This looks awesome. www.nrl.com/FanZone/AllStars/tab ... fault.aspx Of course, over here it would be written off as gimmicky sh.te, marketed in a half-.rsed fashion if at all and we'd have about 4k turn up. The Indigenous side are a great example of a very real nation that doesn't fit into the narrow constraints of traditional international competition.

This looks awesome. www.nrl.com/FanZone/AllStars/tab ... fault.aspx Of course, over here it would be written off as gimmicky sh.te, marketed in a half-.rsed fashion if at all and we'd have about 4k turn up. The Indigenous side are a great example of a very real nation that doesn't fit into the narrow constraints of traditional international competition.

cant wait for this!

i have to be honest, i think the whole thing smarts of a 'us' against the immigrants thing. It does nothing for me but create a racial divide, im all for people celbrating thier culture and that of thier country, but really,,,,,, can you imagine a white british versus the rest match? there would be uproar, much as the BARA teams are encouraging minorities to participate in rugby league, creating segregations within the game based on ethnicity is a farce. Some of rugby leagues greatest idols are from minority backgrounds, but rather than supporting the fact they were of african, carribean or whatever background, I like to think one of the rarities within our sport compared to others is we have always celebrated, and respected the player for the player they are or were, and long may that continue,,,,,, or should be continue down tthe road of these exhibition games until we have the inevitible, BNP versus everyone else match?

don't we have a NRL forum these days??


funny how they can find time for this nonsence but can't find time for,say, NZ v PNG or TONGA v SAMOA during origin or something...

RL's great strength is that it is prepared to innovate. One day, a sport will get to grips with the fact that these people feel loyalties that do not necessarily correlate with their passport and I hope it is RL that is that sport.

You mean like Bradford "innovated" by copying



The biggest barrier to anything like this over here is superleague itself. I can't see clubs wanting to risk injury to players in what could be a very intense and passionate match.

Not sure how we would work it over here maybe we could have celts v romans v vikings v saxons v normans v asians + a conglomerate side of eastern europeans/Italians- in fact we could start an alternate league

The Mighty Whites v. The Rest.

BNP have already offered to sponsor the Mighty Whites and have a ready made mascot in Nick Griffin.

Wouldn't work over here for obvious reasons.

Kids at the school I taught at in London always wanted to play black vs white to see who'd win but that's by the by.

Yeah, Celts vs Vikings isn't likely to fly. But it is notable that this fixture is on the cards, another example of 'can do' attitude from the comp that gave us Origin in the face of very similar 'waste of time' reactions.

TBF it is the brainwave of the Gold Coast CEO, and incidently it is being played on the Gold Coast! I don't have a big issue with an indigenous culture wanting to celebrate its heritage, given what white Australia has done to Aboriginals it is the least we can do!

I can see your point perfectly well but we have to face facts that superleague fans, no I'll correct myself, RL fans are very parochial - just look at some of the 4 nations posts.

Couple this with "look after number one" attitude of most superleague management and things become difficult.

We tried "war of the roses", in theory a great idea but what happened? - Poor marketing or apathy?

Aussie fans can be similarly parochial, perhaps even more so. What interests me having had a year out there is the imagination that is displayed - the heritage round, the indigenous round, the breast cancer awareness round, Penrith celebrating their 1000th game - that was my biggest bugbear, the way we let anniversaries go past unheralded. 75 years since Bradford beat Australia, 7-5. No NRL club would let a similar milestone pass without making the most of it.

I think the Roses is a interesting case - why did that flop while Origin succeeded. Would a Beetson moment have saved it? At least the RFL seems to have a clear long term goal, a Eng-Wal-Fra series that will hopefully be as competitive as trans-Tasman tests at some point.

IMHO a strong France and even wales are essential. Expansion is essential for all our futures.

A test series every year against a genuinely strong France could be better than origin. The historical on/off enmity between us makes the aussies look like kids. Just think of the Biff



We don't need anything fancy, just make sure the French have every chance to grow quickly.

The best post on here I have seen about international RL.

They could even have a four nations rather than Origin.

Interestingly after all that's been said and done on here. There was a call a few years ago for there to be an indigenous team, separate to the Australian team, and they wanted to play against them. The ARL stopped the idea straight away.

If it's NRL all stars does that mean Ellis & Burgess could turn out for them?

It must certainly be the case though that an Indigenous v SL-Select game would be banned in this country on grounds of racism etc.

No doubt some are liable to jump in with the argument that there is no such thing as "indigenous" in the UK - well, there is no such thing [ianywhere[/i - not even Africa, since while we are all seemingly descended from one particular small population there, that population itself has roots which are unknown but very likely widespread.

But ironically, the argument that the "English" are all a mix of Angles, Saxons, Vikings etc etc is in this context totally bogus, since Australia, when "discovered", was itself a land where 500-600 different 'nations' co-existed and as far as I can see this "Indigenous" banner means only that they can trace ancestors back to one of those groups. And given the mammoth size of Australia, the geographical spread of the "Indigenous" ancestors is huge compared with the relatively tiny area of the UK, Scandinavia etc. from which your Vikimngs, Jutes etc emanated.

To dispel any suggestion to the contrary, I think if the indigenous of Aus want to do it, then it's bloody great, as it would be a decent game. What gets up my nose is that suggesting doing exactly the same thing over here would be shot down in flames, mainly by people telling those who feel themselves 'indigenous' that they are no such thing, and those who would claim anyone who wanted to represent "indigenous British" was a racist or a BNP supporter.

"If it's NRL all stars does that mean Ellis & Burgess could turn out for them?"

Ellis could play but probably Burgess couldn't because he hasn't played in the NRL yet. Only one player is allowed from each NRL team so Benjie Marshall will probably get the Tigers' spot anyway - unless Marshall gets an automatic pick as NZ captain. If you want to see Ellis in you can probably vote for him.

There is one isn't there, the Dreamtime team? They play the NZ Maoris.

This sounds a great idea. The South Africans pioneered this in RU a few decades ago, had indigenous teams and one for the settlers.

Yep. But not one that'll be allowed to play against Australia whic was the idea. Artie Beetson was going to be coach.

Nice to see 2 former bears players in that shot. Buddy Gordon and Ben Ellis.

Just to clarify, my whinge in the opening post was not that we can't have an 'Indigenous vs the Rest' game - that's clearly a legit game in Aus but utterly impossible to even attempt to stage here, and not desirable either. Rather that the Aussie game seems prepared to innovate and try new and imaginative stuff and they benefit greatly as a result. The shooting don in flames in object to is sniping at the likes of MM, and even the GF. cf this bit I posted after

I was at that game and it was awesome, far better than the Aus NZ test that followed.