Quote ="Sal Paradise"You must be watching a different game to most of us - the general view was that 2014 was the worst season for quality for many years - I don't see standards rising - I am also failing to understand why having British coaches without any experience of the best competition in the world is a good thing? Losing our truly elite players to the RU and the NRL and an inability to recruit quality players from the NRL has impacted the quality on the field - even you must see that?'"
I'm sorry but Southstander does not represent the whole of rugby. Go do some scientific research on public opinion and I might agree with you. But, if your formulating your general view from people on the internet, you must also believe the moon landings were faked and that 9/11 was masterminded by the United States government.
Also, if you're comparing 10 years of data to one then this is not a logical comparison. Come back in 2023 and compare 2003 - 2013 and 2014 - 2023, this would then be logical. Yes, I do see having more British coaches as a good thing as it means they get experience of coaching at the top level.
My point is we shouldn't recruit more top quality players from the NRL, we should export them as we are so they gain experience of playing in the best RL competition. They then return home and share said experience and increase the quality of our own competition.
I think you will find there is one "truly elite" player that has gone to RU, not players. The rest of the players that have gone to RU have been chances taken by the RFU and most of them have failed. What other "truly elite" British player has gone to RU in the last 10 years?
The only way you increase quality is increase the pool of talent you select from. In 2003, only a few clubs had academy's feeding their 1st team. Now there are more. These lads are not going to be world class now but if the increase in academy products continues, I believe in 2023 we will be looking back saying "Wow, what a 10 years of amazing sport we've seen and that player and this team and England are now competing on a world stage". If I'm wrong, may you quote this post in 10 years time and prove me wrong.
