ECT apparently is craving some attention again...

Nobody is blaming the players that make the choices. They are simply taking advantage of the rules, and why not? This is their careers after all, and it's a short one at that.

You cannot keep piping on about players like Brough, Harrison, Bridge, Carvell etc. chosing England after playing for Scotland, Ireland and Wales when it has been happening in Australia for FAR longer in regards to Pacific Island nations such as Tongans (Willie Mason, Michael Jennings played for Tonga before Aus), Fijians (Lote Tuquiri played for Fiji before Australia), even New Zealanders (Tonie Carroll). THAT is hypocrisy.

And you cannot keep piping on about Rhys Evans for choosing England over Wales despite not having any English heritage and just because he's been living here when it has been happening in Australia for FAR longer (Petero Civoneciva is Fijian-born, Willie Mason and Karmichael Hunt are NZ-born). THAT is hypocrisy.

The fact that you are now trying to turn this in to a race conversation is showing how much you are struggling to bring up an intelligent argument, so you are now trying to scare people from replying with sensitive subjects. Give it a rest.

As for the Championship England, I think it's a good concept. I think representative rugby is a good thing at as many levels possible, especially if it helps out other developing nations.

We have England (elite), England Knights (reserve), England Lionhearts (RLC), BARLA Lions (NCL), England Students (SRL), Combined Services (Army, Navy, etc.), GB Community Lions (combined amateur), so why not the Championships?

I've said for a while as well that I reckon County of Origin would work well at Championship level. It's based on traditional RL clubs mainly at the moment, so could work quite well especially if there is an end aim of playing for a national select team.

I think they hsould have a GB team until the home nations are competitive. Evans will know that until a competitive team turns out in wales, the only chance he will have to play against the top nations in now with England as their will be no GB.

Its counter-productive to what they want to do becuase top quality players want top quality competition and the only way to do that currently is through England.

With who ? and which players are going to make them ' competitive ' ?

Plus I think everyones getting a little worked up over this evans thing, the guys 18, played 4 games I think, yes he looks like he could be a superb player but to start calling the guy light years before he's ready is a tad premature and reminds me of an eddie/stevo Briers for Britain campaign

So it is the Exiles then

As a few of us said 14 pages ago. How the rest of you thought it would be something different is beyond me

It's great knowing everything!



Interesting to see who'll be coach

Against the Aussies and New Zealand. No appeal to players otherwise.

sorry to use Evans as an example again but it would either be a international career of Wales vs scotland/Ireland or England vs Aussies/Nz. I know which id choose in that respect.

To be fair, in the curtain raiser for the Hull v Leeds CC final he was by far & away the best player on the pitch and looked like he would make it as a top player then, so if he keeps it up the skys the limit really.

Agree about Eddie & Stevo though, the amount of young players they big up all the team is stupid - remember when they said Tyrer was going to be the best centre in English rugby for years to come?

he always turns the subject to one of race...cos thats all he has...it's truly pathetic

So that's a never then ?

And you cannot suggest where these players are going to come from ?

Good argument

Great idea. Why don't we also have 'English players who's names begin with the letter A'? They can play against Ginger England.

alot of championship players opt for wales,scotland & ireland if eligible so having a england championship side would be very damaging to them imo

Didn't stop the 'England Knights'.

Exactly it isnt going to happen, which is why we should have a GB team. Otherwise every single player of any quality coming through any home nation will jump ship becuase there is no incentive for them.

Did you know in the World rankings Wales are behind the Lebanon....

did'nt stop the england knights what?


theres no championship players in the england knights is there?


having a championship england team would rip the guts out of the welsh,scots and ireland squad

Why do they opt for the other home nations ?

Because it is the only way they will get to play representative RL , I doubt it would have a massive effect , and would create some excellent competition in the changing rooms

The issue you have with the Euro cup is that if you want to blood genuine Welsh,Irish,Scottish players you need a fairly level competition , you won't get that playing the three top nations , even the England seconds/knights will completely dominate that comp , as they did last time they played in it

You also have to ask the question of who are you trying to get interested in these countries from a spectator point of view ? , if people see one country completely dominate the rest , they will not be interested in watching it

You want sport to be competitive and unpredictable , you will not get that having teams made up of part time Championship players with a few ' real ' nationals thrown in against full time SL players

Even it up , have a few years of genuine competition , then look at the results and re assess , unfortunatley in RL we just keep trying to achieve what other sports have taken decades to achieve in five minutes

So only Championship players are able to play for home nations? Is that because you don't want them to compete with England?

I agree that the Championship team is a shocking idea. So are all these other joke rep teams.

We have 20 clubs to pick from , with 20 players each , that's 400 players to pick 4 teams from , not including your Aussies that claim Irish,Welsh,and Scottish ancestry , so you don't allow any overseas players in the England team , I really do believe it would work

You make the England Championship team a genuine English/championship only team , the others end up a mix of Championship/SL/Aussies

Nut job

Isnt this the same concept as the one you have been arguing with me about in terms of GB/Championship 13 teams ? except now your for it not against it?

Not me , which thread ?

Yeah maybe that was a bit misguided.... my bad.

In an ideal world we wouldn't need the ' Exiles ' , in an ideal world England [ or a genuine GB would travel down under midseason either every year or at least every 2/3 rd year , they would play PNG , then NZ/OZ or OZ/NZ with the players realeased by their clubs with maybe a 1/2 week break in SL

But that isn't going to happen , is it ?

So how does England/GB get a competitive match mid season on the back of a couple of weeks training by the England/GB coach ?

Wales . Ireland . Scotland dont and wont for a long time be in a position to provide that , even if it was a combined team , the hope was that France would on the back of the Catalans improve enough to compete , unfortunatley at the moment they arent

So the only option is this other nationalities team , it is the only option

So then how do you prepare your second string players for the step up as unlike football and RU we dont have enough friendley matches to ' try out ' players ?

So the sensible option would be for them to play the French and/or home nations , but once again they are quite simply too strong for those teams , and it would be nothing more than a glorified training match

The answer should be to send them down under to play PNG, NZ Maori , Indiginous aussies/country aussies ,South seas islanders as they would get both the benifit of a tour enviroment and quality opposition well fired up for the task

Then you now have the problem of how to improve the home nations/France , both on the pitch with competitive games and trying to inspire interest in local players/fans/administration/investement ?

Well , there is only one answer , close competitive matches with teams of similar quality , the French have some SL players but lack numbers with many key positions taken by Aussie/NZ player even in Elite 1 , the home nations excluding England tend to have 3/4 lower SL quality players/3/4 aussies claiming ancestry with the rest made up of Championship players

So for their benifit if you were to add an England squad made up completely of Championship players with no SL or Aussies/NZs in it you would have a reasonably level competition with any of them potentially able to beat the other

And for all those posters constantly quoting the Italians participation in the 6 nations , that is RU , not RL , in union you can play defensibly to retain possession for long periods in the hope of getting either a penalty or field position to kick a drop goal , that doesn't happen in RL , it is a completely different scenario it should not be used