If England is to assemble a national team in exile, then Roby as the No. 1 hooker must go to Australia. I cannot imagine an Australian coach with a vacancy in that position not wanting him.
However if Roby does go, then St Helens will probably fall out of the SL 8, and Super League will be much worse off for that fact, and for the fact of his absence.
I know this will never happen but, our players go for the aussie dollar and as it is at the moment I certainly can't blame them. we may finish up with quite a few internationals playing in Oz. But, with half a potencial international team playing over there, when exactly are they going to play with the other half, a week before a major competition ? Seems a joke to me. The aussies playing over here cannot play for their country. I think they have it right ! Just a thought
You may get one or two each season that leave SL and head to the NRL. These will be people with ambition and the desire to test themselves in the so-called greatest league in the World.
I feel the vast majority of the SL talent, for all the reasons mentioned on this thead, will remain in England.
Lets look at this in another way -
Like in England, there are the strong sides and the weak sides in the NRL - not every team is capable of getting to the play-off's or GF.
It is near impossible to get better than average players to move 200 miles from Yorkshire/Lancashire down to London (one of the greatest cities on the planet). Many claiming to be home sick or can't bear to be away from family and friends. I'm not knocking that, it's their decision and life afterall. But if they can't move to London, why would they move to the otherside of the world?
We know London won't win SL for a good few years (if they still exist that is) - but nor will half the teams that try and poach our SL talent in the NRL.
As such, and going back to my first sentence, yes - we will see one or two good players leave the UK for the NRL....but it won't be an issue because the vast majority will stay in their comfort zone. For those players that do leave and try to challenge themselves, it'll improve them (both as players and human beings) and allow young players to step up to SL level - all this equals a stronger national team (something we've been screaming for over the last few decades).
The balance is SL clubs doing what they can to entice those players with itchy-feet to stay....we need to keep SL as a valuable brand that hopefully (if the RFL sort it out) can attract big money sponsorship.
All views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the RLFANS.COM or its subsites.
Whilst every effort is made to ensure that news stories, articles and images are correct, we cannot be held responsible for errors. However, if you feel any material on this website is copyrighted or incorrect in any way please contact us using the link at the top of the page so we can remove it or negotiate copyright permission.
RLFANS.COM, the owners of this website, is not responsible for the content of its sub-sites or posts, please email the author of this sub-site or post if you feel you find an article offensive or of a choice nature that you disagree with.