Help produce a core of 5 big Rugby League International sides by having a Five Nations Tournament consisting of Australia, New Zealand, England, France & Papua New Guinea but the obvious problem being could the latter two afford to be Jet-Setting across the world?...

Pub?

The thing with NZ players is that they're all playing in the NRL - the toughest league in the world. It's no coincidence that arguably our best player today has spent the last year playing in the same competition. It just goes to show there's way too much mediocrity in Super League, and that includes coaching as well as players...
To improve, we need more of our best players playing overseas. But, i'm not sure a lot of them can be bothered...

We need to worry about ourselves at the moment rather than France.

Correct

why is it always the same suggestion?

ie lower the overseas quota

it's all very well and good saying this, but were are all these awesome english players who are equal or better than the overseas players you want banning from our league?

it's a foolish assumption that overseas players are stopping english players making it in SL. they're not. if a player is good enough he'll break into his club's 1st team. if not then there's no use in using overseas players as scapegoats.

what's needed is a drastic overhaul of the grass-roots of the sport. getting the game played in schools and hooking in a larger percentage of youngsters to play the game. this needs to be combined with a close look at the development of aus/nz youngsters and the same coaching standards need to be adopted and looked at for ways to improve them for these new generations to improve and attempt to match the aussies and kiwis.

unless something is done, the current international state of affairs will continue

Main problem is that the game competes with soccer at junior level. Swap the junior game to summer and you suddenly have a significantly bigger pool of players available.

Seems a pretty obvious thing to do. Why havent they done it? More players, better weather for the kids. Cant see why they havent done it yet.

IT isn't just a question of lowering the quota but also convincing coaches to give the young lads a chance, like young Tompkins and Eastmond have been given. Sadly it is too easy to play the experienced antipodean because our game is governed by club's wanting success before the broader picture.

went to a match today where a very well known junior side could only raise about 10 players. one the main reasons is lots over seas players are now signing 3 and 4 year contract on big wages so the young players who need time to come through never do i have had 2 under 21 players working on my house today 1 played for the Bulls and one for Rhinos both of them moaning they can not get a chance of first grade now 1 signed for fev and the other for batley just so play first grade and thats sad because average Aussies are comming over on masive wages.

on NZ - the Auckland warriors joined our league in 1995, and they had their first major international success in 2005, winning the tri nations.

when the Warriors made the NRL grand final in 2002 many other NRL clubs starting sending scouts to NZ to get their kids playing league

re. france its going to take time but the results of les cats in SL are brilliant.

a 2nd French SL in toulose is a must, not only for SL, but the development of international RL. we also need a 2nd nz NRL side.

although hes left RL, we developed players like Sonny Bill Williams, we found Benji Marshall etc

i wonder what talented stars there are now waiting to be discovered in france?

ie i dont care about whats good for RL as long as my club are out of SL.

and its not as if Les Cats are doing well in SL is it?

Simple answer.

Get more youngsters playing the game. Imagine what the ratio of kids playing RL is in NSW or QLD compared to the whole of England.

We just have to wait for soccer to take off in Australia, as it will eventually, then SL will have a chance of competing on equal terms.

Why isn't there a 2nd team in New Zealand yet?

I agree. And moving the amatuer game to summer would help increase the numbers. Kids could play soccer in the winter and RL in the summer.

Have the grass roots played in the summer and have it set up like the Aussies do (did?) and have the age groups size based too because at the minute all that tends to happen is "give it to the big lad" and then the big lad drives up field with 4 or 5 kids hanging off his back, that wouldn't happen if it was say u10s then within under 10s height ranges as well so the smaller kids don't get battered week in week out by the big ones and the big ones have to play better because they can't bully the smaller players.

Good question - they must be allowed in SL - hell, even in NRL

Why would a boring sport like soccer take off in Aus where RL and Aussie Rules is king....the only reason soccer is Soooo Big here is media hype which soccer doesnt get in Aus, hence its seen for what it is. Thats the one thing Aus and America aren't stupid with...they see soccer for what it is which is in the main an essencially boring sport!

It won't, at least not in Sydney.

the NRL is still recovering from the effects of the Super LEague war when many expansion clubs were killed off.

weve only just got back an important club like the Gold Coast, Perth still dont have a club, we have too few clubs in queensland, and our players arent being paid enough to keep them here.

our next TV deal will partly fix it. were expected to increase by 2 clubs, but sadly it wont be nz.

it will be central coast bears and either a team in perth, or another queensland team. these will add the most in terms of TV rights and catering to areas with strong interest in RL and no teams.

clubs wont do it till they see french players excelling. LEs Cats themselves dont have enough good french players so the other SL clubs wont take a risk.

its going to take time.

in the case of NZ, it was around 5 - 7 years after the entry of the Warriors that the rest of the competition started taking more notice of Kiwi players. The NZ Warriors also had more local players than LEs Cats do now.

its going to take time for good french players to be produced

queensland either. the new gold coast soccer club have capped their crowds at a maximum of 5000 in a 27,000 seat stadium to save costs. the Gold Coast RL side averages 20,000 in comparison.

with queensland and nsw under lock and key, our future is more than safe.

RL fans just wont go for soccer as it has less physicality, but AFL fans might well do.

Nah!

No matter what you think of Aussies they are not that thick to even consider moronball!