so what do people think?

coming of the wigan forum as wanted to do wellwishes for tommy and surprise they are all now hating the concept and finding every flaw possible.

personally i think it is a great concept that gives an extra test for the england team. You could tell that the exiles wanted to win and gave a better game than sorry to say france, wales or ireland could of.

unfortunately weather had a massive impact on the way the game was played tonight was similar to the game we played against leeds. Also the fact the exiles lost 8 players in the last week of build up didnt help i am sure if the weather is right and the injured recover we will see a different game come 4th july.

on the stats side of it there must be some interest in the game as the crowd attendance was 11,084 which is better than most weekly round attendences at some clubs and this is still the infancy. My hope is that the concept grows as i am a big fan of international RL and unfortunately we do not get enough of it.

I think the concept is a good one and provides a much sterner test than matches against other nations (no disrespect but e.g. France or Wales) would do.

Tonights match was severely affected by the weather, as was the Knights match in the 'curtain raiser'. The spectacle would have been much better in drier conditions.

As a Saints season ticket holder I first of all want to say I hope the injury to Thomas Lueleia (apologies if I spelt that wrong) isn't as bad as it looked - he is a class player and I wish him well. Secondly, I was ashamed of the 'fans' who let club loyalty get in the way of supporting England. Booing Tomkins and Hock was appalling - I hate both of them WHEN THEY WEAR A WIGAN SHIRT but tonight we were supporting England.

All of the 2nd half was spent with fans chanting their own club songs and until we can get rid of this, the concept won't move forward. People need to understand that when England play, we need some chants that support England and get behind ALL the team, regardless of the club they play for.

And 11,000 odd???? No way!!! This must have been based on ticket sales and I guess many were put off by the weather. No more than 8k there tonight.

good concept gutted about tommy though. trouble is with new cap rules in aus we wont be getting any good imports in the future so the game will become pointlesd as people like phelps ah van and the like will be the exiles without being called up at last min!

pretty much what i was thinking as it didnt look like that many people there but it has the foundation.

lets just hope the leuluei (again sorry about spelling) injury, which i hope isn't what they think it is and is only a stretched ligament. doesn't put the club coaches off letting players play the game.

Dunno. Found myself not being that bothered who won. When we play oz or nz i can barely control myself. I certainly wouldnt go out of my way to pay to see it live as it is now.

Not, very boring.

I posted this on the other thread but it is pretty much what I would say on this thread too:

Tonights game lacked skill and intensity and many of the Exiles players played like the strangers they are and couldnt care less. It was certainly no preparation for games against Australia and NZ. At the end of the day the Exiles match is a nothing game for the Exiles players and means nothing to them. It is a bit of a get together for them and a catch up with a few old mates but anyone thinks they take it seriously is kidding themselves. They are not representing their country like the England players are and it shows. Despite this England should have beaten them convincingly tonight and didnt. It was an awful game with no skill or intensity between 2 fairly mediocre teams that any top SL team would annihilate. Wigan have beaten better teams than those by over 40 points this year. McNamara or the RFL can dress it up all they like but that was dire tonight.

The Exiles concept is doomed to failure and the standard and intensity of matches is going to decrease year on year. Lets look at the Exile team going forward. From Wigan alone Lima, Carmont, Leuluai, Finch wont be available for the Exiles next year as they wont be here. They almost certainly wont be replaced by a similar calibre of import and in some cases no import at all. Other imports from other clubs are going back home and even this year the Exiles team have less quality players to choose from than last year with King, Buderus etc going home. With the new NRL TV deal and the exchange rate the Exiles team and concept cannot possibly get stronger, it cannot it can only get weaker as good quality imports will no longer come here and with tightening quota rules the number of imports declines. Even as it some players didnt even really want to play and other pulled out with 'injuries'. After Leuluai getting injured I am sure other Exiles players will think twice about playing in a nothing match.

l would like to see the Exiles concept scrapped and would much prefer an East v West series, instead of Lancashire and Yorkshire, to include all of England and use it as a real trial game for England. Players will be much more familiar with each other through the England camps and the players will really have something to play for and will be looking to outplay their opposite number. It will also double the amount of England players playing in representative matches compared to England just playing the Exiles. It certainly has a lot more potential imo.

The intensity was seriously lacking. Unless the 2nd game is an unbelievable ripper then I think this series will die.

I think France away would provide much more intensity then was out there tonight.

Anyone who thinks this game helps towards beating NZ and Australia is kidding themselves.

Well said.

I think Yorks V Lancs.

The majority of fans and players comes from these areas, those who dont simply have to choose one if they want to play in it.

I wouldn't be too happy with having key Wigan players in the Exiles team. I do enjoy international rugby league but to me it's nowhere near as important as the club game. That's not how it should be but unfortunately at this moment in time international rugby is simply not good enough.

It's alright saying fans should get behind it and change their attitudes towards it but what incentive is there? How can fans start seeing the international game as more important than the club game when the club game is simply so much better? There's little to get passionate about when it comes to internationals when England face France, Wales or a bunch of overseas players hastily thrown together. There's no real intensity, no real rivalry in those games between the players or the fans.

The bottom line is rugby league is a product and we are all consumers and it is up to the RFL to sell the game to as many consumers as possible. I didn't go to watch the Exiles game because it didn't excite me in the way that club rugby league does. There wasn't enough to get passionate about, there wasn't enough on show to interest me and it seems that was the case for many other rugby league fans.

The international game simply isn't strong enough to generate the interest that is seemingly needed to strengthen it.

Whilst a Yorks Lancs game might not have the stars on show that a Exiles team has, the intensity and passion would certainely be there. These players have been brought up through the ranks with a Yorks Lancs rivalry and the competition for a England jersey would surely make things intense. It would be something that the fans could get behind aswell. It cant be held on a week night though, has to be a Weekend evening though and a three game series.

I like the East vs West idea. Milton Keynes born players would have to represent the East, obviously.

It doesn't matter what concept they use. England v Exiles, Lancashire v Yorkshire or East v West, the standard of the players is so chronically low that it's irrelevant.

There was no desire, passion or intensity in the game whatsoever and the lack of atmosphere magnified those fundamental flaws to this particular game.

Also, what does not help is the fact that there is no rivalry between the English and Exiles players/fans. The fans around me today just was talking amongst themselves and there was just no interest in what was happening on the field...would they do that at a Saints v Wigan game which is (well 'is' maybe is the wrong word at the moment...) intense and very passionate.

IMO we may as well have played France today.

I don't see why League doesn't think more radically and scrap international league altogether. There are only 3 nations, so it's pretty much irrelevant anyway.

Queensland
New South Wales
Pacific Islands
Europe

Lancs v Yorks. Has the instant bonus of the fans enjoying taking the mickey out of each other.

Does it? Who would you support in such a fixture?

the reason the soo concept works over here is the fact that the players/fans and clubs put soo above their own clubs for the origin period and lose valuable players without too much complaint.the english mentality in most sports is put club first then rep footy, until that changes the yorks/ lancs or exiles thing wont work as intended
but having the game on a free weekend is a better idea than wed nights as per origin as it disrupts the teams for less games

SOO works so well because the fans and players are committed to their state and there is a rivalry between the opposing states.

If we had Lanc v York then would that be the case? I doubt it, maybe Yorkshire folk would have that relationship with their county, but would Lancashire? Is there even a team in the comp from Lancashire?

There is the problem, right there.

That club first mentality isn't going to change on its own though. Fans need a reason to start caring more about rep footy. It has to capture the imagination and provide exactly what the fans are looking for. It has to provide passion and excitement and give fans something that they can really feel a part of.

Games against France, Wales or the Exiles just don't seem to do that. The Lancashire v Yorkshire game didn't seem to do that either.

I go to watch Wigan every week because I enjoy it, because it stirs up the emotions, because it feels great to watch them win and because it makes me swear like a trouper when they lose. When England play these mid season games I feel ambivalent. When they play Australia or New Zealand the excitement is there.

I posted the following on the Wigan Forum earlier, and having attended tonight here are my thoughts:


"I can honestly say that I have never been more bored at a RL game than I was tonight. Forget Tommy's injury, these things happen but no-one gave a monkeys tonight. 11,000+ attendance? Do me a favour, RLF/sky lies - it was nearer to 7K. Mates turned enemies? Yeah right. The problem is you can't generate an atmosphere in the way they tried to tonight. I cringed every time 'we will rock you' crackled over the 1980's speakers in situ at Langtree Park.

I overheard someone in the beer queue tonight with a great idea. Bring back Lancs v Yorks, £2000 to each of the winning players and all supporters of the winning team get their money back along with a free ticket to a SL match of their choice.

Players have something to play for, i.e. money and and England shirt and supporters have vested interest as well rather than asking themselves what possessed them to turn out to watch such a pointless and boring game. I'm not sure of the economics involved but there must be a better way than tonight.

I for one won't be returning in the current format and the overwhelming consensus was that many felt the same."

Please don't confuse this Exiles match with international RL.

Simple facts:

SOO has replaced international competition in Australia - although I don't believe that was the initial concept. They used to be just as fired up to play GB and the games were just as intense. Origin is now the only representative competition the Aussies take seriously (even though Queensland win the bloody thing every year).

Club rugby is seen by fans as being more important than international rugby in this country because hardly any of them were born the last time we beat the Aussies in a series or a WC. That's it. Also, the synchronisation of seasons when we switched to summer rugby saw the death of tours. Tours were what it was all about and playing the Austrlians 3 times and playing club games. I saw the Kangaroos play Leeds in '82, it was a massive event, it generated huge interest in the internationals.

It's a circular problem - club rugby priority and the use of vast numbers of imports for success reduces our chances of winning against the Aussies, and not being able to beat the Aussies means we focus on the club game and lose interest in developing an international side.

As for the concept of playing "exiles" - I don't see a problem with it, the Exiles team on paper looked just as good as the England team. The problem is that England are so awful at the moment that you knew it was going to be rubbish to watch. Which it was, truly, completely dismal in every possible way - far too many to go through here, I can't be bothered.

we can't put one decent england team out, let alone two teams for lancs against yorks