What the 2022 Super League Dream Team reveals about the declining standard of English rugby league

The Super League Dream Team for 2022 was recently announced, and for those who missed it, here it is:

1. Jai Field (Wigan Warriors)
2. Bevan French (Wigan Warriors)
3. Shaun Kenny-Dowall (Hull KR)
4. Tim Lafai (Salford Red Devils)
5. Ken Sio (Salford Red Devils)
6. Jack Welsby (St Helens)
7. Brodie Croft (Salford Red Devils)
8. Alex Walmsley (St Helens)
9. James Roby (St Helens)
10. Mikolaj Oledzki (Leeds Rhinos)
11. Chris McQueen (Huddersfield Giants)
12. Liam Farrell (Wigan Warriors)
13. Morgan Knowles (St Helens)

These are the players judged to be the best of the best of the 12-team ESL competition, and if you think you’ve spotted some familiar names, you’re right. While not wanting to disparage the achievements of the players named in the team or their performances this year in the ESL, the make-up of the side suggests that the standard of the competition is sinking fast, as very few of the players discussed in further detail below would be likely to get a game in the NRL, let alone a contract, let alone win a single Dally M point if they did play.

Let’s take a look at some of the players we are most familiar with:

Jai Field (25 years old)

I always suspected that Field was an unrealised talent in his time in the NRL, but he played just 17 first-grade games in his four seasons with first St George and then Parramatta. Blessed with outstanding speed and acceleration, he was always a threat in broken-field running but couldn’t cement a first-grade spot. Perhaps his additional maturity, now at 25 years of age, has added a lot to his game, but the best fullback in England? Geez, wait till they see Matt Dufty.

Bevan French (26 years old)

French is probably one of the few under discussion here who deserves his place in this team. A freakish player at his best, even when he played for Parramatta between 2016 and 2018, he’s now scoring tries at a rate that Alex Johnson would be proud of. While there are still doubts about his defence, French may just return to the NRL before too much longer.

Shaun Kenny-Dowall (34 years old)

I had to read this twice to be sure that they were talking about the same SKD who left Newcastle and the NRL at the end of 2019. There’s no doubting that Kenny-Dowall was once one of the best outside backs in the game, but that was probably five years ago, and he was running on old legs even then, so it comes as a total surprise to see the former Kiwi in this team, but he has to be better than his centre partner.

Tim Lafai (31 years old)

Lafai looked like a reasonable player towards the end of his time with the Bulldogs in 2014 and 2015, but after he moved to the Dragons in 2016 the only person who saw him as a first-grader was befuddled coach Paul McGregor. When he left the NRL after being released by the Bulldogs in 2020 I’m sure everyone just assumed that he’d retired, but no, here he is in the Dream Team. Wow! I wonder if he’ll get a run for Samoa in the World Cup.

Ken Sio (31 years old)

Sio must be doing something right at Salford, as this is the second year running that he’s made this team. He’s always been a prolific try scorer, but having seen him play, I can only conclude that the talent pool for wingers in the ESL has become very, very shallow.

Brodie Croft (25 years old)

Now Croft is a real head-scratcher, but maybe his selection is not surprising when you hear that the halfback in last year’s team was James Maloney, who was then on an extended holiday somewhere in the south of France and who hasn’t made a tackle since August 2019. Croft would have looked like Johnathan Thurston after Maloney but would be lucky to get a game back in the NRL. Does anyone remember the time when England used to produce the best halves in the game?

Chris McQueen (35 years old)

The clincher for me has to be Chris McQueen, who went from playing ten games for the Tigers across three seasons from 2018 to 2020 to not only making this team but also winning the Lance Todd Trophy. Heavens! Yes, he was an important member of Souths 2014 premiership-winning team, but how can you go from not being in the top six forwards at the Tigers in a time when they had such notable back-rowers as Robbie Rochow, Michael Chee-Kam, Matt Eisenhuth and Alex Twal, to the best forward pack in the ESL? There can’t be too much competition.

Full credit to these players for continuing their careers and having a successful time of it, but when more than half of the ESL’s Dream Team is made up of former NRL players who either were past their use-by date when they left the NRL or just not up to NRL standard, then England has a problem. Where are their young players, the clever halves, the speedy outside backs, the tough ball-playing forwards?

I wonder if there is a single NRL team that this ESL Dream Team could compete with.

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