Four Nations tournament between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales - the teams competing in the RLWC. It might encourage some SL players to switch allegiances again and get stronger teams for the rest ahead of their campaigns. It would also get England in camp much more and get some strong bonds together allow Steve Mc more time ahead of the World Cup

Put the games on a Sunday afternoon back-to-back (i.e. two fixtures one after another) and move all SL games to Friday/Saturday night. Split the fixtures across three weekends through usmmer.

English games could be held at likes of Keepmoat Stadium and City of Salford Stadium. Irish games at Thomond Park. Scotland, at some small Scottish football ground?

Home Nations tournament would be a disaster. If the Knights can put 60 on Ireland mid-season, what are England going to do?

There'd be little gain from it. Neither team would get a worthwhile challenge. At least Exiles is competitive.

As for WCC at the end of the season, would be nice but I'm still holding on to thought of an extended competition. Plus, even as a one-off, it would be hard to sell ANOTHER show piece event at the end of the season. People are already paying for play-offs, internationals and a GF in the space of 2 months (+ the CCF a month earlier).

Why not? They are the players who are seen as future internationals. They've just played Ireland and put 60 on them, what's the point in them smashing Ireland or Scotland every year? France don't provide a stern enough mid season challenge for the full England team which is why the Exiles concept was developed. Knights v France would be a decent game I reckon and would be a very good curtain raiser to the main game, why would you be against it?

As for the WCC it definitely should be at the end of the season. There is usually a warm up international game before whatever tournament is on (usually Wales/Maoris etc). The WCC could be played on this weekend. This would also mean that the WWC would alternate between hemispheres.

As we all know the RFL are onboard with this concept and are for the forseeable future. The reasoning behind this concept was to enable England to play 1 or 2 competitive matches against reasonable oppostion as the other host nations are seen as being too weak at present.

With the raise in the NRL cap the pool of decent Australian and NewZeland players is only going to shrink over the next 2/3 years. Is it not worth the RFL scrapping this concept now rather than allowing it to degrade due to lack of quality imports. And look at re establishing the War of the roses?

This was resurrected about 8 years ago i think and the interest for that was certainly higher than the interest in the Exiles game. The issue of players dropping out will probably be raised but if the RFL could get a sponsor for the contest and use that funding to pay players additional money for playing in the series as the Australians do in Origin it would counteract this problem. Also play them at better stadia Elland road and Etihad stadium for example this obsession we ahve of playing ganes ot traditional games does not generate external interest. I would also look to have a parallel series being ran between Cumbria and Cheshire if possible. These are areas of RL talent too.

IF they are to continue with the exiles games i cant for the life of me understand why they dont play a game in London what with all the Aussies and Kiwis Living in that area.

I know this concept would not enable the English team to play together but it would enable most players in contention for an england shirt to play against each other in a quality team against a quality team and see who fits best.

Constructive thoughts please......

No it should be allowed to carry on but only with full backing from the clubs and the players selected not selected for the club side 5 to 2 days before the game.

SL will lose some of their bigger name overseas players and the quality coming over will go down but they'll still be a better contest than the french or welsh, for now.

I would like to see 2 Yorkshire v Lancashire games followed by the exiles v England game in the season.

Thats Exactly what i was thinking. After the Lancashire v Yorkshire Games the England coach selects his england squad and they play a one off match against the Exiles. Rotate its venue each year between London, Manchester, Leeds

That would be great, the squads would have to be allowed to go into camps (like soo) so you don't get it when they have to pull out because they player 3 days before.

ANOTHER thread about this?!

My thoughts? You want to scrap it because the opposition will get worse, yet we haven't beaten them in a series yet. Where's the logic in that? Surely until it's not living up to its intentions (which you've stated as being to give England a game), then it should be scrapped? But we haven't beaten them in a series, so it's not a valid reason.

Why would War of the Roses achieve more?

The Exiles concept and the Roses concept are both intended to increase the ability of the national team to compete with Australia and New Zealand. Given the enormous gulf in quality between the two competitions and between the grass roots inputs in each country (The quality athletes in the UK are highly unlikely to choose league whereas they do in Aus/NZ) is there any point continuing with this aim?

Super League will never rival the NRL for the reasons I put above. So is there any point in having internationals? Does the sport really need them? Does it currently benefit from it's farcical international scene? The forthcoming World Cup has NO hype about it at all and will be another expensive embarassment.

Why not just scrap internationals altogether? Lets think outside the box for once and do something different. Representative rugby doesn't have to be based on nationality.

here we go again...

The op is saying the quality in overseas players will decrease so lets plan in advance.

How can we get get fans behind when clubs treat the games so poorly.

How can the clubs get behind this sport when the fans treat the games so poorly?

We talk about wanting international RL, but as fans we hardly back it. Whether "real" internationals or an Exiles game, attendances rank poorly compared to the club games.

Because it's not competitive?

I grew up with wembley selling out.

Really?

Well nearly



I'm not sure of the official attendances but I can remember the stadium been full.

Early to mid 90's.

Why do you think it's not competitive? Our 3-0 series win over NZ a few years back means our fans think we'll walk over them every time?

Until England start beating the Exiles on a regular basis by 30/40 points then the matches should continue, but just one match, and the pricing should be realistic and consistent, no last minute panic offers

Agree with most of that. Exiles is a well meaning but hopeless concept. The benefit of giving the England team a couple of games is negligible against the real task of raising the standards of our players, which can only be tackled directly, and is best done by making the most of the game's strength - the club game ( true both in the NRL and here ) . The only hope (and its a slim one) for our standards is that the NRL see fit to get involved in some form of expanded WCC, which needs to involve games spread through the season ( this can still be acheived with only one overseas trip, on which you play your two overseas away group fixtures). Those regular big equivalents to soccer's 'European Nights' are what will drive standards forward consistently. far more than a brief jamboree tournament at the end of the season. Eventually, if and when we're good enough, Australia might then start to show more interest in tours, etc.

...and by the way, on the subject of standards...it never ceases to amaze how many people think that lowering the cap will raise standards. The same conspiracy theorists who castigate clubs like Wigan and Warrington for so-called breaking the cap, also take great delight in pointing out how both clubs would get stuffed in the NRL.

I don't think Yorkshire v Lancashire needs to be resurrected tbh. There is simply no time for it in the current schedule. It won't be particularly well supported and there will be grey areas regarding player's selections (can Cumbrians play for Lancs, do you class where you were born or where you play/made your debut for example).

The Exiles concept needs to be stuck with IMO, but as a one off game. The 2nd game this year was beyond pointless. I agree with what the OP says about the reduction in quality of the players available, but's that's just one of those things.

Let's include all non English players in the future.

Bring back Yorkshire v Lancashire but also include those from outside the two counties and the country by looking at which of the two counties the player made their debut in or which county the club they joined first was in.

In the short term the better foreigners would play and as more and more English players play in super league those foreigners would be edged out
It would give the better English players experience of joining a camp, being put together with unfamiliar players together and building team spirit and game plans quickly like they need to do for international series/tournaments and give more players than present the opportunity to play at a higher level (two teams rather than one), it should be made clear that a place in the main squad is on the line in the roses match.
The two coaches could also come together for England for the end of season series.

Although the impact would be less than actually fixing the league and playoff structure.

Yorks v Lancs was a big flop last time it was resurrected. RL fans have an incredible ability to remember the past in a ridiculously rose-tinted way. Btw Warringtons in Cheshire, St Helens in Merseyside, Salford in Greater Manchester. Not to mention the players coming through from Cumbria, the south east, the north east.

France are the future, the RFL needs to find a way of getting at least 1 French player in every SL side with a view to building their squad up to our level. In the meantime the exiles will do. Drop the word 'origin' though, it just encourages dumb comparisons with an infinitely better product down under.

The top dozen juniors outside the Catalans squad to move to England, to train FT at SL clubs but be registered with Championship Clubs, funded jointly be the RFL and the French Federation