Steady! Don't bring cricket into it! That Manchester team you talk about represents 27 proud boroughs of the old boundary, has 17 home grown players in its squad and are champions of this country!
And for the record you live in cheshire!

Better than an exiles game, and the RFL wouldn't have to blow all it's marketing budget to gain interest

And a team made up primarily of English players would win something

It has potential. Although my memory becomes increasingly jaded, when they tried the "Roses" games in the past, they were usually midweek.
These days, with the involvement of SKY, the game could marketed more strongley and if National jerseys were up for grabs at the end of it all, then maybe the
players might treat the game as a full on Origin type game.

And therein lies the problem. The Roses game was never treated as a GB/England selection game as the coaches always have their little favourites that will be picked and very rarely go off current form for team selection.

Coaches always have their "favourites", at every level, but if the RL public has seen a certain player busting a gut in a game of this type, then the national coach would look somewhat daft if he ingnored that player.