The club level game is already low. I have no problem with clubs bringing in quality imports but the majority are average players. The only way we can raise the standards of players coming through the system is to send them to the NRL.

Every time that happens we get complaints about watering down the level of SL. We can't have it both ways.

We either send the best players to the NRL to try and improve the national side, or we keep them all in SL to improve the level of SL but it may not improve the national side.

I think it needs a balanced approach though or else you risk making the competition worse off if the additional english players playing aren't up to standard.

There isn't just one thing that can fix this issue and the other issues in English Rugby League.
- Amateur Rugby needs better numbers
- All clubs should have academies
- Salary Cap increased / abolished
- Internationals embedded in the calendar

Possibly to 5 with a couple of years of notice for the clubs. I think anymore than that might be difficult to sustain without further damaging the quality of play.

I would definitely like English players to count on the overseas quota for Catalans Dragons.

Look at some of our overseas players, do they really enhance SL?

You would need to do the same for French lads playing for English clubs.

I'm not talking about the overseas players. I'm talking about sending English players to the NRL.

Every player we lose a player to the NRL it's met with moans and groans about losing the competitions best players.

This is a good point. When was the last time we had a real superstar in our comp who stayed long enough to add some real value? The likes of Barba and Lyon were superstars but came here under a cloud due to misdemeanours back home. Barrett was a great player to use Wigan as an example but these were years ago (apart from Barba)

One of my best mates is Polish and doesn't really folllow RL. However he works with a lot of mad Wigan fans (I don't mean crazy I mean keen match going ones). The other day we were chatting about the WC and he asked if Field and French had been playing well for Australia as he knows they are good players from his work colleagues. He presumed they would be playing. I explained that they hadn't been selected. Trying to explain to him was strange as in his eyes they are 2 of the best in SL (they are of course) and yet if we are being honest would either make even a 40 man Australia squad? Would either start in the NRL?

This isn't being anti-Wigan by using these two as an example, you could argue Coote when he first signed for us would be the same.

The point I am making is that the depth of talent in Aus dwarfs ours. Now of course if a Nathan Cleary comes over here its a different story but its never going to happen for a whole host of reasons.

i've just made a point on the Warriors fans forum about the post match on BBC. Willie Poaching was asked about Samoa's chance v Oz. He said we had 8 players in the NRL Grand Final, and we play at that intensity week in week out. He didnt seem phased. I think he's realistic that Oz are favourites, but the majority of the team play in the NRL so wont be phased by playing them

another stat was that 40% of the NRL playing rosta come from the South Sea Islands. So no wonder that Samoa, Tonga, PNG etc are progressing internationally.

In the UK we want to see the best stars week in week out, but our game isnt played at an intensity close to the NRL, so we either need to massively improve the quality / intensity every week in SL or our players need exposing to the NRL on a regular basis. I'd never seen Farnworth or Young play as i dont watch NRL, but they both looked comfortable at the top level, given their relative youth and lack of international playing time and that must only have come from playing in the NRL every week

Sorry to go off topic but why did Jamie Lyon come over ?

Also my Mrs who goes the odd game couldn’t understand why French and Field aren’t playing for Australia haha

Retired due to pressures of the game and was playing Bush Footie with his mates if I remember correctly.

Agree with reducing the overseas quota numbers.
Due to contracts in place and club's future planning I'd reduce by 1 a year from 2024 down to 4 or perhaps even three.
Maybe IMG may suggest that a qualification for SL would be to have a youth system with an academy and reserves.

That Waney had to go into an Intl competition without a right centre says it all. With Wesley going to 6 tells us a lot too. The whole game over here needs to look to player production in each of the SL clubs.

Yeah spot on. Was basically disillusioned with the game and had retired. Think he was only about 21. He was in awful shape when he first arrived.

The starting point should be schools.

Sorry I misunderstood. But that is our only option if we are to improve the international game in the short-term as the quality of SL does not test the best players we have got on a regular basis. Look at how New Zealand and Samoa have come on leaps and bounds since their players flooded into the NRL.

Spot-on.

If only league was played in schools nationwide, eh? Is that a pipe-dream, or should campaigning towards that be one of the RFL's biggest objectives?

Nationwide? There's no chance of that when there's schools in Wigan where RL isn't played, especially at junior school level. From my experience it all depends on the background of the PE teacher, if they are 'football' or 'rugby'. If its rugby then lessons tend to be split, if its football then rugby tends to get pushed out completely.

I know even when I was a lad at Mornington High in Hindley we only had Union as the PE teacher played union.I dont know about now though.

All my mates played for Thomas More in the early sixties I attended Gidlow School Beech Hill they only played football we asked could we have a Rugby team as we had over 20 interested head master said no chance.

Pipe dream.

The focus needs to be on driving kids towards community clubs because the schools system is as bad as it has ever been and getting worse by the day.

Some obvious points coming up, but they need making. Rugby League is a shambles. There is no money in it.
Many “fans” seem to be unconcerned with anything more than 5 miles from their home. Super League clubs are allowed to play in dirty and ramshackle grounds. There is very little in the way of career progression, as some teams have little or nothing in the way of academies. Most club sponsors seem to be small local businesses, as they have always been. I don’t think much has really changed since I started watching in 1966. I’m not trolling here, there are many individuals in the game who are talented and work incredibly hard, but the general parochial attitude means they get nowhere. The Aussies have a structured development path. Also,In the USA, I lived in a small town of 25,000 people just outside Memphis Tenn some years ago. The high school played (American) Football on Friday nights and 10,000 people came to watch. There was something for everyone to get involved with, players, band, cheerleaders, ground staff, admin, food vendors etc etc all being volunteers. For the best players, there was progression to College football at various levels, and for elite College players, the professional leagues. They had a structure. When I was in Texas just before the pandemic, there was the same set up. The funny thing is, I’m not particularly a US football fan, but I’m an admirer of their structure and organisation. Will RL ever get near this level of organisation and structure?
Not long as humans have a hole in their bottoms, I suspect.

I agree with that, but something has to change. It is hard to get kids to go to community clubs if they have no experience of the game, the RFL need to get off their backsides and get coaches, players etc. into the school environment.

What seems to be the issue is PE teachers either not wanting to put the extra effort in or not understanding/knowing the game so they favour sports they do know….football.

My sons school had a history of annual tours to Australia, his age group have 13 players on scholarship all at the school…the school has had a change of staff and now there is no rugby league at the school. This is a school that up to 5 years ago was producing top SL players and took great pride in that.

Meaningful, regular international fixtures are the only way to expand.

Have a product that goes beyond NW club games and develops interest nationwide as only internationals will do.

This will drive up a sponsorhip, increase revenue, feed it back into the game,. Interest at a national level develops local interest and support, more players encouraged to play.

More funding from international then use to support developing grass roots.

We've seen from TV audiences in the WC people are interested in international fixtures.

Union only really started to grow at club level when they started their WC competition, and expanded their internationals beyond 6 nations. They have regular autumn internationals, 6 nations and a WC and a huge audience for all.

Our random approach to internationals doesn't allow sponsorship deals, TV rights any chance of developing beyond a ah - hoc piecemeal approach.