I’m not sure what everyone’s striving for? (not you personally)

The Salary Cap could be increased which may afford clubs to purchase maybe a Sam Burgess, but only one club though, he’s a class above. But ultimately, even with a S.B we still couldn’t win an International competition, don’t dredge up the N.Z tour.

With all this money allegedly available if the Cap was increased, we could go down the football route, abolish the quota stuff & get a team of Galacticos (Aussies) to be the best club side in the world.

Unfortunately, back in the real world, the game doesn’t have that kind of money, unless of course some of the money men at certain clubs were prepared to take a sizable financial hit, and for what, to see their team win S.L & the W.C.C.

The game will never climb the sporting popularity ladder to the dizzy heights of Football & Union, never receive similar T.V rights, sponsorship or media adulation.

It is, what it is, a fringe sport, ok, we all love it but, come ‘on.

On a personal note I’d be happy if my team makes the eight.

Take them stupid avatar glasses off then?

No, no, you can’t say that, we’re just a whisker away

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You’re risking the wrath of the Utopia Crew with their ground breaking ideas on how to solve the narrow divide

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The reasons why the game in this country is far behind is the my club, my club, my club mentality.

Development?

Grass roots?


Rubbish facilities for juniors etc etc etc.

Unless and until these attitudes and situations are changed, the SL clubs just want the cash for themselves, then nothing will change.

The money that has been WASTED on second rate, past it, never were's and never NRL will be's is beyond a joke. The SL clubs don't want to see it and they suck the RFL dry of the most funds.

Don't expect to see any changes, if any, for a long long time.

Same here when I was first told the numbers. It's partly why I'm not slitting my wrists at the result tonight. I know Sydney is a major RL hub but the numbers in the rest of the country must bump it up to at least 55,000 (probably more). So we're trying to run approx 15? (11 SL & 4? Championship) full time teams on at least 1/6th of the players available to Australia.

Another part to the stats is that there are approx 3,500 inactive, registered players in England in the 12-16 age range. Effectively that means kids who were registered with a club but aren't playing ie dropped out for whatever reason. If we could keep those kids involved that would at least bump the numbers up to 12,500 from 9,000.

Nothing wrong with my stupid avatar glasses thankyou, saying that I'm thinking of going for something rimless next time though.

What our players need is weekly tough and intense battles.....not some one a year lesson from an Aussie side.

That's why we should start from the bottom up.....not this lets start from the top and play the Aussies as much as possible and hope that improves us.

Problem is that takes patience.....and RL in England doesn't have that.

There isn't much difference between top and bottom in the NRL, no matter hoe good everyone is someone has to come bottom of the league.

Our top 4 teams could compete in the NRL with a 3rd of the cap.

so what, we just retreat back and hope we somehow catch up? You don't get better by shielding yourself from competition you get better by playing the best.

Our problem isn't that we don't have patience, its that when the game went pro, the aussie clubs went pro, they focussed their talent and money on building a league which functions, one which spreads talent, one which has pathways, one which has professional structures in place. We didn't.

It's not a case of shutting yourself off, it's a case of concentrating on the following which you list instead of being gooey eyed over the NRL......



Exactly what we need to focus on......not expanded WCC's just so we can see some great individuals in the flesh beat our best.

Like I said, we need to start from the bottom and work our way up.....not foolishly hope that the more we play them in Interntionals and WCC's will somehow work.......because quite frankly we've had a WCC now ever year for well over 10 years now and on evidence on the last few years what good has it done??? We're heading backwards in these contests.

You're joking right, compete for what - the wooden spoon?

I think as long as we have the advantage of playing the games over here and just before the NRL season begins the games will continue to be good contests and we should just stick to it.So what, we need the home advantage to truly compete, who cares really?

Wigan got beat comfortably down in OZ last year, not a shock, and we have this with Souths giving Saints a lesson this time but they were as good as Saints were poor. by and large most of the contests since 2000 over have been quite even, we have even held the edge results wise for a while.

Keep it going.As long as the fans are wanting to go watch stick with it.You don't see the RU wanting to scrap having the All Blacks over every winter even though they are a class above most of the NH sides and hand out a few spankings every year do you? We need to keep testing ourselves against the best, only way we will improve the lads who are going to wear test jumpers in the future.The likes of Greenwood,Thompson,Amor, Lomax and Walmsley will have learnt more lessons in that defeat tonight they would in most of the season in SL.

we don't get better by having our best playing the best less.

No, we get better by trying to make sure our best are tested week in week out.....not having 50 point strolls the week before.

Playing one or two games against NRL teams, or having competitive and intense and close games nearly every week....I know what I'd rather throw my efforts into and what will really truely benefit them in the long run.

they aren't mutually exclusive.

They will be the way people keep harping on about an expanded format that involves less league games so that we can fit a bigger expanded WCC into the schedule.

English league and union should merger so we have a bigger talent pool.

If Todd Carney and Scott Dureau can play together for most of the season then Les Catalans has a chance to win silverware. If that happens then we might have a more even WCC contest next time around. Something to think about.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you should do a turn at the Edinburgh fringe festival, they need some good comedian's.
Seriously though your obesseive behaviour pattern and delusions are rather worrying. I would seek help if I were you before you spiral out of control and make a mockery of yourself in public...oh wait

In 2003 saints got beat 38-0 by the roosters in front of almost 20K.

Following that record defeat there were 5 straight british wins, Saints beating the Broncos at the same ground in front of 23K a few years later.

So I would say the pedigree is for people to see these games, regardless of the result.

Have people forgotten that Wigan drew with the Broncos at the end of normal time. And their first try was from a dropped ball 2 feet from the line. And their winning points came from two of the softest pens you'll see given.

In the wire and Wigan games e could easily have been playing 12 men for large parts of the game and if the refereeing was consisten with what we are used to then they both would have enjoyed far more field position and possession.

Point i took from the series:

The standard refereeing in our game gives teams far too many pens and easy yards. We should be making it harder for teams to creat attacking positions not easier.

Attention to detail. In defence we do not do enough work. This was the platform every win was based on. The try line defence was brilliant and stopped a number of tries in each game.

Kick attack and defence. When defending, all Aussie defenders played a very active part in shielding the receiver, they were organised and very clever at it - some great examples in the wire game.

Kicking attack - probably the area we are furthest behind in alongside defence.there has to be more attention paid to this area, most of our teams just hog the ball without any thought.

Structure under pressure. When it gets tough we lose structure far too easily. Not playing or training under a consistent high intensity means we aren't able to keep the standard up for 80mins.

It all boils down to :

Improve our coaching
Reduce the volume and increase the quality.

Our kicking close to the line was abysmal. SMith & Wilkin being the main culprits. To make up for their lack of class (Wilkin has an excuse) they resort to aimless kicking anywhere near the line.
Souths were a joy to watch though.

thats because too much of SL is dross. You are crazy if you think that the way to get our best players better is to play more games against SL dross and fewer against the best players on the planet.

Whatever part of RL being discussed, there is always someone desperate to take it backwards at a rate of knots.

On the downside the Aussie team is beginning to suffer with all the imports the NRL money is attracting not to dissimilar to the premiership football over here.

The domestic product though is great.

Yep, the Catalans team that was taken to the cleaners a couple of weeks ago by Saints would definately be more competitive than Saints in the WCC.

Fact is, Saints are one of the best teams in SL. We didnt actually play that badly last night, despite the scoreline. I dread to think what would have happened to most other SL clubs against Souths.

Don't forget that Souths also won their own Grand Final by 30odd points.