there is a rumour that NZ are playing HullFC at the end of the season as part of our 150th anniversary.

Pointless Scotland been in the 4 nations 3 heavy defeats coming there way even if they fill there team with Scottish Aussies

but they earned the right to be in it

Can they be competitive?

Their squad for this years European Championships:

Danny Addy (Bradford Bulls), Josh Barlow (Swinton Lions), Sam Barlow (Leigh Centurions), Danny Brough (Huddersfield Giants), Harvey Burnett (London Broncos), Brett Carter (Workngton Town), Lewis Clarke (Edinburgh Eagles), Sonny Esslemont (Hull KR), Richard Harris (Warrington Wolves), Ben Hellewell (Featherstone Rovers), Alex Hurst (Tweed Heads Seagulls), Ben Kavanagh (Widnes Vikings), Corbyn Kilday (Wakefield Trinity), Ryan Manelly (Warrington Wolves), Nathan Massey (Canterbury Bulldogs), Joe McLean (Gloucestershire All Golds), Iain Morrison (York City Knights), Finn Murphy (Edinburgh Eagles), Lee Paterson (York City Knights), Brett Phillips (Workington Town), Callum Phillips (Workington Town),Gregor Ramsay (Easterhouse Panthers), Louis Senter (Halifax), David Scott (Doncaster), Jack Stewart (Hull KR), Oscar Thomas (London Broncos), Shane Toal (Barrow Raiders), Adam Walker (Hull KR), Alex Walker (London Broncos), Jonathan Walker (Leigh Centurions), Joe Wardle (Huddersfield Giants).

Add in Matty Russell who played in the World Cup (I think he was injured), Linnett and Wallace from NRL and Ferguson at Bradford.

Either way, they've earnt their chance.

Its like Hartlepool Accrington Stanley Grimsby and Macclesfield playing off for a place in next seasons champions league one of them would earn the right doesn't meen it should happen

scrap it then lets just have a 3 nations.

we do this year...97 players from......Australia (35), New Zealand (36) , England (24)...with 2 Samoans who have yet to get a game.

Its crap just like the world cup everybody raving about the group games then nobody mentions the one sided QFs then the only 3 decent countries playing the game plus a whipping boy in the semis AGAIN followed by Australia v England / New Zealand final and it will be exactly the same at the next world cup and the one after that

Fully agree. Hopefully they play at least one game up in Scotland, can mix that with a trip to the in-laws!

There lies the problem Samoa Tonga fiji and the Cook Islands will never match the Aussies or kiwis because anyone half decent opts to play for Australia or New Zealand until there no longer needed and then reverts back to there country of birth at the back end of there career

RLWC was a great tournament that was well attended and gave the sport much needed national exposure. Unfortunately, it didn't do any good for the sport in Scotland, Italy, USA and the other countries who were represented by mainly "heritage" players from the big 3 countries.


Scotland v anyone, in Scotland in the next 4 nations will struggle to get the 5k Wales managed for Australia in 2011 and an absolute tonking in that game will do more damage than good....but you have to let them play.

The Qualifying process was open and fair....just because the french couldn't be d, it's no reason to penalise the "scottish" players who got them there!

We just seem to embarrass ourselves trying to copy international rugby union we haven't got enough good teams which will be shown when the RU World Cup starts we should stick to what works and toe its a test series against Australia including a couple against New Zealand plus a game against PNG or Samoa

The only thing that's embarrassing is your posts on this thread.

And Scotland's games won't be get your head out of the sand and contribute rather than throwing an insult with nothing to back it up feel free to tell me how it's good for the game a nation with no interest in rugby league hence the 1400 who turned up to watch them get hammered by France by the way should be playing at the top table in a prestigious event were they will get beaten badly even of they do pull in the Scottish Aussies

Well, the Kiwis appear to do well with a single "franchise" in the NRL, so maybe a PNG franchise could enhance the national side similarly.

Here, well I don't know how we go about it, we've developed/assisted a French franchise, but they've not done a NZ, have they? We did the same for the Welsh, maybe we ought to have looked to pastures new, Serbia, Romania, Albania?? I really just don't know to be honest!

How do you expect them to have any interest in RL when it's never played there at any meaningful level, and the one chance they get to play in a major tournament people like you want to deny their right even though they qualified fair and square? Do you understand why RU has a better international scene than RL despite being a much worse sport? Clue: it's because they actually put effort into developing and expanding into new countries instead of just saying "f*ck it they're not good enough, lets just play the Aussies", which is what RL has been doing for about 50 years with NO progress.

Genuine question, why is saying that International RL is little else other than 3 major nations and a number of others, with the exception of PNG and France) being made up of players from the 3 Major Nations?
Is it incorrect?

Samoa 2014 is actually 11 Aussies, 12 Kiwis and 2 Samoans who have yet to get a game. For a sport trying really hard to be "international", that is embarrassing!

New Zealand became powerful when more Kiwis were playing in the NRL than just in the Auckland/NZ Warriors team.

Even if every Catalans player were French that's still only 25-30 players playing in SL and obviously not all those would be good enough at test level in the same way not every Wigan, Saints, Leeds, Wire etc player is good enough for England. I'd guess at needing at least 40-50 Frenchmen playing in SL before we'd see a significant improvement.

I don't know for certain but at a guess I'd say there are probably only 5 or 6 Frenchman playing in Britain nevermind at SL. In fact the only non-Catalans Frenchman I can think of in SL is Theo Fages.

Maybe with the British and French (or Yorks/Lancs vs South of France) culture being so different is a stumbling block when compared to a much more similar (or more easily adapted to) culture between NZ & Australia, but I still think we need to find ways of getting more French players in SL.

Either through another French team or some kind of programme or set of incentives for either players to move to England or for English clubs to sign French players.

Kiwis see Australia as " a grass is greener" country and therefore, for the kids who aspire to play top tier RL, going to Aussie is seen as giving them a better chance (15 teams to be scouted by....not just one).........Oh.....and they speak the same(ish) language.

French Kids playing League see Catalan as the team......the don't even speak proper English at the other SL clubs!

French RL needs catalans involved in their elite comp, with their own TV deal and their own development...........young French kids aren't going to be interested in moving to Wakefield FFS.......

Yeah, the sport's lack of progress at international level is embarrassing, and it's mostly a result of attitudes like the one displayed by the poster I was quoting, who are happy to sit back and moan and do nothing but try to shoot down any attempts to improve things.

He isn't wrong though. No matter how you re-plaster and then paint it.

I'd actually cheer from the rooftops if international RL was actually INTERNATIONAL. It isn't and no amount of waxing lyrical about Samoa 2014 or Scotland next time out is going to change that.....they are heritage sides.

The QF's saw 3 tries scored over 320 minutes by the losing sides.....including the 2 BRILLIANT sides Scotland and USA who were anything but full of scotts and Americans. PNG and France the only true other nations were absolutely ing terrible....9 tries over 7 games between them FFS......

Criticism of the game isn't a bad thing.........often as not it is 100% deserved, but to some, it is sacrilege



I repeat......scotland have qualified and well done them. It won't be pretty, but they deserve their spot.

Olivier Elima did

and two French kids have moved to East Hull of all places. Baile has gone to Bradford and Barthau to London.

You say about my attitude what about the governing body of the country in your avatar which denied actual Americans playing in the World Cup through some dispute or other

Baile at Bradford, Barthau at London, Fages at Salford, Boudebza at Hull KR, Simon at Wakefield, Fakir was at Bradford but don't know if he's been kept on, Larroyer at Hull KR, Remi Casty was at the Roosters but has just returned. The numbers playing away from France are increasing albeit very slowly but it's a start. Just none are at top clubs yet to make much of an impact on the national team.