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Are the NH teams falling more behind.

Irish-bulldog

Juniors
Messages
785
Ok I claimed before the World Cup that our state leagues here in Australia could match it with some lower superleague clubs. I was laughed out of the room. But png just rolled Ireland, France lost to Lebanon, Scotland and wales are woeful !, the Americans deadset would beat both. Italy is full of Australians, England just beat a team of park footballers for god sake.

Then you look at the rise of png from the qld cup, Fiji, tonga, Samoa ! The standard is just dominating NH teams.

I'm genuinely concerned about the state of the standard of the superleague ?, anyone have any thoughts about what's going wrong ? What this World Cup has exposed ?.
 

DlEHARD

Juniors
Messages
823
I know our sport never does this, but we need a proper long term plan to deal with this. North hemisphere teams are sliding and southern hemisphere are powering away.
 

Irish-bulldog

Juniors
Messages
785
I know our sport never does this, but we need a proper long term plan to deal with this. North hemisphere teams are sliding and southern hemisphere are powering away.
And to be honest we can't let Europe die, it can't just be the nrl keeping the sport alive to be honest.
 

NRLMad

Juniors
Messages
830
Possibly, mainly in part due to the amount of unemployed aussies shifting there, the ESL teams need to promote more of their own. Develop a halves academy and help out France, Scotland, Wales, Ireland by taking 1-2 of each per team per year.
 

jim_57

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
4,290
What i think would help and where the RLIF should be looking to put a lot of the profit.

Under 18 junior world Championship every year. Regional 1 year, World 6 nations the next.

Year 1
U18 Pacific Cup - Australia, NZ, PNG, Fiji/Samoa/Cook Islands/Tonga
U18 Euro Cup - England, France, Wales, Ireland/Italy/Serbia/Spain/Russia
U18 NA Cup - USA, Canada, Jamaica

Year 2
U18 World 6
U18 Pacific Shield
U18 Euro Shield
U18 NA Shield

Wash rinse repeat. A thorough junior program could be the best investment the RLIF could make. We need to get the best juniors playing from all countries every year, giving talented youngsters a platform to perform and quite frankly get themselves in the spotlight of Professional development systems earlier. We can't keep letting potential go to waste like we see with France's junior results.
 

johnny plath

Juniors
Messages
385
Logical consequence of the change of eligibility rule: the gap between north and south is growing. England is not safe from losing to Tonga or Fiji
Really..how is this a logical consequence of an eligibility rule. .how does a rule consistent with most other sports produce poor international teams in the nh. The growing gap is a logical consequences that northern hemisphere rugby league is doing little to improve its standard. Why do we advocate lowering standards of some teams to even competition when we should be making efforts to raise the standard of the plodders.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,411
So how does the superleague stop this train wreck ?. They have to see what's happening

1. Give free passports to any islander family that wants to move to england, has worked for nrl!
2. Chuck a load of money at welsh union players. Worked ten years ago. And get Crusaders back into SL
3. Stop pretending Scotland is a rugby league playing nation. Put the money into Jamaica, they are physically better equipped for the game same as islanders.
4. Get Toulouse into SL and stop the Dragons filling their team with sht Australians
5. Reduce SL quota for English clubs to two non home nations eligible players and make every club run a jnr set up and a reserve grade
6. If all that fails,play as GB!
 
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Northern

Juniors
Messages
170
It's been a tough, if not unexpected, watch for the European nations. Yes, the gap is massive to the SH teams from the tier below the old big three. The game just isn't played in Scotland, hardly any at all in Ireland and there are a few teams in Wales. On top of that, I'm not sure what genuine interest there is in Ireland & Scotland and the interest from Wales will have been shaken after this competition. I love League and international League in particular, so it's tough to face up to this, but what future is there for any teams from Europe bar England and possibly France? Outside of the heritage players, who often figure for teams outside of Super League, Wales is only producing a few players, Ireland and Scotland one or two squad members at best who would struggle in the Championship. The strength of the Pacific nations is off the scale compared to a waifer thin depth outside of England in Europe.

I'd love it if it were different, but I think the future is bleak for everyone except England & France up here.

Bloody hell, anyone got The Samaritans number????
 

Big Salad

Juniors
Messages
215
I think England got it right coming to Australia for a practice match in the middle of the year. Conditions are so vastly different here with bigger fields, dry track, bigger in-goals creating more room which exposes the weaker defensive teams and keeps the ball in play longer. The first three tries Scotland conceded on the weekend were through gaps so large, it looked like they only had 10 players on the field. Compare this with Scotland-NZ game at the last four nations which was played on a very small field with tiny in-goals on a cold and wet night which made it far easier for Scotland to contain NZ and then make ground up the field. Not saying this is the biggest issue, but it's been a noticeable one.
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
If you switched the pre tournament injury tolls of Wales and Samoa or Tonga I think we'd be having a different conversation.
Ireland showed what a difference a few SL players make.
That said it's a sign of poor depth.

Scotland are a lost cause. Even with their best squad they don't deserve to be here anyway
 

Irish-bulldog

Juniors
Messages
785
If you switched the pre tournament injury tolls of Wales and Samoa or Tonga I think we'd be having a different conversation.
Ireland showed what a difference a few SL players make.
That said it's a sign of poor depth.

Scotland are a lost cause. Even with their best squad they don't deserve to be here anyway
but a heavliy based state Cup team png team beat a heavily based super league Irish team ? Same could be said for France vs Lebanon

Are you in denial about the quality of the super league ?.
 
Messages
3,884
The northern hemisphere will only progress when the following happens:

1. Toulouse and at least one other French club, preferably two other clubs (including Paris) are admitted to Super League.

2. Toronto and three other North American clubs (pref. Montreal, New York and either Boston/Philadelphia,/Jacksonville) are admitted to Super League.

3. The French and North American teams are forced to rely on a majority of squads French or North American born players respectively within five years of admission to Super League.

4. London and at least one other non-M62 club is admitted to Super League.
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
but a heavliy based state Cup team png team beat a heavily based super league Irish team ? Same could be said for France vs Lebanon

Are you in denial about the quality of the super league ?.

Get your facts right..
Ireland team contained 6 current Super League players.
PNG team contained 4 current NRL players + 1 SL, and most of the rest play together in the premiership winning Cup team.
 

Pommy

Coach
Messages
14,657
Ok I claimed before the World Cup that our state leagues here in Australia could match it with some lower superleague clubs. I was laughed out of the room. But png just rolled Ireland, France lost to Lebanon, Scotland and wales are woeful !, the Americans deadset would beat both. Italy is full of Australians, England just beat a team of park footballers for god sake.

Then you look at the rise of png from the qld cup, Fiji, tonga, Samoa ! The standard is just dominating NH teams.

I'm genuinely concerned about the state of the standard of the superleague ?, anyone have any thoughts about what's going wrong ? What this World Cup has exposed ?.

I think it’s a slight over reaction to a bad performance. We never looked like losing the game even though we were pretty dire. If we’re as equally bad against France then I will start to worry.
 

Irish-bulldog

Juniors
Messages
785
Get your facts right..
Ireland team contained 6 current Super League players.
PNG team contained 4 current NRL players + 1 SL, and most of the rest play together in the premiership winning Cup team.
I thought Ireland had more then 6 SL players :thinking:.

Png have 3 reg nrl players in that team. Not exactly stacked. Yeah it's concerning when our cup comps are on par with SL type players.
 

Front-Rower

First Grade
Messages
5,297
To promote quality you need money. The top management of our game need to commit funds for quality coaching and programs which ensure players are aware that there is clear pathway for their development. It’s all well and good to say that this team need to play this team more often etc but when you are only playing against teams and players that are at the same standard as yourself nothing will change as you don’t learn anything.

The proof is in the NRL.
 

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