You may well see Kiwis as your rival, but in a sport with limited international opportunities to not see GB as important is incredibly short sighted. If you really ' [ihave no time for a League that does not build its foundations and Juniors and instead tries to buy quick fixes from another League that has developed its players[/i' then you should be comdemning the NRL consistent with your initial post. As for not developing juniors, you clearly don't watch English RL. Tim Sheens seems to think differently. I also note that you think it's fine to insult an entire Rugby League playing nation but don't enjoy having your own shortcomings pointed out.

While I don't agree with any of what you say, the biggest question I have is why are you sounding so happy about what would be the possible demise of rugby league in the UK?

Just off the top of my head, here are three players that were current Aussie internationals at the time they signed for a SL club (as the ARL don't pick players that are leaving):

Shaun Berrigan (and GF MOM at the time).

Craig Fitzgibbon

Matt King



There's probably more. Not to mention Kiwi internationals, SoO players, etc.





But you do apparently have time for another league (NRL) that are starting to buy quick fixes from another league (SL) instead of developing its own players?



Hypocrisy reigns supreme.





As long as you know why you're going nowhere, that's OK...





We get it, we're not as good as the Aussies in the depth department. But it's not as bad as you make it out. It's a lot better than it used to be.





Don't Aus vs Eng/GB games tend to get bigger crowds than Aus vs NZ over there? Bit strange if we aren't important...

I don't care about your criticism of myself, I thought I already made that clear.

Tim Sheens does not think differently he said



"If we pick off the top 10 per cent of their players and they're playing over here, in some ways it's a fair trade"

The thread was related to signing players form the English CURRENT Test team (at the right price)



Australia does develop its own Juniors and regularly supples dozens of players to other Test countries and Leagues, have a look at how many Aussies played for other nations in the last World Cup, including the winning team.

I am not looking forward to the demise of Rugby League in England but I can be critical about how they go about their business.

Even when new criteria is applied by a weak governing body (the RFL) all the Clubs look for loopholes to get around the system rather than plough some money into a solid Junior system.

Any League that has around 30-50 % of their first team players imported should ring alarm bells.

How many of the three players were CURRENT Test players for Australia



Fitzgibbon wasn't ( returned Journeyman)

Don't think Berrigan was (a bench utility)

Not sure if King was in the last Test team before he jumped. (a Winger)



Thats Cherry picking of the top order





Do you regard having Two of the best English players in the NRL a problem?

Balanced with the 150 or so NRL has bins/never bins and others in SL?



Its hard to say if England get better crowd figures than the Kiwis because England have not figured in any Finals in Australia for how long?

Last year was the first year England have figured in a final in recent memory, the sad selection of Stadiums by the RLF for tournaments reflects their lack of confidence in drawing any sort of decent crowd to a Test match.

What was the final crowd? 31k pretty sad all round for a country that aspires to be a player at Test level.

Average crowd for the 4 nations series was around 16k, that is less than the NRL weekly average.



Good to see England can pick a Stadium and draw a crowd for a 4 nations Grand Final less than the AVERAGE crowd a Club team like the Broncos attract each week.

the average tournament crowds for the 1995 RLWC,04,05 tri nations & 09 4nations held up here are more or less the same as the 08 RLWC & 06 tri nations held down under.....hth





and please tell us all the reason why the ARL have decided to a australia test @ parramatta



also why only 27,000 turned upto watch the 2006 tri nations final @ the SFS between OZ & NZ

Is it good for the Super League to lose more elite players to the NRL? Can the English game afford to lose its stars? Australian RL has never wanted to lose its star players, nor lose elite NZers, with certain Australian RL people claiming them as our own when criticising player drain to SL. English players may benefit from playing fewer games in NRL, and from receiving more pre-planned breaks in the NRL season, yet any potential boost to those exports potential performance comes at a cost to your game. Its avoiding the issue that will benefit the English game long term - restructuring that puts the national team in a peak physical and mental state the beat the Kangaoos.







IMO % of foreigners isn't the most relevant factor that negatively affects the success of the League nor the national team. English Rugby Union's Premiership has a high % of foreigners, as does the French Rugby Union's Top 14. Both are growing in popularity, their clubs are increasingly able to buy players from anywhere. England's national teams won the 2003 World Cup, contested the 07 final, and won three Six Nations titles in the last decade. France has won 5 titles in the last decade. What about English Premier League soccer? High percentage of foreigners, one of the most high profile and commercially successful leagues in the world.



Management of elite players is a significant factor. NZ Rugby does this extremely well, hence the All Blacks performing well, winning so many tests and holding a high world ranking for a long time. English Rugby Union has an agreement, hence its reasonable performance despite a long season.

Our vision is to have Israel playing in a 6 Nations RL comp.

[url=http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25494583-23214,00.html?from=public_rssCraig Fitzgibbon signs for Hull - 16th May 2009[/url

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Rugby_League_World_CupLast test appearance - RLWC Final 2008[/url



[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2006/nov/27/rugbyleague.sportShaun Berrigan signs for Hull - 14th June 2007[/url

[url=http://www.rleague.com/db/year/2007/international_test_matches//bundaberg_rum_test_review.phpLast test appearance - ANZAC Test 2007[/url



[url=http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,22048672-23214,00.htmlMatt King signs for Warrington - 10th July 2007[/url

[url=http://www.rleague.com/db/year/2007/international_test_matches//bundaberg_rum_test_review.phpLast test appearance - ANZAC Test 2007[/url



Like I say, the ARL don't pick players that are signing for SL clubs, so after the contract announcements, they won't play any tests.





No. And I never did say anything to that affect.





Not all players in the NRL are amazing. Just remember how many of these top NRL players have failed to make it in SL, but still gone back to NRL and been a top player.





What does figuring in finals have to do with anything? Aus vs GB/Eng games draw similar sized crowds to Aus/NZ, if not bigger. And you can include your finals in that.



As for your dig at the crowd (a capacity 31k according to [url=http://www.rleague.com/db/index.php?id=92241this article[/url, as the top tier was not open due to Leeds United not applying for a safety certificate), it was bigger than [url=http://www.rleague.com/db/year/2006/tri-nations_test_series//tri-nations_final_review.phpthe last Tri-Nations Final held in Aus.[/url An "amazing" 27,325 watched Australia beat NZ. Now, are you going to do the non-hypocritical thing and tell us all that Australia are not a player at test level?







21.27k if you take away the games not involving England.

And 19.5k if you take away the games held in France



Wasn't 16k also the same average as the RLWC held in Aus?







But still bigger than the Tri-Nations Final held in Aus in 2006.



You know, if you're going to try and patronise someone by saying that someone else is better, you might want to do your research first. Otherwise you come off a complete and utter fool!

I think that is the definition of complete ownage.

Well in Wellsey

I don't get any doom and gloom about top English players plying their trade in the NRL. Tomkins and Eastmond are good examples of players who would improve immensely playing NRL IMO. If they stay in England they'll stay star players for their clubs, but have the same sorts of issues that prevented Long, McGuire etc ever making the step up to genuine class halfbacks. I'd like to see Roby go too. Doesn't mean they should go to the NRL forever. How much bigger a star would Tomkins be if he went to the NRL for a few years, developed into a world class player and then returned to Wigan?



BTW, people should stop trying to defend the indefensible recruitment of p*ss poor Aussies. Everyone knows which imports at their own clubs are basically very average players.