Originally Posted by
Vince St Clair
IMHO, the reason is simple. RL is the No.1 sport in most of Australia, they have a bigger draw on the young talent.
Even in St Helens/Wigan/Leeds/Warrington, the majority of kids opt to play Football.
In my lifetime, Australia only produced a dozen Football players capable of playing in the English top flight & probably one who would have got in the England team.
I'm sure Wayne Rooney has all the attributes to have been a decent RL half, if he'd taken that path.
The challenge for RL is to somehow attract the top kids.