There's a few fresh faces from the U.K joining a growing crop of English talent in the NRL this year, such as Ryan Sutton, John Bateman and Ryan Hall. They have an opportunity to join a list of players to have succeeded in making the switch from the Super League to the NRL like these five best imports during the NRL era (1998-).

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5. Josh Hodgson (Canberra Raiders 2015- 84 games, 11 tries)

The Canberra hooker is already in his fifth season in the NRL and he's had an enormous impact on the Raiders since his arrival. The crafty rake played a major role in steering the Green Machine to an enormous 2nd place position in 2016 and at one point led the race for the Dally M.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 30: Josh Hodgson of the Raiders passes the ball during the round 16 NRL match between the Brisbane Broncos and the Canberra Raiders at Suncorp Stadium on June 30, 2018 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
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7 COMMENTS

  1. I’s have Gareth in there ahead of Widdop – I think he moved here when he was 11 or 12? Hardly an import compared to the others who came from UK Super League into the NRL.

  2. My vote?
    Morley by a country mile. James Graham couldn’t tie Adrian’s footy laces.
    Sam is a great player. 2nd
    Garth Ellis was awesome too. 3rd

  3. Widdop is the pick of the current bunch in 2019 but I loved the aggression of Adrian Morley and Mal Reilly. Morley could influence the result of a game through hard running and massive defensive hits. Reilly had great ball skills also as did a bloke called Brian Lockwood similar to James Graham. Tommy Bishop Gary Stephens and Roger Milward were clever halves. Hanley and Schofield were electrifying.

    Dick Huddart was a clever hard running ball playing forward who won a comp with Saints in the mid 60’s but I loved Dave Bolton and how he destroyed soufffths in the 1969 grand final leading the team around and onto victory from the 5/8 position. Very clever No what I meanโ“โ”โ“โ”โ“โ”

  4. All the players mentioned have been great for Australian Rugby League. Personally I would have Morley any day. He helped the Roosters make 3 Grand Finals in a row with his aggressive brutality. What a champion hard man.๐Ÿ“๐Ÿ†

  5. Pfft… got nothing on these guys.
    Imo Top 5:
    5. Joe Burgess
    4. Sam Tomkins
    3. Zak Hardaker
    2. Dan Sarginson
    1. Joe Greenwood

  6. I’m 63 and I’ve been an RL tragic since I was 12 years old, even before. Too many of my friends look at past players through rose coloured glasses and think that no-one who’s any good has played the game since 1970. Well, not me. To me, Sam Burgess is the best Pommie ever to have played first grade – period. Week-in, week-out he’s better than Reilly. Sure, Reilly was brilliant but for sheer consistency if I had a choice of who I’d rather have at Saints, Sam would be my man without any hesitation.

  7. You sound like a soufffths fan mate. Graham is better than Burgess any day of the week and his record proves it. Hasn’t Graham played in about seven or eight grand finals so he must have been doing something right to play in that many big deciders. Burgess helped Soufffths win their Russell Crowe purchased comp in 2014 but James Graham has more attacking attributes to his attacking artillery than Burgess and Grahams defence is fantastic. But I’m sticking with the hard Man Morley๐Ÿ’ช๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ‘ He will always be our English Champion.

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