Always makes me smile when people say 'Oh.. because *insert players name here* has gone to the NRL it will make England a better side'





What a load of bar-locks





Yes it might make that individual player better. Or alternatively it might injure them beyond repair. Both Burgess and Ellis are struggling with potentially very serious injuries.

The only way the national team will get better is by having a decent coach and playing more games together. And if some members of the side are playing overseas and the NRL won't release them then they won't get to play in the team.

Personally I'd like to see the RFL taking the same line as the ARL. 99% of the time the ARL won't consider picking a SL based Aussie for the national side.

The England team should consist of players who play their RL in superleague week in week out.

More good quality friendlies played with the entire first team squad is the answer.

You be a great coach of the Brazilian national football team.

Its about the style of play. They are obviously faster attack from deeper and stronger runners. Its situational the more English players we have playing NRL the more they will be used to playing high paced games against them.

McNamara is a terrible coach and we wont get anwhere with him anyway, but if its a 'practice makes perfect' scenario then surely we would be in a similar position to NZ. They dont have a league, but most their players play in NRL with similar amount of freindlies to us so why any better?

Players need to be pushed in order to get the best from them.

The coach isn't as important as the players. You could have the best coach in the world and he'd still not be able to get England to win a series at international level. The reason is the playing level of SL.

SL is not played at the same level as the NRL. That is a simple fact. Players who play regularly in NRL sides are of a better standard than their SL counterparts. Yes, you'll get stand out players in SL and for them to improve they need to take that step up to the next level of club rugby.

The reason the ARL don't pick SL based Aussie players is the same reason that Fabio Cappello doesn't pick England players from the Championship over those from the Premiership, it's a lower standard of competition and you only want the top players in an international side.

As for Ellis and Burgess' injuries? They play RL, it's not a tickling contest and they could have picked up the same injuries in SL.

The NRL won't release english players for the Exiles game for the simple reason that it's a made up game. It's not a true international, so why should they release their players for 1 game over here when it means they'll miss 2 or possibly more NRL games.

The NRL coaches teach them more wrestling than league in my opinion and it's this that causes the teams more injuries than ever. I personally would like to see the 10mts cut to 3mts and make the players go for more inventive moves, also I regret the loss of true ctb where the hookers had to hook -are there any teams out there that are still able to hook properly? The game today is altered mightily and although it is faster and more mobile,I still would like to see some of the true league football coming to the fore. Also if I could change one thing in both the SL and NRL it would be to utilise the equipment that is available to show forward passes-sod Stevos momentum rule- rugby balls should be passed backwards, end of. Aso with the equipment we already have available, the VR should then be able to see perfectly whether a pass is forward and so should all the paying fans so then the VR can rule with no arguments. They do this now for football and why not for rugby to silence all those who shout ' Forward' or pick on the line judges calling them as blind as bats ..........cindy russell

sorry they do what in football?

Always makes me smile when someone writes a post telling us "the only way" like it holds more weight. What a load of bar-locks.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. Just like there is more than one way to improve the national team.
1. Playing more (competitive) games will help.
2. Having a bigger talent pool to pick from will help.
3. Having better quality players (which playing in the NRL will improve) will help.
4. Having a better coach will help.
5. Giving more incentives will help.
6. Having more rest will help.

They ALL will help, and none of them on their own will solve anything. We are doing a bit at a time and getting there, and hopefully it will all come together in the end. It does my head in when someone picks up on one thing and says we should be doing the other, and then points to the short term to "prove" that it's not working.

1. We've got the Exiles game as a replacement for France, so that's one more competitive game so far (but we still need more). We're trying to improve France and Wales so we can have more local competitive games in the future, so there's another in the long term.

2. We're trying to take SL to new areas in the country, promote youth, reduce the overseas quota (which legally takes time and may not seem like it's happening, but IS happening) to increase the talent pool.

3. We're bringing in better systems for the youth than before, we're seeing more English players in the NRL than we have in a long time, SL is becoming more competitive all-round than it ever has been.

4. Better coach... pass! (Although, since he's been in power, he has introduced the Knights and the Exiles which I think is good. Maybe he's a better manager than a coach?).

5. We are giving players more money for winning at international level than we used to, although they haven't been earning much this way!

6. We've shortened the season by 1 game since 2006 with the introduction of the Magic Weekend (those saying it's an extra game need to look at 2006 and previous). I still think we need to do more to shorten the season, mind.



We ARE doing things. We just aren't doing enough, or quick enough, to catch the Aussies and Kiwis yet. But that's all to do with how much money we have to invest, and how much money these things can make for us to invest. If making a change loses money, it won't (and probably shouldn't) happen. We don't have a big well of money to dig into for long term projects.

I think more SL/NRL inter-competition games would be good (exposing our players to higher intensity competition) and would help improve our profile and increase money. Just not on the same scale as the 1997 WCC!

The question of whether lots of players going it is good for our game is a tough one. On one hand they will get better coaching and play in more intense matches, thus making them better individual players. On the other hand, if players start going down under, it will dilute the quality of the game in this country. The players left over here will be playing against fewer top quality opponents, may be less of an attraction for good players to stay in the game over here, and may eventually make our game less attractive to TV (££££). It would certainly be good for the game in Oz but it's debatable if it would benefit us in the long term.

Definitely the view of an old-timer!


It's not "Stevo's momentum rule", it's an actual rule. And it is rightly an actual rule. I'm fed up of this myth that people think it is easy to achieve passing the ball backwards in relation to the field AS WELL AS running at speed. It is physically impossible.

In order for a player running at speed to achieve a pass, due to the laws of momentum they would either have to pass the ball directly backwards faster than the speed they are running (which would stop them running at speed anyways because they'd be facing the other way) or pass the ball incredibly fast if they want to pass at a small angle in such a way to counter the forward momentum.

Given the choice of the momentum rule and slowing the game down to ridiculous paces, I'll always pick the former.

The only way you'd be able to accurately pick out forward passes is by using Hawk-Eye technology (what they use in tennis and cricket) to calculate the momentum of the ball in the forward direction before and after the pass, and if the momentum has INCREASED it is a forward pass.


They do what in football?

I thought we won 3-0 the last time we played an international series?

nope...never happened

Technically that was GB.

still never happened........wiped from the records....

You underestimate English players.

If Wayne Bennett was made Englands national coach maybe... just maybe....

The only problem with British players is that there are not enough of them yes we pick the best we have but on the whole we just dont have the quality across the board. We need to start from a larger playing base & the RFL is trying its best. I also want to see GB back & England, Wales, Scotland & Ireland play each other to get players for the GB team. As for players in the NRL, yes but they must be released as & when the GB coach wants them if the NRL clubs dont want that dont sign GB players.

Coaching core skills is what needs to be not ignored. From what we here, the coaching over here is miled behind what kids get in Australia and NZ!

I think it's got pretty good. Certainly from what I see compared to the coaching I got. Bear in mind though that the better coaching of kids won't start showing results at pro and international level for ten years.

'The only way of getting better is by playing someone better'
'The only way of getting smarter is by playing a smarter opponent'
English players playing in the NRL is the best thing for them imo