Quote ="The Chair Maker"The game is still far faster than it was at the start of SL. Its just that people have become used to a form of tick RL where defenders had to treat the tackled player as some form of plague carrier.
Personally i think the problem in the uk is that teams are generally poor defensively, as a result teams have been able to get 60 yards purely by playing the ball quick and scooting from dummy half.
This has had the negative effect in that teams dont need to learn how to kick deep, nor do the half backs need to do much organising.
We have seen this in the 4 nations. The aussie players from the NRL are used to playing under tough defences were a strong kick and chase game is vital. As a result their kicking and organising game is far superior to the British.
Until defences in UK improve to the required standard, we therfore need to slow the play the balls down. This then means teams cant make 60 metres in a set of 6 by dummy half running, and instead have to be more creative and employ better long range kicking games.
One thing many Saints fans have been bemoaning is the lack of pacey flair backs in the side. This is understandable though as there is no need for pacey wingers if merely by running from dummy half you can get to within 30 yards of the opposition line. In such a scenario you just need big crash ball wingers to barge over from close range. Hence why we have Meli and Gardner.
A return to the days were sides need to fight for territory will i believe increase the importance of having fast backs as it wont be as easy to march down the field. As a result we are therefore likely to then see more long range trys that fans like.
This is certainly what has happened in Australia.'"
I agree we do need better half backs, we do need to restrict scooting as an excuse for cheap yards and we do need to improve defence if we want to compete with Australia consistently
But by slowing the PTB too much, as much as it may improve attack in time it is dumbing down the defence required. Teams don't have to do as much skillful one on one tackling, there are always numbers in the tackle & there is always a good defensive line.
To get all teams to play against the current style of defence using skill, speed, creativity & risk taking rather than biff and barge is a long, long way off - there isn't the talent pool both playing or coaching for more than 3 or 4 teams at best.
The game is faster, the athletes are superior (if not as skillful) surely we can increase skill level without giving defenders a tea break after every tackle. Improve defensive line speed - that is were Australia kill us, despite quick PTB they are on us before the second receiver has the ball & our kicks are always pressured, yet their backs have the freedom of the pitch and their kickers have all the time in the world.
I don't want to get on to this again on this thread its not fair on two future gems - i thought both Sam and Kyle did great on Saturday they haven't had to run SL games on their own yet so i didn't expect them to run a do or die international against the World Champs.
Despite such inexperience, both showed they were fearless of the opposition and had the confidence to roll the dice, in doing so they had a hand in scoring or creating all of our tries.
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