Super League must believe in its own product

I forgot all about the World Club Challenge thingy between the winners of the NRL and ESL. The only Rugby League I watch is - Cowboy's matches and the Origin. So that is probably the reason I forgot all about the World Club Challenge thingy. That said, as the Cowboy's (not Cows) are playing, I will watch the match.

The point you fail to make is that there is a huge rift in the salary cap of the respective competitions. In many ways it's a miracle that English sides and the England national side even begin to compete...

Nothing in the history of the game would support that claim, Bronco J.

Did you read what I wrote, Bronco J? I said he played "badly" and that he was well short of "fulfilling his potential." Sometimes, players are off form! But if he was "rubbish" then what does that make Jordan Kahu, who saw Watkins skip round him with ease in the third Test?

Take out the NRL in the England side and it would have been 3-0 to the kiwis.

Even England fans have said Watkins was rubbish, go read the comments on the Total Rugby League forums. And from what I saw he certainly didn't impress me. Half a Broncos team against a full strength Wigan team, two rounds into their season, played on a ground that looked like a paddock, with everything favoring the Wigan side, not to mention Brisbane was in horrible early season form, yet still won. I never said anything about humiliation from Aus teams, I said they are able to compete (obviously you missed that bit in my comment). At the end of the day the results still favoured the NRL, did they not?

You missed my point, but anyway. They are out of their depth against the top NRL clubs. As I said compare Wigan and the Roosters by each position and you will see what I mean. Super League is several levels below NRL and if you can't see that then you are seriously deluded.

As I remember a week or two after demolishing St.Helens, in the WWC, Souths belted Brisbane in their own back yard and we saw how the season panned out after that. From a junior and development perspective it is interesting to note that the St.Helens academy tour to Australia last month resulted in the Saints winning all four of their games against he respective academies from Wests Tigers, Central Coast, Parramatta and Penrith.

In what way, shape or form was Watkins "out of his league?" He played badly and nowhere even hinted at fulfilling his potential - but he was at least as good as the likes of Brisbane Bronco, Jordan Kahu. As for the WCC - by all means point out Souths' thrashing of St Helens, but what happened in the Broncos v Wigan game? Or the Dragons v Warrington game? Why weren't the English clubs humiliated by their superior Australian counterparts?

I would have put Watkins in, but watching him in the test series, he looked out of his league. As for "The best clubs have the professionalism and skill to compete (if not beat) the best of the NRL" I agree somewhat about being able to compete, but the WCC result last year kind of proves that statement wrong. When you look at a top SL team 1-17, say Wigan for instance, and compare it to a top NRL team 1-17 (Roosters, or any of the top 6 clubs) you'll see what im trying to say.

And the media so called backing nearly helped destroy rugby league via the SL war. And the current media via the Telegraph is doing its grandest to drag it down whenever possible,courtesy of Bec,.Hooper,Rothfield . Rugby union got plenty of media coverage pro and during the RWC2003.And ru media and no difficulty either predicting rl's demise or being delegated to no 3 sport in this country. Two sides to every coin In brief and your bias is well projected when you post on rl threads.

French ru was professional decades before it was professional in the legal sense of the word.Hence the word shamateurism. The pretence union was completely lilly white during the amateur years was shown to be a farce in France ,and in a couple of other contorts. BTW Clipper Sport England is anxious to financially assist rugby league in the RLWC 2021,now the Govt has increased funding to Sport England. And FYI French Rugby league(FFRX111) on 30th October 2015 understand signed an historic quadpartite agreement with UNSS(Union national du sport scholar)-the Federation governing all school and lycée sports. USEP (union Sportive des Ecoles Primaires)-the primary school federation under the education ministry and MEN (Ministere de l'Education National).Negotiations lasted 3 years. The terms of it will enable the FFRX111 to train teachers,to have greater collaboration with UNSS and USEP and also to develop relationships with local education authorities,school inspectorates and schools,Thew FFRX111 will create tools for teachers about the sport including articles in journals,teaching materials and suitable learning materials. And 220 coaches and match officials have graduated across Europe from Netherlands,Czech Republic,Italy,Germany,Latvia,Poland,Belgium,Malta,Denmark,Hungary,Sweden and Greece .Funding provided by the European Sport Commission and the RLIF. Notice i'm moderated because I responded civilly to Clipper,one noted for sniping at rugby league unfettered.

RU has had the advantage of professionalism over the past two decades, which has helped more that the larger world profile - league has had 100 plus years of professionalism, but has lost traction since the 50's in the UK - have to use UK as it the Welsh side were quite strong - but like France have lost all competitiveness and can not compete with the top three now.

The Raiders will be a very decent side in 2016 and nearly made the finals last season. I think they would win or go close to winning the ESL. I get what you are saying but the NRL is a very even competition, perhaps the most even competition in world sports. I would say in the NRL for the last few years the top 4 or 5 sides have been a level above then from 6th to 16th there is barely anything between them. The difference between finishing 6th and 16th probably depends on injuries more than anything.

You are exactly why super league are 'cellar dwellers' in the UK. Lose the chips on the shoulder, stop ramming your sport down everyone's throat, and try to appreciate that everyone has their own preferences. Then people may start to listen. Calling rugby union 'yawnion', soccer 'wendy ball' and NFL soft (no pads) doesn't win you any friends. You talk about bias, when you yourself are incredibly biased. In Australia rugby union gets no coverage, yet you don't get grand conspiracies. Back in the early 80s when they started really pumping the Winfield Cup, rugby league truly was just a suburban sport. The media backing helped a lot to grow the game. That's life, not a conspiracy.

Birdy like Phil Gould, Schoey spends too much of his time being negative sometimes this is targetted and sometimes more general. Now and again they say something positive and like a parody of a Simon Cowell moment it hides the overwhelming output and the affect is not positive for the game as a whole. A lot of his work seems to be based on the idea of how good he was as a player which becomes a mixture of supriority and condescension which is neither a good look, nor does it produce positive writing or comments about TGG. He is dismissive of players abilities to a degree that does him no service at all. As the saying goes great players don't necessarily make great coaches or great pundits but your behavour can certainly make you a great @rsehole! Just look at his comments on youtube and the picture becomes very clear.