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No quick fix but painful lessons must be learned
John Ledger returns from Down Under and delivers his assessment on where woeful England went wrong in the World Cup and highlights where they must improve to bridge the gap.
PERHAPS we were all a bit nave. Maybe the fall was of our own making. Certainly, everyone who cares about international rugby league really ought to know better.
Unfortunately, hindsight has done little to numb the pain of what in many ways was a disastrous World Cup.
The tournament may have turned a 2.2m profit, featured some memorable matches, involved some truly great players and given a lot of people a lot of happy memories but the overriding emotions after six weeks Down Under are deep disappointment, dismay, even dejection.
England and Great Britain have let their followers down many times before over the last four decades but rarely in that time has the hurt been as sharp as it was during the 2008 World Cup.
This time things were meant to be different and all the omens were good regarding the prospects of an England team which had spent the best part of two years since their 2006
Tri Nations flop plotting their bid for a first World Cup success since 1972.
The quality of play in Super League seemed to have reached a new high, certainly among the top two clubs, both of whom had repeatedly proved themselves against Australia's best in the World Club Challenge, and five successive Test wins had raised the prospect that this time things would be different.
Buoyed by those hopes and expectations, and assisted by record levels of financial backing from the Rugby Football League who provided business-class flights, luxury hotel accommodation and a comprehensive support staff, England jetted out to Australia in confident mood.
Two weeks later, Tony Smith's team opened the tournament with a 32-22 victory over lowly Papua New Guinea, a dreadful performance which, unfortunately, was as good as it got.
A week later, on a disheartening night in Melbourne, England's fall from the penthouse to the outhouse was completed as Australia sent them to a 52-4 defeat, a record in the tournament.
Another defeat, this time with a mis-matched team, followed at the hands of the Kiwis, who then delivered a humane blow to the sickly Lions with a 32-22
semi-final victory.
One of the saddest aspects of the World Cup is that so few England players did themselves, their competition or their country justice. Players who are solid, reliable and unfazed under pressure in Super League suddenly became fumbling, bumbling and uncertain; others were revealed to be cruelly out of their depth.
Just as surprisingly, England's coach lost the magic touch he had possessed for so long and the last six weeks must rate as the lowest point of Tony Smith's career.
At Huddersfield, Smith had taken the Giants to promotion in his first full season and helped establish them as a Super League club. He then joined Leeds, who reached three grand finals and two world club finals during his four-year tenure, before taking on the role of national coach,
Under Smith, Great Britain hammered the Kiwis 3-0, cruised past France twice, and dismantled a weak Wales team with clinical efficiency before heading Down Under – where it soon began to unravel.
Fifteen members of England's 24-man squad were drawn from Leeds and St Helens, Super League's sworn enemies, and the lack of camaraderie between the two cliques was evident throughout the World Cup, both on and off the field.
From the outset, England's players seemed tense, dreadfully earnest and uncomfortable in each other's company: their demeanour made for a stark contrast with the mood among the Australians and New Zealanders, who more often than not looked like they were enjoying themselves.
Of course, it is easy to smile when you win as easily as Australia did until they were brought down to earth in the final. They may have lost the final but this Australian team ranks as one of the most talented ever to wear the green and gold, especially in the backs where the likes of Israel Folau, Brent Tate and Billy Slater would be heroes in any era.
It is traditional at this point to ask what can be done to bridge the gap between the two nations but the inescapable truth after this World Cup is that the gulf has never seemed more unbridgeable.
Super League may be more entertaining to watch than the NRL but the intensity and cut-throat nature of the Australian competition produces a breed of player who is a cut above what England produces.
There is no room for mundanity in the NRL whereas Super League positively propagates it, a situation which will endure for a few more years following the admission of two even more inferior clubs in Salford and Celtic Crusaders. The only way to improve the quality of Super League's elite players is to increase the quantity of people playing the game: more milk produces more cream.
The advent of Super League licences should at least enable clubs to make long-term investments in junior development and wean themselves off the continuing unhealthy reliance on Australian journeymen. Unfortunately, on recent evidence, too many clubs – most notably Wigan – would still rather spend their salary cap on overseas talent.
No quick fix is available and it would be remiss of anyone to attempt to gloss over the fact that England's best rugby league players are inferior, both physically and tactically, to their Australian counterparts.
That situation is likely to persist for the foreseeable future and it is important that the pain of a woeful World Cup campaign is channelled into bringing about the improvements which need to be made.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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