O/T English Sport

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adrenalinxx
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O/T English Sport

Post by adrenalinxx »

What is happening to English International Sport at the moment, the main English sports are Football, Rugby Union, Cricket and Rugby League and so far this year the Football team have been far from impressive, the Rugby Union team are on one of the worst run in along time, the cricket team are getting slaughtered by the Aussies and the rugby league team had another poor season in the tri-nations only managing to win one match.

It appears that England is still second best to the Australians so why are they such a dominate force in sport. Is it because of their attitude, is it because the weather conditions down their allow people to play sport almost all year round. I would love to here other people’s opinions on the matter because it is something that has puzzled me and many other people for a long time.

If anyone has been to Australia what are the main differences you notice between England and Australia (apart from the weather)

If made this off-topic but it certainly has some relevance to Rugby League.
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Bear
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Re: O/T English Sport

Post by Bear »

What you are forgeting is... England RU are World Champions and England Cricket STILL have the ashes.

The Football and Rugby team speak for thereselfs
OOOOOO were the greatest club in the world!!!!
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adrenalinxx
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Re: O/T English Sport

Post by adrenalinxx »

Bear posted:
What you are forgeting is... England RU are World Champions and England Cricket STILL have the ashes.

The Football and Rugby team speak for thereselfs
Good point but perhaps you are forgetting that it took England 17 years to win back the ashes and if they don't improve quickly they will lose them after just 1 year, that is hardly dominating the sport or even competing in terms of recent years. The Rugby Union side won the World Cup once and since them they have gone down hill compare that to Australia who atleast compete at the highest level consistantly.

I agree though that there have been times when England has been the best at a sport but that then raises the question of why can't England consistantly compete at the highest level, as RU, RL and the cricket have been unable to do.
the_cow
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Re: O/T English Sport

Post by the_cow »

it all comes down to youth development and training imo. we're light years behind the aussies in training the youth to provide us with a large pool of good players. take rl for example, we have the superleague (first grade) and then u-21's (youth development). in oz they have 3 levels of competition i think (nrl, jersey flegg, jim beam?) plus other levels of competition in each state. this produces a large pool of good players from which the best can be chosen. over here we find someone who looks a decent prospect, throiw them at the deep end and either they sink or swim. sink resulting in playing for widnes for wigan ex-youth players, and swim meaning retiring early as your body is shot to pieces.

also there are too many uk imports in our top levels of sport. this is damaging the prospects of youth players getting decent experience at a high level. the most obvious example of this is the super 14's in rugby union vs the heineken cup. how many foreign players that are not eligible to play for the country in which their club is based do you see playing for super 14's clubs? then in comparison how many foreigners feathering their retirement nest do you see playing for european clubs? this directly effects the player pool.

on top of that basically too many sports are played in the uk. we have footy, rugby union (south), rugby league (north) and cricket as our main sports on a national basis. then we have a large amount of less popular sports.footy in oz is considerably less popular and it tends to be that each state area has a different sport that is popular in that state. nsw = rl, victoria = ozzy rules (i think). so therefore this means that on a national basis in oz they have a reasonably steady supply of good players in each sport.
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Cruncher
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Re: O/T English Sport

Post by Cruncher »

There's no doubt in my mind that the OTT presence of football in the UK is holding back our other sports.

I don't know why we consistantly fail to produce the goods internationally at football - there's no logical explanation for that, given how many people play it and how much money there is in it - but in truth it's so dominant in the UK in terms of coverage that few other sports get a serious look in.

And I'm not just talking about RL.

RU is still favoured by the establishment grandees who control the Beeb and the broadsheets, while cricket is popular whenever Test series come along, but I don't see either getting prime-time network TV slots three nights a week during their respective seasons. I don't see massively popular soap operas being screened at 11pm or cancelled altogether to accommodate a cricket or RU match. I don't see television advertising peppered with the faces of RU and cricket players (there are one or two, but not many). I don't see the gutter press constantly filled with lurid tales about the glitzy, glamorous lives of RU and cricket players. I don't see any of their wives becoming celebrities.

Football is shoved down our throats in this country. And okay, that may be because there's a huge demand for it, but I suspect that in this case the supply originally created the demand.

Only a small percentage of young kids are going to opt for cricket or RU, much less RL, when their entire generation is force-fed throughout its formative years on a diet of football, football, football. In this respect alone, the Aussie RL establishment doesn't know how lucky it is.
thegimble
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Re: O/T English Sport

Post by thegimble »

Problem is that in general England are decent at loads of sports.

Rugby both codes
Football
Golf
Cricket
Athletics
Gymnastics
Swimming
Motor Sports

and many more

Thats the problem England have decent sides in loads of sports but none are at the moment World Class.

Ywes England won the Ashes but practically everything went Englands way and in the World Cup in union iits the weakest world champions in union. The England side a year before was a great side but was not as good.

Football apart from 66 nothing much has been achieved 2 semi finals and wioth all the hype youd think they are Brazil.

England has too many sports of decent quality and not many true World class sports stars.

and thats the problem too many sports
Matthew
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Re: O/T English Sport

Post by Matthew »

Got to say that I agree.

soccer is an obsession in this country - although for the life of me I cannot see why. 2 goals in an hour and a half is hardly thrilling. Just as in RL, the premiership is full of foriegn players and managers.

I think that the media have a lot to answer for too. soccer players are idolised - even those who set a bad example (and there are lots of them) and every part of their lives is documented in the gutter press. The money available to mediocre soccer players is many times what is available to the average SL player. Even the most trival soccer match is televised - if you want to follow rugby league, rugby union or cricket then you really have to have sky - as only the BBC rarely screen anything other than soccer (after channel 4 lost the cricket). Some terrestrial channels even show soccer from Europe before other domestic sports!

The Australian lifestyle is different due to the climate - but the difference is that everyone plays sport of some sort or another and there are lots of small sports clubs in every town and suburb.
"And Martin Offiah, trying to make some space, now then..." - Ray French, Wembley 1994
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Cruncher
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Re: O/T English Sport

Post by Cruncher »

TWO EYED WARRIOR posted:
I am making a prsumption here but i think a lot of Australias sporting acheivement boils down to there government investing in sport and using sport as a way to bring in investment into the country, by way of tourism and sports funding etc.So to me there is more opportunities to earn decent money and be rewarded for the efforts you put in, where as here in the UK all we seem to be bothered about is creating a nanny culture and pumping millions into projects that dont encourage any sporting activity at all!
For years we had elitist know-alls in our education departments who actively tried to do away with competitiveness because it was unfair on the losers.

Can you imagine trying to sell that to an Aussie?
eccywarrior
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Re: O/T English Sport

Post by eccywarrior »

Bear posted:
What you are forgeting is... England RU are World Champions and England Cricket STILL have the ashes.

The Football and Rugby team speak for thereselfs
neither of them will win it again. ra ra boys (union) was very lucky to win it and the bat and ball boys was also a one off.
IN WANE WE TRUST
Sutty
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Re: O/T English Sport

Post by Sutty »

I agree it really angers me when I hear things like this. A colleague of mine was telling me that the school that his 9 year old son attends, has cancelled sports days in summer because the less able children will get upset and it could "affect" them in later life. What utter tripe. Like Cruncher said, imagine trying to get away with that in Australia. It's no wonder that we are such a sorry nation when it comes to dominating a team sport. I also think that money has a lot to do with it. Sorry to mention the roundball game. But, how on earth can a player be motivated to excell and try to become the best that he possibly can be when he is getting paid tens of thousands of pounds per week. It is totally unjustified. Compare the over paid fairys that play football to Rugby League, and even Rugby Union players and the physical punishment that Rugby players put their bodies through. It really angers me. It's some use me being a fiercely loyal and patriotic Englishman, when I don't exactly get much opportunity to boast about how good any of our national teams are.
Sorry rant over. I will try not to get started again too soon. :(


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