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Where are RLs Huge Athletes


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18 minutes ago, Celt said:

To be brutally honest, the answer is: "playing union".

The biggest/best athletes playing junior RL will most likely be snapped up by union clubs offering proper contracts.

Additionally Rugby League is not played in any private schools, which is where the bigger kids tend to be produced (due to far better S&C and far more training time). RL kids are either in a pro club (the few who actually operate academies) OR are training a couple of times a week with an amateur club.

The few big kids who do come through also tend to be used as battering ram front rowers. I know a guy who is 6'5" and was St Helens "service area" coming through. As a junior he played 13 had loads of touches, ran the game etc. At about 15 Saints moved him to prop.... and told him to be a battering ram. He moved to union and now plays professionally.

Wow. That's a hugely impressive amount of utter nonse. 

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I have stayed in hotels where GB/England players have stayed in. I am 6 foot+ and I have been impressed by the bulk of them. RL does not, and has never needed 7 foot, 20 stone players. We have manageable, versatile, mobile players. Ugly behemoths that represent Rugby Union are a joke. Take a look at your local "Calender Shop/stall" this month, OOOH! Rugby Calenders. They are all Union stereotypes, laughable

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1 minute ago, Bleep1673 said:

I have stayed in hotels where GB/England players have stayed in. I am 6 foot+ and I have been impressed by the bulk of them. RL does not, and has never needed 7 foot, 20 stone players. We have manageable, versatile, mobile players. Ugly behemoths that represent Rugby Union are a joke. Take a look at your local "Calender Shop/stall" this month, OOOH! Rugby Calenders. They are all Union stereotypes, laughable

So laughable that they provide a lucrative revenue stream. Who needs revenue streams when you’ve got high ground to look down from.

- Adepto Successu Per Tributum Fuga -

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26 minutes ago, Celt said:

To be brutally honest, the answer is: "playing union".

The biggest/best athletes playing junior RL will most likely be snapped up by union clubs offering proper contracts.

Additionally Rugby League is not played in any private schools, which is where the bigger kids tend to be produced (due to far better S&C and far more training time). RL kids are either in a pro club (the few who actually operate academies) OR are training a couple of times a week with an amateur club.

The few big kids who do come through also tend to be used as battering ram front rowers. I know a guy who is 6'5" and was St Helens "service area" coming through. As a junior he played 13 had loads of touches, ran the game etc. At about 15 Saints moved him to prop.... and told him to be a battering ram. He moved to union and now plays professionally.

And what is Union forward if not a battering ram ?  As for private schools if taking our present government as a example you're certainly correct in surmising that they produce the biggest kids.

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4 hours ago, owls said:

bigger they are the harder they hit,

Bang on. I remember a few seasons ago when the English team played Australia. England were relatively able to match them up front physically but across the backline England were so undersized it was laughable. It was actually pathetic to watch (the English backs). Thankfully for England's sake they have made steps to sort it now.

Size counts enormously in a collision sport like Rugby League. It is not everything, but if a team is badly outsized and outpowered it will really struggle to win.

Rugby League: Alive and Handling

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12 hours ago, Kirmonds pouch said:

Wow, what a load of nonesense.

Fire away then mate. Just let me know which top quality athletes (size, pace, power-wise) Rugby League has brought through their development system recently in the UK.

 

Rugby League: Alive and Handling

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6 hours ago, Celt said:

Fire away then mate. Just let me know which top quality athletes (size, pace, power-wise) Rugby League has brought through their development system recently in the UK.

 

No the question is in what way does size make you an athlete? Keegan Hirst is a huge man when you meet him but he's an extremely average RL player and athlete. James Batchelor is not that big but he's quick and incredibly powerfull and strong and I can name the same in almost any SL team.

They are nearly all 'quality athletes' some are big some are smaller so what it's utterly irrelevent so long as they are fit for purpose.

Note, the Aussie team is not especially large do are they not 'quality athlete? You're talking nonesense.

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11 minutes ago, Kirmonds pouch said:

No the question is in what way does size make you an athlete? Keegan Hirst is a huge man when you meet him but he's an extremely average RL player and athlete. James Batchelor is not that big but he's quick and incredibly powerfull and strong and I can name the same in almost any SL team.

They are nearly all 'quality athletes' some are big some are smaller so what it's utterly irrelevent so long as they are fit for purpose.

Note, the Aussie team is not especially large do are they not 'quality athlete? You're talking nonesense.

John Bateman.  We ready our case.

The argument they guys put forward is just fake.

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22 hours ago, scotchy1 said:

There is some cross-over between most sports but at the very elite level what is often a strength in one sport is a weakness in another.

Jamie Peacock was an RL legend largely built on an amazing work-rste. That wouldn't be much use in RU. His natural talent and athleticism would have seen him still most likely make it but he would be nowhere near international class. 

Someone like Kyle Sinckler simply wouldn't be able to do the minutes in RL, again his natural ability and athleticism would see him good enough to get a contract at a lower SL side or championship side but he would be a nobody. He would have to negate what made him stand out in RU just to survive in RL.

There are some, mostly in the outside backs where there are transferable skills of ball handling, speed and elusiveness where players can swap more easily but still it isn't a direct transition.

This is where I think the game still misses a trick in not scouting athletes from lower down the food chain for RL. Players at the very top of a sport are perfectly trained and perfectly suited to that sport, it is in my opinion more likely that there is better value further down the food chain because those athletes aren't elite RU players or wrestlers or sprinters or whatever because they aren't perfectly suited to it and that imperfection is what would make them good RL players.

 

Agreed on the last paragraph, i watch a fair bit of rugby union and theres a few outside backs who look much more suited to league than union. Theyr never going to be much more than bit part players in union because they havnt got a kicking game or other boring qualitys that union seems to like, even in there wingers. One that springs to mind is Paolo Odogwu at Sale, he's 21, built like a tank, rapid and got great feet, he dominates the annual union 9's tournament but rarely gets a lookin in the main comp. always thought he coulld be very good in league with a bit of seasoning. Suppose its harder to take the risk in a capped sport.

Forwards are a different kettle of fish, Union forwards would get abused in league 99 times out of a hundred imo

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9 minutes ago, Yorkshire Knight said:

And you could say the same about rugby forwards in union

Yeah absolutely agree and if this disscusion was on a rugby union board i would be. Forwards from either code dont translate well to being forwards in the other.

But League forwards would be getting abused by the laws of the game in union, not because they wernt up to it physicaly and skillwise.

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16 minutes ago, rhinos78 said:

Yeah absolutely agree and if this disscusion was on a rugby union board i would be. Forwards from either code dont translate well to being forwards in the other.

But League forwards would be getting abused by the laws of the game in union, not because they wernt up to it physicaly and skillwise.

You could indeed, if you were posting on tbe cross code forum. 

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35 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

Kallum Watkin, Mikolaj Oledzki is an absolute unit, Alex Walmsley, the Burgii, Joe Burgess,

Its taken 3 pages before the one person who shows that we do have athletes who match the opening posters criteria. Alex Walmsley, there are others of a similar height Pauli Pauli, Mose Masoe, others that don't spring to mind.

The OP misses out the point that the height of the players in RU and NBA is precisely the reason they are in the team, in other contact sports it can be a liability being too tall.

I could be wrong but does football have these giants playing the sport at the top level, I can only think of Crouch at the 6'5" plus size. If there is an advantage to just having players of that height and build then football has the resources to bring them through.

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37 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

The forwards in union are much more specialised in small aspects of that game which have no translation to RL. RL forwards are not as specialised so their skills and athleticism can be translated. They probably aren't good enough to be elite RU players but they would have a place union forwards wouldn't have the athleticism for RL and the skills that made them good union forwards would be worthless in RL.

I feel assertions made about the athleticism of union forwards is always based on props or England union forwards

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