The reason why England will never be a force again?

[coach]

Could this be the reason why England isn't and most likely never will be again a force in international league again

Harlequins Rugby League head coach, Brian McDermott, has hit back at claims that the number of overseas players in the Super League is to blame for England's performance at the World Cup.

Earlier this week the Australia coach, Ricky Stuart, suggested that Super League clubs rely upon overseas players, at the expense of nurturing home grown talent able to compete at an international level. Former Great Britain and England rugby league international Jason Robinson also criticised clubs for not allowing players time to develop 'mental toughness'.

McDermott believes otherwise: "Top class, regular starting overseas players are not the issue with our representative team not performing. With a country infatuated with soccer and celebrity culture it is becoming harder and harder to get young men away from the telly and their mobile phones to take up a sport that requires toughness, discipline and a huge work ethic."

Developing home grown talent is an absolute priority at Harlequins Rugby League, with large community and academy programs in full operation. This week three Harlequins academy players signed full time contracts with the team: Jack Graves, Luke May and Dave Williams. All three are Londoners and, McDermott said, have the work ethic to succeed.

"We in London recoginise the difficulty of attracting players to the sport more than most and should feel proud that in spite of all this we can promote three more juniors from our academy system to full time training. We look forward to working with all three of these men with a knowledge that they all have a realistic chance of representing their club and city at Super League level."

Graves, May and Williams will be hoping to emulate the success of fellow Londoners and Harlequins team mates, Tony Clubb and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, who both graduated from the Academy, and both made their international debuts for England earlier this year.

News Source: www.quins.co.uk

 

[coach]

If he is right then England will not be a force in international league for many years to come.

Also, going on what he said it seems that Rugby League is fighting a losing battle to win over the youngsters of England and therefore what future does the game have there even at a club level?

 

[Brownie.Kougari]

How difficult can it be to get teenage boys to play a game where they can beat the living f**k out of each other?

We all jumped at the chance when I was in school :lol:

 

[gatesheadthunder]

He is saying its tough to get kids to play the game, not impossible. He is also talking about young kids from London coming through, something that did not really happen as little as 5 years ago. If you read it all you will see it ends on a positive note.

 

[pmarrow]

What Brian speaks here is truth regarding Harlequins and many of the new clubs that come in England. RL is a low priority in this country, even Cricket gets a bigger viewing spot in the media and as far as they are concerned the less said about RL the better.

Howver the likes of Leeds, St Helens, Wigan and Hull have all produced Youngsters over the last decade and have even being at points were they have had to release players over the past few years due to salary cap restrictions.

I don't think its a problem that top level Aussie and Kiwi's come over to SL, players such as Brent Webb, Michael Crocker and Danny Buderus will all help improve the level of quality in Super League and they will be role models for the youngsters to learn off. The problem lies when teams sign anything Australian ahead of a youngster, this was a problem caused by relegation and hopefully can be fixed when Franchising comes in. Along with some better coaching given for youngsters to help them take there opportunities better.

 

[KalgoorlieRed]

Scrap England and bring back the proper national team GREAT BRITAIN! Far better chance!

 

[Evil Homer]

If he is right then England will not be a force in international league for many years to come.

Also, going on what he said it seems that Rugby League is fighting a losing battle to win over the youngsters of England and therefore what future does the game have there even at a club level?

A big one.

 

[adamkungl]

Scrap England and bring back the proper national team GREAT BRITAIN! Far better chance!

Havn't you had your thread on this? There's a good chance that not a single selection would have changed if England was GB

 

[VictoryFC]

Pointless to blame soccer and the unmotivated kids.... Australian kids (and adults) have a lifestyle identical to that of England, yet we produce decent/good/great League, soccer, Union, Aussie Rules, cricket players on a regular basis. On a third of the population.

 

[TheKid]

It can't be that hard,mate. I know I love to knock a couple skulls around and I just picked it up haha

 

[dentonblue]

Pointless to blame soccer and the unmotivated kids.... Australian kids (and adults) have a lifestyle identical to that of England, yet we produce decent/good/great League, soccer, Union, Aussie Rules, cricket players on a regular basis. On a third of the population.

I'm not looking for a ruck, but your statement is naive. The top-paid soccer players here get paid around £7 million a year plus commercial add-ons. The top paid UK based, English RL players get paid maybe £0.25 million a year plus very little in the way of commercial add-ons. So soccer has 28x the earning potential of RL in the UK - and Aussie Rules or cricket do not have 28x the earnings potential of NRL.

 

[deluded pom?]

Pointless to blame soccer and the unmotivated kids.... Australian kids (and adults) have a lifestyle identical to that of England, yet we produce decent/good/great League, soccer, Union, Aussie Rules, cricket players on a regular basis. On a third of the population.

English and Aussie kids have an identical lifestyle! :lol::lol::lol:

 

[VictoryFC]

Both Westernized cultures. What exactly takes place in England that is so foreign over here?

Also, to the guy that said "even cricket gets bigger coverage".... reading regular English papers online, its quite clear that not only is it get bigger coverage, but its easily number 2 by a long shot.

 

[Evil Homer]

Both Westernized cultures. What exactly takes place in England that is so foreign over here?

Maybe the fact that if I go outside now, it is about 2 Celsius and raining heavily. I don't know what the weather is like in Australia right now, but I bet it's a heck of a lot more conducive to outdoor activity. Also the fact that the majority of the centralized area of population is obsessed with soccer, rather than RL which is the case in Australia. Equally, because of dinosaurs trying to cling to what little power they have left, all the junior rugby is played in the winter in this country. This is probably the main problem with British RL at the moment, the juniors have to play in absolute freezing cold mudbaths and struggle to improve their game or get any enjoyment out of it. Sadly this is unlikely to change for a few years, until the old men at BARLA die off.

Cricket is not the no 2 sport 'by a long shot'. It's debatable what is. In terms of television viewing figures and crowd attendances for domestic competition, it is RL. The media virtually ignore our sport though because most of the people who edit/publish the national newspapers are upper-class former public-school Rugby Union loving snobs. Also the English are a lot more passionate about internationals than domestic competition, an area in which both RU and cricket have a considerable advantage. I'm sure I've been over all this before.

 

[Dakink]

Just to let you know homer it is about 30 and bright blue skies round this way right now....

 

[deluded pom?]

Both Westernized cultures.

It should be westerniSed VFC, unless of course Australia (just like the UK) is now AmericaniZed ;-). So in your world every western society is more or less the same. Vive la difference.

 

[Hanscholo]

Soccer being in a different season doesnt have any effect on fat people watching soccer instead of playing league?

Imo, just start picking harder players for your national side. The pommies seem to pick the biggest bunch of nuffy twinkie 3/4 line players every time they put a side together. Pick some guys that will dominate their opponent rather than perhaps running 75m to score from a loose ball.

 

[ali]

For the record I agree with McDermott. The imports overall are not to blame. If you take them out, then the standard would drop and the jump to international level would be even greater. A gradual reduction however will be good for the game, at least allowing that the number of full time pros eligible for England playing in certain positions rises. That's what going to happen, and full creidt to Lewis for taking action.

There's a lot to like though about how the game is currently being run in England. Sport England increasing their grant to £29m suggests that the game is being well run and is on the cusp of becoming far more national. A lot of this money will go to junior development programs at non heartland clubs.

I also don't think the day is far off when Quins are self sufficient for English players. That combined with hopefully Celtic becoming self sufficient and i reckon that by the time the 2013 World Cup comes around you could have around 25-30 non heartland raised British players playing in Super League. I suspect the story will be similar in the national leagues.

All is not lost in England, but they are massively disadvantaged by not having a talnet pool of Polynesian players to call on.

 

[vikingstorm]

Could this be the reason why England isn't and most likely never will be again a force in international league again

Harlequins Rugby League head coach, Brian McDermott, has hit back at claims that the number of overseas players in the Super League is to blame for England's performance at the World Cup.

Earlier this week the Australia coach, Ricky Stuart, suggested that Super League clubs rely upon overseas players, at the expense of nurturing home grown talent able to compete at an international level. Former Great Britain and England rugby league international Jason Robinson also criticised clubs for not allowing players time to develop 'mental toughness'.

McDermott believes otherwise: "Top class, regular starting overseas players are not the issue with our representative team not performing. With a country infatuated with soccer and celebrity culture it is becoming harder and harder to get young men away from the telly and their mobile phones to take up a sport that requires toughness, discipline and a huge work ethic."

Developing home grown talent is an absolute priority at Harlequins Rugby League, with large community and academy programs in full operation. This week three Harlequins academy players signed full time contracts with the team: Jack Graves, Luke May and Dave Williams. All three are Londoners and, McDermott said, have the work ethic to succeed.

"We in London recoginise the difficulty of attracting players to the sport more than most and should feel proud that in spite of all this we can promote three more juniors from our academy system to full time training. We look forward to working with all three of these men with a knowledge that they all have a realistic chance of representing their club and city at Super League level."

Graves, May and Williams will be hoping to emulate the success of fellow Londoners and Harlequins team mates, Tony Clubb and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, who both graduated from the Academy, and both made their international debuts for England earlier this year.

News Source: [URL="http://www.quins.co.uk"]www.quins.co.uk[/URL]

I fear Mc Dermott is correct................There are a lot of Lazy Feckers in England happy to pick up Money off the state, Indulging in cheap ale and not ever reading a book..........Those that do work have to suffer from Slug like traffic jams morning after morning. I stay because my Mother is sick and has been for two years.............If it was n't for family I would move to Queensland, and become a Brit abroad

 

[deluded pom?]

I fear Mc Dermott is correct................There are a lot of Lazy Feckers in England happy to pick up Money off the state, Indulging in cheap ale and not ever reading a book..........Those that do work have to suffer from Slug like traffic jams morning after morning. I stay because my Mother is sick and has been for two years.............If it was n't for family I would move to Queensland, and become a Brit abroad

What's the point of emigrating to just carry on as you were with some sun on your back? Isn't that one of the big bugbears with Brits and immigrants to the UK? If you emigrate then you become a citizen of that country and try to assimilate yourself as much as possible (that wouldn't be too difficult in Oz) or what's the point? And we wonder why they call us whinging Poms.