It is stolen from another poster from our other site but think it could work -

It needs to be a mid-year Tri-Series with England, France and Wales IMO. England will win for year but the exposure will help Wales and France in the long run. IMO in France ever get their best team on the park they could give England a good game, however they never do, they seem to have rtuck loads injured every time. Wales will be in with a shot within 5 years or so if they keep developing the way they are. England having regular games against France and Wales is vital for the sports growth.

I don't like any "All Star" idea's I've heard yet. If England want a good mid-season test they can travel to Australia or NZ for one game which won't happen.

How about this for a schedule:

Year 1

France V England - Stade Ernest Wallon, Toulouse, 19,000

Wales V France - Racecourse, Wrexham, 16,000

England V Wales - KC Stadium, Hull, 25,000


Year 2

Wales V England - Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, 25,000

France V Wales - Stade Gilbert Brutus, Perpignan, 12,000

England V France - DW Stadium, Wigan, 24,000


Venues are variable BUT we can't lack ambition. Venues like Bridgend, Widnes, Leigh shouldn't be used as venues as they take away from the appeal of the event. Decent, but not huge stadiums and good marketting is the key. Put a Shiny new trophy on the line and persist with the idea and in 5 years it could be massive.

Regarding club fixtures it's simple. Make a Super League "split round", when England play at home 5 English SL clubs and Crusaders or Catalans have a week off depending on whether France or Wales play England. When England play away 7 English clubs and Catalans/Crusaders have a week off. Play Crusaders V Catalans on a spare weekend so both can have a bye when Wales and France meet. Same with Toulouse and South Wales, organise for two weeks off when France and Wales play their two games. I hope that makes sense, it would something like this:

When England (home) V France/Wales:

Crusaders/Catalans V Wigan
Castleford V Hull
Warrington V Harlequins

When Wales/France V England (away):

Catalans/Crusaders V Wakefield
Hull KR V St Helens
Salford V Huddersfield
Leeds V Bradford

When Wales V France: All English SL clubs resume as normal, Crusaders play Catalans on a re-scheduled weekend.

There should definatly be a mid season tournament between England, Wales and France. Super League can continue as normal as it is doing this weekend, only Catalans and Crusaders would need to re schedule fixtures which can simply be changed to mid week. The long term aim should also be to get Ireland and Scotland involved but this wont be possible untill their super league clubs are up and running.

All Catalans games involve someone having to make a round trip of well over 1,000 miles. It's hardly ideal to squeeze that in between two weekend matches.

Would it be out of the question to lengthen the season by three weeks to fit in these fixtures?

With the Magic Weekend looking dead and buried it would only need to start and end a week earlier/later for this to be a possibility.

In fact if we let all of the other teams play one another other than Crusaders and Catalans on the Wales v France week it would only need one week extra than what we have now for a meaningful tournament. If not now then in the future.

I'd rather see this tbf

[urlhttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_league/article7145704.ece[/url

This would be my team if it includes English players not selected in the England squad.

FB Webb
WG Roberts
C Gidley
C King
WG Richards
SO Kearney
SH Dobbo
P O'Meley
H Buderus
P Coley
S Fa'alogo
S Fitzgibbon
LF D.Johnson

Lynch
Monghan
Crabtree
Eastwood

Sounds a fantastic idea and I'm sure would be well-supported, but almost makes far too much sense for it to be implemented, especially as the clubs currently rule the roost in this sort of situation.

But do clubs really rule the roost? South Sydney tried to stop Burgess playing this weekend but they couldnt because a club cannot stop a player playing in an international.

If France and Wales were competitive then it would work, indeed if they were competitive then the RFL would have already done it. However the big flaw is that they are not, France cant compete with England and Wales are even worse. As a result they would both suffer huge losses and the fans wouldnt bother attending in great numbers because everyone knows what is going to happen. If France and Wales can progress, expand their player base and get better then I would be all for it but at the moment it would be a waste of time.

Dobson over Orford?

ok how about and England A or u21 team? Wouldn't affect the main sl body as much would give the youngsters a chance to play in the White shirt and boost their prospects and would beore competitive all round. As for popularity if the welsh could beat an England team regardless of grade that would make them happy!

What does this achieve, nothing. Crucru's idea is far, far better, I really like the idea.

No, lengthening the season one week is a stretch. 3 weeks is just a no. Can't have it at the ned of the season because it would put the international season out of whack, and we're already playing games in January as it is.

I don't think the Magic Weekend is dead and buried. The format used in Edinburgh was shocking and the reason why it shrunk the crowds. Next year hopefully things will improve.

As for the Euro Tri-Nations, I think it may have been lifted from something I mentioned on TotalRL. I've been saying it for years. If the season can't be extended, then just schedule a Cru vs Catalans game in the WCC weekend (or the brought forward weekend, although I think that it's ridiculous that they do that and don't have everyone start the season at the same time!) which will leave free one weekend in summer for a France vs Wales game. The rest, just do as they do now, postpone the scheduled Catalans or Crusaders game for that weekend and reschedule it either on a cup weekend or mid-week. Not ideal, but international RL should always take priority over domestic games. And postponements and maoving matches happens all the time in football and they do just fine..

Spot on

id like Ireland in their too, which whilst an extra game, wouldnt be an extra week.

Play it the friday night before the 4th, 5th, and QF for the Cup, give it free to the BBC,

ok here is an out there idea. there is no longer really any need for the league other than to select the playoff teams. so why the need to do both home and away fixtures for every team? move to an NFL system where by there is 18 or so games (maybe more maybe around 22) where by you play every team once and around half twice (keeping rivlary games and big clashes etc) alternating which teams you play twice annually.

you keep the big games. cut the season so the players have more recovery time and less likelyhood of injury and make plenty of space for a decent round of international fixtures.

Cider logic concluded

If there so bothered I still like that idea I heard a while ago which is cap the number of SL games each player can do a year. This way everyone takes breaks once in a while, clubs would have to sacrifice players for certain rounds anyway so losing them to international isn't as big of a deal, except for Catalans and Crusaders.

To hell if I know how to fix an issue where one team is both the national and domestic team, really the long term solution is to promote distribution of these nationalities either through incentives to have French/Welsh players in other clubs or to have multiple top level Welsh and French teams, but that is a long term goal and by no means a short term fix...

England need a test but we need to grow the international game.

Instead of just a euro tri nations

How about just 2 international weekends at least a month apart

England V Super league Winners in a new Club V Country Fixture

Euro nations cup based on seedings

Wales V France
Winner plays England in Final 2nd international weekend
Loser plays winner Scotland v Ireland 2nd international weekend

Scotland V Ireland
Winner plays loser wales v france 2nd international weekend
Loser plays NL champions in a Club v Country Fixture

Finishing positions set the fixtures year after

Gives each team a competitive challenge and brings something unique.

NO NO NO. The International game needs more credability not look like a laughing stock.

Sorry.....important figures in red


I know....from little acorns grow big oaks and all that, but there is no point in growing the international game until the DOMESTIC one knows where it wants to go.......

I would play all of these games above in 10k seater stadiums and keep SKY well clear....get fans to GO to the game.......not whinge on RLFANS about transport links and clashing with another football code

Sorry.....important figures in red


I know....from little acorns grow big oaks and all that, but there is no point in growing the international game until the DOMESTIC one knows where it wants to go.......

I would play all of these games above in 10k seater stadiums and keep SKY well clear....get fans to GO to the game.......not whinge on RLFANS about transport links and clashing with another football code

double post

ive been talking about this idea for a while

too early for wales tbh.

keep england vs france going

im sure you can develop a very strong tri series off the back of crusaders and les catalans

If you play home internationals in 10k stadiums, people will perceive them as a joke. The timing of the Leigh game is why that is going to be poorly attended, and possibly because it's in Leigh. Doncaster get 11k+ for a game against France last year and also a friendly against Wales, so there is scope for this game.

If the RFL keep playing the safety card, people won't be interested. They need to start being confident that these games can sell, and people will begin to believe that they're more important. There so much negativity in our sport for picking events, and this is one of the reasons why were so far behind union.

That's why I say have a 3/4 nations comp mid season....Wales, France, Scotland & Ireland.....all played in stadiums like Leigh/warrington.....with a 2 week break in the SL comp and a full England/GB side playing 2 tests down under,. Remove Magic Weekend from the calendar and resume SL fixtures on QF weekend of the Ccup...there's your 2 weeks........
6 games + a final over 2 weeks for the 4 nations, 1 ticket, 50 quid (20 for kids with an adult), see all of them. Even allocate a team to clubs.......Ireland st Helens/Bradford....Wales, Wigan, Hudds..etc...get the clubs interested by paying commission on ticket sales......

Keep sky away from it.....let them concentrate on the England/GB tests down under......fans have to get used to going to games again...SKY have killed that in pursuit of the advertising dollar.