I had high hopes for the WCC. The visit to Australia by some of our key chairmen seemed to have stirred the NRL into action, and we got a beefed-up WCC. But so far the Aussie teams have been too strong for us, even in pre-season and away from home they still win the matches. It's no use supporters saying 'it's only a friendly', because it isn't. The RFL / club chairmen are trying to breathe life into a competition that could make millions on the back of TV rights and advertising. Money we desperately need over here to grow the sport and get more players through to professional standard. But one sided affairs like last night at Saints is not going to sway the NRL. Joe Public in Australia and probably over here, will have limited interest in games with only one outcome. For once, I will be supporting Wigan and Leeds this weekend in the hope that we can get a win, or at least a close match.

The only close match that will happen will be Wigan. Leeds & Saints have played poor in all their games this season. I will never support Wigan even if its against an Aussie side.

I wouldn't even support Wigan if they were going up against the ex misses!!!

I wouldn't support Wigan even if they were playing ISIS

I wouldn't support Wigan even if they were playing the "Jimmy Savile fan club"

That's quality. If you put Shane lowery and nookie bear together you've got Sam Tomkins

Mickey mac with a broken ankle

Pretty depressing stuff from an SL vs NRL perspective. I hate to think what the scoreline tomorrow will be. Leeds need a miracle.

Such a gulf in class! Can't see the NRL keeping this three game series up much longer.

Come on Broncos, make it 50.

The Aussie sides looked fully committed from the first kick. Ours just look as if they think "we'll try and blow them away for the next 10 minutes, and hope something comes off". They are ruthless, but still remain structured, at all times.

I had this game (Worriers/Broncos) to be the closest came. I thought Wigan would "tough it out". How wrong I was.

I think we'll need Prof. Brian Cox to keep score, tomorrow. If the Chemical muppets can put 50 past Leeds, God knows how many NQC will score

Like you say it's the intensity for the full 80 mins we can't cope with.. Plus gifting players of their quality easy turn overs is never going to end well. :-/

The NRL players are higher calibre athletes. It was embarrassing when Clarke was telling us fat ginger Farrell was an outstanding athlete, yet the NRL sides have 18 year old outside backs bigger, stronger and much more athletic than him. They are fitter, more disciplined and more committed. And that's before you consider their ability levels. We have a lot of individuals who could adapt to that and be very good in the NRL, but as a collective, Super League sides are miles behind still. It's never been any different since Super League began.

The WCC has never been any different. If the Aussies take it seriously, they win easily. There won't be much of future for the competition if tomorrow is the same, but I think it's vital. How are we ever going to improve if our clubs are denied the opportunity to play against the best sides?

To be fair, we are a nation of "do just enough". We produce good sportsmen, but never LEGENDARY

Let's look at the skill sports (I'm sorry, I can't endorse running, rowing, cycling, swimming, all athletes, but no great skill). Where are our Pele, Messi, Maradona, Nicklaus, Player, Palmer, Woods, McEnroe, Sampras, Djokovic, Warne, McGrath, Waugh, Gilchrist, Johns, Langer, Fittler, Daley, Lockyer? These are LEGENDS. The only English RL player in my watching lifetime to be considered a legend, is Hanley. No-one else comes close. Guess what, Hanley was dedicated. Didn't pee it up the wall. Didn't seek publicity. He wanted to be the BEST, so he made RL his focus.
Of all the sportsmen I've listed above, bar Maradona's penchant for Columbian powders, and Woods putting his "appendage" where it shouldn't be, they don't court controversy. They just apply themselves 100% to their sports. As a nation, our sports stars "do enough", but never more than enough.

Back on RL
Our players are fit. Of course they are. The Aussies are fitter
Our players can pass. The Aussies pass better.
Our players can tackle. The Aussies tackle MUCH harder.
Those last two points are why (imo), the Aussie sides are light years ahead of our game. You look at the quality of the passes from Sydney and Brisbane, over the last 48 hours. Crisp, and to the hands/upper body. Look at Saints' and Wigan's. Functional, but mistake ridden. The same with tackling. The Aussies is ruthless. Hard and punishing to the opposition's bodies. Ours is again, functional, but nowhere near the Aussies' levels.
Get our coaches to practice these two basic facets of our game with our players, and we MAY compete. But no. Our coaches are too preoccupied in doing personal developments plans for players, and holding endless video sessions. To me, that's trying to run before you can walk. Do the basics right, time after time, and THEN worry about training conferences.

Just how many times do SL players make handling errors, during matches? I bet it's a damn site more than their Australian equivalent. Again, BASICS. Pass better, you make less mistakes.

Still, for all SL's faults, it's a game a lot "easier on the eye "than the NRL.

Here endeth the lesson.

Here in deepest Cambridgeshire (hot bed of Rugby League) ... those "I wouldn't support Wigan" lines have made me and the missus chuckle. You can't beat a bit of good old Warrington humour. I'll have to visit again soon to top up my levels. Thank you.

We condemn Wigan as "thugs" (I've never endorsed that myself, might I add, I've always found it to be a crap rivals jibe) but the simple fact is that in the last few years Wigan are the only team in Super League who regularly play the game at an intensity level and hard hitting style that the game should be played in. We moan at them and call them "thugs", when in reality what is going on is that everyone else from Cas to Catalans just do 'enough' to take a man down in a tackle instead of trying to break the er in half. In the NRL they try and turn their opposition into mush by smashing out of them in every tackle, in every set, every week. Super League is far too soft.

Only once last season did Wire play properly, what NRL teams would consider a proper hit-out, at home to Wigan when we stuffed 'em! The rest of the whole season we just did enough. We won the odd big games but the opposition were probably just doing enough as well. For too long I think the problem has been that the regular rounds have been seen as a pre-season to the play-offs and the actual RL season in this country lasts just four games in September/October. The intensity is not high enough from week-to-week.

The physical fitness and strength is on another planet too. Last night it looked like Brisbane had brought down their open age men's team to play Wigan's U17s. The sheer difference in size and strength and power and speed, was huge! Nikorima, young little Kiwi half back, small man in NRL terms, was physically more developed than Farrell, supposedly powerful back row forward and Bateman and pretty much every other Wigan player bar the odd prop. He's their little man!

Then you've got the basics of the game. Concentration, passing, running lines, defensive line...all of a much higher standard with the Aussies. None of this is complicated stuff. It's simple training on the body, mind and of basic RL skills and disciplines. We are being shown up to be like amateurs compared to them. Yes our talent pool is much smaller than theirs so we start off behind from the very start but we have enough players out there to get the basics right with.

However, we must stick with this World Club Series. For me, we will only get better by playing them and learning from them!

Ellery Hanley was not as clean as you think. If you check out his Bradford career, he missed several seasons in the early eighties. I wonder where he was?

The differences between the two [iclubs[/i (and I mean clubs not teams) in question on both nights (and I don't expect tonight to be any different), and the competitions that they occupy are massive.

The aussie coaches are eloquent, thoughtful, knowledgeable and intelligent. Ours are well versed in cliches and excuses and that's it. They get Wayne Bennett, we get Gordon Bennett himself, Mr Wane. Just look through the rota of current SL coaches - a sorry ragtag bunch of ex-players, inexperienced wannabes and inexperienced neverwillbes it is too.

The points about the basic skill levels of our teams are valid, but our coaches are pre-occupied with trying to play an aussie style game which is largely alien to us. At a time when we have more British coaches coaching than ever before, we are seeing teams having all the traditionally British elements of the game coached out of them.

Our very own Mike Cooper is an excellent example. A player who's game has progressed more in two seasons in Australia than it would have done in ten seasons here.

Is it really practical for 12 teams to come out of the blocks every week & batter the hell out of each other when probably at best there are only 30 players in a squad ? Get a few weeks into the season & many teams would be running on empty, but substitute the biff for skill & you might get a season of watchable games. It is entertainment after all & not a brutality contest.

Does Daley Thompson count ?

I

Daley Thompson, but to be fair to me, I did say skill sports.

Just thought he could be an exception due to being a multi discipline athlete

ian botham freddie flintoff paul gascoigne ronnie o sullivan phil taylor

I've never herd commentators sleek so much pish !!!

All 3 matches were an embarrassment for SL.
It must get better next year for the future of the comp.

If this is a true reflection of the gap betweenthe Aussies and us, then Wayne Bennett is needed.