old fashioned down under tours are the way to go for me, the club/rep sides down there we used to play are miles better than any national team int he northern hemisphere and gave us competitive games for weeks on end .

well it didnt work!

they had to drop out of the latest comp v the knights due to cash flow problems

Not sure how Wales shipping 80 points in front of a meager crowd advances the cause of international RL.

The introduction of Celtic Crusaders gave the Welsh the chance to lay down some solid foundations for that growth of the game down there,but despite much optimism there was little public interest in the end.

If the SL ever looked to expand in the future,the only viable option would be a team playing out of Toulouse,which would only boost the reasonably deep rooted infrastructure there is in place in the south of that country.Hopefully the national team could continue to improve off the back of that.

Knew the Australians did not want to tour,but surprised to know the Kiwis followed suit,as the NZRL are not a cash rich enterprise.A tour to the UK always helps to boost their coffers.

Yet again the international game of RL just selling itself short.

Ok

Lets try this slowly

AUSTRAILIA DO NOT WANT TO PLAY TESTS AGAINST US

CLUBS WILL NOT RELEASE PLAYERS FOR TOURS IN SEASON

So how do we conduct a tour then? We do the next best thing and play France and Wales which at least has some benefits

^
That's the whole point,Aus & NZ coming out and saying they won't play us,is only selling the international game short.Do Yawnion call off their international comps because some countries decide they would rather give it a miss.

One thing I do agree with you,English fans don't want to watch the stuff on offer at the moment.

NZ would attract between 16/17k at our stadium.

But surely playing NZ and Oz year in year out will devalue the international game even more. I guess the drop out rate would be high wherever the games would be played and perhaps last year was the one that should have been given a miss and have a pre-world cup tournament now but you can not expect the same tournament to happen each season.

RU makes room for its Autumn internationals and the money it makes for all those involved probably means they can run the same games year after year but they can mix and match 4 big visiting nations with another couple of lesser lights that can still get 50,000 to the Millenium Stadium, 16k if that was realistic just can not compare.

Until we have 8 or 9 reasonable standard countries with the support and resources to match comparisons with Union are too far off the mark to be credable.

Also

Are you really saying we should still play an ashes series despite Aus not actually playing?

Granted we might win it then but I don't think you've really thought it through...


This series is about
1 preparing England to win the World Cup. It might not be ideal, it might not be the best opposition but its the best we've got at the moment

2 its about preparing France for the World Cup, and helping them develop into a serious competitor for England in Autumn internationals.

3. It's about developing Wales and giving their young players exposure.


Let me make an analogy.
In 1999 the RU World Cup was held in England. The All Blacks played Italy in the McAlpine and put a cricket score on them 101-3

It was utterly expected and you know what? NO ONE SAID IT WAS A POINTLESS EXCERCISE OR SAID THEY SHOULD STOP HAVING A WORLD CUP

Instead they stuck with it, persevered and now Italy are in the 6N and earning the Italian RFU more money than the IRLB could dream of.

So yeah, let's jack it in and stay an obscure game played around what is in reality 3 urban conurbations.

What I meant was I very much doubt that the.rulers of RU would have countries dictating to them when they would play and when they wouldn't.Not that RU international teams would want to pull out,they seem to value their comps.

For me the tri nations in RL was a great concept,I would never tire of watching Aus/NZ/GB go against each other.The world cup seems more of a contrived comp.I recall going to the stadium to watch Aus v Fiji in the last wc in England.Do Fiji still play RL.They have made little progress since them far off days it would seem.

In an ideal world what you say about expansion would come true,but I've personally lost patience with it now.I'd just rather see the ANZ taking on GB.,It's the cream of the crop,and knocks spots off any RU international,whether there is 50 or 100k at the Union.

Even with expansion England (or GB) can not compete with Australia at a level the Lions can in RU and until they can can it really be the cream of the crop?? At club level the World Club Challenge does the job (though at a very contrived level that gives the SL a dramatic advantage) but at International Level even playing it over here does not level the playing field enough to make it a genuine shoot out of two similar standard teams.

Regardless of defeating the Aussies the RFL have held back Scotland and Ireland and to a certain extent Wales by scrapping GB as players who would jump in for the lesser nations for the World Cup knowing they could get a call up for GB for an ashes series if they did well might do so and strengthen those countries now sit on the sidelines hoping for an England call that may well never come.

I could not see Briers, Cunningham or even Harris jumping in for Wales if they were making their debuts today and the fact Broughy might not make this World Cup having played in others for Scotland shows the flaw in the system and where we lead RU in our thinking and now they have a massive brand and ideology in the Lions and we have nothing.

spot on with the middle sentence..

its the way forward with england and not GB

I agree. When we aren't playing NZ or Australia we should have comps with England, Wales, Ireland & Scotland. When we play NZ or Australia it should always be as GB that we take them on. That way we expose all our best players to higher level stuff no matter what the competition.

Nail on head.
This way it gives credibility to the international scene, stops the need for players to nation swap , gives the game exposure and allows th eother home nations time to develop.

Carney and Davies would never have played for England so why deprive them of the chance to play at the top level in a competitive team which is what GB was for them.

Agreed.

The only way forward for our game is to give as many players as possible the opportunity to play at as high a level as possible. The Championship players who represented their countries will have learned a lot and will take this back to their clubs.

The enthusiasm being shown in Bristol at the moment is, dare I say it, far greater than anything currently shown around Huddersfield.

For our game to continue it has to expand. If left to the M62 it will wither. Let's look to the medium and long term future as the RFU did with Italy.

I think SL youngsters like Dan Fleming will have got alot out of the game too and scoring a try against England has to be a boost for him to take back to pre season with Cas.

The one problem is the World Cup and if GB were reunited for Ashes Tests would the 4 home nations enter as now or just as GB in the hope of lifting the Cup.

I think that the World Cup should see England, Scotland, Wales & Ireland in but that Ashes matches, series against NZ & tours should be as GB in the short term at least. Discussions on RL eh, what's this forum coming to?!

Thats the way I would go for sure.

Likewise.

easy win for england today... good to see a decent crowd at the game this time

cudjoe played well again and kept his spot, he had a hand in a couple of the first harlf tries...should play in the final now too

A total mismatch unfortunately,no more than a training run for England.The smaller French forwards had no chance.The tri-colours did well to stop the floodgates opening at 32 - 0.

Not sure where this leaves next weeks final.France might come out showing a lot more determination after today,alternatively England could get 80 or 90 points if it all starts to click for them.

Wonder how many will be there live to witness it.

I thought leroy had a mixed game to be honest- dropping that hock pass was an awful error he was under no pressure and he failed to prevent the French try, but he had a hand in three tries early on. He looked ok but not good enough to face the Aussies on that performance. I can't see him getting the nod in front of Watkins /reed but there's time yet.

So England win!!

no surprise, but been a good preperation for next years world cup...spent plenty of time together as a group in south africa and players staking there claims for the world cup team next year.. hopefully this will pay off

mccilorum and myler not done enough for me to be included, morley too wont make it

the rest did well including cudjoe who played all 3 games

Did well in the first game not so great after that.

I will judge him next season and what i want to see is his abilty to attack at pace draw the man in and let his winger free.

One thing that was noticable was that Cudjoe almost had to go and demand to be passed the ball, and never got it with a gap in front of him

But he did work hard off the ball, was rock solid in defence and ran some great lines to create space outside himself - he dropped one ball in good position but that was more to a terrible pass from Chase than Leroy putting the ball down.

Exactly! Most of Ryan Hall's tries were due to drawing the opposition's winger/centre in to create space for Hall to score.

i agree, did alot of work in defence sometimes making 2/3 tackles in a row, rock solid

and created space for the winger with his movement, halls try last night just one of them

quality player to have in our ranks, will grow even more in confidence for next season now too, he is a confidence type of player