This looks awesome. www.nrl.com/FanZone/AllStars/tab ... fault.aspx Of course, over here it would be written off as gimmicky sh.te, marketed in a half-.rsed fashion if at all and we'd have about 4k turn up. The Indigenous side are a great example of a very real nation that doesn't fit into the narrow constraints of traditional international competition.

This looks awesome. www.nrl.com/FanZone/AllStars/tab ... fault.aspx Of course, over here it would be written off as gimmicky sh.te, marketed in a half-.rsed fashion if at all and we'd have about 4k turn up. The Indigenous side are a great example of a very real nation that doesn't fit into the narrow constraints of traditional international competition.

cant wait for this!

i have to be honest, i think the whole thing smarts of a 'us' against the immigrants thing. It does nothing for me but create a racial divide, im all for people celbrating thier culture and that of thier country, but really,,,,,, can you imagine a white british versus the rest match? there would be uproar, much as the BARA teams are encouraging minorities to participate in rugby league, creating segregations within the game based on ethnicity is a farce. Some of rugby leagues greatest idols are from minority backgrounds, but rather than supporting the fact they were of african, carribean or whatever background, I like to think one of the rarities within our sport compared to others is we have always celebrated, and respected the player for the player they are or were, and long may that continue,,,,,, or should be continue down tthe road of these exhibition games until we have the inevitible, BNP versus everyone else match?

don't we have a NRL forum these days??


funny how they can find time for this nonsence but can't find time for,say, NZ v PNG or TONGA v SAMOA during origin or something...

RL's great strength is that it is prepared to innovate. One day, a sport will get to grips with the fact that these people feel loyalties that do not necessarily correlate with their passport and I hope it is RL that is that sport.

You mean like Bradford "innovated" by copying



The biggest barrier to anything like this over here is superleague itself. I can't see clubs wanting to risk injury to players in what could be a very intense and passionate match.

Not sure how we would work it over here maybe we could have celts v romans v vikings v saxons v normans v asians + a conglomerate side of eastern europeans/Italians- in fact we could start an alternate league

The Mighty Whites v. The Rest.

BNP have already offered to sponsor the Mighty Whites and have a ready made mascot in Nick Griffin.

Wouldn't work over here for obvious reasons.

Kids at the school I taught at in London always wanted to play black vs white to see who'd win but that's by the by.

Yeah, Celts vs Vikings isn't likely to fly. But it is notable that this fixture is on the cards, another example of 'can do' attitude from the comp that gave us Origin in the face of very similar 'waste of time' reactions.

TBF it is the brainwave of the Gold Coast CEO, and incidently it is being played on the Gold Coast! I don't have a big issue with an indigenous culture wanting to celebrate its heritage, given what white Australia has done to Aboriginals it is the least we can do!

I can see your point perfectly well but we have to face facts that superleague fans, no I'll correct myself, RL fans are very parochial - just look at some of the 4 nations posts.

Couple this with "look after number one" attitude of most superleague management and things become difficult.

We tried "war of the roses", in theory a great idea but what happened? - Poor marketing or apathy?

Aussie fans can be similarly parochial, perhaps even more so. What interests me having had a year out there is the imagination that is displayed - the heritage round, the indigenous round, the breast cancer awareness round, Penrith celebrating their 1000th game - that was my biggest bugbear, the way we let anniversaries go past unheralded. 75 years since Bradford beat Australia, 7-5. No NRL club would let a similar milestone pass without making the most of it.

I think the Roses is a interesting case - why did that flop while Origin succeeded. Would a Beetson moment have saved it? At least the RFL seems to have a clear long term goal, a Eng-Wal-Fra series that will hopefully be as competitive as trans-Tasman tests at some point.

IMHO a strong France and even wales are essential. Expansion is essential for all our futures.

A test series every year against a genuinely strong France could be better than origin. The historical on/off enmity between us makes the aussies look like kids. Just think of the Biff



We don't need anything fancy, just make sure the French have every chance to grow quickly.