eels_fan_01 said:
Just to look at it from an international rugby league point of you, wouldnt it be much better to have 14 teams for a England/Great Britian point of view, they need to play more English talent. Even if there is new Welsh and French team im sure close to half would be English players would they not?
The number of teams is a balance between quantity and quality. More teams doesn't necessarily create more first class players. This is especially true if the new teams are tapping into the existing player base. In that case it just spreads the top talent more thinly and allows more reserve grade players to drag down the average standard of each team and the entire comp. A weaker comp in comparison to the NRL certainly would not be better from an England/Great Britain point of view. It just makes it harder for players to step up to next level. If the best half back in England isn't represented in the eight or nine eligible halfbacks already playing in SL, a choice of another two is unlikely to make much difference (other than contributing to the lowering of overall standards because the top eight or nine now waste their match time playing lesser opposition instead of each other). The same is generally true for every position in the England/Great Britian team.
When it comes to the smaller league countries like France and NZ the problem is slightly worse. While these countries can produce club sides to the standard of the SL or NRL, they can't produce enough of them to actually create a high quality competition. They might be able to produce two or three sides but beyond that they end up in the same quality vs quantity conundrum. They need to spread the talent over more sides just to make a viable competition which in turn dramatically lowers the potential standard of that competition. This in turn has a dramatic affect on their ability to compete in international football because of the huge step from the domestic league to next level. The solution is to get the top class players that they *do* have playing in one of the existing top class competitions such as the NRL or SL. This is where Les Catalans and the NZ Warriors come into the picture.
Unlike the introduction of more English sides (or at least sides filled with English players), the introduction of a team largely made up of French eligible players doesn't spread the English talent any more thinly. The English teams maintain their high standard because the French team largely recruits from outside the English talent pool. In fact if the French side is introduced at the expense of an English side (as with Les Catalans) then the long term effect is likely to be a slight raising of the standard of the English teams due to the concentration of English players among fewer first class teams. In terms of international football the French team provides a opportunity for the top French players to play the high quality competition that is simply not available in their domestic league, which in turn helps them to step up to the next level. What's more, the introduction of a second or third French would likely amplify the positive effects at international level. The national team would now have a choice of players in each position with experience in a high quality competition. The team can be chosen on form rather than purely on experience. The key point is that some choice is good, too much choice is self defeating.
Leigh.
