Why?

Why move away from a brand concept of several (hundered) years of history for something that has none? The whole point is to sell the game



Fine, but can we ditch the utterly, utterly meaningless "SL Select" as being meaningless, pointles and without any, well, point.

and just call it a tri-counties game.

Or replace Cumbria for an "other counties" team.

but lancashire,yorkshire & cumbria does'nt fit in with the nationwide demographic the RFL is aiming for....does it!

No, but its a start in building for a competative England team to actually stand a chance of competing with Aus and NZ, and if we dont do that, we will never expand.

Without the media coverage that [isuccesseful[/i international competition gets, we will never, ever break our boundaries.

Denying Championship, Championship 1 and possibly amateur sides a bumper pay day.

we won't build a competitve england team by having lancashire,yorkshire and cumbria play each other

The problem England face is being the dominant force in a relatively weak hemisphere.

Despite all their failings, they are still way ahead of all the teams they could reasonably stage a mid-season international against. The Kiwis have had more regular meetings with the Aussies in mid-season, more of their players moving into the NRL through the Warriors and other NRL clubs, all of which goes to provide them with more exposure to higher intensity competition.

Whatever you do on a representative level in the Northern hemisphere, it's still going to be with players facing up to the same standard of player they oppose week in, week out in SL. The standard or intensity is not going to be any higher than your average club game.

but having a team full of aussies & kiwis, ie the Other Nationalities, is'nt going to be the same level of intensity as a SL game is it...

Where are those Aussies and Kiwis playing at the moment?

so your saying they are'nt capable of upping their intensity level once they come here??

Why should they?

What's in it for them to risk potentially career ending injury playing in a meaningless practice match?

So by playing representative games we wont improve our performances...what do you suggest then?

Carrying on as we have since 1973?

i've proposed england v the other nationalities in a 2 games series......where have you been

why should any oveaseas player risk injury playing in a inferior comp?

Proposing a system that people might pay to watch...




Your system limits the number of potential England players on representative duty to 17, mine trebbles the number of potential England players to 17 for each team playing.

The Kiwis dont have Origin and they get along fine.
Look, this is all just smokescreens for the simple fact.

..wait for it...


..no really...

WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH AND OUR BEST ATHLETES PLAY OTHER SPORTS.

There, but then you all already knew that. Stop these silly ideas and once the stadiums are sorted pressure the licenses on finding the best young talent in the land. If I go ten miles south from my house IN THE HEARTLANDS nobody watches or plays league. Thousands of potential juniors.

actually i've proposed that england 'A' play france & wales as curtain raisers too....

we could even have england 'B' v ireland & scotland if you want too increase the england player pool...


either way lancs,yorks & cumbria defo is'nt the answer

Absolutely spot on for both points.

Kiwis don't invent North Island vs South Island games to prepare for winning the WC. Lack of "Origin" is not the root cause of our problem.

We don't even get first pick of the best athletes in the "heartlands", let alone the rest of the country.

UK rowing went out a few years ago and identified a bunch of massively tall, very fit blokes who'd never been in a boat in their life and offered them a shot at the 2012 olympics. I don't think the RFL could do something similar, but getting a lot more kids playing would be a big step in the right direction.

Of course, Dico.

There are no great athletes in rugby league in England.

lol

Theres not really no.
Hell we all went mad on kevin penny because he had pace and a swerve, never mind that he could do naff all else

lol

They are all in union.

Like when Farrell marched into the backline from prop.

Because SL clubs are prepared to compensate them handsomely for doing so.

How much are they going to get paid for this exhibition game you're proposing and where is the money for that, and insuring the players concerned, going to come from?

Speak for yourself

He said the BEST athletes. (Although later on agreed that there aren't any great athletes in our sport, which is complete rubbish).

Our best athletes play football. They grow up trying a few sports that they're good at (football always being one of them, and RL hardly ever one) and then given the choice they'll pick football for the millions they'll get and the much greater number of opportunities there is.

Unlike Australia and New Zealand, where their number one sport is nowhere near as big as football is over here.

I did mean our best athletes, great would mean best to me.
There'll be the odd one from time to time, grows up in a RL family, all theywant to do is play league etc etc but for the most part, the best kids play soccer.
Name me a couple of blokes you'd consider great athletes then, ones that their skills could easily be transfered to other sports, someone like Inglis could do 3 or 4

theres nobody like greg inglis in any sport in this country