SUPER LEAGUE - IT AIN'T RUGBY LEAGUE!

Rugby League is my favourite sport. Depressingly, I havent seen a great deal of Rugby League being played at Super League level for a very long time.

What happened? When did it happen? Where did it all go wrong? Who was responsible for it? When was tackling practically outlawed? Who decided the ruck area should no longer be contested? Who decided teams ought be kept as far apart as possible? Whose idea was it that our players have no requirement to be equipped with even a basic set of skills in either attack or defence? Who are those people who are obsessed with the idea of a low intensity, free-flowing and allegedly entertaining style of Super League which is practically devoid of any skill, class or creativity, and which usually consists of five scoots of ten metres or more per set of six from dummy half in wide open spaces? Or the occasional flat pass to stationary backs... once again, in wide open spaces?

An opposition defender merely has to touch or tap an attacking player these days and he's deemed tackled... the referee's voice booms with 'TACKLED!... MOOOOOOOVE!... GET BACK!... GET AWAY!... SURRENDER! All in the quest for yet another tediously quick PTB in wide open spaces and yet another tedious scoot of 10 metres or more from dummy half or first receiver.

I wasted a tiresome 10 minutes of my life on Friday night watching some of the Leeds V Wigan game on Sky. And yes, you guessed it... no intensity... lots of wide open spaces... no desire for any player to tackle any opposition player, or perish the thought, a penalty will be awarded because the defender didn't MOOOOOOOVE!... GET BACK!... GET AWAY!... SURRENDER!... within a nanosecond of brushing an opposition player.

There was one instance of Rob Burrow crabbing and jinking across field for what seemed like an eternity, where no Wigan player either couldn't be arsed, or just dare not attempt to tackle him for fear of giving away a penalty for having the audacity to encroach upon Burrow's personal space (FFS!). After several seconds of crabbing jinks under no pressure whatsoever (there was no Manly or Anthony Watmough hovering around NRL-stylee on this occasion to legally smash him), Burrow puts up an ordinary bomb (under no pressure) and Ryan Hall collects it (under no pressure) and scores a try in the corner. According to those clowns on Sky (Eddie & Stevo) it was all SUUUUPPPPEEEERRRRBBB! From Burrow, it was sheer skill of the highest calibre... it was world class stuff.

Fuck off! It was crap.

We've seen plenty of evidence of late with regards to just how far our Super League game lags behind the Australians and Kiwis from the NRL. The RLWC was an absolute disaster for England. Our very best players were shown up for having no skill sets in attack, no idea how to unlock opposition defences at the highest level, utterly clueless and naive in decision making and defence, and no idea whatsoever of even reading something as simple as angled dummy runners or second man plays. The very same shortcomings of our players were once again exposed by Manly in the recent WCC, and quite frankly it's embarrassing.

I have to watch the NRL to see some real, competitive and classy Rugby League these days, where the ruck area is actually contested... where real skills are on show. If I want to see some real Rugby League in this country where tackling hasn't yet been outlawed in the quest for what is deemed in feckwitt circles as entertainment, then I have to watch the local amateur RL scene. It might not be fast paced, but at least it's honest, it's contested, and it still resembles the sport of Rugby League which I enjoy.

The Aussies do play a version of Super League but they happen to be mostly mates of mine over there who play it for fun. They call it Oztag :-)