Feeding the Lions | The World Cup does not bring back happy memories for England (or Australians for that matter).
One of the recommendations to be put forward by the post-competition review held by the RFL was the introduction of an elite training squad, which will see coach Tony Smith name an initial 17-man party that can be added to throughout the season up to a maximum of 30
There are plenty of rising stars coming through the English system, not least my Harlequins colleagues Tony Clubb and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook.
While quick fixes may be what is wanted, particularly by the fans, I feel it’s just a matter of being patient and looking ahead to three or four years down the line.
Smith has said that much of the current crop of internationals are paying the price for not getting a full pre-season. It also can’t help that three quarters of the squad come from just two teams.
If you look in the NRL the players are all spread about, mainly because those towards the bottom of the ladder are still not a million miles from those at the top.
We’ve seen before that a team that wins the Grand Final one year can sometimes fail to even make the play-offs the next. That’s not so much the case in Super League right now.
This is where the franchise system will help the long-term development of the English game. The added security of being safe from the drop should see the pool of players spread around much more evenly, which as well as improving the overall standard of the competition, will also help make the national team much stronger.
I still feel, though, that the level underneath a Super League club’s first team needs to be a little stronger. If someone is coming back from injury it isn’t the greatest preparation to go up against teams containing players who are just 17 or 18.
Feeder system
A possible solution would be to see those in the top flight set up feeder clubs. Instead of sending players out on loan to get first-team action, wouldn’t it be better to send them to a team who are already affiliated with you?
Obviously this is not going to be universally agreed upon. Changing the structure of clubs who already exist, and maybe have a long history of their own, would mean they would lose a little bit of their own identity.
But, it would also strengthen National League One and Two while still giving your returning players, or those on the fringes of selection, the chance to play a good standard of rugby.
The key would be to finding the right team to link up with. In the north a lot of the clubs who could be options near-by would also historically be arch rivals.
In Australia a system such as this is already in place. Those who don’t play in the first team will travel to a local club to make sure they are still playing on a weekend.
The teams they would be sent to would be made up of mostly semi-professionals, probably training three or four times a week, whilst still having a job outside of rugby.
Like in England, the NRL also has an academy system. However, the gap is too big between the youngsters and the first team – you have 18 and 19-year-olds having to be pushed up before they are fully ready.
As has been said by others in the game recently, nowadays a rugby league player is pushing his body to its physical peak. Training is at its optimum and everyone is as fast and as strong as they can be.
For someone to have little experience and then step straight up to the top level is very tough. The introduction of affiliated clubs would hopefully raise the standards.
The long-term goal of setting up such a structure would be to raise the standards from top to bottom. However, while the World Cup may not have gone according to plan last year, I still think England are on the right track.
And finally…congratulations to my team-mate Chad Randall and his wife, Jacqueline, following the birth of their daughter Piper Anne Randall last Sunday.
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