I'd argue we more need coaches to go down under than players for that to be acheived.

My Missus spent two years working in Vancouver on secondment when she was younger. She loved the place and the society she was in, she also says I would of loved it there due to the fantastic outdoors.



However, whilst she was there, her father was taken into hospital with an eye problem, which left him temperaly (sp) blind and worrying the doctors whether his sight would return (it did, thank heavens).



Now, rightly or wrongly, Anglea's mum only told her about the incident when her dad was out of hospital with his sight regained, with the theory that there was nothing Angela could do from t'ther side of the world, so it was best not to tell her unless something definate happened.

That incident means that Ang will never live so far away from her family that she can't jump in the car and get to them.



That said, she enjoys living an hour's drive away from them, just so they're not bothering her all the time.

I would agree we need our best young coaches going too.

Take the best 17-30 players out of Super League and it will absolutely nosedive. We don't have the quality to sustain a loss like that. I also don't see any reason why having our best players in the NRL will have any affect on the quality of young players coming through over here, other than to deprive them of regular experience of playing against/with the country's best players.



Roby's game sense would improve in the NRL (having said that, I think it will improve over here now that he's got the main gig at 9), and this might have a moderately beneficial affect on the England side, but ultimately players like Roby aren't the problem. If England had a side full of players of the calibre of Roby, Graham, Ellis and Burgess then we'd be competing on a level with NZ and Aus. The fact is that NRL clubs have come hunting for these players because they are already good enough. The problem is the number of players in our international setup that NRL clubs wouldn't touch with a barge pole. Apart from Penrith, perhaps.



I agree with Ski on this one - send the coaches over, not the players.

Great news,as for going to the NRL to improve,well In my opinion off what I have seen of Ellis he has gone backwards.

What I don't understand is why NRL coaching methods seem to be such a mysterious black art to us in the UK. Saints have a coach coming straight from the NRL so if their setup is so much better than ours I'd expect him to implement it immediately, as I would for all Aussie coaches that come over. If they can't make us play like they do why are we employing them?



Also we seem to be constantly trying to catch up with what the Aussies are doing to the extent that we just about get the hang of a technique as they move on to the next one. A perfact example being us desperately learning how to slow down the PTB just as they start taking steps to speed it up.



I'm not sure what the answer is but I know we did occasionally used to beat them when we were playing the game our way and not desperately trying to copy their way.

Now I didn't say they all need to go next week. We need to build it up over a period of years. Getting our best players playing at the top level. Then those players coming back as players and coaches. What we aim to do is learn how to develop top quality players. Because we have a talent pool as big as the kiwis with our catchment areas of lancs, yorks, Cumbria, humberside and london but can't produce the volume of top quality.



Gaz Ellis played enough in sl. roby has had a good few years. The comp doesn't need to nose dive. But in their mid 20's I would like to see robes, Graham, eastmond, both tomkin brothers, Hall, Lunt, briscoe, Harrison move on and others come through. We need a situation where when our players leave we can replace them with as good or better players coming in because we have mastered the art of doing it. Which links well to ski's well made point.

The comp will only nose dive if our top players are few and far between which is the case now.

He's been voted wests best player 2 years in a row infront of benji, farah and Chris lawerence. He is also regarded as the best backrower in the nrl. So I don't think you have seen too much of him.

He is already a class act. Burgess and Ellis haven't dramatically improved IMO and Roby wouldn't either. Same applies to Graham.







Completely agree. We need to look after our own competition, sending our best players to the NRL won't make a jot of difference to the England team. Improving our competition will improve the rest and increase the depth of talent we have.

Like it hasn't made a jot of difference to the kiwis who despite having a smaller talent pool than the uk have much better players and beat the Aussies in the biggest games?

Fantastic news for Saints.

Totally agree.



I was thrilled to bits when the email came through about Roby.



Well done for making the right decision Robes! Looking forward to seeing you go from strength to strength in the no.9 shirt!

Good news. He can go to the NRL and show them up when he's 33 going on 34.

The majority of Kiwi players are playing in a strong competition. We can't send all our players over there and don't have the luxury that NZ do in terms of having a team in the NRL. Sending our best players over there will improve our best players, but what about the other players in the competition? What if our best players are unavailable for selection? The drop in quality is massive. The emphasis shouldn't be on us sending our best players over there, it should be about improving our competition, our coaching and development of players, so ALL our players can compete at the highest level.

So when do you expect Sam Tomkins to go to Australia ?

I think we are agreeing really. I just think more of our stars out there will be a benefit. I feel if Domestic development is better(nrl standard) then the players leaving will be replaceable which would be different from the problem we have now because our outstanding talents like roby are few.

Well in Robes. Made my day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think you read the first post and didn't get any further. I've made my view clear over the 3 pages.



I think tomkin should go to Oz at least mid 20's, right away would be good for me. Under someone like Wayne Bennett he could be the worlds best player in a few years.

without tomkins,roby and the like,super league will be finished.we cant afford to lose any of our top players plus we would be making the nrl even stronger than it is now.we need our top players at home,increasing gates,tv audiences and ultimately sponsorship.

Totally, 100%, spot on.



I just don't understand the mentality of those fans who support losing our best players to the opposition, who have plenty enough good players of their own. We need our best players here as role models in the game to our young players and maintaining the standard of our own competition. The likes of Roby and Jammer will be excellent players no matter where they play and they are needed in our game.

I dont understand the mentality of those fans who arnt open minded enough to see that our best players going to play in the best comp with the best players will become better players themselves and when they come back as players and later coaches will make our comp stronger for the long term. Leading to our ability to produce a much higher volume of quality players. Which means when the high quality players leave we have youngsters of high quality who will fill the void and be the stars of tomorrow.



Locking our best talent in to long term deals is a short term solution to a long term problem. I understand why the clubs do it. I believe there is a bigger picture. using the NRL to train our best to be the best. Then they can come back as players and coaches and take our game forward instead of this indefinite stagnation it's currently in with regard to sl's inability to produce a high volume of world class players.

they come back when they are of no use to the nrl,much like most of the aussies playing here now.our younger players will learn more playing alongside and against roby now,rather than later.as for coaching,well lets see who will be adrian morleys first club is as head coach.warrington,leeds?more like quinns.i am not narrow minded,i just dont think our game could survive a mass exodus of its best players.your theory is right,but i suspect my practice is also right.

I don't agree with mass exodus either. Maybe 1 player a year to start with. In 10, 20, years why shouldnt we have 30 + world class blokes to pick from instead of the 3 or 4 we have now.

We might have,but only if we have a league for them to play in,and a league full of star players that youngsters aspire to play in

So what you are really saying is you want to convert Superleague into a feeder league for the NRL by providing most of our best players on an annual basis. Meanwhile superleague degrades into a comp with a void filled by 2nd rate players from OZ and young English players not ready for superleague.



Can,t understand when the high quality players leave where these youngsters of high quality are going to sprout from.



If we send all our best players over to OZ, I won.t be watching superleague, I,ll probably be viewing the NRL.