Just back from Headingley, and again the words "not good enough" come to the fore!
A mountain of ball early doors in the second half at 12-8, but couldn't break their resolute defence. Then at our end, m-o-m Grant touched down, and it was GSAM.
Reece, m-o-m at Wembley. Munster last week, and Grant today, with Munster being awarded the accolade of mam of he series. Cleary missed one kick in three games, and that one hit the woodwork. Their spine has destroyed us!
We managed just two tries in 240 minutes of football, which perfectly sums up the three words I've highlighted above!
I think he's contracted until after the World Cup. but...........
Should Wane fall on his sword now?
Pre-match was the tops. Wreaths laid by the captains, the last post, and the minute's silence so immaculately observed, you could hear the engine of the drone hovering over the stadium.
Spelly.
Could not disagree with any point you have made. As a rationale 60 + male who last saw GB/England beat the old enemy in 1978 why did I get out of bed thinking it might happen?
I have have always been happy to support a team where effort is at the fore. Effort and motivation is down to the coach and that I thought was evident.
Luck? Hey you make your own unless you are tangling horns with NRL or Indiaa (at cricket) then they have to officiate.
BJ drops ball/injures shoulder inside 2 mins, Mickey Lewis has both ability and potential but not as a full back.
A coach should be judged on what he makes from the resources available. Watkins was impressive but surely he won't be in the WC. Rest of forwards? One or two may not be. But where are the backs coming from?
The players relate to SW, he may be able to polish what we have but I am pretty certain Big Sam, who made a huge contribution to the international cause, is more useful be hind a microphone.
Food for thought?
Who would replace Wane and make it any better ? The coach isn’t in the top half dozen priorities if we want to take the game at club and particularly at international level seriously.
Pre- match ---- Too many who can't be arsed to doff their caps to the fallen.
Grant and Munster and also Cleary and Walsh are doing the business at club level and it shows how they are coached. SW is still in the 'get stuck in' logic, but that isn't enough. Most of SL creativity is bought in, leaving us with very little at international level.
Maybe revert to only allowing genuinely 'top class ' imports as marquee signings.
I keep harking back to Bellamy's 'perfect practice makes perfect' and so much of the Aussie game shouts 'practiced!'
And that brings me back to Widnes and the need to practice our plays and make the team something better than simply the sum of its several parts.
To be fair, if I was an Aussie Administrator, I would now be asking myself if there is really much point in having another Ashes series if British RL are unable or unwilling to effect the changes necessary to make it worthwhile.
England/GB will never be any good until they sort out the problems that exist in the domestic game.
I hate the phrase 'root and branch' reform, but that is exactly what is needed.
Once again though, I fear that club owners will again simply forget about what has happened and return to their old, selfish ways of 'I'm alright Jack' and continue to buy mainly second rate talent from overseas rather than concentrating on producing more of our own talent .
The game had a great chance in 1996 to establish some firm foundations and long term strategies, but too much selfish and short-term thinking has seen those opportunities wasted, leaving us in the mess we find ourselves in today.
Still, though, we will have all the cosied up media and TV 'experts' conveniently ignoring the problems and continuing to tell us that everything in the garden is rosy, and that we should literally all be watching it in our millions!!!
The turnstiles clicked 132,418 times during the series, proving there's still an appetite here for international football, but.......
So far, there's nowt booked on the domestic calendar for next term, so......
Does that mean we'll be heading to the World Cup undercooked?
A fourteen team SL, will leave less time to include a mid season game with (say) France, so.......
It seems likely that nobody will be pulling on an international shirt for nearly a year!
What's the answer? I wish I knew, but down under, there'll still be NSW v QLD x 3! How I wish that we had summat even resembling it in the British game!
Spelly
That's the point though Spelly. There is an answer but our so called Guardians of our Sport (like Politicians) do not want to front up to the issues and solve the problems.
Far easier to just carry on regardless, and in however many years, we will still be talking about the same things.
Nothing ever changes and is why RL never gets anywhere.
Shame but true.
But taking a wider view any player with an Aussie accent is signed as a 'star'! He may have only played at their equivalent to Championship and he is still a 'star'. But when he signs a promising UK youngster loses out!
This is true even outside SL!
That situation suits many so-called coaches who can't 'coach'.
Limit any side to three 'foreigners' and we might see a few of our own 'stars'.
.
@spelly We did have our own County of Origin for a bit, but it wasn’t successful.
I think the top clubs were more interested in their players playing in club matches rather than Origin matches
@spelly We did have our own County of Origin for a bit, but it wasn’t successful.
I think the top clubs were more interested in their players playing in club matches rather than Origin matches
Yeah, the Exiles, brought in by McNamara when he was at the helm, and.............
Prior to that, the War of the Roses was around for a bit, but..........
I went to every game, and not one got above three quarter pace! Cry-offs by the shed load, coz coaches didn't want their players injured!
Origin football, it wasn't!
Even if we do manage to squeeze in a match with our cousins across la Manche, will they give us a meaningful contest?
I openly admit that I sound like a doom merchant, by throwing in negatives, but until we've summat even resembling Blues v Maroons, we'll continue to be second best at international level!
Spelly.
These so called representative games over here are/were just a gimmick and complete waste of time.
There needs to be a complete overhaul of the domestic calendar for a start to get rid of pointless and poor quality matches.
Apart from the obvious issue of player welfare, games need to be rationed to make players and supporters hungry for rugby league.
Every game needs to count and be considered an 'event'.
We will never compete with the Aussies if we continue to flog our players to death and then expect them to just turn up and beat the best in the world.
Like everything else though regarding rugby league clown World!
It ain't ever gonna happen!
There's absolutely no point resurrecting our own Origin, it was a pale imitation. To be honest, at the moment I'm thinking there's no point organising any more Ashes/Aus tests, we're no competition for them.
It's odd that they seem to care more about the game over here than our Administrators do. Tells you all you need to know.
As for the game last weekend, for me it summed up SL rugby; lots of effort but little skill. Aside from charges up the middle and scoring tries from kicks, England have nothing to offer.
The procession of self serving ‘administrators’ who turned up to usher in Sky and who have frittered away vast (relatively speaking) sums of the money available on SL and the various attempts at promoting the game as a viable global business have completely failed to notice the single biggest elephant in the room for the past 30 odd years - put simply, nobody can fix the game in England / France from the top down. Yet every 18 / 24 months they come up with crackpot ideas to fritter away the dwindling supply of revenue.
I honestly think that the bottom up approach should be applied. The future of League, and most ‘second tier’ sports is dependent upon getting kids interested at as early an age as possible - get them playing the game, ideally at school and in local amateur clubs. Entice them along to watch matches, make the game a family occasion and try and win the next generation over. At present the focus of the sport is on the top of the tree and the chaps lining their pockets haven’t looked at the roots and trunk of the tree for years, which is a shame as the tree is withering.
funny thing is, there is still interest (and hope) if you look at the numbers who went to the recent Ashes series …