Partly down to the weather! Seriously!

It's so cold on training nights and during matches, the only way to keep warm is to run around at 1000mph. So UK soccer has players who can run up and down the pitch a lot, and RL has hard working forwards.

we don't have good British sprinters either, maybe its genetic?

What about Kevin Penny?

Good post. What drives me mad is when football commentators go on about how the Spanish/French/Italians 'look so comfortable' on the ball. I should hope so, they get paid tens of thousands of pounds per week to practice and perform at the highest level. It is our homegrown, extravagantly paid players' limitations that should be worthy of notice, not that the opposition have attained a decent level of technical competence.

We're comparing with Australia in RL though. They produce plenty of good 'genetically European' backs. I think it is nurture rather than nature, in this case.

Maybe there should be less focus on winning at junior level and more on enjoyment and developing skills. What's being done to protect and encourage players who are much smaller than their early-maturing contemporaries? Are weight limits workable as an alternative to u11s/12s/13s etc?

My own opinion is that we should be gathered round soccer academies like shrimp round a sewage outlet - there must be footballers better suted to our code that are discarded by soccer, who would love to keep their dream of beng a pro sportsman alive.

There is definitely something in both these arguments. Who is the last flair player that we have produced in any code of football or any individual sport? We always tend to produce sturdy players like Henman and Murray rather than a Nadal or Federer.

As for rugby I think from a young age the bigger kids tend to be better at it because they find it harder to get tackled. I was with a class of year 5's recently and the best athletes in the class played football and the big lads played rugby. Pretty much how I remembered it when I was at school.

There will always be exceptions, I like to think my nephews are pretty good athletes and could play in the backs but to be honest it is their dads enthusiasm for RL that means they play RL. I'm not sure they'd want to ask to play football instead! I reckon this happens quite a lot. I won't go as far to say he wouldn't take them football but I think many RL dads probably wouldn't.

Its your average kid who actually has that choice that is the problem. The glitz, glamour and money in football mean that they are going to choose football most of the time instead. What can be done about it? Its hard to say really, just keep building up the profile of RL and making sure those that do come through are trained properly.

Its one for the coaches on here to work out.

Agreed. There is some argument in geneticism when it comes to pacific islanders but like you say Australia produces plenty of good second/third generation Europeans.

Comes down to sheer numbers and the quality of junior that they get. Also the climate means that they are a much more outdoor culture than ours. Maybe this is just masking problems with our own society though? You don't see as many kids playing out as you used to, kids are often molly coddled through their early years.

I once read that RL basically gets first choice of all the best athletes in NSW and Queensland. If thats true then it's no wonder we can't match some of their backs.

The number 1 attribute in Football these days is pace, and the money and glamour lures kids who may be more suited to other sports IMO

Good point, well made