Pfitzy
Nathan Sharpe (72)
The whole league myth about their defense being harder ignores the fact, as I've said elsewhere, that "defending" and "tackling" are two different things.
On the rare occasion I watch NRL "highlights" the things that stand out most of all are:
1) A lot of tries are scored from kicks because the attacking side's leadup execution is bad.
2) A lot of the tries that result from passes are due to really bad defensive reading and alignment.
Let's be clear that it is not a faster game these days, and league tackles and union tackles are about as difficult. But one thing is for sure: defending in Union is a damn sight harder that the line-up-knock-down you see in mungoball.
EDIT: I will add that the collisions in the NRL are quite often bigger, but this is the result of having a ten metre runup, not because they're bigger or tougher (because they're not).
On the rare occasion I watch NRL "highlights" the things that stand out most of all are:
1) A lot of tries are scored from kicks because the attacking side's leadup execution is bad.
2) A lot of the tries that result from passes are due to really bad defensive reading and alignment.
Let's be clear that it is not a faster game these days, and league tackles and union tackles are about as difficult. But one thing is for sure: defending in Union is a damn sight harder that the line-up-knock-down you see in mungoball.
EDIT: I will add that the collisions in the NRL are quite often bigger, but this is the result of having a ten metre runup, not because they're bigger or tougher (because they're not).