Do you seriously think that if Rugby league became our national sport, we'd struggle against Aussies as much as we do?

Look at Rugby Union. Whilst not very good atm, England still manage to turn over the Aussies quite often e.g. the last two world cups.

p.s. Burgess is a good as anything the Aussies produce in the forwards.

It has everything to do with it.

In every group of people there are the real freakish athletes. People like Ryan Giggs, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Linford Christie, etc... People born with true speed, balance, spacial awareness and the ability to see a game like football or rugby differently to the rest of us.

At the moment British RL is in no shape to attracted the majority of those players to our sport. I'm willing to bet that there's no region, town or city in which RL is the most popular sport in the UK.

By contrast, at least in the Sydney area and parts of Queensland RL is the major sport and they attracted the freak athletes. Hence why players like Lockyer and Billy Slater play RL. I'm willing to bet that if they'd been born in England they would have been drawn to the round ball game.

How can the environment in which young players develop their skill aquisition have nothing to do with the quality of skill they produce?
They are better players because their skills are better!

These two statements totally contradict each other!

I think smith made a mistake picking tomkins and eastmond as the halfbacks last week and this week.

We got away with it last week as sinfield was running the show and moving us round the field from dummy half.

Eastmond for me should have been centre or on bench as we needed a scrumhalf that can direct the team round pitch and also have good kicking game.

I just feel they wasn't ready YET to be our halfbacks but who else do we play as myler IMO ain't ready just yet either.

IMO brough may have done a good job with the direction and kicking game but is he good enough?

I'm sure eastmond and tomkins over next few years will be a killer halfback pairing.

Looking around the internet:

Registered players in Uk

Around 40,000 (200icon_cool.gif

Registered players in Australia

Around 172,000 (200icon_cool.gif

Surely the statistic alone tells you why we struggle.

Football is by far biggest sport in England and prob the world but England football team can't produce a team good enough either.

In oz rugby union is as big as league and so is aussie rules yet they still produce the best rugby league players in the world.

I would say Brough is good enough, if he was at Saints or Leeds he would be hailed as the best 7 we have in this country. The fact that he plays for his home town club in Wakey means he doesnt quite get the recognition he deserves.

You dont see Australia throwing 2 kids in at half back, you can get away with doing that on the wing but in such key positions you need a more steady player and i think Brough would have been a better option.

Eastmond and Tomkins are going to be fantastic but not just yet at international level.

In football though, England don't have the most players available. That falls to the likes of Brasil, shockingly the best team in the world.

I don't see your point about Union, though i don't think you have one.

We could debate all night but it all boils down to we just can't compete for 80 mins against these convicts.

I enjoyed the game and the scoreline was'nt a fair reflection.

We gave it a good go for 60 mins but the way they picked up the pace on the lead up to the 2nd morris try was frightening...they are just too clinical.

Close to the tryline we try moves more in hope,where there's appear to have been practiced to perfection.

There has been good points posted about how the international side can improve,i'll add that the overseas quota is cut to 4...and that includes kolpak,european passport holders,parent/grandparent etc in that. Gives more english players oppotunities in s.l

Compared to soccer;

Registered players in England (2007)
820, 000(source FIFA website)
Registered players in Australia (2007)
452, 188 (source FFA webiste)

So if raw numbers are to be believe we should be twice as good as them at football and they should be 3 times as good as us at Rugby League.

Based on this, I think we arent doing too badly at all!

I think going a little bit over the top the game changed when a player was knock clean out and took the sting right out the game i dont even think that the Ausies are that good apart from Inglis which makes a 1 man team will we ever catch yes just a matter of time but it defo time.

The game changed a good 5 mins before that.

My point is that Aussie rugby also has to compete with union for players.

Is rugby league the number 1 sport in oz? I'm only asking as I don't know.

Football is our national sport and we have thousands and thousands of young kids playing football all over the country yet we can't compete in big comps like world cup and euros with smaller countrys.


Don't get your point about Brasil? I don't think you have one!

It is the biggest game in NSW and QLD (well over half the national population), nothing comes close. I know it might be hard for Ingerlanders to understand but soccer isn't the most popular sport _anywhere_ in our great nation. Ditto Union. It's either RL or AFL.

In oz rugby union is as big as league and so is aussie rules yet they still produce the best rugby league players in the world.'"

How does AFL stand in terms of rugby league as number 1 sport in oz?

If union is as small as you say it is in oz then you do pretty well in union

sorry mate,but aussie rules n rugger are still second best to rugby league in the more populated areas of australia.
the truth is that in australia coming first is all that matters.coming second in england means a pat on the back & a well done for giving it a go,whilst in australia coming second means your the first LOSER.
for 60 mins we matched them,and but for a couple of contencious decisions we might have built a bit of a lead n gone on to victory.but they didnt go our way n they dug deep n pulled out a win(and the scoreline flattered them in the end)
until english(british)schools bring back a competetive attitude,instead of this "its the taking part that counts"attitude we will win sweet fa on the world stage in most sporting activities

Is that correct? 440,000 for football and only 172,000 for rugby league?

until english(british)schools bring back a competetive attitude,instead of this "its the taking part that counts"attitude we will win sweet fa on the world stage in most sporting activities'"

Disagree!

Australia scored some tries that were quite simply giftwrapped.

Slaters dummy half try was p!ss poor defence, Smiths try was down to us switching off and thinking the ball was dead and Slaters last try was down to three England players not maing any attempt at gathering the ball and allowing an Ausie to nip in a touch down.

Why the hell did we go for a short kick off when we were 12 points down with 14 minutes left? We needed to kick deep into a corner and force an error inside their half. Then after Australia punished our short kick off with a try we did it again and guess what!

Nit picking here but Inglis try in the first half was knock on, it was clear that in slow motion, you could see seperaton between his arm and the ball after he had initially made contact with it. You could clearly see the Co Op advertisment lettering through the gap between his arm and the ball.

It might or might not have helped us but to go in at half time winning could have made it somewhat more difficult for the Ausies to put us away.

In the end though we gave away too much cheap ball in the 1st half and without that we could have built a lead which was defendable.

Final analysis: Australia were just too good for us!
We needed to be at our best and have some luck just to have a chance of winning. Australia can have some things go against them and still win by a wide margin.

We need to get real and take some hard decisions about the game in England starting with cutting the number of overseas players. We need to accept some pain and maybe a decline in standards in order to get stronger and build a better competition. That includes my own club Wakefield who have once again become a club with far too many non home grown players.

It will come back mate and not too soon either.

According to my research yeah. - Sources the 2007 Football Federation Australia site and the Australian Insitute of Sport site

Thing is, football is so much easier to play. Inclusive to all shapes and sizes and multiple ability levels. Anyone can find a team to suit their level.

Surely thats not right? theres more than double playing wendyball in Aus than their is league?!?!??!

Given the agendas of SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) and ECM (Every Child Matters) the winning ethos won't come back any time soon.

These are fantastic agendas BTW but do not fit with elitism in school sport.