SMH: Great Britain? Sorry, Brian, your lot are average at best

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Great Britain? Sorry, Brian, your lot are average at best

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Phil Gould
October 30, 2006

THE ANALYST
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I WILL laugh at the next person who tries to tell me the English Super League is catching up to the standard of the NRL.

Great Britain opened their Tri-Nations campaign with a defeat to New Zealand in Christchurch on Saturday night and I believe they'll go through this series without a victory. Two tries in the final 10 minutes brought respectability to the score, but they were never going to win.

After two straight losses to Australia, New Zealand opted for a grinding style of play to ensure their first success of the series. It was a physical encounter but the Kiwis handled their assignment comfortably. They had the game well in hand with a 16-point lead midway through the second half before their worrying habit of conceding late points reared its ugly head. This has to be a concern for coach Brian McClennan and he'll need to toughen their resolve at the back end of games, especially when they play Australia.

Great Britain are well off the pace in this competition. They might be capable of the occasional upset against Australia or New Zealand with the aid of a referee giving them plenty of latitude in front of 50,000 fans on a cold night in Manchester, but Great Britain and English club teams are always badly exposed when they visit this part of the world. They try hard, but have never adequately addressed the weaknesses shown in their football for the past three decades.

I watch English Super League games on pay TV. They are entertaining, with plenty of skill and flair. However, when compared to the week-in, week-out examination faced by players and teams in the NRL, the English competition is only equivalent to a good premier league match in Australia.

Don't get me wrong. Great Britain have some very talented individuals. If I was coaching an NRL team, I'd consider buying a couple of them. Players such as fullback Paul Wellens, centre Martin Gleeson, utility Leon Pryce and five-eighth Danny Maguire would all benefit greatly from a couple of years in our more-intense competition. Star forward Adrian Morley and winger Brian Carney have already succeeded in Australia.

Players like Stuart Fielden, Gareth Ellis, Jamie Peacock, Lee Gilmour and Gareth Gravell have probably left it too late in their careers to gain maximum benefit from playing out here but could still be competitive.

I also see something in Wigan youngsters Gareth Hock and Sean O'Loughlin. But it's as a team that Great Britain comes up horribly short. Their style of play is amateurish and vulnerable to the sustained pressure Australian and New Zealand teams can apply.

They lack the knowledge and attention to detail instilled in every professional football team in this country.

To be fair, national coach Brian Noble can't be expected to instill these important values overnight. It doesn't work that way - it takes years of development. That's the beauty of coaching an Australian team, because it's all been done for you. The high standard of coaching, knowledge, fitness and development ingrained into players at every NRL club through hours of training and video analysis is a huge advantage when our elite players come together in representative teams.

Noble would need two full seasons with this squad to achieve the discipline and structure needed for Great Britain to compete with southern hemisphere countries on a regular basis.

I understand he has already requested his English club team, Wigan, buys the video analysis system used by Australian teams. Six years ago, I said this was the best coaching tool I'd seen in 30 years - and now every team in the NRL uses it.

The English league urgently needs greater intensity in the development of football talent. It appears Noble agrees with this assessment. At the moment, they're giving away a huge start to their rivals and it won't improve unless someone bites the bullet and changes their thinking.

The media always plays the game when telling us Great Britain are improving all the time, how they'll be formidable opposition and that Australia face their greatest test in history to overcome them. Please, spare me that rubbish.

If the Kangaroos are serious - and they will be - they'll run up a big score on Great Britain on Saturday night. And we'll enjoy every minute of it.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/g...1162056867933.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

 

[WJ]

If i ever meet phil gould, i'll need someone to remind to kick him in the nuts.

 

[deluded pom?]

It seems even when G.B. managed to beat Australia in the past it was down to some referee giving us plenty of latitude in front of 50,000 fans . I wonder how it was we mananged to beat you 33-10 on Australian soil in the best international I had the pleasure of attending ? Gould is the biggest anti Brit I have ever come across . What's with the chip he carries ? Didn't he do much when he played over here ?

 

[screeny]

As a GB fan I can't argue with Gould at all. All this SL is getting closer to the NRL is laughable.

It's so annoying; any discerning RL fan can see that the NRL is light years ahead of SL.

The best single example is a 'biggest hits' montage towards the end of the season. There are hardly any massive tackles in SL, but plenty in the NRL.

Sheer weight of numbers is the biggest factor, plus so much dilution of English talent in SL and a severe lack of intensity.

And let's not forget we needed an Aussie, in Waite, to come over and overhaul our coaching structures and pathways. Before he came over we were just hiring ex-players and hoping for the best. Not good enough.

 

[Azkatro]

Well, as much as I hate the use of negativity to address/fix a problem, the fact is that GB were very uninspiring against the Kiwis. They have plenty of opportunity still to show what they're capable of however.

 

[JJ]

Gould's just doing his bit to try and make the series interesting...

The GB players are more highly paid, with a limited career why would you bother

 

[WJ]

Gould's just doing his bit to try and make the series interesting...

You mean by trying to fire up the gb players?

 

[gaterooze]

The fact that he named Gleeson and O'Loughlin as standouts, well... did he even watch the game?

 

[macavity]

If i ever meet phil gould, i'll need someone to remind to kick him in the nuts.

Gould often talks sh!te, but on this one he is spot on.

on an individual basis, the poms have the talent to be competitive. on a team structure basis, no chance.

case in point - Carney - we love him here, but if we hadn't had him letting in 1-2 tries a game on average due to poor positioning and reading of the play, Newcastle would have finished alot higher up the ladder.....

The poms also seem to have trouble maintaining intensity and controlling the tempo of the game.

On a side note, when does Pryce's contract come up? Given the right coaching he is UK's answer to gringlis - what an athlete...

 

[LeagueXIII]

Yes, this is how all sports build their international profile.

 

[gottabegood]

Well...gee thanks Phil. Thats a nice story for the Sydney public as we lead into our first test match with the British. I suppose since there is no chance aginst these amateurs,well I might do some gardening instead of watching the game....

 

[LESStar58]

Who the hell is that James Roby bloke? I was really impressed with his performance?

 

[Martli]

That's funny when you consider that two of the Kiwis standout players so far (Hape and Tony) both play in the ESL...

 

[ShadesOfTheSun]

It seems even when G.B. managed to beat Australia in the past it was down to some referee giving us plenty of latitude in front of 50,000 fans . I wonder how it was we mananged to beat you 33-10 on Australian soil in the best international I had the pleasure of attending ? Gould is the biggest anti Brit I have ever come across . What's with the chip he carries ? Didn't he do much when he played over here ?

It helps Gould's argument more than yours that the sole example you're able to come up with in refutation of his argument occured more than 14 years ago.

 

[hutch]

i dont get what gould is trying to do here. he is trying to bag the esl, but gives wraps to some of the players, but is he trying to say that they cant play as a team. i dunno.

either he is genuinely bagging them and once again giving bad publicity to internatioanl rugby league, or bagging them to cause interest in international rugby league. he is confusing me, anyway.

if super league is so bad, why doesnt gould go over there and help bring it up. i know he has his channel 9 job and all, but we are pretty much sick of his head on tv and i think he should go back to what he does best which is coaching. get on the plane gus, they wont bite.

 

[ShadesOfTheSun]

i dont get what gould is trying to do here. he is trying to bag the esl, but gives wraps to some of the players, but is he trying to say that they cant play as a team. i dunno.

either he is genuinely bagging them and once again giving bad publicity to internatioanl rugby league, or bagging them to cause interest in international rugby league. he is confusing me, anyway.

if super league is so bad, why doesnt gould go over there and help bring it up. i know he has his channel 9 job and all, but we are pretty much sick of his head on tv and i think he should go back to what he does best which is coaching. get on the plane gus, they wont bite.

Gould has never been a huge supporter of the international game - why should he be trying to promote it? What interest would he have in ensuring the ESL was a stronger competition? As much as I enjoy international rugby league, the tendency of supporters to demonise anyone who criticises or denigrates it perplexes me.

 

[thatsold]

Its not like our lot are much better. We did almost lose to the Kiwis. And it was only GBs first game of the series whereas it was the Kiwis third. It wouldn't be unreasonable to expect GB to improve, and if they can beat the Kiwis they can beat us, that is if we continue to put in such half-hearted performances.

 

[Inferno]

What percent of players in the ESL are actually eligible to play for GB, there seems to be an awful lot of Kiwis and Aussies playing over there. That probably doesn't help their cause.

 

[eels_fan_01]

Well i think when Gould was growing up England were beating us and now that their not he is extremely happy and wants to rub in 29 years of no victories over Australia in a tournament.

 

[ali]

If you assumed every import would be in the first 17, I'd guess around 60-65% of players are eligable to play for GB. It's not their fault though, it's European Union working laws that allow anyone with a European or Pacific passport to come and go as they please. The quota if imports has been reduced from 5 to 3, but there is nothing that can be down about Europeans or Pacific Islanders.

The good news is that this year first division clubs Hull KR, Widnes and Leigh were also fulltime professional, so at least there were 15 clubs training as fulltime pros. Hull KR and Widnes signed a lot of the best young players Wigan and Leeds have produced in the last couple of years. So at least these guys got to stay full time after graduating from their accademy teams.