Wakefield Trinity • Genuine question.

I always wondered why our forwards going to the NRL go really well, at times proper dominate…. Ellis, Burgess’s, Graham, Whitehead, Hodgeson and Moz, Bateman etc, yet the backs that go over more often than not struggle and end up back over here.

Remember listening to coach Nathan Brown on James Grahams podcast about the major differences between NRL and SL. He said he could be pretty certain an English forward would go well in the NRL as they are usually bled through a lot younger into the 1st team, in more challenging harder conditions, by the time a lot of forwards are hitting 22/24 they have over 100 top flight games, like a Morgan Smithies or a Liam Byrne for example, where as in Aus the majority at that age are still playing NSW/QLD cup. Our backs he said are generally no where near the size, speed or skill of our Southern hemisphere, that’s where we struggle to compete.

It feels like an eternity since we have played Aus at international level, but while ever I’ve watched us (I’m 34) we have always matched them in the forwards but been well beneath them 1-7. Obviously genetics may play a part especially with a huge Polynesian and aboriginal contingent playing over in Aus.

Statistics: Posted by Pat Bateman — Sun Apr 14, 2024 7:05 pm — Replies 20 — Views 2431

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