Roy Haggerty wrote:
On the last Ashes Tour over here, we lost two games narrowly. Frustrating, but you felt that we were close, and a psychological difference was probaly what split the sides more than huge amounts of talent. Since then, we've gone backwards fast in relation to the Aussies. Every single man on that Aussie team was beter than his opposite number. 5 years ago, a sensible pundit could suggest half a dozen Brits who would get into the Aussie side. This year, maybe Peacock as a second-row grunt. Maybe.
The situation in our backline from 1-7 is atrocious. I hate how old this makes me sound, but I've been watching rugby for 25 years now, and I have never seen a set of backs so utterly devoid of world class talent. Compared to Newlove, Davies, Offiah, Gibbs, Connolly, Radlinski in his pomp, Edwards, Goulding etc this lot are woeful. Everyone over 30 will recognise how dire it is that I can say this confidently, but if Alan Hunte was playing now, he'd be the best winger in this country by such a distance that Stevo would be tossing off over him. Sculthorpe and Farrell had their detractors (usually wearing either Wigan or Saints shirts), but they were beter backs than any of our lads on this tour, and they were actually both forwards.
The situation in our backline from 1-7 is atrocious. I hate how old this makes me sound, but I've been watching rugby for 25 years now, and I have never seen a set of backs so utterly devoid of world class talent. Compared to Newlove, Davies, Offiah, Gibbs, Connolly, Radlinski in his pomp, Edwards, Goulding etc this lot are woeful. Everyone over 30 will recognise how dire it is that I can say this confidently, but if Alan Hunte was playing now, he'd be the best winger in this country by such a distance that Stevo would be tossing off over him. Sculthorpe and Farrell had their detractors (usually wearing either Wigan or Saints shirts), but they were beter backs than any of our lads on this tour, and they were actually both forwards.
I'm old enough to remember when we had players who (Offiah excepted) were better than the ones you listed. In the era you have highlighted Connolly was a key figure - Oz used to rip us apart through the centres then Connolly came along and was rock solid on one side. He was the most important member of the team in that era. Although he did receive some acknowledement it wasn't as great as it should have been.
