Well Slater et al play against rock solid Aussie defences week after week Tomkins is playing teams like Wakefield & Crusaders. IF he went over to the NRL and ripped it up then you would have a fair comparison

I know the NRL is a better competition but even then sometimes the defending is shocking. I want him to go to Australia and prove himself, thats when I think we can honestly call him a world class player.

Correction of omission

In Europe we have a hand full of good teams in Aus they have New South Wales Cup teams who would give SL teams a run for there money. When players are asked the differences between SL and the NRL most of them answer 'intensity'. In Aus week in week out you have to be at 100% or you run the risk of getting a beating in Europe the top teams can have off days and still win. Tomkins is playing in general against inferior defences and teams, players like Slater play against the best and stand out. Slater has consistently performed in SOO and at international level, he is without doubt THE best fullback in the world and worryingly for us they could replace him with players like Darius Boyd, Brett Stewart, Jarryd Hayne,Kevin Locke and still not miss a beat.

They sure do.

( Youtube search -> jack reed 50m try)

1 try. Great we should all be looking forward to the 4 nations and victory ....

It was the 4 absolutely woeful attempts at tackles I was looking at.

Walked through that Billy Slater.



Best in the world by miles, apparently.

Your right, he missed a tackle he's e, silly me.

Actually he misses quite a few 1-on-1s. There are plenty of examples on YouTube.



I've said it before: Slater is a devastating runner and support player with fantastic skills and you'd want him in your team. But as a pure full-back he slips a little. His 1-on-1 tackling is suspect, especially against big players, and he's prone to too many brain-farts: high and/or dirty tackles, losing the ball, etc.



Just because he's Australian and fantastic at certain aspects of the game doesn't mean the sun shines out his 4rse in every way.

That's all I was poitning out. The NRL may be a better standard, but they're not supermen.



If our players are going into the 4 nations with the same attitude of some of these posters, it no wonder we've not beaten the Aussies in so long. Hopefully, our players should be able to see a green and gold shirt without filling their pants.

Tony Smith said the same when he was in charge for that tour. I understand that for that tour there were several players who didn't have the right mindset for it. Those that didn't were deemed to be a concern within the squad with one individual in particular apparently more interested in social activities than getting his mind right. You can see how important it is by the way that Smith has handled Briers and turned him from a shallow goes missing show pony into one of the premier half backs in the competition. Briers now has a professional attitude and it shows.