More Englishmen in the NRL?

[butchmcdick]

Just lost my cup of tea.

I hope you warned you partner first

 

[taipan]

I'd take 4 or 5 of the English team for a new Perth club.

Thought there are enough Poms in Perth as it is. Then again the Perth Pastys has a nice ring to it.

 

[Brutus]

England needs to find the next Henderson Gill or Des Drummond.

McGilvray could be that person.

 

[DiegoNT]

Maybe a NRL club could sign Rangi Chase?

 

[nick87]

We got Hodgson and Whitehead and struck oil on both

The rest of you can fight it out for the dregs and take your chances, personally I think those two panning out was ridiculous luck haha

 

[RL The greatest game]

Chris Heighington and Steve McQueen are as Pommy as a bag of bad apples.

And Semi Radrada is Australian as a meat pie

 

[butchmcdick]

And Semi Radrada is Australian as a meat pie

Or James Tamou

 

[RL The greatest game]

Or James Tamou

Correct

 

[wibble]

We got Hodgson and Whitehead and struck oil on both

The rest of you can fight it out for the dregs and take your chances, personally I think those two panning out was ridiculous luck haha

Whitehead was always a great prospect at Catalans (working wide with Pomeroy, he was making Pomeroy look good, always a sign you're a top player!), he was one of the few Super League forwards I thought would take well to NRL (and it took him a little while to hit his straps, but not too long).

Hodgson is the real surprise to me. He was always OK. But since coming to Canberra he is a genuine star. He was comfortably England's best player last night, and is easily the 2nd best hooker in the game (and on form, much of the last 12 months was better than Smith).

But there must still be some good options. Farrell might fancy a stint in the "limelight" of the NRL given his snubbing from the test side. He is easily one of the best back rowers in the Super League.

I don't think there are many Super League halves or backs who could make it in the NRL, but definitely some forwards.

 

[TIGER14]

Ryan Hall is one of the five best wingers in the world and Jermain McGilvary is one of the top 10.

Tomkins was the best player in the ESL, by a mile.
Wasn't even in the top 15 fullbacks in the NRL when he was here.

 

[wibble]

Tomkins was the best player in the ESL, by a mile.
Wasn't even in the top 15 fullbacks in the NRL when he was here.

He's too little. The Super League backs are mostly like ARL backs from the 90's: quick, skillful, 75 to 90 kg athletes. Backs in the NRL are 90 to 100 kg now, and only the biggest Super League backs could hope to make it in the NRL.

 

[Canard]

He's too little. The Super League backs are mostly like ARL backs from the 90's: quick, skillful, 75 to 90 kg athletes. Backs in the NRL are 90 to 100 kg now, and only the biggest Super League backs could hope to make it in the NRL.

I realise your probably to young to remember, but big backs were definitely in the game in the 90s.

Sailor,McCracken, Meninga, Bowman to name a few.

 

[King hit]

Or James Tamou

At least Tamou went to school in Sydney

 

[TheDMC]

At least Tamou went to school in Sydney

He went to school?

 

[Pete Cash]

Whitehead was always a great prospect at Catalans (working wide with Pomeroy, he was making Pomeroy look good, always a sign you're a top player!), he was one of the few Super League forwards I thought would take well to NRL (and it took him a little while to hit his straps, but not too long).

Poor old Whitehead was chucked into the deep end by Stuart. We played a bunch of games in pretty extreme heat (for rugby league) at the start of last year and Stuart played Whitehead the entire 80 minutes every week and he looked like he was going to die by the end of each game.

I remember reading a story that Hodgson was so impressed by the standard of NRL players in the 2014 four nations that he basically realised that he would have to step up his game in every aspect to be able to hang down here.

 

[OVP]

We got Hodgson and Whitehead and struck oil on both

The rest of you can fight it out for the dregs and take your chances, personally I think those two panning out was ridiculous luck haha

Ricky Stuart, for some reason, seems to bring out the best in English players. Take a look at Adrian Morley, even though he was brought over here by Graham Murray, he struggled under Murray but thrived under Stuart.
Might be more than just luck there, who knows.

 

[wibble]

I realise your probably to young to remember, but big backs were definitely in the game in the 90s.

Sailor,McCracken, Meninga, Bowman to name a few.

Maybe I'm so old I've forgotten...

Meninga was always freakishly large for a centre in his era, and we are talking about him as a possible immortal. He would still be big today, but in the Inglis type "big" rather than freakish category.

McCracken was also basically known as a power back, and was quite exceptionally large (but wouldn't at all be today). Bowmen and Sailor were a bit of a 90's /2000s cross over, but are certainly on par with modern big backs. And there are still "small" backs today (like Moylan, and many halves are under 90 kg).

Unbelievably, there are also some big backs in Super League. But my general point is that Tomkins, at 79 kg, and even Hardaker, at 93 kg (because his role is as a "power runner" in Super League, so he is still 5 - 10 kg smaller than power runners in the NRL) are too small for the NRL. But would not have been in the 90s (I used to think Sparkles McGaw was huge, and he was only 93 kg).

As a quick example, I added the position 1-7 weights of the 1993 Origin backlines compared to the 2016 backlines. 1993 included "big" players like McGregor, Fitler and Daley for NSW and Meninga for QLD, and 2016 includes "small" players like Maloney and Moylan for NSW, and Cronk and Thurston for QLD.

NSW 1993: 624 kg (average of 89 kg each)
NSW 2016: 651 kg (average of 93 kg each)
QLD 1993: 631 kg* (average of 90 kg each)
QLD 2016: 666 kg (average of 95 kg each)

Note: I just took the playing weight listed on wikipedia for each player. They may have been heavier or lighter during the actual game played
*Note: I could not find stats for Willie Carne. So I assumed he was the same, relatively heavy, weight of 94 kg as Hancock. From "memory" he was taller but not as powerful as Hancock, though I may just be overestimating Hancock's power because all I remember is his non stop thrashing in tackles...

 

[RL The greatest game]

Tomkins was the best player in the ESL, by a mile.
Wasn't even in the top 15 fullbacks in the NRL when he was here.

Ryan Hall has always scored try's against who played against and that includes us.

 

[Lambretta]

Ryan Hall and Jermaine McGilvary both deserve to be in the NRL. Chris Hill and the two St Helens props -- Kyle Amor and the other bearded guy, Alex Walmsley --- would also do well in the NRL.

That just about covers every person in the Super League who would be fantastic in the NRL

Not saying others wouldn't have / couldn't make it - but those are the picks

 

[SpaceMonkey]

He's too little. The Super League backs are mostly like ARL backs from the 90's: quick, skillful, 75 to 90 kg athletes. Backs in the NRL are 90 to 100 kg now, and only the biggest Super League backs could hope to make it in the NRL.

Tomkins could've probably made it at 5/8 when he was at the Warriors, his best work for us was as a playmaking fullback anyway. Unfortunately Kevin Locke threw his toys and left after Tomkins got signed instead of competing for the fullback jersey so Tomkins was pretty much stuck there due to our lack of other options at the back at that time apart from Glenn Fisiahi who it turned out was blisteringly fast but made of glass.