England's latest failure ! : Mon Nov 08, 2010 7:33 am  

having appointed the worst coach in British rugby history to transform our national team into world beaters, Are we really surprised at the outcome? I find myself asking the same questions [where did we go wrong / how can we improve and do you know I keep coming up with the same two answers every time. Appoint world class management, and restrict clubs to 2 foreign born players each, Sounds simple enough you might think but that's not the way the RFL see things
unfortunately our sport is still run by halfwits in flat caps. So dont hold your breath for any change in the near future

RANT OVER.

Re: England's latest failure ! : Mon Nov 08, 2010 11:18 am  

People rant over McNamara but I believe his core remit was:

1.) Develop a young side capable of a decent lvel of performance in the next x years
2.) Repair the team spirit that was battered at last years WC.

Looked at from this narrow perspective, I think McNamara was a good choice. I belive his tactics and overall kinowedge of the game are lacking, which is backed up by his relative lack of any accomplishments in a coaching capacity, however I think the RFL have taken a pragmatic stance and acknowledged that there is a new process of rebuilding that has begun.

Re: England's latest failure ! : Mon Nov 08, 2010 12:34 pm  

surly this rebuilding started 20 years ago, when we imported on mass coaches and players from Australia to bring the British game to the same level as the aussies! that didn't work and mcbanana isn't going to rebuild bu**er all !

1]stop importing 2nd class has beens and promote our own kids
2] develope our own coaches and provide them with jobs.

last time we did these things we won the ashes!!!!!!!!!

Re: England's latest failure ! : Mon Nov 08, 2010 12:57 pm  

Steve McNamara should never have been anywhere near the shortlist for the England Head Coaching job. He hasnt won anything what so ever at club level and took the Bradford Bulls backwards at an alarming rate. Just the qualities you dont want when picking an International Coach.

Re: England's latest failure ! : Mon Nov 08, 2010 1:07 pm  

We aren't EVER going to be competitive on the international scene because the sport over here doesn't have a sufficiently high profile to attract the kids to play it in the first place.

In Australia it is a big sport in the areas it is played, meaning the game isn't dwarfed in terms of popularity or future prospects. For kids choosing which sport to play rugby league is a viable choice. Here it isn't. Until they change that nothing will ever get any better. In Australia they have a reasonable chance of finding the next Lockyer, Inglis and Slater. Over here those players, even if born in the heartlands, are highly unlikely to ever play the sport at any level.

That initial 'rubbish in-rubbish out' problem can never be solved through coaching or development schemes, no matter how wonderful they may be. So, us having absolutely embarassing structures, competitions and coaches isn't making that much of a difference. All this is then made worse by short sighted clubs such as Hull KR and Wigan who spend 6 days a week trying to find loopholes in the regulations to enable them to sign even more overseas players. Far too many of the key positions in SL are taken up by average NRL players.

Rugby League in the UK needs a new administration. They need to make the competitions exciting, they need to make it vibrant and get both the supporters in through the door and the press interested. If they had 10,000+ crowds at all SL games, with London included in that they could get the press on board. But instead the RFL just sit there and do the absolute minimum possible, the international game is a complete farce and there really is no future for the sport as it is now. Sooner or later Sky will realise this and slash the price they are willing to pay for it, which is already borderline charitable as no other broadcaster would even consider bidding.

Re: England's latest failure ! : Mon Nov 08, 2010 2:01 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

We aren't EVER going to be competitive on the international scene because the sport over here doesn't have a sufficiently high profile to attract the kids to play it in the first place.

In Australia it is a big sport in the areas it is played, meaning the game isn't dwarfed in terms of popularity or future prospects. For kids choosing which sport to play rugby league is a viable choice. Here it isn't. Until they change that nothing will ever get any better. In Australia they have a reasonable chance of finding the next Lockyer, Inglis and Slater. Over here those players, even if born in the heartlands, are highly unlikely to ever play the sport at any level.

That initial 'rubbish in-rubbish out' problem can never be solved through coaching or development schemes, no matter how wonderful they may be. So, us having absolutely embarassing structures, competitions and coaches isn't making that much of a difference. All this is then made worse by short sighted clubs such as Hull KR and Wigan who spend 6 days a week trying to find loopholes in the regulations to enable them to sign even more overseas players. Far too many of the key positions in SL are taken up by average NRL players.

Rugby League in the UK needs a new administration. They need to make the competitions exciting, they need to make it vibrant and get both the supporters in through the door and the press interested. If they had 10,000+ crowds at all SL games, with London included in that they could get the press on board. But instead the RFL just sit there and do the absolute minimum possible, the international game is a complete farce and there really is no future for the sport as it is now. Sooner or later Sky will realise this and slash the price they are willing to pay for it, which is already borderline charitable as no other broadcaster would even consider bidding.

Its hard to argue with any of that

Re: England's latest failure ! : Mon Nov 08, 2010 2:36 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

We aren't EVER going to be competitive on the international scene because the sport over here doesn't have a sufficiently high profile to attract the kids to play it in the first place.

In Australia it is a big sport in the areas it is played, meaning the game isn't dwarfed in terms of popularity or future prospects. For kids choosing which sport to play rugby league is a viable choice. Here it isn't. Until they change that nothing will ever get any better. In Australia they have a reasonable chance of finding the next Lockyer, Inglis and Slater. Over here those players, even if born in the heartlands, are highly unlikely to ever play the sport at any level.
.

Agree 100%

Ive got a lad in a local school who is one of the most natually gifted athletes of his generation. Speed to burn, size, strength, balance.....everything going for him.....but his sport of choice is......ATHLETICS.

These are the kids who we should be attracting to our game but unfortunately, the lure of an average salary to get battered for 10 months of the year, no prospect of any national sporting recognition and, if you are one of the lucky ones, to have a career that is effectively over when you turn 30, just isnt appealing enough for the "athletes of tommorrow" who are attracted by, amongst other things, the false hope of multi-million pound football contract with a premier league club that they are never going to get.

Not something the Aussies or Kiwis struggle with to be fair.

Re: England's latest failure ! : Mon Nov 08, 2010 4:19 pm  

this year has been dissapointing but tbh weve been beaten a whole lot more then we have this year in the past and at leaste with the squad we have its very young and has potential so in a way im quite happy obviously i want u to win more then anyone else but i think were in a better posistion now then we were in 08. now weve got problems in trying to match the kiwis and aussies that we need to sort out and as a sport we need to have more emphasis on interantional rugby.

Re: England's latest failure ! : Mon Nov 08, 2010 6:29 pm  

I am more concerned about basic flaws in the Coaches than the players.
Many of the players were just not good enough to be there and several of them of them would never have got in the squad without the injuries to the likes of Peacock, Morley, Sinfield, Pryce, Eastmond etc etc. It just shows no strength in depth.
Injuries will heal though and these players will (hopefully) come back, unfortunately having clowns as coaches is something we are stuck with; something Brian Smith alluded to.

As for whether SL as a whole is good enough, I expect Wigan will beat St George Illawarra in the WCC reasonably comfortably.

Noble was useless as the England coach (read long's biography about him) and Mc Banana is worse - he was effectively sacked by Brdford for p/ss poor performances and disastrous results. The only decent coach we had in recent years was Tony Smith and our brilliant RFL wouldn't let him carry on part time - as if coaching England is full time!!

The bit that really concerns me is we are getting worse not better.

Re: England's latest failure ! : Mon Nov 08, 2010 6:33 pm  

Just read this McBanana speak:

"We'll thoroughly review what's gone on, stay in touch with the group and some additional players and start putting a plan in place," he said.

"They will all go back to their clubs and play in different styles and that is the right thing for them to do but, from an England point of view, whenever we get the opportunity, we will remind them of the England way so that when they come back they're at a different start level to where they were this year.

"If we continually do that, we'll keep on improving." WTF?


Must start saving these classic "McBanana Skins" to look back on and laugh at for when I'm feeling down.