Rugby League players who could have/could make the switch

[EVERYFWDTHINKTHEYREA6OR7]

I was watching a clip of Paul Gallens defence on youtube. It's my opinion that with the way that he tackles the ball he could have made an excellent openside flanker.

Who do you think could make the switch?

 

[Schadenfreude]

Wayne Bennet

 

[Brisbok]

I was watching a clip of Paul Gallens defence on youtube. It's my opinion that with the way that he tackles the ball he could have made an excellent openside flanker.

Who do you think could make the switch?

Thanks for the reminder that we are in fact on an Australian rugby forum. Cannot think of another country that has as much of an obsession with another code's players.

 

[Cutter]

I was watching a clip of Paul Gallens defence on youtube. It's my opinion that with the way that he tackles the ball he could have made an excellent openside flanker.

Who do you think could make the switch?

How does he "tackle the ball"? And why don't you put up a clip to show us otherwise I fear this thread will die a quick death.

 

[fatprop]

Sam Thaiday would have made a pretty useful 8

Andrew Johns

 

[Tangawizi]

Akuila Uate on the wing, Tom Learoyd Lahrs as a lock/backrower, Cooper Cronk as a 10/12, Inglis at Outside Centre and Slater at fullback.

 

[truckandtrailor]

Akuila Uate on the wing, Tom Learoyd Lahrs as a lock/backrower, Cooper Cronk as a 10/12, Inglis at Outside Centre and Slater at fullback.

Cooper Cronk was an OZ Schoolboy Rep so he would fit in with ease

 

[DPK]

How does he "tackle the ball"? And why don't you put up a clip to show us otherwise I fear this thread will die a quick death.

This is a legitimate tactic, I hope someone can find a video that illustrates this point. It's basically a tackle that brings the player to ground while also preventing an offload in the tackle.

I suspect the reason EFTTA6/7 thinks this would be useful as an openside is that it's a tactic that would allow someone to get into a good position for a steal in the better game.

 

[Moses]

Thanks for the reminder that we are in fact on an Australian rugby forum. Cannot think of another country that has as much of an obsession with another code's players.

When 95% of our sportsmen play other codes we'd be foolish not to look.

There's a massive islander who always carries three blokes over the advantage line and plays for the knights - anyone know his name?

 

[Lee Grant]

Since "could have" is mentioned we may talk about the past.

I thought Brett Kenny would have made a wonderful union player in one of the centre positions, but basically he could play anywhere he wanted to in my team. I have the same thoughts about Laurie Daley who was similar in the sense that he was a natural.

I remember watching Daryl Lockyer as a young man and thought they blundered in playing him at fullback as he was another natural who was a ballplayer and should be closer to the action. Sure enough they made him five-eighth a few years later. He would have been a wonderful flyhalf in union. Wally Lewis, who played rugby union for Oz Schools in a famous team that contained all the Ella brothers would have been a commanding player in union. That's not an opinion that a lot of my mates over the years have agreed with, but it happens to be mine.

Peter Sterling and Alfie Langer - the mind boggles - but the best league half back I ever saw was an old Englishman called Alex Murphy. He's one of the best players I ever saw in either code and if he was a young man now he could walk into the England union team within a few weeks of starting to play the 15 man game.

 

[EVERYFWDTHINKTHEYREA6OR7]

How does he "tackle the ball"? And why don't you put up a clip to show us otherwise I fear this thread will die a quick death.

Pretty sure it's this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWWbJZ61sZo

 

[EVERYFWDTHINKTHEYREA6OR7]

Sam Thaiday would have made a pretty useful 8

Andrew Johns

Agree with both of those. Johns maybe doesn't need any more discussion.

Good call on Thaiday. Very strong up top provided he had learnt presentation of the ball quickly he would be awesome.

 

[EVERYFWDTHINKTHEYREA6OR7]

Since "could have" is mentioned we may talk about the past.

I thought Brett Kenny would have made a wonderful union player in one of the centre positions, but basically he could play anywhere he wanted to in my team. I have the same thoughts about Laurie Daley who was similar in the sense that he was a natural.

I remember watching Daryl Lockyer as a young man and thought they blundered in playing him at fullback as he was another natural who was a ballplayer and should be closer to the action. Sure enough they made him five-eighth a few years later. He would have been a wonderful flyhalf in union. Wally Lewis, who played rugby union for Oz Schools in a famous team that contained all the Ella brothers would have been a commanding player in union. That's not an opinion that a lot of my mates over the years have agreed with, but it happens to be mine.

Peter Sterling and Alfie Langer - the mind boggles - but the best league half back I ever saw was an old Englishman called Alex Murphy. He's one of the best players I ever saw in either code and if he was a young man now he could walk into the England union team within a few weeks of starting to play the 15 man game.

Echo those thoughts on Lockyer. When Larkham was at his peak i was thinking how great it would be to have a backup of his calibre.

 

[Lee Grant]

Thanks for the reminder that we are in fact on an Australian rugby forum. Cannot think of another country that has as much of an obsession with another code's players.

Going by your username: you live here - but you don't understand us.

I dare say if we moved to the RSA we would not understand the monomania that rugby union has over there though we would probably be smart enough to work out that they don't have 32 professional Aussie Rules and rugby league teams saturating the television.

Apart from soccer, which both countries have, there are not many other football codes around for SAffers to be involved with at a young age, or to watch on telly.

A lot of Aussie boys on the east coast play both codes at school age so they can relate to the league game on TV. Even if they never played the code there are so many league games on TV to watch compared to union and so much of the sport in the print media, that it is pervasive beyond the belief of non-Aussies.

That's why we are interested in players from the league code and comparing them, though we can only do that for the aspects that are common to both codes. League players are not much at the set piece.

I wish that South Africa had over 30 professional Aussie Rules or rugby league teams, as we do, and the underlying amateur and junior ranks that produce them to dilute the gene pool available to South African professional rugby union teams.

The Boks wouldn't be able to compete with us.
.

 

[Ruggo]

Mal Meniga could have been the Stirling Mortlock before Stirling Mortlock.

Nathan Hindmarsh could have made it.

Brett Kenny would have made a great ten in union.

 

[EVERYFWDTHINKTHEYREA6OR7]

This is a legitimate tactic, I hope someone can find a video that illustrates this point. It's basically a tackle that brings the player to ground while also preventing an offload in the tackle.

I suspect the reason EFTTA6/7 thinks this would be useful as an openside is that it's a tactic that would allow someone to get into a good position for a steal in the better game.

Yeah this is what i was referring to. He also seems to have the ability to hold them up in the tackle also.

I believe we are going to see more of this in the future, tackled ball and then scrum. Ireland did it against us. Les Kiss is a genius.

 

[Lee Grant]

Ireland teams have been using this ploy for a couple of years, especially Munster. We shouldn't have been surprised by the ploy in the RWC and one mentioned it before the tournament.

 

[Brisbok]

Going by your username: you live here - but you don't understand us.

I dare say if we moved to the RSA we would not understand the monomania that rugby union has over there though we would probably be smart enough to work out that they don't have 32 professional Aussie Rules and rugby league teams saturating the television. Apart from soccer, which both countries have, there are not many other football codes around for SAffers to be involved with at a young age, or to watch on telly.

A lot of Aussie boys on the east coast play both codes at school age so they can relate to the league game on TV. Even if they never played the code there are so many league games on TV to watch compared to union and so much of the sport in the print media, that it is pervasive beyond the belief of non-Aussies.

That's why were are interested in players from the league code and comparing them, though we can only do that for the aspects that are common to both codes. League players are not much at the set piece.

I wish that South Africa had over 30 professional Aussie Rules or rugby league teams. The Boks wouldn't be able to compete with us.

Point taken Lee, obviously something that you are quite passionate about. There is no doubt that the participation numbers for rugby are far higher in SA than they are over here. Perhaps this is quite off topic but one thing that I would point out though is that rugby is far from the most popular sport in South Africa and it is annoying to read about people referring to rugby as the 'national sport' in South Africa (even amongst South Africans involved in rugby). Soccer is far and away the most popular sport in South Africa as a whole. People forget that African people account for approx. 80% of the population and the percentage of them that play or watch rugby is very low. Even amongst the approx. 9% of the white population (under 5 million people), soccer is far more prevalent (particularly among the white english speaking South Africans) than people over here seem understand.

So referring to rugby as a 'monomania' in South Africa is not particularly accurate.

 

[Lee Grant]

Point taken - I'm not really passionate on the matter of league. My family has followed a certain team for years but I think the sport is a very paint-by-numbers game, that is easy for the average Aussie to understand.

That, and the big hits which are like pro wrestling are easier to watch to the casual sports fan here than union which is more technical but is what we union fans wouldn't be without,

Maybe monomania was the wrong word or I should have said "the monomania of non-soccer fans".

It suffices to say that if you had those 30 pro teams of other (non-soccer) codes eating into South African rugby participation, or they didn't exist here, that it would be a different landscape.
.

 

[wamberal]

Switching from league to rugby (and the other way, perhaps to a slightly less extent) is far more than having the right technical skills, athletic ability, whatever.


The motivation of the athlete, his genuine and altruistic reasons for making the switch, are far more important, IMHO.


Playing in the NRL, every second week at home, every other week not far away from home, is vastly different to being in a Super Rugby franchise, being in South Africa for a couple of weeks, and New Zealand for a couple of weeks, every now and then........not to mention the rigours of the international season, if a convert is good enough to make that particular grade. The NRL playing environment probably suits some players better than the rugby environment, and vice versa.


Players are clearly going to do better if they switch when they are young and single.