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Long retires from international RL

He was finished for GB the moment he flew home from the Tri Nations and nobody knows that better than Sean Long. Too often he didn't perform in the GB shirt he never showed at that level how good he can be. He's getting on now though and GB will benefit from the chance to play a new 7.

Long's best performance was down under when GB beat the Aussies. He was immense.
 
look... i cant stand the bloke.. just never aimed up in a gb shirt.

he played 1 good game in the tri-nations and then went MIA in wellington.

ive had my fair share of battles with ST's over Long and Stacey Jones but i think that argument ended when long ditched his mates in oz.

in 2005 stacey jones was going back and forth between nz and gb for the birth of his child and he ended up leading them to the win.

long just didnt respect the jumper enough. let a young pommy kid take over... bring some heart back to the lions..
 
Good. He was a ****.

I'm looking forward to seeing an up and coming youngster, as shiznit said. New Zealand gamble on young, raw talent and it has paid off for them in recent times. Hopefully GB can do the same...but not beat Australia of course :p
 
im not taking a dig at ESL by saying this..

but have they thought of perhaps sending a couple of there young halves over to Australia/NZ to play in the NRL??

they can get that NRL experience... tougher and more consistant comp. they would have to be switched on EVERY week instead of just against the big guns. they go back to the UK with alot more experience.

an idea maybe...
 
im not taking a dig at ESL by saying this..

but have they thought of perhaps sending a couple of there young halves over to Australia/NZ to play in the NRL??

they can get that NRL experience... tougher and more consistant comp. they would have to be switched on EVERY week instead of just against the big guns. they go back to the UK with alot more experience.

an idea maybe... [/b]
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That's a wonderful idea :)

But you talk about the ESL sending young halves over to the NRL. You have to ask the questions: Who would take them? and why would the NRL take them seeing as though they are young British fellas and haven't monitored them over the years?

I suppose the ESL could send them over for trials though. That should definately be supported.

But it also comes down to the fact that the NRL is there to produce Australian talent not British talent. Sure, the NRL produces New Zealand talent aswell, but they are part of the NRL.

I have just thought of something else: If they do happen to strike up an NRL contract and they perform well, and get their contract extended, they might stay longer than originally intended.

I could keep talking about this all day, but it would be drivel that no-one would want to hear lol.

It is a good idea though and i'm sure something could be worked out if both competitions wanted it to happen.
 
i know my club would look at a young footballer from england if she showed enough promise. Parramatta are dying for a great young Halfback or 5/8(weve give smith & finch more then enough time). i know the warriors probably would too...

obviously they wouldnt be straight out of highschool or anything they would have to be established firstgraders who show promise and have time on there side but they maybe playing in one of the lower ranked sides like KR or Salford...

GB rugby league would have to swallow there pride first though.. i highly doubt it... but if you had a young 23 year old pommie kid playing next to Lockeyer at the broncos and being coached by Wayne Bennett the experience he would take back would be great.
 
Parramatta had Chris Thorman for 12 months and never bothered with him. There's this whole mystique with British players which is just arrogance from NRL teams and coaches. They don't believe that people are good enough to be starters in the NRL because they are British and that's a load of rubbish. And I know for a fact that there ae a number of players who woul thrive in the NRL.
 
Thorman wasnt good enough... we gave him plenty of chances to cement a spot in the halves. its nothing on the ESL or anything though...

Thorman just wasnt up to scratch thats all... a young sean long or perhaps Danny Mcguire would do well in the NRL.

Thorman was really poor... he just didnt turn up every week. from what i remember of him he had 1 real memorable game... against the Dragons at OKI. deadset terrorised the cooper and nagwama with his kicking game all night. we routed them bigtime. but most of the time he was a dud.. just didnt lead the team around the park well enough..
 
it has nothing to do with australia is better... its about the best way to get GB competitive.
 
Thorman wasnt good enough... we gave him plenty of chances to cement a spot in the halves. its nothing on the ESL or anything though...

Thorman just wasnt up to scratch thats all... a young sean long or perhaps Danny Mcguire would do well in the NRL.

Thorman was really poor... he just didnt turn up every week. from what i remember of him he had 1 real memorable game... against the Dragons at OKI. deadset terrorised the cooper and nagwama with his kicking game all night. we routed them bigtime. but most of the time he was a dud.. just didnt lead the team around the park well enough.. [/b]
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Danny McGuire is one serious knee injury away from being a very mediocre player.
 
lol every other post in this section turns into an "Australia is better" thread [/b]
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No, that's just your interpretation. This is a discussion about player development and each poster is voicing their own opinions and providing facts.
 
and everything always translates directly back to players needing to play in the NRL to get better, IMO the problems with British RL will not be solved simply by sending players overseas - there's the length of the season, the question of having the right coach, plus how to strengthen and expand the SL, how to strengthen not only the players to perform at the world class level they're capable of in the Lions team but how to make them a cohesive unit but also how to make them mentally 'rugby tough' to not blow their chances, leads and let the floodgates open almost everytime that they play Oz
 
they play alright against aussie... i always get up to watch the lions V the roos... its nearly always a contest.

they need to beat the kiwis though... they really struggle to beat us for some reason. they have the talent for sure. i dont know if they dont like our physical style of play or not.
 
yeah... it could well be a mental thing... maybe a couple of young bucks running around could break that.

they really lack self-belief. the way they lost the 05 tri-nations showed that to me. they were the best side in the round robin and pretty much had australia beat yet in that 1st half of the final they were destroyed.

until they learn to win the big games they will always be written off early by the aussie and kiwi fans.
 

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