[urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/10/10/12/RUGBYL_England_Nightlead.html[/url

are the England backs good enough?

In a word, no. People talk about producing more home-grown players, but personally i would like to see more and more of our players in the nrl. It is then, and only then, that they will get used to the level of intensity of test match rugby and therefore have a chance of beating the australians.

he mentions 1,6,7,9... only really tomkins looks decent out of all the players in those positions.... so he is correct... some will argue roby as well at 9... but im not convinced he will have any impact against the convicts.

Our backs aren't good enough.

Our forwards aren't either, let's face facts here.

Bit harsh on morley, burgess and ellis.

Against Australia and NZ? I wouldn't say he even matches up to those counterparts. I think the only half decent back in that lot is Gareth Widdop. I thought he was brilliant against France (yes, I know its just France) and at that point he hadn't even made his first team debut.

That last sentence alone shows how far ahead the forwards are in matching the other top teams compared to our English domestic backs.

Morely
Roby
Graham
Ellis
Burgess
O'Loughlin

Four of those could walk into any NRL side.

(Three of them already have.)

Disagree. Our Forwards are more than good enough.

Kind of irrelevant. How many would 'walk into' the Australian Test side is more to the point, surely? And my best guess is 2, or at a massive push, 3.

But the rest would certainly be competitive and not far off. The fact that 3 (at a push) would get in, I don't think the rest of the pack is that far behind them tbh. The one area I do think we may be lacking in the replacement props.

Our forwards have been at least as good as other interteantioanl sides for a few years now, but it's fair comment by Monas that we do not have enough exciting players in the backs. Tomkins and Eastmond are a start, but we need to see a higher quality of academy players come through if we're to be realy threatening. The only way to beat the Aussies is to attack them, so, the better your backs, the greater the chance you can pull this off.

Didn't Ellis get player of the year in the NRL?

I think he was the Wests player of the year, and Burgess was South Sydney player of the year too IIRC...

He's right, sadly. We're going to get crushed.

Widdop would be no where near the Aus line up. Same for everyone else in our squad bar maybe Graham, Morley, Tompkins, Ellis and Burgess

As good as tomkins is, where exactly would he fit into the australian team? Full back instead of slater or stand off instead of lockyer?

Wouldn't you just love that problem?!

stick some old skool shoulder pads on him and play him hooker.

In a Lenny Davis sort of way.

So atleast half the pack then!

Flanaghan not mentioned, but a regular at a team 80 minutes away from the grand final!

now were talking.

Er, no.

At most half the pack, if you can count. And rather less as a percentage if you consider it a 17 man game, with usually at least 8 forwards involved

Our forwards are definately decent but as good as the aussies? it gets boring hearing this one rolled out and then we get smashed about the paddock time after time. Why did we fade in last years final? Because after 60 minnutes we were bloody knackered thats why.
We have bigger forwards but theirs are more dynamic, mobile and fitter

would honsetly say i agree with him in some ways if you compare backs id take evry aussie over ours.
SLATER/widdop
MORRIS/briscoe
INGLIS/atkins
FOLOU/shenton
HAYNE/hall
LOCKYER/mcguire
THURSTON/tomkins. it goes better but he said weak in 1,6,7 and 9 id say 6 and 7 good but mcguire and eastmond out not good but wing and centre isnt as good as it was a few years ago for example the 4 above against a younger senior, gleeson, carney and raynor was a lot stronger