my point is theres nothing to be scared of....they are'nt freaks like inglis,thurston,slater & lockyer..


i remember back in 2006 when all the aussies where crowing about gasnier taking on a GB debutant in kirk yeaman...he's turn him inside out they said...first tackle yeaman smashed gasnier and sent him back to the sheds for the rest of the game...gasniers aura went with him...


take the freaks out the australia team and they are half the side....everything goes through inglis,thurston,slater or lockyer......slaters that good he even had a hand in NZ winning the world cup finalicon_wink.gif

I like Graham but he lacks size for a prop and therefore struggles to make an impact at international level. Still 1 of our best though.

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyl ... eague.html yep struggles to make an impact at international level...

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyl ... eague.html yep struggles to make an impact at international level...

I often wonder if some people watch the same game I do...then I remember they are often watching through blinkers of club bias.

Hoping he (Graham) comes down for a few seasons in the NRL. Could prove just as good as Burgess and Elllis

I still truly believe that the Kangaroos arn't going to win this.

We do lose a game in most tournament's

Shame the last one was in the final.

Cough, cough, choke, choke.

The Aussies (and I include their club sides too) play to a very good structure which enables players to slot into the team without too much disruption, and the bottom line is the players they're likely to bring in are still better than the players we have. Even though they've lost a lot of players to injury they're still favourites and I still expect them to win, but that doesn't mean I don't think we can win.

Carney has had a wow of a season. Prince is a very good 7, and if Gasnier can find the form he had before he went to onion is world class. Yes they are not in the same class of the freaks, but are still top players and are far better than anything we have. They could put Hayne at 6 if Lockyer is injured. What about Cronk? They have injuries but their quality in depth shines through as usual.

I went to a NSW Cup game last month, it's not a great standard of RL, whatever any ockers may say its closer to Championship standard than SL.

People will understimate the quality of british RL players, despite the dominance at club level for some years in the WCC

Some people will understimate our ability at international level, despite being able to regularly beat the current World Champions in tests.

Some people think there is no point us even getting on the plane down under.

I don't really buy this argument, I don't think the Aussies would either, for all the players we think of as world beaters there are several others who run them close or even get the better of them sometimes each weekend in the NRL. They are very good players, but they can be replaced by other very good players if their form isn't good.

Never seen any NSW/QLd cup games but i have seen some squad lists and there are players that are familiar names from NL/fringe SL players so i expected the standard to be around what you said to be honest. I would assume that Toyota cup/u20s/2nd grade to be a better standard than NSW cup and a good springboard to NRL. Is this the case?

He's Scottish again, apparently

One of the issues I have with this England squad is Widdop. Picking him is like being at Primary school when all the boys in the class get twitchy about all the girls who are in a huddle in the corner of the room or playground whispering and looking over. The boys' tactic is then to grab the smallest, most effeminate boy who spends all his time with the girls and grip him until he tells them what the girls have been saying.

Did you ever say anything?

Most players are better defensively than McGuire but Burrows defence cant be questioned.

He wont be in the squad because he isnt good enough not because his defence is weak.

The problem is we can just about scrape a competitive 13 but after that the squad struggles. Aussies have far more strength in depth and it always depends on which kiwi team turns up to how good or bad they're going to be. The lack of strength in depth in our league of top class English players is evident when the same players get picked time after time with no recognised replacements behind them. Aussies could pick nearly 3 players for each position and would still be competitive. Can't be said the same for us.

But Macca's inability to coach top class players and in some cases ruin potential in players is a worry. We were never consistently good against the aussies as GB so how in gods name do we think we can do it as England?