Only way I'd like this back is if it was played at the level under England.

Blank weekend.
England vs Exiles
Yorkshire vs Lancashire
Cumbria vs The South
Wales vs France
Ireland vs Scotland

The county games would help fringe players compete, with the ultimate goal of getting either into the England squad or the Knights squad.

i'd bring it back but at academy level....a proper 3 game series...get it on sky too

Taking out the England/Exiles players:


...then the Yorkshire squad may look a bit like this:
1. Richard Mathers;
2. Michael Lawrence, 3. Kirk Yeaman, 4. Kris Welham, 5. Richard Owen;
6. Danny Orr, 7. Rob Burrow;
8. Eorl Crabtree, 9. Ryan Hudson, 10. Andy Lynch (c);
11. Joe Westerman, 12. Danny Kirmond;
13. Jamie Langley.

14. Danny Houghton, 15. Darrell Griffin, 16. Elliott Whitehead, 17. Kallum Watkins.

Just done that quickly off top of my head. Pretty sure I've missed a few.

kallum watkins is a salford lad is'nt he?

Not interested, boring...
When will people realise that in this country we are only interested in watching our own club side.
This is a fact.

Yes, but they have to have it as the ONLY way you can get into the England side. Have it as a trial in the same way that Origin is in Australia. Play well for Lancs or Yorks and you're in. Don't, and you're not.

Last week for example Roby pulls out and then plays for Saints. He knows that he'll be in the England side come November. If he knew he wouldn't be I'll put my house on it that he would have played.

Yes you can have the odd extreme circumstance. If Roby was injured for a long period and missed all 3 games then obv the coach could pick him as a wildcard, but putting club before country would not suffice and the International door would be closed.

Why not run a three team tournament, Yorkshire, Lancashire and The Exiles.

Interestingly yes seems to be the more popular option

west of the pennines against east of the pennines with welsh players playing for the west and londoners playing for east

Phil Clark from his latest sky blog. Pretty much sums up the reasons why it is not a oood idea!

People who say wigan st helens etc are not in lancashire are idiots, york and hull are not in Yorkshire by the same reasoning - it's just plain wrong

as for how those from outside the two counties would play in the game, how do those from victoria, new zealand or the pacific islands play in the origin games?

I think it's quite hilarious, and an under appreciated fact - that the post-74 Lancashire that exists now, contains parts of historic Yorkshire (the areas around Pendle and Ribble Valley). Imagine being a Yorkshireman going to bed on March 30th 1974, waking-up the following morning in Lancashire. Only in Britain, where history, heritage and tradition is quite literally pished on. It almost remind me of Rugby League - "trinity-wildcats".

Agreed. Phil Clarke does make himself look a bit daft at times. I live in Wigan and my postal address is Lancashire. Manchester is in Lancashire for goodness sake. Just because certain councils decide to pool some of our taxes, in order to fund certain projects, doesn't change history.

So? Greater Manchester wasn't established as a postal area. After 1974, Saddleworth had a Lancashire postal address, and that definitely wasn't in Lancashire. "a postal address is not intended to show the true geographical location of a particular place but is purely for operational convenience" - Royal Mail, 2002.



Not anymore.



I'm afraid it did, and it does.

''Warrington are in Cheshire, St Helens and Widnes and Wigan are in Merseyside and Greater Manchester, so how do you link in to a series of battles that took place between Royal families in Lancashire and Yorkshire over 500 years ago?''

Jog on Phil, Widnes is in cheshire now.

Indeed. Although this Liverpool City Region thing muddies the water.

Greater Manchester and Merseyside are both in Lancashire. Ask Lord derby.

How do you the explain the fact GM and Merseyside were both compromised of areas from both Lancashire and Cheshire, and in GM's case, parts of Yorkshire too? Is the Wirral, or Saddleworth in Lancashire? No.

Not fair in the three great clubs who are the backbone of our sport, Quins, Catalan and Crusaders. We must remember that clubs up north are no longer relevant and the priority should be expansion. Maybe we should try Players Located North of the Channel Vs Players Located South of the Channel to try and expand the game further? It may encourage the Norweigans or the Spanish or maybe even the Kenyans apply for a Super League franchise. And if it fails they could just relocate closer to the heartland clubs after a year.

Translation - I support a club that probably won't get a franchise so I'm gonna p*ss and moan on every thread I can until I get banned.

Would you still be so supportive of the franchise system if you weren't playing in a ground built for Hull City? Or your top eight finishes didn't matter? What if your Challenge Cup final appearances had no relevance because the Boulevard was a dump? Maybe you could also show your support for the RFL by campaigning for your club to honour its merger with Gateshead by relocating further North?

Maybe you're not so far off the mark.

A game based on birth origin, between eligible British players, but in time rather than space.

Year of Origin - odds(reds) -v- evens (blues).

It may sound a little arbitary, and to be fair crazy, but I think it could work. It splits the player pool exactly in half and is inclusive of all players. The division is clear and unchallenged by boundary or name changes.

You could say who would support them? but you just look at your own year of birth to pick your team.

I would extend it to British players rather than just England to give the top players from the smaller nations a chance to play at a higher level.

Just think about it, this could develop over time into serious rivalry. Brother against brother, both players and fans. (What year were the Tomkins' born?)

The concept may take some selling initially, prefererably by someone more skilled than myself, but I honestly believe it's got potential.

Can anybody come up with some teams?

I'd like to see the War of Roses completely rebranded to get away from the tired old County game concept into a War of Origin three game series, more of an East v West scenario, very similar to the way Austrailia use the Origin Game for their national team.

There are some absolutely shocking ideas on this thread, it has to be said!

East vs West? Odds vs Evens? What other random way can we split them? Those with siblings vs those without? Those with brown eyes vs the rest?

Seriously. These people need to sit down and have a think who they REALLY think would support these concepts. Do they really think these people would feel an alligence to any of these teams? Just because you are from the East doesn't mean you'd support an artificial team from there. Just because I was born in 87 doesn't mean I'd be well into the Odds. They're terrible ideas that would only be worth using on a football end-of-training kick about, not an RL international.

Fair enough, but do you really believe the Exiles game is the answer? Is it really increasing intensity and competition for England shirts? The question of which side a fan supports is moot, at least there would be fans supporting both sides, making for a better atmosphere and increased gates/revenue.