O/T. The standard of Super League this year. : Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:08 pm  

Is it just me or does anyone else think the standard of rugby in super league this year has been a bit poor, a few games have been exciting to watch mainly because the scorelines have ended up close but even in some of those games the skill levels haved been pretty poor. Maybe its just ive been spoilt watching the NRL this year where their have been some great games.

I recorded the Salford v Hull game as it clashed with Man United v Spurs, ive just watched it back, that was painful viewing. We usually get the line from Eddie Hemmings which goes something along the lines of "Super league just gets better and better each year", i`m not sure it does this year Eddie especially in the skill levels department.

Re: O/T. The standard of Super League this year. : Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:24 pm  

Rob Wire wrote:

Is it just me or does anyone else think the standard of rugby in super league this year has been a bit poor, a few games have been exciting to watch mainly because the scorelines have ended up close but even in some of those games the skill levels haved been pretty poor. Maybe its just ive been spoilt watching the NRL this year where their have been some great games.

I recorded the Salford v Hull game as it clashed with Man United v Spurs, ive just watched it back, that was painful viewing. We usually get the line from Eddie Hemmings which goes something along the lines of "Super league just gets better and better each year", i`m not sure it does this year Eddie especially in the skill levels department.

He only ever says that when Saints are playing Leeds...Which is the fixture he'd like to watch ever week if he could...

: Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:41 pm  

The competitiveness has greatly improved though which makes the standard of excitement a lot higher this year than in previous years

: Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:51 pm  

I think its more unpredictable because there are a lot of middling not very good teams in SL now. I don't think there are many good coaches in SL at the moment either, look at clubs like Saints, Leeds, Hull, Bradford, their coaches are all inferior to their predecessors.

: Sat Apr 25, 2009 11:25 pm  

2011 will be...

homegrown players 8
uk trained players 12
overseas trained players 5

can you see the quality getting better ?

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:05 am  

More unpredicatable, the quality of play doesn't really get going until the business end of the year me thinks.

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 8:52 am  

Couple of points to make on this.

Look at the Top 5. Leeds, Saints, Hudds, Wakey and KR. 3rd to 5th have only lost 3 games each. If these names were replaced by Wigan, Bradford, Catalans or Warrington, nobody would be questioning anything I suspect. Because these teams are struggling, it is solely put down to them dropping their standard, taking away from the hard work and good rugby that Hudds, Wakey and KR are playing.
I think the two results this weekend have shown that the competition is tight, and Leeds and Saints aren't necessarily miles ahead of everyone else.

On the standard of Rugby point, I am quite split. At times we have seen some great Rugby, but I don't think that Sky have had great games so far. Some of the Rugby from Saints the other night was schoolboy stuff, the tackle where they went 45m backwards was genius! Long showed us how not to pass a Rugby ball, and there was some shoddy defence.

I am looking forward to the Magic Weekend next week, as teams like Cas, Quins and Wakefield don't get their fair share of coverage on Sky, and I suspect if we had been watching some of these teams on Sky each week, it would have been a better standard than the dross at the Willows last night.

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:07 am  

Must agree with the original poster,but its been in decline for a few seasons now.Much prefer to watch the lower league games on sky,where the players on a whole are part timers,yet still give to the best of their ability.

The trouble with superleague is that all the teams want instant success and thus go out buying overseas "talent".Its no surprise to see Leeds and Saints light years ago of the rest,due to investing in local and English talent.Wigan did this to great success in the 80s and 90s,then for some reason,did'nt bother much there-after.Basically they bought players who wanted to play for the shirt and not just the paypacket.

With this useless idea of a franchise system,the quality will get worse as the season progresses,due to the non-xistant threat of relagation.