All time best team: a personal perspective from players watched from 1931 to 2023

[Soul Kitchen]

1. Sam Tomkins
2. Billy B
3. Eric Ashton.
4. Dean Bell.
5. Martin Offiah.
6. Shaun Edwards
7. Andy Gregory.
8. Kelvin Skerrett.
9. Martin Dermott.
10. Craig Smith.
11. Andy Farrell.
12. Bill Ashurst.
13. Ellery Hanley.

[Gerrumonside]

Holy Crap! Thought this would be easy to answer but we’ve had some cracking players and this is really tough to answer… But here would be my team(s)

1. K Radlinski just edging S Tomkins, B French & J Lyndon.

2. J Charley with M Offiah close behind.

3. G Connolly

4. V Tuigamala these centres were unplayable but special mention to D Bell, K Iro & G Carmont.

5. J Robinson

6. F Bottica with T Barrett, & H Paul close.

7. S Edwards with A Gregory there abouts.

8. K Skerrett and C Smith close call.

9. M Dermott but loved watching T Newton & T Leuluai.

10. A Platt with N Cowie as sub

11. D Betts

12. A Farrell - put here instead of loose to fit in Hanley how ever fond memories of watching G West and also still L Farrell play.

13. E Hanley and close call with S Oloughlin.

Sorry couldn’t stick to just 13

[CheshireWarrior]

Like other have posted, from players I've actually watched live,

1. Kris Radlinski
2. Dom Manfredi
3. Darrell Goulding
4. Gary Connolly
5. Pat Richards
6. Trent Barrett
7. Adrian Lam
8. Paul Prescott
9. Michael McIlorum
10. Craig Smith
11. Mick Cassidy
12. Liam Farrell
13. Andrew Farrell (c)

14. Terry Newton
15. Ryan Hoffman
16. Andy Coley
17. Ben Flower

Names that spring to mind, could easily select another 17 though.

[Hattster]

1) Radlinski
2) Robinson
3) Miles
4) Bell
5) Offiah
6) Kenny
7) Gregory
8) Dowling
9) Dermott
10) Skerrett
11) A Farrell
12) Goodway
13) Hanley

[bertina]

And of course the likes of Boston, McTigue, Bolton etc didn't have the training, diet regimes etc of the current players.

They too would be bigger and faster.
I've always thought Billy B would be a world class fullback in todays game.

With today's professionalism, diet knowledge, medical advances, etc., someone with Boston,s natural ability would be unbelievable.!!!

[the pieman]

My assertion is that today's teams would wipe the floor with previous era's (beyond a certain time- 15 years maybe? Up for debate). The prime reason for this is that the game develops to an ever more efficient interpretation of the rules over time. It has to. Consider it "natural selection". Imo we are seeing this at the moment with wingers being bigger, taller as they take cross field kicks and are expected to run the ball out of defence more. In 10 years maybe all wingers will be like this? Maybe some other tactic will dictate that they are all small and fast and expected to finish 1 on 1, maybe they will end up like props, who knows? Whatever it is, it will evolve over time as the tactic/formation that, more often than not, wins matches.

I don't agree with that at all. The pack I listed which was Skerrett, Dermot, Platt, Betts, A Farrell and Hanley would wipe the floor with any pack in SL to day. Skerrett would be no different to any of the larger props who can only last 15 minutes a half today, Platt would slot right in as the mobile prop and the back row would terrorise any teams pack today. They would easily adapt but go the other way and send our best pack back in time and play by the rules back then, they would struggle to last 20 minutes.

EDIT: I also don't get this backs are getting bigger idea. Jay Field is literally the exact same weight as Alan Tate was when he was playing (85kg) and a mere one inch taller.

Well 4 of those you mention are in my favourite team. Farrell is essentially in the "modern" era anyway and Hanley was a freak and consumate professional. As I said the time you need to go back in time is debatable. 15 years? 20 years? Certainly any team pre 1985 wouldn't get a look in.

Using Jai Field as an example is also not representative as he is one of the lightest backs around.

Taking your back row who would "terrorise" teams today. Denis Betts was a 15 stone second row.

The Queensland wingers in the recent State of Origin weighed 17 and 16.3 stones.

Not sure why you don't get the "backs are getting bigger" argument?







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The Ozzies have been breeding big backs / wingers for years, with some flair players complementing them

ET, Hancock, Grothe, Sailor, Meninga are some that spring to mind and i reckon all 6ft above, and probably in the region of 16stone +, so nothing new.

Ray Mordt who played for Wigan was best part of 6ft and 15stone, Offiah 6ft1 and 14.5 stone, so not exactly small by any stretch of the imagination

i think we can all agree that the game has changed, but our opinions on who would prosper well in a different era could be very different. i tend to look at the RL skills, and some of my heroes would be more than suited to the current day as i personally feel the skills of the current game have diminished but cant deny that its a faster and in one sense more physical game (speed of collision), but dont think its a better game. Andy Greg for example has more skill in his little finger than any no7 playing in SL, and i think he would be more than capable of playing today as he would be subjected to the S&C of a current player. He unfortunately would most likely have had most of his natural skill coached out of him though, but we'd see a very different player to the one we loved watching

[Charriots Offiah]

1. Tomkins
2. Boston
3. Kenny
4. Miles
5. Offiah
6. Barrett
7. Gregory
8. Smith
9. Dermott
10. Roberts
11. Ashurst
12. Farrell A.
13. Hanley