First there was the Friday night clash between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, in which Sam Burgess was excellent but James Graham was better. Graham was named Man of the Match by Fox Sports.

Then on Saturday the New Zealand Warriors played St. George-Illawarra Dragons, a game in which former Warrington journeyman Mike Cooper stamped his mark on the NRL with a very impressive try running hard from 15 yards out, in the manner we have become accustomed to from George Burgess. Cooper also played well in general off the bench, with his strong running and tackling. Yet this very good try of Cooper's was eclipsed by a brilliant solo effort of Sam Tomkins. The sidestepping and swerving from Warriors full back Sam Tomkins resulted in a try that kept the Warriors in the match. However it was another Englishman, Gareth Widdop, whose steady hand as play maker, field kicker and goal kicker steered St. George-Illawarra to a victory.

George Burgess was out injured this weekend .

If the form of these individuals can be sustained, you can expect the NRL clubs to be making approaches to other Super League players, especially Tommy Makinson, Joe Burgess, Tom Briscoe, Zak Hardaker and Kallum Watkins.

Do you get turned on by belittling Super League clubs by insinuating all their best players will leave?

He probably does when people actually reply

What an absolutely stupid conclusion from an insecure little twit.

I get turned on by the great performances of the best English players in the toughest competition in the world.

This week Sam Tomkins turned on a superb display, not only scoring a brilliant try, but being safe under the high ball and solid in defence. Mike Cooper finally created a reputation for quality in the eyes of Australian commentators and fans.

I will be very pleased once there is a contingent of about 20 star English players making their mark on the NRL, and creating the foundation for an English national side that can beat Australia and New Zealand regularly.

Mike Cooper's been good in all the games he's played so far, No doubt his improvement his season is down to the superior, cutting edge other worldly coaching he's been receiving in Aus.

Warrington journeyman? He only ever played for Warrington, with a short stint on loan at Cas early on.

Just spotted Capdouze trolling the Daily Mail website.

The op makes a good post with regards an update on the Englishers down under.

Warrington journeyman?

haha

I'm surprised warrington didn't do a lot more to keep him. But the Dragons game plan suits him a lot more than wire's offload at all cost tactics.

How long before the english players start to get poached to play for Australia or before they change SOS eligibility rules? I reckon 3 years.

Oh Jean.

Remy Casty played reserve grade for Newtown today in their 46-10 loss to the Sharks.

Did he play well?

This thread is about English players.

Remy Casty is French. France is a different nation than England, and it is not even part of the United Kingdom, even though it is geographically close.

And there was me thinking you were a Frenchman

As ever, it will happen if the players want it. Nothing SL clubs can do to stop it really.

I still find it funny how when the likes of Mathers, and Thorman went over to the NRL, and the likes of James Graham went everyone was patting them on the back saying how they wished more players would go over there because it would benefit the national side, hardly anyone saw this as a negative at the time, I did, but I was in the minority I think. Now a complete shift has taken place and everyone is predicting the demise of the game in this country because half a dozen more players have made the switch to the NRL.... I still don't see it as the sword of Damocles it's being made out to be.

I think one of the reasons is the fact that the quality coming the other way is not near the standard we were getting a few years back.Dont get me wrong, im glad the numbers are less than they used to be but most players coming over are journeymen and players not good enough for NRL.

we used to get rep. players the quality of Barrett,Buderus,Lyon,Lauititi,Swain,Berrigan,Mckenna,Furner,Gidley etc... who were THE star names in SL.Back then a couple of players UK players lost didn't weaken the league.

at the moment i would say Luke Walsh is easily the top import and the star players in our league from overseas and he was only a run of the mill name in OZ.The bulk of the star names in SL these days are the homegrown players of the likes of Roby,Watkins,Briscoe,Hall,Makinson,Bateman,Ferres etc.. and the more of these players leave the weaker our league becomes.

I agree with your general point about the declining quality of NRL imports. However I think that you underestimate Luke Walsh's standing in the NRL. He was above average, even if not outstanding in the manner of Cherry Evans, Cronk and the rising super star Luke Brooks. I think that Walsh's move to Super League was a matter of St Helens offering him a better deal than Penrith was offering.

Tomkins MoM in a great win for NZW at the Storm.
Settled in and starting to look the business now.

I thought Sam was lucky to get the MoM ahead of Shaun Johnson, who was absolutely brilliant. But Sam did play very well and was one of the best three players on the field. He is definitely starting to look the business now.

he is a class player.anyone with an ounce of common sense knew he would eventually find his feet over there.hopefully this is the start of a hot run of form for him and the Warriors.

Tomkins is getting there but the Warriors are still playing far too flat to get the best out of him from full back.

I thought that Mike Cooper did well again for St George-Illawarra, even though his side was beaten by the Sydney Roosters. The commentators refer to him as the "big Englishman."

Andrew Johns noted that Cooper was not a starting player for Warrington, but that he had backed himself to succeed in the NRL, which is very impressive.

Jean, your superstar mate played for Newtown again. They got smashed at home.

James Graham was outstanding again for Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. Probably deserved MoM.

But Graham and Tomkins got into a bit of an altercation in the first half, which almost led to punches (which if it had would have resulted in one or two red cards). Andrew Voss was talking about an English civil war.

Tomkins was OK but Graham was outstanding, and scored a try to top it off.

Yesterday Gareth Widdop and Mike Cooper, along with Josh Dugan and Brett Morris, were about the only players who played well for St George.