TBF I thought about this same thing when watching the game. My honest thoughts were that we'd give NSW a decent game but QLD would have too much out wide for us to compete.

Possibly....but in an alternate reality, Qlnd would tonk Australia. That is the best SoO side in the eyes of many. Difference is, whilst Slater is a great SoO player, he craps himself at the sight of a Kiwi Shirt. Likewise a few others in the Qlnd team.......Australia are not all that. England just need to believe (and get a decent coach FFS).

TBF that Q'land back line is one of the best back lines of all time. No shame in not being able to match it, NSW (+Fiji) are not even close and look at how strong the game is in that state. As said $millions goes into Jnr RL in NSW and Q'land, probably 100 times more money than is spent on jnr RL in UK so no surprise.



re sending coaches over to Oz, hasn't SL been full of Australian coaches for the last 15 years?



If you are going to match Oz you would need to:



1. Open up a load of casinos with money sapping bandits in council estates across the country. yes it will deprive children of food and clothing but there will be plenty of money for Jnr RL.

2. Give residency visas to Kiwis and islanders and encourage them to all move to Leeds. Worked for Western Sydney!

My new sig

Out of interest, has Bluey got a job down under yet?

Watched a recording of the game last night with a football fan who i'm converting to RL by watching weekly SL matches, he commented that the State of Origin was like watching in fast-forward, when the recording finished we switched the Wigan game on and that was in slow motion in comparison.



He also commented that he didn't realise how big a game rugby league was in Australia and commented a few times about the crowd.

To draw a comparison between Gooners/Cas and the biggest Origin fixture ever is hardly sensible, and a tad pointless, though? You could equally compare it with some of the dull-as-ditchwater NRL fare we have seen this season

Compare the two when we (Wigan) play Wire in the cup, that will be a totally different game! Also Wigan did what we had to do last night considering we hardly had a pack. It was never going to be pretty.

a totally different game yes, but still not anywhere near the sustained pace of Origin, every single tackle will not be a bone cruncher, every single run will not look like they are literally trying to smash through a wall, and they will not be fighting and struggling like their lives depended on it in every tackle, when superleague players often just accept tackles.

its still silly to compare Wire V Wigan to Origin.

My god, you poms are no where near as bad as some of you whinge about.



Yes you have been tonked at bad times over the last 20 years, but at times you buggers have been so bloody close only to have victory snatched away with a min to go.



Bugger SOO, I want Internationals to get the promotion and praise SOO gets.



The ESL will get there eventually and I don't think it's as far away as a lot of you seem to think, so sit back, enjoy the wins and loses and one day out of the blue, you guys will get your revenge and that revenge will end up being the sweetest of them all.



You guys will get there

His original comment about State of Origin being on fast-forward was whilst watching that and his comparison was based on the Super League games he has watched recently including the recent Wigan and Warrington games.



ps. think he's converted now though.

Watch out! 