Real real shame to see this kid go. From an Australian perspective I enjoyed watching him in the Tri-Nations a couple of years back and was looking forward to seeing him develop over time. Certainly had the potential.
Really starting to fear for the future of English RL.
Let's not get suicidal over this.
I started watching RL in 1992 and I can say without any fear of contradiction that we are now producing more players, and of a far higher standard, than at any time since then. Eastmond will be a loss if he goes, no doubt about that, but mainly because it reinforces the idea that we only exist to create players who want to move on to play rahrah.
But at youth level we are starting to see the development work (that has only been taking place for about five years in all honesty) across the country starting to have an impact. Quins are producing some talented kids (10 of the 40 invited to the U-14's National Camp two years ago where Londoners), Wigan have just signed a centre from Hemel Stags, St Helens a lad from Northampton, Hull a scrum half from Scotland, and the Crusaders are bringing through some talented kids as well.
These are kids in areas where union is easily accessible and where tgg is a newcomer, but they've chosen to attempt to forge careers in RL as a first choice option!
There are clearly issues in the game; some of the clubs still take the easy option of bringing in imports. Despite the RFL's efforts to impose new rules some clubs seem intent on finding loop holes and stacking their teams. This is a waste of talent and money down the drain.
The biggest problem for me though is the lack of direction and dedication to the international game. The RFL needs to make a real committment to this. They play games in small northern stadia because they think they can fill them without too miuch costly marketing, but this is a false economy. Too often these games simply come across as small affairs when they should be built up as events, something casual RL and general sports fans want to attend. The fact that I haven't seen England/GB play in my home city (the bloody capital!) since 2005 is insane. And the last game before that was in 2000. We need to make international matches a big event.
We may not be able to match rahrah in some areas because they have so many in-built advantages, but that doesn't mean we can't improve our own situation.
