to playing much much faster after the NRL introduced a second referee).

Rugby League isnt out No1 sport, probably not even our second or third, but then football is and we are s*** at that.

Could it be the case that in this country we put so much emphasis on competing at grass roots and in schools, while the aussies focus purely on winning, as do other nations in other sports.

I would say maybe the likes of Wakefield should be blamed for not providing competition for the rubbish Leeds, Saints and Wigan players?


I thought you didn't want to pass blame onto a particular club, yet you see fit to credit a team that didn't have any current players in the squad.



You didn't seem to have a problem attacking the way Sinfield played. I also see you failed to acknowledge the fact that Sinfeild was involved in more than 2/3rd's of the total points scored by England. Surely such an untalented and average player couldn't happen to fluke their way to achieving that?

Sinfield has done OK for England, he has a few man of the match awards and Golden boot nomination. Brough (apart from when he's played in the lower leagues) has never performed consistantly over a season, this coupled with the fact he's never managed to hold down a place at a club for more than 18 months suggests to me he hasn't got attitude or ability to play against the Aussies or challenge for SL. Sinfield on the other hand has been one of SLs best players for a decade and has captained a team of unerachievers to their clubs most successful era. Leeds are a good side partly because of him not inspite of him.

Brough never got a shot at a big club for a reason, and it wasnt his attitude. Long, Pryce, Briers, all terrible attitudes, all got a go at the big time because their skill demanded it.

Brough is no different to Chase. A player who looks good in a poor side, but struggles in the big time. You forgive him his mistakes and blame others for not giving him the platform, and wax lyrical when he looks good regardless of the efforts of others. If Brough had more skill in his big toe than Sinfield in his whole body, you would think Brough would, by the age 28, at some time showed it.

Ill readily accept Sinfield isnt as good as his counterparts for Aus and NZ, he is however the best we have. Brough isnt close,

Brough will have a strong start to next season and will carry that on up to round 18, from there on he will crawl back under the rock he came from, just like his team will, sad really. Sinfield on the other hand...well he goes strong for 42 rounds.