Well there needs to be something put in place for them to return for England or rep games so they know we are to take it serious.

Probables vs. Possibles? England vs. England Knights basically?

Exactly that but just think the banter would make better with Yorks v Lancs (fans & players)

Yorks v lancs has been done before, many times, and it has failed, neither the players nor tge fans will ever have enough passion for this fixture to be viable.

We need more internationals that is for sure, but even the current idea of the exiles is better than a yorks lancs game as at least it gets our best players playing together as a team.

I'd like to see a mid season test against NZ whilst tge Aussies have SOO.

But exiles are old test players but we still struggle with them as England don't seem to take them serious... they maybe should be playing under a coach/manager who puts the fear of god in them.

Here's an idea. Play some ing international matches instead of contrived bull.

England don't need to play against contrived non-entites to 'raise intensity' or 'recreate Origin' or anything like that. I can't believe, after the WC that we've seen, that people are still coming up with the sort of thing posted on this thread. You people must be legitimately stupid.

Do you kiss your sheep with that mouth?

Point proven.

Plus there is no teams to play around England as there all gash the top 3 in the world are light years ahead of everyone else & its done England no good playing any other teams other then AUS/NZ as they matched them but when they played france etc lowered to play there standards. imho

Well who can England play mid season then?

The likes of Wales and France deemed not good enough opposition.
Australia and New Zealand won't come over here mid NRL season.

Would either of those be bothered about us going over there? They already have their mid season test plus Origin, why would they want to add to their fixture list to play England?

What kind of contest would it be anyway? You couldn't just pop over for a week and play 1 match against those teams, we'd be comfortably beaten, you need to make it a several week thing.

And how would that impact on Super League? Could clubs afford to have their best players away in Australia for several weeks, what will it do for attendances if for example Leeds vs Wigan with them both missing 5 or 6 of their best players each?

How would it effect the salary cap too? Would it be fair if one or two club has 5 or 6 guys away on international duty for a month or so and others clubs maybe only 1 or 2 or none? Would you have to make allowances for this financially? How would clubs plan ahead in pre-season not knowing who of their players might get picked for England duty in June?

By who, idiotic fans?

People need to get out of this mindset that international RL consists of simply NZ, Australia and England, and that everything else is worthless or a waste of time. Has the RLWC taught you nothing?

Quote ="headhunter"By who, idiotic fans? People need to get out of this mindset that international RL consists of simply NZ, Australia and England, and that everything else is worthless or a waste of time. Has the RLWC taught you nothing?'" www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/25081735 Tomkins "we need more tough tests, we are only going to get better that way" "The Aussies and Kiwis are playing each other mid season, whereas we have a year off when we are playing Wales and the like and it doesn't help." The group stages of the WC were great, but because the groups were set up in a certain way. Once the quarters started the ones involving Aus/NZ/Eng had an aggregate score of 136-10. Whilst you can look at what USA and Scotland did, what kind of tournaments would they have had if they'd of been in Group A instead of Ireland? What the WC has shown is that one big tournament involving all the other teams barring the big 3 would be a good and tight contest. But the gap between the 3 and the rest is still too big.

Quote ="headhunter"By who, idiotic fans? People need to get out of this mindset that international RL consists of simply NZ, Australia and England, and that everything else is worthless or a waste of time. Has the RLWC taught you nothing?'" www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/25081735 Tomkins "we need more tough tests, we are only going to get better that way" "The Aussies and Kiwis are playing each other mid season, whereas we have a year off when we are playing Wales and the like and it doesn't help." The group stages of the WC were great, but because the groups were set up in a certain way. Once the quarters started the ones involving Aus/NZ/Eng had an aggregate score of 136-10. Whilst you can look at what USA and Scotland did, what kind of tournaments would they have had if they'd of been in Group A instead of Ireland? What the WC has shown is that one big tournament involving all the other teams barring the big 3 would be a good and tight contest. But the gap between the 3 and the rest is still too big.

After Saturday I'm more convinced than ever that YvL should never return, scrap the Exiles game too.

We need a mid season close down on both sides of the hemisphere simultaneously for 3 to 4 weeks and fill that slot with international games.

World Cup every two years - alternating between northern and southern hemispheres. Surely 8 years is too long to wait before we have a RLWC back in this country?

Would be good for England, good for the global game (qualifying competition in the alternate years), would attract many more players to RL (eg many more from Wales where there are loads of players with inherant rugby skills).

Try it. Nothing to lose. If after five or ten years it's decided it's too much, just revert to having the World Cup every 4 years.

A series against the Celts would be quite good. Not individually but combined. Best of Wales, Ireland and Scotland would give us the tests at a better standard than they could do individually.

Oh, and reducing SL and keeping it smaller. More intense games in the league program would prep the players better.

The other long shot possibility would depend on the Aussies having a mid season break in club matches and playing playing the three State of Origin matches on consecutive weekends. Then Yorkshire v Lancashire could be played in Aus as curtain raisers with the winner of the three match Yorks v Lancs series playing the SOO winners.

Anyone.

International RL is the end, it isnt a means to an end.

England beating Wales, France, Fiji, Samoa, whoever is the point of England playing Wales, France, Fiji, Samoa, not as part of a learning progression to beat Australia and NZ>

We need the 3 Nations comp, 4 games and a final, or an ashes series every year

All great but Who?

New Zealand will not travel half way round the world in mid season
NRL clubs will almost certainly not release NZ players to play in the match either.
Exiles is a dead concept that will get less and less competitive as the years go by
France are no challenge
A combined Celtic team is more convoluted than the Exiles and probably offer less challenge than France

I think a Roses clash backed by strict selection and availability rules is the best concept and the only one completely in our own control

Maybe we need to make a decision over whether we are prepared to make the sacrifices needed to build our international team. Maybe we go to them.

If Aus put in place their 3 week break for Origin then there is a three week opportunity for us to go out there. Play Fiji, Samoa and NZ.

Again, the reason for playing France is to play France, it isn’t our preparation for Australia. We need to stop treating other nations so disrespectfully.

What about the players who aren’t from either Yorkshire or Lancashire? What about those from Oxford, or Cumbria or Cheshire or Wales?

Exactly. Can we just stop being such a small-minded little sport, just this once? We need big Internationals ... between countries, naturally

... and we need a big international club competition too - not a little end or start of season jamboree, but a competition that gets into the fibre of the sport, like the Champions League. Every ounce of effort from the UK game should be spent on making those two things happen, not on contrived rubbish to make up for our failure to put in place what the game really needs. The biggest barrier? No doubt the NRL. If they can't be a***ed, and/or can't see the value in helping the broader sport, then it's up to us to change that, and work our backsides off to make competitions that are lucrative and attractive to all. Lots of heads to bang together and lots of objections to overcome, some legitimate, some daft, some just self-serving, but that is precisely why we need excellent and dynamic leadership. Wood et al? Well, there's no denying the RLWC was much better than I (for one, but I think most) expected, but I'm still not at all convinced they're the best we can realistically get to lead the sport.

Maybe we do, maybe we should if finances and SL clubs allow it.

I think that would be a great idea as long as we treat it like a full blooded tour and everyone buys into it 100%

No disrespect to France or the other Nations, my post is written from an England preparations and development slant not one looking at how we develop France which is another subject

I'd love to incorporate Cumbria and I'd love to see them with SL representation but I'd start with a Roses concept. The SoO hasn't been hindered by it being confined to just Queensland and NSW.

In my opinion most of the improvement will come from the fact players are spending time with each other, training with each other, putting in place the sets, the game plans etc. A one-off or 2 game series will help us measure that improvement, it wont really be the cause for it.

There needs to be internationals throughout the year to build the international game. Clubs are going to have to make the sacrifice for that. They can choose not to but the result of that is a struggling international game.

SoO is a quirk. It isn’t something that can be reinvented over here and even if it was, there is a limit to its usefulness.

Yorkshire v Lancashire is as relevant as having a Saxons v Normans game

Going to Aus would help the players, but it will not give us an annual international environment for the fans.

England Football get fixtures every year at home.
England RU have the 6 nations.

This all helps build them in the public's mind. With no fixtures in the Uk for 2 years. We could easily fall back from the current position. In a way there is nothing that can be done about that.

Long term Wales and France are our only options for regular internationals. If you could make it a Celtic combined force, great but would the fans swing behind that, what anthem would the scots/irish and Welsh agree on?

In the short term whilst Wales and France increase their player pool and possible number of SL clubs, we need something. Call it East v West. But some Home nations trail would add to experience and allow us to build going forwards into proper full blown internationals each year.

If you can get the fans to buy in England v the Celts would be my pick.