Rugby League Coaching Manuals

By Ian Millward Sporting Life- I was very disappointed with England's performance against Australia last weekend. I've coached a lot of those players and just didn't see them playing to their full ability or their undoubted potential. They lacked aggression in attack and defence, they lacked cohesion despite the fact the team was comprised predominately of Leeds and St Helens players.

England had problems in little areas of their game in the win over Papua New Guinea and I expected them to work on those and get them right. It didn't happen.

It was a major disappointment.

I think Super League is a fantastic competition, full of skill and excitement, but the national team is not reflecting that. They are not showing the same flair, and people over here in Australia are now very negative about the state of the English game.

I know they're wrong, there are some wonderful footballers in England. Now is the time to see them.

So why is the strength of the domestic competition not being transferred to the national side? We have to look at overseas quotas.

The league are working on this and will bring it down to five per club soon. It needs to be three.

All clubs need to sit down and agree this. They can use the money they save on wages to further strengthen their development programmes. That's the key.

Australia could have picked six or seven sides to be competitive against England last Sunday. The NRL competition is predominately full of Australian players and their pool of talent is huge.

Just look at who was missing last weekend. Justin Hodges and Mark Gasnier at centre, Brett Stewart at full-back, Willie Mason in the pack, Jonathan Thurston at scrum-half. There was hardly a ripple.

Their absence only provided other people with opportunties - and the players are there waiting to seize them.

Rugby league needs a strong England side. It's an area that needs looking at. We need more quality English players coming through. Slashing the overseas quota to three and pumping more money and energy into the development side is the way forward.

Since I've been back in Australia it's been quite frightening the number and quality of youngsters breaking through at NRL clubs.

Don't worry. The next generation here is waiting in the wings.

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