Farrell is finished as England RU coach IMO. I do believe his influence was big - you only had to see the negative approach - it harmed back to the days when he captained the weakest British RL team in our history. We had to catch for damage limitation, he's now coaching England RU in the same way despite the fact they are much stronger than their oppositions other than the All Blacks. Shows he has no understanding of coaching. Ford was not a great player, rather a decent one. Farrell and Robinson were very good players in a period of weakness in the sport. None of the three were fit to lace the boots of Adrian Morley or Sam Burgess in RL terms. Those two are the best British produced RL players of the last 25 years by a country mile (although I am a great fan of James Graham who runs them close).

If shaving the rough edges off his accent gets Jason Robinson more media work and enables him to feed his family, why shouldn't he do it?

Bet there are plenty on these forums who have a "phone voice" for when they are speaking to clients at work. This is no different.

It's a short career and they were offered a good deal.
Regarding Farrell, you have to laugh that after he was well past his best, had two dodgy knees, and had just spent a season at prop, the RFU spent a bucket load of cash to sign him as a centre!

One of the worst decisions ever made in our game was London Broncos not offering Edwards a coaching or assistant coaching job. Wasps gave him an opportunity in a game he then knew only a little about. The rest is history.

If you listen to any of the players from Wasps or Wales about his intensity, attention to detail etc you will see what he is all about. Our loss their gain. At some stage however I do believe, because of family ties he will return to coach "up North" I just hope it's at Wigan.

Agree almost entirely with this but I would ask the question whether Wigan weren't just as culpable as London in regard to not offering him a coaching position. Especially given their knowledge of his potential in that area and their greater resources.

Will we be saying something similar about Sinfield in a few years time, now that he has gone over to the dark side ?

Edwards did not want to come back up north. He wanted to stay in London and be involved in bringing his young lad up.

I doubt it. Kevin's been pretty clear that sees himself in an administration role once the boots are finally hung up, rather than among the coaching ranks.

Although whichever code you're in, you wouldn't mind having him around to do some consultancy work with your goalkickers.

Jason Robinson is the only one who left in his prime.

Edwards retired from rugby and created a career for himself coaching in RU. It's not like he was offered a job in League.
Farrell left to play at the end of his career. He couldn't have gone on much longer in League.

It bothers me that RL hasn't given them an opportunity but I have no problem with them personally.
Their achievements in Rugby League are the same no matter what they do afterwards.

Fair point. He did; I'd forgotten.

The manner in which they scheduled England's final group game would suggest that perhaps they do.

We'll never see Sinfield again in our sport.

Andy Gilder seems altogether in thrall to rugby union from the posts I've seen on here - not just accepting its superior size and reach but actively thinking the IR(U)B are altogether ignorant of Rugby League and that the date and venue clash on the 10th of October was purely coincidental - no-one in Rugby Union believes that, let alone RL fans.

The problem Edwards, Robinson and Panface have is that they were born and bred into Rugby League, and we all assume they have the same view as so many true believers do - that yes it is sporting genius, but it needs our faith and our protection and our goodwill because there are still those out there who wish it ill. It remains at times a social movement, a badge of identity as much as it is a sport.

Rugby League is tied deep in the ideas of community, has strong links with the co-operative movement and has been very socialist at times. The idea of the importance of the individual taking primacy over that of the team or of the sport is one which it shies away from. For Farrell or Ford to come back to RL and lure away some of its best players, for them to actively to put themselves and their careers away from Rugby League ahead of the greater interests of the sport and the communities that made them, that is what hurts. They are not acting in the protective way we assume all Rugby League people would do.

Spot on.

I doubt that, actually. But we'll see.

If Sinfield fancies sports admin rather than coaching (and who can blame him TBH) then perhaps Hetherington's successor at Leeds might be the aim down the track?

I remember Shaun Edwards playing for Bradford that one season; one of the games he proper spat the dummy at half time and sat outside when everyone else went into the sheds.

Never felt right cheering for him to be honest; it was like unclogging a blocked toilet, you know you had to do it, but felt a bit dirty afterward,

So they went to Union, like a load of others did - and for a host of reasons, personal and professional. They were still class players - something we should be proud of as league people.

I'm league to the core but have loads of 'union mates' because of where I now live. Many of them get up at 7am to watch NRL or, as happened last week, phone me about getting tickets to this NZ test series. They love their league as much as you or I - and they'll often ask, why is it not bigger? Why do so called 'proper' league fans so often come across as negative? Why can't I watch and enjoy both?

Sooner we get our heads out of our old way of thinkin - call it a chip on the shoulder, ignorance, whatever you want - the sooner we'll see our game take off with these people we seem to detest so much.

We (RL people) are the best thing about our sport. We're often (some of us) also the worst. I mean, what's attractive about a sport that consistently talks itself down and bitches and moans about how hard done to we are. We play right into the hands of that minority of tw@ 'old boy' RU fans FFS! And we're turning off a new generation of kids who frankly don't give two plops about 1895, class politics etc. Bout time we grew up and got on with it but I think it's a generational thing

I agree we too often talk ourselves down. But that's nothing to do with its limited media profile. It's location is.

The media, the authorities, the major companies in this country don't give a toss about anything north of Watford. We have our faults and we don't help ourselves but you could transfer the same people running Union into League, give them the same budget and we still wouldn't do that much better.

Agree with that last bit 100% and there's some truth (obviously) in the first bit. My point is; has 30, 40, 50 years of bleating about it done anything to change things for the better?

Old media is exactly that. Old! The 18-25 year olds of today who just want to see good sport don't get their opinions from the Telegraph or the Mail. Sure, some do. But if the media - as one example - is such a hurdle to us reaching these people, let's find another way. Let's at least stop boxing ourselves in when that's our biggest gripe about what the establishment is doing to us.

Don't expect everyone to see sense in what I'm saying. It's a complete mind-shift from where we've been put (and/or put ourselves) for too long. But we can choose to do something about it, or not.

Yes - in thrall. That must be it. The only reasonable explanation.

Not that I've formed an independent opinion based on over 40 years of life experience of involvement in both sports at various levels, which just doesn't happen to agree with your paranoid "they're out to get us" ramblings.

As a St. Helens fan I hated them all when they played for Wigan, but I recognise their achievements in terms of winning medals.

Since they've left RL, I'm jealous of Edwards, specifically his ability to persuade Heather Small to sleep with him; I've no opinion on Robinson; but for some reason every time I see Farrell's face I still want to punch it (or at least hide behind Scully whilst he punches it).

Recently saw Faz stood on one our local high street one morning in the early stages of the RUWC dressed in his England RU top. Looked like he was waiting for someone to pick him up and give him a lift to Twickers.

he wasn't going anywhere. They were having a seniors match and he'd been picked on the wing ...

Wonder when his England RU top will be on e-bay? He won't ever wear it in anger again.