Hanley, Schofield, Kevin Ward, Lee Crooks, Shaun Edwards, Steve Hampson, Chris Bibb, Deryck Fox, Lee Jackson, Kelvin Skerrett, plus Paul Newlove and Gary Conolly (talking of centres) all great players not one an RU import. (I could name more)
What do these players have in common apart from being great players? They all had spells in Australia.
That is the way forward. Plus competitive games. There are too many easy games. Because we don't have P&R. Bring it back, it'll settle down again and the lower clubs will bridge the gap in class.
WE lost the series to Australia in 1990 on the back of one bad ref's decsion at Old Trafford. If that decision (obstruction on Gibson) had gone our way we'd have won the game and the series - that's how clsoe we were. Close in 1992, inj Oz and in the World Cup final same year. Same in 1995.

Alan Tait - not in the same class as Hamson or Chris Bibb
John Devereaux - very naive - reponsible for Oz winning at Wembley in '92 when Renouf made him look like a monkey
David Bishop






I'll give you Scott Gibbs and Davies - both excellent converts, Davies possibly the best I've seen since Lewis Jones. Offiah was quick. Once he stopped being quick his career was over.

Better than both for me. You can make an argument for Hampson but he was just good under a high ball. Tait was a better attacker, runner and defender than Hampson. On Bibb, I'll have to pass on that because I don't remember him doing anything that stuck in my, admittedly woeful, memory.



I thought Devereaux was okay and I'm not sure you can condemn a man's entire career on a slip up against one of the best centres to ever play the game, in a World Cup Final. Agree on Bishop. Had a couple of good games but never enough to seriously suggest he was international quality.

Its not just the union imports its the players we've lost to union.

You're probably right with the amount of money in the game at lower levels.

But exactly the same applies to a kid if they aren't picked up by an NRL club. The junior rep comp for example in NSW would start at Harold Matts (U16s), though all sides have development squads looking for good players. Before that there are clubs that have juniors. And of those clubs, more and more are disappearing.

One more thing to consider is that with kids, I've seen St Helens come over here twice and beat their NRL counterparts. So maybe the perceived problem is after that.

We've had countless australian coaches go to the UK. Do people really think no-one learnt anything from them if they were so special and different?

/has

I'm not saying Tait wasn't a good attacking fullback - but then so was Chris Bibb - but he was very suspect defensively. He didn't seem to know how to use the touchline as an extra defender -this was badly shown up by Offiah's try at Wembley in 1993 -Offiah was fast but Tait should have at least been in a position to tackle him - he wasn't. I saw Bibb play quite a lot - as a Fev fan I admit I'm biased. But he kept us in games against the top sides in the late 80's by his sheer defensive positional abilities. Devereaux was as you say "ok" but not in the same class as say Henderson Gill, or Robinson say.
Union imports had their place in RL international sides, and there were some good ones - not mentioned - but the core of a top RL side had/has to of solid RL pedigree or they'll never really win anything. Look at the Salford side of the seventies, stuffed full of Union talent. Maurice Richards, Mike Coulman, David Watkins, Keith Fielding, and what did they actually win in the end? Same sould be said of the80's/90's Leeds sides. packed with big name Union players Gallagher, Young, Fallon - what did they win?