tightening the laws and enforcing them......will stop nation changing!

Ha ha! Jokes. How can you have a scottish and irish team when they don't even play the game professionally? That would be like england having an international american football team!

Still, we could always create teams to force upon scotland and ireland, that'll have them all playing and watching RL there, oh hang on.........

It worked when the biggest sporting organisation in the world just dumped an american football franchise in london as well, what a staggering succes they are now. Oh, hang on.....

Its all well and good saying no more nation changing, but without that how many would bother to play for Ireland, Scotland etc in the first place? Would Brough have played for Scotland in the World Cup if it meant no chance of playing for England? FuiFui for Tonga if he couldn't play for NZ?

No.

If I'm honest I think players should play for the nation they were born in and nowhere else. That's where they came from and they should be proud of that. It'll never happen though.

Are they even England standard? I say no

We should have both. People want a 'trial' match for the national side. We already have it.

Home nations + france in a round robin tournament played throughout the season.

GB+I play in the 4 nations.

Home Nations play in the world cup.

I don't want to see the return of GB. I don't see the point.

England can easily play three match series against touring Australia or New Zealand teams, or we could go there and tour. What's the difference between England and GB doing it, given that the team would be virtually identical anyway?

The two Welsh lads qualify through having an English mother. Given that most sports have these sorts of rules, I really don't see what the problem is. In the past the Wales team had players like Iestyn Harris, Anthony Sullivan and others who were all born in England. If there is a problem, just tighten up the eligibility rules.

I don't wish to sound rude but England shouldn't have to not exist just to provide opportunities for a few Welsh or Scottish players - especially when a lot of people in Wales or Scotland claim to hate England anyway. Funny how they hate us when it doesn't benefit them, but they're quick to tag along when it does - e.g. Cardiff and Swansea in the English football league or Glamorgan in English cricket.

Why stop at GB anyway? Why don't we play as Europe so we can also include the occasional French, German, Italian or Spanish rugby league player as well?

The current set up is the way to go. The England v Exiles is a good concept - not sure but can Scottish and Welsh players represent the Exiles?

I would also add a Yorkshire v Lancashire game or series too so that there is another showpiece event to help bridge the gap between club and international games. By gap I mean for people like myself who don't have a club team to support and who get bored waiting around for a handful of international games each year.

I think you will find most Wrexham, Swansea and Cardiff fans hate England irrespective of the fact they play in the English football league

The welsh twins playing for england isnt a problem. The problem I have is the idea that players can play for one nation one year and then a different the next year. If Danny Brough can play for scotland and then switch to England then well you might as well have a Great Britian side.

or you stop players switching in the first place

GB is something that is synonymous with rugby league too. I wouldnt do the games profile any harm. Im sure they said they would still be called GB on tours though at the time of the split? What they forgot to mention is that their would never be any tours.

Or you give them reasons not to switch in the first place.

The current international set up stops players choosing, and sticking with, any nation other than England, NZ, or Australia.

There is a reason players rarely switch between Wales and Scotland, or Fiji and Samoa.

The welsh twins playing for England is the problem, they should be able to choose and stick with Wales and have meaningful regular international competition as Welsh players.

so winning the european cup was'nt meaningful competition?


and the welsh twins are able to choose...wales or england........some players are'nt that lucky

Wales beating France in RL is similar to Waltham Forest beating Hilingdon Borough 2-1 in division 1 north of the Ryman football league.

winning it enabled them to 4nation......hardly worthless or meaningless


people whinge about there not being enough internationals or it having no structure.....when in fact we do and it has..

heres the fixtures scheduled for the end of the season

FRANCE - england knights,england,scotland & ireland (euro tri nations)

SCOTLAND - samoa,france & ireland (euro tri nations)

IRELAND - samoa,france & scotland (euro tri nations)

SAMOA - england knights,scotland & ireland (britain tour)

ENGLAND KNIGHTS - france & samoa

ENGLAND - france & 4nations

AUSTRALIA - NZ & 4nations

NZ - australia,cook islands & 4nations

WALES - 4nations

RUSSIA - serbia,italy & lebanon (RLWCQ2013)

SERBIA - russia,italy & lebanon (RLWCQ2013)

ITALY - russia,serbia & lebabon (RLWCQ2013)

LEBANON - russia,serbia & italy (RLWC13)

USA - south africa & jamaica (RLWCQ2013)

SOUTH AFRICA - usa & Jamaica (RLWCQ2013)

JAMAICA - usa & south africa (RLWCQ2013)

FIJI - PNG series

PNG - Fiji series

Cook islands - NZ

theres never been as many games

It does show the worth it has when it is a qualifying competition.

it does show its worth....


just like the qualification group stages of the UEFA european champions or the FIFA world cup....


we all know who the top 3 teams are in the world......whats unclear is who is the 4th....the teams ranked 4th to 12th can all beat each other, wales are indeed currently ranked 12th in the RLIF rankings.....thats why the european cup & pacific cup are so important....its gives all the '2nd tier' nations a goal and drives development......


or we could go back to tri nations or test series between GB,AUS & NZ and f**k everyone else off and kill international progress once and for all...

Other than the 4 nations none of them are of any great standard.

Exactly, people very rarely celebrate winning a qualification stage. Do you know the winners of the last World Cup qualification stage? Do you know the winners of the last world cup.

Qualification is a means to an end, it is worthless in and of itself.



and there is your problem, why would anyone choose to be part of a nation 4th - 12th when they are viewed, and treated as second class, when they can simply choose to be part of nations 1-3 and be included at the top level. Thats why people switch nations, thats why people choose England, Australia, NZ over Wales, Fiji or Samoa.

You have drawn a false dichotomy. Our options arent as you have described. We have a very obvious option of treating teams 1,2, and 3 the same as we treat teams 4,8, and 12. If Australia are playing Fiji, Samoa and Tonga as well as New Zealand then the likes of MoiMoi and Uate dont need to be swapping, if England play Wales, Scotland and Ireland then Danny Brough doesnt need to be swapping nations, neither does Gareth Carvell.

The answer is to not devalue 2nd tier nations by separating them from the big 3, but to include them in real international competition, not just qualifying competitions and warm ups.

ask mark rowley if winning the european cup was worthless to wales


like i've said time and time again....tightening the laws and enforcing them will stop players switching...bringing back GB to appease player swapping is'nt the answer

If you enforce laws that stop players switching, they simply wont choose to play for any nation outside the top 3. Why would they? Why would they commit themselves to playing European Cup qualification competition when they could play in the 4 nations. Enforcing those laws whilst not addressing the actual problem simply condemns all nations outside the top 3 to always being outside the top 3.

"if" we enforce the laws??? enforcing the laws should be a given.....and enforcing the laws is addressing the actual problem..


not every player is gonna select england...cos not every player is good enough for england....it'll also drive development so the likes of wales,scotand and ireland won't have to rely on grandparent players

We do enforce the laws you are wanting new ones to legislate against a problem which is of our own making. People dont swap countries for the fun of it, they do it because of the huge disparity between representing the big three and representing anyone else.



Yes, so we will be left with a situation where anyone good enough, regardless of where they are born, will find a way to play for England and the rest of the home nations will be left with the cast-offs and expected some how to catch up.

sorry pal...we don't


after the last world cup a law was put in place...you could switch immediately the 2008 world cup...but whoever you played for in 2009 you was tied into that nation till after the next world cup in 2013....as a result the likes of jarrod hayne,michale jennings,chris bridge and ben harrison switched from fiji,tonga and ireland to australia & england....all that was fine within the current laws...........

then the RLIF/ARL let akuila uate,who played for fiji in the 2009 pacific cup meaning he should have been tied to fiji till 2014, switch to australia this year....that in turn has allowed danny brough switch from scotland to england.....cos you can't let one player switch and not another...the flood gates have been opened again

if we enforced the laws UATE would'nt have been allowed to switch!



thats the current situation anyway...they get england "cast off" and are forced to develop their own talent...and thats the way it has to be during the development period...they have to start somewhere!

Smokey understands where I'm coming from with this.

If players do not think that they could be eliminated by choosing Wales, Scotland or Ireland they would stop switching I feel. The same goes for Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Aus and NZ.

If we kept Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France and England playing every two years with GB playing in the tri nations against NZ and Aus it would not eliminate certain players from the elite competition and would also mean that the developing nations would be getting regular competition against the best in the Northern Hemisphere.

It wouldn't do England any harm to win something for the first few years of the 5 Nations or whatever we would call it. As and when other nations (Italy etc) became good enough to take part it could be expanded as the rugby union equivalent is.