Dress it up whichever way you like, the Aussies are still light years in front. Aussie rugby is robotic, even the commentators picked up on the way the english club teams were throwing the ball around. Rugby is the national sport in Australia, we just cant compete with that.

If you watched it then you would have heard before the game that st George were fielding their strongest available starting line up

Both teams then introduced youngsters as they game went on

Couldn't agree more, time and again I've said on our board that too often we lack mental preparation, depth of fortitude or the ability not to act like headless chickens and go into panic mode. It's this that has by far the biggest effect on results IMHO, blow out scores are often indicative of one side going pop mentally than just an injury crisis or lack of quality.

Really who told you that ? it's only played in two states with a manufactured franchise in Victoria.

[iAustralian football is the most popular sport in Australia, followed by cricket, association football and rugby league.[/i

Quote ="MattyB"Can't really take much from that 'friendly' game. Just to put it into perspective, Wigan had 26 players on the pitch over the 80 mins, Souths had 20 players. Defence went okay but I think Wigan had one eye on Friday's game against Warrington, especially in that 2nd half. EDIT - www.wiganwarriors.com/news/2018- ... ch-defence Also regards your last comment: It isnt just the 'mental issues' as you claim, I think the $9.4 million against £1.9 million salary caps has a little something to do with it as well.'" Not all but a big chunk, the SC is just like house prices, it's all relative to where you are. It's not as if they have an international player pool to choose from. There are very small differences in talent, early and all stages of coaching to pro level and mental preparation/in game mental ability to cope and deliver are the biggest differences by far.

Quote ="MattyB"Can't really take much from that 'friendly' game. Just to put it into perspective, Wigan had 26 players on the pitch over the 80 mins, Souths had 20 players. Defence went okay but I think Wigan had one eye on Friday's game against Warrington, especially in that 2nd half. EDIT - www.wiganwarriors.com/news/2018- ... ch-defence Also regards your last comment: It isnt just the 'mental issues' as you claim, I think the $9.4 million against £1.9 million salary caps has a little something to do with it as well.'" Not all but a big chunk, the SC is just like house prices, it's all relative to where you are. It's not as if they have an international player pool to choose from. There are very small differences in talent, early and all stages of coaching to pro level and mental preparation/in game mental ability to cope and deliver are the biggest differences by far.

The player pools are not exhausted though. The two largest conurbations in the North West have no SL presence neither in teams and very very little in terms of players (Kallum Watkins is from Gorton in Manchester - I don’t know of another Mancunian in the league. Are there any Scousers?)

Rugby Union is getting into schools all over Manchester and Liverpool. Rugby League is not! League is still relying on the local amateur clubs in the same old rugby league towns to provide players but the player pool from them is getting smaller by the year.

Why isn't rugby league getting into the schools in Manchester and Liverpool?

Quote ="JEAN CAPDOUZE"Why isn't rugby league getting into the schools in Manchester and Liverpool?'" I don’t have an answer to that. Other than maybe - finances. Or maybe they are living so far in the past and not in the real world that they can’t see that those same amateur clubs in those same RL towns are not enough to keep the player pool going anymore. The RFU have spent millions and put this: www.englandrugby.com/about-the-r ... l-schools# into action and it’s got real legs. Wythenshawe (South Manchester, population 100000) have now got a RU amateur club off the back of it with all four local high schools providing players. Previous to this Wythenshawe had no RU links at all. RL has done nothing like this in high schools in South Manchester and a mate of mine works in a school in Liverpool and said RL aren’t in schools in his area neither. Manchester Rangers does have links to MMU but you’d imagine by that age they would already be RL players from RL areas. Plus they are a seventh division club (despite having money for five/six divisions higher if needed).

Quote ="JEAN CAPDOUZE"Why isn't rugby league getting into the schools in Manchester and Liverpool?'" I don’t have an answer to that. Other than maybe - finances. Or maybe they are living so far in the past and not in the real world that they can’t see that those same amateur clubs in those same RL towns are not enough to keep the player pool going anymore. The RFU have spent millions and put this: www.englandrugby.com/about-the-r ... l-schools# into action and it’s got real legs. Wythenshawe (South Manchester, population 100000) have now got a RU amateur club off the back of it with all four local high schools providing players. Previous to this Wythenshawe had no RU links at all. RL has done nothing like this in high schools in South Manchester and a mate of mine works in a school in Liverpool and said RL aren’t in schools in his area neither. Manchester Rangers does have links to MMU but you’d imagine by that age they would already be RL players from RL areas. Plus they are a seventh division club (despite having money for five/six divisions higher if needed).

Cricket is Australia's national Sport.
The English teams were throwing the ball about (often dropping it) because they couldn't break down the defense any other way.

Poor old Canberra.....




Cricket is the national sport of Australia. AFL is the most supported winter sport, followed by the NRL. Football is 3rd and currently has a lower average attendance than the Perth Wildcats Basketball team.....


Money and the way that our game is managed by the clubs who are only interested in their own survival, rather than having any long term strategies in place.
22 years ago we were the only professional Rugby with a new Million Pound TV deal and an exciting product.........now we're the "other rugby" with a cheap TV deal, a questionably boring product (see thread on these boards) and our crowds are dwindling and all the SL chairmen can do is think of ways to line their own pockets (see Hull v Wigan) or postulate about how they are going to challenge other sports (see Pearsons claims about Union).....

RU had 50 PE teachers from across UAE doing training sessions in the classroom and on the field in January, they also have over 50 training sessions for L1-L3 in Dubai in 2018 planned or taken place already at various age groups.
We are so far behind it's depressing.

Manchester United
Manchester City
Liverpool
Everton

This is why, Manchester andMerseyside are predomintly football supported areas, little interest in rugby league.

I did say states, sorry I should have included ACT Canberra

Rugby League is a big sport in Australia commanding great TV viewing figures.

The problem is that our sport lends itself more to TV viewers than attending because there are only a few occasions where the 'atmosphere' at a game gets above "luke warm"......AFL on the other hand is watched by immense crowds of rabid Victards who cheer, chant, proffer racist opinions and generally behave like inbred bogans.

The Newest AFL team, Western Sydney average 13,200...this is almost the same or greater than Cronulla, St George, Souths, Wests, Penrith and Manly whilst the Swans average 33,400.....which is more than the best supported team in the NRL and more than double than the best supported side in Sydney.
By Contrast, the Melbourne Storm don't attract as many fans as the worst supported AFL outfit in Victardia.....

...AFL is an abomination of a sport where the 2 main skills, Catching and Kicking straight are performed with almost comical ineptitude, but yet people will roll up to watch it in massive numbers....more people attended 11 Richmond AFL home games last year than did Newcastle, Cronulla, New Zealand and South Sydney over 48 games......The sport is a turd, but christ on a bike they are expert TURD POLISHERS

I don't like AFL but there's no point belittling it. The only thing I find bizarre is how inaccurate they are generally with kicking over any distance, particularly from an uncontested mark.

Apart from the obvious troll nature of the OP did anyone really expect any of the teams to go to Aus at the height of summer and see them turn over 3 top NRL sides on their own turf. Seriously!

Over all I think all 3 clubs did OK without exactly excelling. Jean you're a very silly person.

And you would have heard that it was the Aussies first hit out whilst Hull & Wigan have had numerous pre season friendlies and 2 SL games. As I said, don't read anything into it. It was a way of trying different combinations of players. Its the same as the pre season derby Hull & Rovers have. Nothing to read into it but a chance to blow off cobwebs.

Summer is nearly over.
St George and Souths are not "Top" NRL sides according to where they finished last year.

Souths and St George games were friendlies with plenty of youngsters given a run.
The Storms tearing a new bunger for Leeds was a more telling game.

I was quite happy with the Hull game, we played a lot of young forwards who showed aggression and physicality - Jordan Lane, Turgut, Fash and Matongo. I thought we showed glimpses of attacking threat with Kelly, Connor and Shaul, so overall nothing lost by going over there really, and they will have a few days off and get ready to go against Cas on Saturday

In Manchester there is far more going on than just footy and there is still room for a SL team who could attract a decent crowd. Manchester Rangers were simply unfortunate in being stopped from being promoted as the title challengers were given the points instead after a frozen pitch stopped a game and they went up instead. But there’s still the backing there for at least the Championship long term and I think that’s where they’ll end up fairly soon. They already get crowds as big as clubs four and five divisions above.

But other than that RU is big in Manchester. Believe it or not Manchester was a rugby city up until the time City won the city’s first ever football trophy in 1904 (there’s a book by Gary James coming out about that soon). For decades before then Manchester RUFC was the city’s biggest sporting club. There are countless amateur RU clubs, could be upwards of twelve, dotted all around Manchester and Trafford. In six years there has been enough investment from the RFU to get teams at a number of junior age groups at Wythenshwe RUFC when there weren’t even any links to RU in Wythenshawe before then.

The city has more than enough people to count as a huge player pool but Mancunians RL and Manchester Rangers aren’t big enough names and probably don’t employ enough staff to reach across the conurbation yet. Outside a few postcodes in Salford you wouldn’t know Salford Red Devil’s existed across this conurbation (they may well be a city in their own right but they are part of the Manchester Metropolis and share a city centre with Manchester and Trafford). The RFL aren’t getting into schools like the RFU are neither. Swinton play in Sale now and do get into the Messenger and MEN newspapers but I’m not sure they get into the schools or amateur clubs in Manchester and Trafford.

I don’t know about how big RU is in Liverpool but I bet they have a similar situation has here.

The RFL are missing out big time on these two cities. It’s not that their efforts at Magic Weekends, Grand Finals and a Four Nations Final wasn’t attended by locals. Many of us went to Magic at the Etihad each year it was there and many of us attend the GF at Old Trafford every year. But it’s the grassroots where it is most important to entice and develop new players, not the highest echelons of the game (even though the citizens of both cities enjoy and attend those big games).

Really

So Hull playing the Dobbins is the same as Hull playing the Dragons?? Get real!!!

The Derby preseason friendly is a money maker and chance for the coaches to get the combinations working. The games for Wigan and Hull in Australia were treated the same by the NRL teams. If it meant more to Hull FC & Wigan fans then thats fine but you can't pretend it meant the same to the NRL teams.

I knew somebody would bite at this reading through the thread, but using a modicum of common sense surely you understand the point he was trying to make.

This was a pre season game for the NRL teams, trying out different combo's and different players - Hell, even mitch allgood got a game.

In the same way a Hull pre season derby does the same thing here, while still attracting good crowds and a good level of intensity.

The comparison was correct on aims & achievements of the event, not the skill/intensity level or anything like that

This.

The OP stated it was humiliating. Why? because 3 UK teams got beaten by superior opposition in on their own soil? hardly the stuff of collapsed empires.

Quite how only Albert Kelly gets mention when he wasn't Hulls man of the match, only Jean knows. Liam Watts was very much the MOM

Massive positives for Hull were seeing Matongo, Fash, Lane, Logan, Abdull take on seasoned professionals and come out with their heads held high.