BrisbaneRhino wrote:
I don't disagree entirely. I would argue that if Farrell came to the NRL he'd need to bulk up a lot though.
Whitehead has got better since the start of last season. He's used effectively as an inside centre by the Raiders, which works very well for them. For England we'd probably need him to play closer to the middle and make some of the workhorse runs he doesn't need to for the Raiders.
You can't ignore the pure physicality issue when looking at SL players. For Australia, Cordner is likely to be their smallest forward. He's probably 10 kg heavier than Farrell and doesn't mind the tough stuff at all. There's simply no place for second rowers who just want to run out wide and not mix it with the biggest oponents.
It's sort of been turned in to a debate of Farrell vs Whitehead and that wasn't my intention at all. I rate both players and my point is that I just feel superleague deserves a little more respect.
There seems to be this mindset now of 'x player is playing well in the Superleague' but then 'y player is playing well in the NRL' so therefore the NRL player will always be the one who's selected and I think that's wrong.
As for wide runners not mixing it with big forwards, I've yet to see Farrell shy away from anything in that regard. I'd go back to his immense fitness levels and the intensity he can play at full the full 80 minutes as an advantage he's got over a lot of his bigger opponents in superleague. If he can transfer that advantage to elite level matches against Australia's best forwards is clearly another matter but we're not going to find out if he capable by playing him in short bursts and expecting an impact game (as seems to have been the case for him so far against Oz and NZ).
On the plus side I'm glad he's available for Wigan.