Quote ="TheButcher"The trouble with British RL is if something isn't immediately successful we just scrap it. It's a good job the Ozzies stuck with the Origin formula, and look what it's given them. It took them quite a few years to develop it. '"
Not quite true. The old interstate games (based on which state you played in) lacked interest; once they went to State of Origin they got a big expectant crowd for the first game in Brisbane as they finally got to see their own lads play for Queensland. In that game they all knocked lumps out of each other, Queensland won, and it was pretty much an instant success. It's grown from being successful to being huge (Wednesday's game was the biggest watched TV programme of the year so far in Aus).
I'd love a War of Roses over here, but most fans won't back it because it's not on their season ticket. When it was resurrected in the early 2000s (I think), crowds halved over 2-3 years and the games lacked intensity. Was still a better, and more useful, concept than Eng v Exiles (has that been quietly swept under the carpet?).
