Or better still...why not just make the England v All Stars game a charity fund raiser for the relief fund. Maybe even Play it at Loftus road/Craven Cottage and fill the ground with Anzacs?

The season is crammed enough without ANOTHER game to mess with it......

Compared with abandoning one of 3 credible international sides in the Northern hemisphere to play a meaningless match against a team of journeymen with no reason to care about the outcome and expecting it to attract a crowd it is a genius.

It may be stupid, but it is still far more sensible than the proposed 'international'

Who is this 'credible international Northern hemisphere side' you speak of?

I do hope you are not speaking of France.

France are so poor even the Welsh beat them.

They are a recognised international opponent with their own league, a history and tradition including a World Cup win and they are one of two opponents in the NH that have professional players playing in their own country.

If PNG are a credible opponent so are France.

We need to nurture France like the IRB did to Italy, regular games against ourselves as well as Wales, Scotland, ireland, touring sides etc;

The day France become a credible opponent in an international rugby league fixture against England, Australia or New Zealand is the day my dog learns how to speak latin.

They have been before, I see no reason why they cannot be again.

Even if they don't, a match against a country is worth considerably more than a friendly against a made up team.

PNG would hammer France at the moment and even when PNG play, the fans don't turn up. 11k for Australia, 7k for New Zealand. If you think PNG V England would have attracted any more than 5k If played in NZ or Aus on its own you're nuts.....that's why there was the double header

For the international game to grow, the top 3 nations need to field second string sides against developing nations. Like it or no, France fall into this category. There is nothing to be gained from 60 point hammerings....nothing at all.
I believe this all stars game is a waste of time as well......I'd much rather see England fly to the southern hemisphere mid season for a test against NZ and a test against Australia. Scrap magic weekend to make room for it!
Let France, Wales, PNG, Tonga et al play their own tournament.....until anyone other than the top 3 have a chance of winning the RLWC it either needs to be scrapped or have a shed load of money thrown at it.

Yes they have history , tradition ,a league of their own and a WC win , which makes them the International equivalent of Oldham ( no disrespect intended ) , trying to compete with the likes of the Leeds Rhinos

They have 1 f/t pro team , with several Aussies in it that struggles to compete in SL , the rest of their international squad is made up of part time players that would struggle to get a gig at a mid table Championship club

A Championship select would give them a good test

....
.......as are a team made up of "other nationalities".....April 5th, 1904.....at Wigan...England RL's first international (as quoted on the often wrong wikipedia) was against "Other Nationalities"

France getting hammered every year by England will do nothing for them or the game.
I repeat....scrap MM........send an England squad to Australia/New Zealand for a 2 test tour in mid season.....

Do you believe that Italy or Scotland could get a result against the better Heineken Cup sides, does that stop them playing regularly against the best union sides?

We won't build the international games by dropping opponents when we think we can manufacture a better opponent out of journeymen kolpaks

This Heinekin Cup you speak of , which RL team have won it ?

Why do we, with our weak international game, think that we know better than union, with its international game that props up the entire sport, when it comes to supporting and nurturing uncompetitive international sides?

The one game that has achieved lower prominence in union's pro era is that involving the Barbarians, they are no longer a draw card for players or spectators...

You are absolutely correct , but how many full time pro's do all these international countries have at their disposal ? , you are also comparing 2 different sports , RU is like football in that you can employ tactics that can make any given game closer , RL however is not so forgiving , there is no ' defending , retaining possession, slowing down and ' easy ' points in RL , it is brutal from 1st minute to last , that's why we like it

....I am the first to use the IRB as a yard stick to measure the progress of an international sport, but the problem faced by the northern hemisphere in League differs entirely to that of Union.

As for the Barbarians...45,000 turned up to watch them play south africa FFS........I wouldn't exactly say that many people paying over 50 quid each wasn't a draw card......when was the last England RL international match (played in England) that got that attendance........I think Australia v New Zealand got about 23k a few years back in London, but for an invitational team playing a touring side to get 45,000 is pretty good going given they are an invitational side.

I repeat.....England, NZ and Australia should play the RLWC with second string teams....like a plate competition and the tri-nations should be the decider of who are world champs. The game will grow internationally when Ireland and Scotland are fielding teams full of players born in those countries.......and the way to do that is get competative games at international level....not tonkings

iv'e alway thought thats why league has never really taken off elsewere.

theres less real action, but a lot more unpredictability in the other main sports.

Good point jc , all the more reason to ' even ' thing up if at all possible IMO

but how do you even things up without holding back the more wealthy clubs ?.

Well we were discussing the International game , but even at club level , there is no other choice , or the game will die

oops

.

sorry...i ain't willing to disclose private e-mails i've had with the RFL hierarchy....not yet anyway

I would suggest you're slightly wide of the mark. When the RUWC took off in the nineties, the game was far from the fully proffessional sport it is now, meaning smaller teams like Romania, Fiji or Western Samoa, when fueld by WC induced passion, could prove a real test for the 10 or so core nations. A few years into the proffessional era and an experimental England team put 145 points past Romania (30 penalties, 16 drop goals, 1 try and 1 conversion, charlie hodgeson recording 140 individual points). Now most of the WC fixtures including smaller nations are a formality.
Argentina and to a lesser degree Italy have improved, but most minor nations have fallen away.

England RL tonking France doesn't do them much much good, but it does England even less.
I'd replace MM with an event at Cardiff/Murrayfield that had a few fixtures like
England vs other nations
France Vs Wales
Cumbria/Championship England vs USA or other emerging nation
Scotland vs Ireland
Play the internationals on the Saturday, then maybe something like a club 7's tournament on the Sunday?

Abandoning? Well, we weren't playing Wales. Have we abandoned them as well?

And how do we know we're not playing France at the end of the season, like when we used to play Wales?

And don't you agree that Wales vs France is a far more enjoyable fixture to watch than Wales/France vs England?

And don't you think we will get more than 6-8k? Which is all that this French mid-season test has attracted against England.

Worth more in what way?
Money?
Crowds?
TV viewers?
Media exposure?
Development-wise for England?

The only thing that would be more is the points scored by England.

Credibility?

I doubt I was alone in cringing whilst watching our recent "credible" internationals against France.