The Australians like doing well in any sport they play at and in cricket they have been right up there in comparison to the rest of the world for a long time.

Four defeats in a week then, including to Bangladesh and Somerset, may knock their confidence as it's probably something that's never happened before.

The problem with the Aussies though, is that they always seem to turn it on when it really matters - remember the Tri Nations RL tournament last year? They are a proud nation and always love to win so don't write them off just yet.

Obviously with the climate in Australia how it is, it's not a massive issue to get out and do outdoor practice. There's very little snow and ice to contend with and all the elements are there to help improve players in outdoor sports.

They do put a lot of effort into being the best. They work hard and genuinely believe that they can be the best at anything they want to which is not such a bad thing.

In rugby league, rugby union, cricket, they have all been right up there. They have dominated rugby league for decades, in union, All Blacks have been slightly in front in the last few years, but in cricket, they have been the dominant force.

Having lived in Australia when I played for The Brothers, I know that those defeats last week would have been a big blow for them.

It raises the question of whether it is the Aussies that are slipping a bit or is it that the other countries are improving.

In the summer we can get a lot of quality work done but as soon as the winter comes, it's cold and wet outside and you try teaching someone to catch when there's frost on the ball and it's raining. It's a bit more difficult.

People generally in Australia and most other warm countries live much more of an outdoor life. They get home from work and go and meet up over a game of tennis or tag rugby. Over here you may want to do it when its warm, but when its freezing you only tend to get the people who love their sport. In this country, the climate doesn't really back up outdoor sports in a teaching capacity, and the winter months can make playing and coaching at any level a challenge.

Looking at rugby league, I think the Brits are starting to close the gap. They competed against Australia last year in the Tri-Nations although unfortunately they got well-beaten in the final.

Sometimes one team can just run away with it and, as we saw in the final last year, Australia are certainly capable of doing that. They take the game to a level and to a pace where it is so difficult to keep up with them. I did play against the Aussies years ago when I was at Sheffield. They came over for the World Cup and we played them in a warm-up.

I have never played in a game so quick before. They play at such a pace we were blown away in the first 20 minutes. Their pack was huge and we struggled to contain them, although the final score was 22-52.

Great Britain are definitely catching up on the international scene. With the Super League, we are starting to see the effects of the high-level of competition and also with the emerging nations competing at the end of the season it is slowly strengthening our GB squad. Whether we can keep that building up so we can match the Aussies is a different matter.

At the moment we have got a lot of good players but if someone goes out injured, we don't have the depth the Australians have, just watch the State of Origin games.

Australia have got depth right the way through the squad which means they can cope much easier with injuries and also their domestic competition is the toughest in the world.

Updated: 10:37 Wednesday, June 22, 2005