1 February 2015

The Halfback Problem

The biggest problem our flagship national side - be it England or Great Britain - has faced in the last decade or so is filling the halfback positions.

There have been a number of issues - inconsistency in selections, a lack of quality talent or depth, a saturation of players who come from a land down under. On the dawn of the New Era I don't want to be negative, but I'm a little concerned that this problem might be perpetuated by some of the changes we've seen.

Credit where its due, the prompt for this blog was a piece by Rugby League Latest and a subsequent Twitter chat with Bobbie Goulding. The piece covered Rugby League Latest's top number 7s for the 2015 Super League season. The top three, and four of the five noted, were from Australia. Bobbie highlighted the problem with players effectively not good enough for NRL first grade taking up spots in our sides and suggested limiting the number of overseas players in the key play-making positions. That was a interesting idea but not one I'm going to explore here.

Inconsistent selection
Steve McNamara has coached the England side since 2010. In the 26 games he has overseen there have been 8 different halfback pairings - if you only count the Sinfield-Chase pairing once (they have lined up both ways round). Tellingly England have never entered an Autumn series with the same starting pair as the previous series under McNamara.

England halfback pairings under McNamara
v France, 12/06/2010 - Brown, Tomkins
v NZ Maori, 16/10/2010 - Brown, Tomkins
v New Zealand, 23/10/2010 - Brown, Tomkins
v Australia, 31/10/2010 - O'Loughlin, Robinson
v PNG, 06/11/2010 - Brown, Robinson
v Exiles, 10/06/2011 - Sinfield, Myler
v France, 21/10/2011 - Sinfield, Chase
v Wales, 29/10/2011 - Sinfield, Chase
v Australia, 05/11/2011 - Sinfield, Chase
v New Zealand, 12/11/2011 - Sinfield, Chase
v Australia, 19/11/2011 - Sinfield, Chase
v Exiles, 16/06/2012 - Sinfield, Chase
v Exiles, 04/07/2012 - Smith, Brough
v Wales, 27/10/2012 - Sinfield, Myler
v France, 03/11/2012 - Sinfield, Myler
v France, 11/11/2012 - Sinfield, Chase
v Exiles, 14/06/2013 - Sinfield, Myler
v Italy, 19/10/2013 - Chase, Sinfield
v Australia, 26/10/2013 - Chase, Sinfield
v Ireland, 02/11/2013 - Chase, Sinfield
v Fiji, 09/11/2013 - Chase, Sinfield
v France, 16/11/2013 - Chase, Sinfield
v New Zealand, 23/11/2013 - Widdop, Sinfield
v Samoa, 25/10/2014 - Widdop, Smith
v Australia, 02/11/2014 - Widdop, Smith
v New Zealand, 08/11/2014 - Widdop, Smith

You can go back even further if you want to find a pair that started the first game of consecutive series for either England or Great Britain in the same 6 and 7 jerseys - it was the 2004 Tri-Nations, where Paul Sculthorpe and Sean Long repeated their staring pair from the 2003 Ashes series. Harris, Deacon, McGuire, Burrow, Horne, Pryce, Gleeson and Eastmond have all joined those listed already above in having a go in various combinations since 2004.

2014 Four Nations
We do have one ace in the hole. Former NRL winner Gareth Widdop was finally brought in as a starter for the 2014 Four Nations along side 2013 Lance Todd trophy winner Matty Smith. Backing them up was Stefan Ratchford.

The England pair did show some flashes of getting it together. Smith's kicking game was a positive, Widdop's goal kicking was strong, and there were a few inspired moments leading tries, but not many. Ultimately it was the sides with the better halfback combinations that won through to the final, Australia particularly showing their depth with star man Johnathan Thurston missing the tournament.

The 2015 trend
Seven of the twelve Super League sides have revamped their halfback options by making a signing or two. Eight of the eleven players signed are of Australian origin - including the permanent re-singing of Tim Smith at Wakefield. Five have arrived directly from NRL sides for this year.

2015 halfback signings - likely starters
Castleford - Ben Roberts, Luke Gale
Catalan - Todd Carney
Hull FC - Leon Pryce, Marc Sneyd
Hull KR - Terry Campese, Albert Kelly
Salford - Michael Dobson
St Helens - Travis Burns
Wakefield - Jacob Miller, Tim Smith

Three sides are definitely going to be running out with a first choice pair of overseas players - Hull KR, St Helens and Wakefield - for all of these, the third choice half is also from down under. Catalan are probably going to a be part of that group too, and depending on how you see the nationality of Rangi Chase you could put Salford in that group.

The five that have come in from NRL sides for the 2015 season feels like a high number to me. On a quick count back off the top of my head I came up with nine halves that came in directly from the NRL during the second licensing period (2012-2014). That's an average of three a year, and that includes two short term stop gap signings in Liam Foran at Salford and Sam Williams at Catalan, so its a jump up in this number for 2015.

Halves signed straight from NRL sides - 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons
Lance Hohaia - St Helens, 2012
Tim Smith - Wakefield, 2012
Brett Seymour - Hull FC, 2012
Jacob Miller - Hull FC, 2013
Liam Foran - Salford, 2013
Travis Burns - Hull KR, 2013
Luke Walsh - St Helens, 2014
Kris Keating - Hull KR, 2014
Sam Williams - Catalan, 2014

I have a couple of explanations why this is the case. Firstly, the increase in central funding from the new TV deal means that all teams should be able to spend to the full salary cap. That will mean back up NRL halves would likely be able to better their salary by moving over as a starting half in Super League - you don't expect many NRL back ups will be on AUS$150,000-AUS$200,000, but you do think the average starting halfback salary is £80,000-£100,000 in Super League. The second, possibly more significant, explanation is the reintroduction of possible relegation. With the risk of dropping out of Super League and the impact that will have on a club again a real possibility there will be a willingness to put a bit more money on an experienced overseas signing than risk an inexperienced young prospect.

All of this is worrying for me, as it will likely stunt the first grade development and opportunities for British (and French) halves. One the immediately jumps out as being unfortunate is young Theo Fages at Salford. He made plenty of progress in the second half of 2014 only to now likely be knocked down the pecking order for a player clearly not good enough for the NRL. I look at the talented youngster Ben Reynolds and wonder if his departure from Castleford was related to the signings they made. Similarly, Matty Wildie at Wakefield is another who has had to drop down a league in search of first team opportunities. You also have to wonder if Gary Wheeler thought he might get more opportunities to play as a British half in a Warrington side than a St Helens side with three overseas halves at the front of the queue. And then what must you be thinking as a young British half in the Hull KR system? Rovers have signed three antipodean halves for 2015, as part of a run of signing halfbacks direct from NRL sides.

Reasons for optimism
Its not all doom and gloom though for the prospects of British halfbacks. We have the aforementioned Gareth Widdop, a genuine star who has can lead us around for some time to come given the opportunity and luck with injury.

Also, whilst more sides than you would like have no home grown halfback, half the Super League sides will be running with an all British combo in 2015 - Huddersfield, Hull FC, Leeds, Warrington, Widnes and Wigan - only Hull FC of those even having an overseas half in their back up options.

The days of playing for England are behind Danny Brough and Kevin Sinfield now. You can fairly confidently add Leon Pryce, Danny McGuire and Rob Burrow to that list, and probably Luke Robinson and possibly Kevin Brown after his 2014 non-selection. Even with that being the case, these players are still there with their masses of experience to help bring others through, and others are there, if maybe not in the numbers we want.

Marc Sneyd at Hull FC was a revelation for Castleford in 2014 and hopefully can kick on after a couple of disappointing displays in the big games he played. Liam Sutcliffe is already starting to make an impact for Leeds, his last minute winning goal kick against Catalan in 2014 showing that he might have what it takes to be Sinfield's successor. Warrington trio Ratchford, Myler and O'Brien are all players with time still on their side and plenty of quality along with big game experience. Joe Mellor for me is one of the most underrated halfbacks in Super League, who at 24 is approaching his best years and in 2014 Widnes actually had a better win percentage for games he played in than they did for games Kevin Brown played. As well as Smith, who has turned into a champion player at Wigan, the Warriors have put faith in their young players with Blake Green moving back to the NRL. George Williams and Sam Powell are both on long term deals and had plenty of game time in 2014, with Ryan Hampshire and Jake Shorrocks waiting behind them to get a chance to show off their great skills.

Lets hope for this group of players to be a success in 2015 and beyond for their clubs, so it shows what having a home grown domestic half back pairing can do for your club. Maybe then the trend will be to sign British or promote from within, in turn strengthening our international options.

As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our show!

Mark
SLP

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