Just finished watching Aus. Grand Final. If we want to win the Four Nations one thing we need to improve on is our speed at the play the ball. They are so much quicker than us. Players are allowed too much time in Super League.

I think you will find, we need to do a lot more than one thing.

the reason they are faster at the ptb is that theres far less messing about trying to slow it down in oz.

I,ve been banging the drum about this for the past 4 months, you can bet they will playing closer to the rules of how the game is played down under, that means less holding down(which we are good at) and faster play the balls (which we are not good at).
Should imagine the ball gets out wide to the backs quicker and more often, where superleague its mainly 5 drives and a kick.

Yet again they have got it right whilst we blindly followed them down the slow ptb route that was plaguing the NRL in recent seasons. They spotted it was rubbish so changed it, we look stupid now as we had it right in the first place.

The standard of refereeing in the NRL is vastly superior to Super League which helps with how organised and regimented the play the balls look over there.

The play the ball in Aus is not so much quicker, it's just 'cleaner' IMO, two refs has helped this IMO as they are more likely to get penalised if they wrestle or lay on.

i dont think anybody on this thread has watched the nrl the past 2 seasons

the rucks were a mess and very slow with the wrestling

as a fellow poster has said, 2 refs has cleaned it up and speeded up the game

though the game was faster in 2005

you dont want the game being too fast

Our game is slowing down because we import Aussies who come over and employ the tactics they used to use in the NRL.
This means we blindly follow in whatever happens down under around 3 years after it occurs over there.
No doubt in a few years our ptb will have sped back up again. Probably as a result of employing another ref.

There is only one way that England will win the Four Nations.


If they kick Australia, NZ and France out and invite made up teams like South Africa, Italy and Morocco.....and even then...it will be a tough road to win it.

Im inclined to agree. I dont see an abundance of talent available this year for England. Sykes being picked at centre in the WC said it all for me, he'd struggle to get in an NRL squad never mind the Oz or Kiwi side. Still a long way to go...

Yes, but we won't.

I think we'd only manage a draw in the 'One Nation' unfortunately!

Saints have had to change the way they play because play the balls are sooo slow. Huddersfield have benefitted but every club is allowed to slow the game down. It's a joke when a tackler lies on a player, turns his head towards the referee and waits a few seconds for the instructions to release. What an intelligent post.

The idea is to slow the PTB down properly, Saints are crying because they've got away with it for years and now other teams are catching on, how long ago is it now saints employed wrestling coaches??

I agree with the overall premise, the niggly stuff we see in many SL clubs isnt the right way, hence why Hudds in their SL games were penalised to death. Leeds, Saints and Catalans are the only teams i've seen work it properly.
The main principle is to hold the bloke up a couple of seconds BEFORE dropping him to the ground, not lie on for 3 seconds after.
IMO the PTB has been quicker in the playoffs

Who do we want to win ? ................ England



Who will win it ? ................. Australia