[urlhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/14059590.stm[/url

I think Lee Briers hits the nail on the head with his comments.

With a division between England and all but one of the other international teams annually when the 4 Nations happen it is no wonder if given the choice of playing for England players choose to perform at the top level as much as possible.

Bring back GB I say and play a tri nations against Australia and New Zealand every two years in a tri nations tournament and have our own European style tournament every two years.

This is the only way, I feel, we can pull the European International standard up by it's boot straps and give the lesser nations some regular/semi regular quality top level competition.

The GB team will be virtually an England team barring one or two anyway to start off with so would be near enough what we have at present but the players would be more willing to pledge to their countries. After all we all want a decent international scene to attempt to close the gap with union in that respect.

Firstly it's always a good idea to check how many characters you have typed in the subject line before continuing.

Secondly the answer to your question is no.

Thanks for your input, sod off back under your rock in knobsville now please.

so......between 2001 & 2007 when GB contested 2 ashes tours,2 kiwi tours & 3 tri nations comps....wales went from pushing the aussies close in the 2000 world cup semi final....to failing altogether to make the 2008 world cup.


since 2008,when we started to compete as the home nations,wales have gone from rock bottom to european cup winners and joining the big boys in the 4nations..


so.......under which regime have wales benefited most??.....does take a genius to work it out!


yes its a shame that wales might lose some young welsh lads to england....but thats down to the eligibility laws and fixture schedule ...fix them don't appease them by ignoring the issues by bringing back GB

GB for me, I miss the full tours and have had some awesome times watching clubs against tourists, never forget the FC v Aussie game in 82, the buggers nearly had them.

How different would the GB team be from a fully fit England team? Can't think of many tbh.

GB for me as well.

Its more the competition for me, I would rather have a 3 test series between Aussie/Kiwi and GB than a 4 nations where we know the finalists before it commences. You cannot beat the atmosphere at a third ashes test when its 1-1, magic.

But if you had GB back, there still wouldn't be tours. Tours are a thing of the past. They'd still be Tri Nations or Four Nations.

Exactly.

For me, Great Britain stirs far more emotion than England RL. I realise there have been English teams in the past but they don't have the history or prestige a GB team has - those magic moments, key matches, amazing players - they form a huge part of RL history itself. I just can't get as excited about those white shirts with various attempts to splash St George's Cross across them.

The Ashes Tests (and tours) were THE pinnacle as far as I was concerned. Keep your Four Nations, World Cup and even SoO - the Ashes was the competition every British fan wanted to see and every British player wanted to participate in. Past Ashes tests were almost the stuff of legend. I will never forget the nerves tingling at Wembley, OT and ER waiting for the teams to emerge.

As for Wales - well, they're going to get destroyed. Let's not pretend they're a strong side, they beat a very weak French side to qualify and now face cricket scores. In 1995 Wales pushed England very close in a World Cup semi-final and had players of quality throughout. Several of those Welsh players also played for GB. They also tested Aus in a very competitive game in 2000. But let's be realistic - until many, many more clubs at all levels of RL are established in Wales staffed with Welsh players they will always be a rollercoaster side.

Our own European style tournament? Who would play?! It would be GB vs France in a walkover. Some tournament.


You've just removed three of the "lesser nations" from competition by having them merge with England to form GB (which is just England under a different name). You've essentially just killed off three nations. How will that pull up the boot straps and improve competition? There won't be any competition for France to play!


Bar one or two? Can't think of one player outside England that would get in.
The players would be more willing to pledge to their countries? I don't understand this at all. They either pledge to Wales, where they'd get a game; pledge to England, where they might not get a game; or pledge to GB which is exactly the same situation as pledging for England.

Bringing back GB will kill off Wales, Scotland and Ireland. If you want to do that, just support England. GB can have the odd tour every four years like in union if they wish, but I totally disagree about merging them back. It won't benefit anyone and the only people that want it claim all this "tradition" and "history" b*llocks without realising that representative rugby league in this country was England before GB anyways, so it works against them.

England all the way. The benefits outweigh the negatives by far, and prestige will be back as soon as England win something (could take a while though). You can't expect miracles after only 4 years.

do we?

since 2004.....GB/ENG have been in 2 finals...NZ 3....and australia all of em of course.......the only certainty is australia will make the final...

Until we improve it really doesn't matter.

If the Evans' chose Wales, Wales would still be a massive distance away from being competitive with England, never mind Australia and New Zealand.

Can we be greedy and have both?

Four nations every 2 years - England
Three match test against Aus/NZ - GB in between.

we'll see what happens with rhys evans when wales ring him in october.....its all well and good him declaring for england when the england academy come calling....but the lure of full internationals for wales against england,NZ (at wembley) & australia will be too big to miss out on surely???

he's virtually guaranteed a place in a wales squad......he's amillion miles away from a england squad

GB for me. If your a Scottish, Welsh or Irish player in SL and your good enough then you have to find a stupid loophole in order to play for England so you even have a chance of playing against NZ or Oz but the downsides are you almost turning your back on your country.

Having GB also means that the whole nation supports the team rather than a quarter of it. The sooner we go back to it the better. Perhaps we could have a mini England/Scotland/Wales/Irish teams tournement as like a state of origin to run along side it.

Well, most decent Welshmen, Irishmen and Scotsman wouldn't dream of playing for England, the idea of pulling that white rag on makes me physically sick to the stomach. Ask Ben Flower in 2 years time, when imo will be a quality Super League player if he wants to play for England... he'd probably punch you in the face. If anyone has a tape of the England vs Wales game in 07 at Donny, watch the anthems... Flower notably goes hell for leather and is pumped to the max, the rest of the Welsh boys similarly pumped. Eddies comment I believe was...

"If this game was won on athems, Wales go home victorious", but obviously that doesn't count.

Also may I add, Great Britain doesn;t represent much to a lot of people in Wales. I'da say in most cases you are Welsh before you are British.

i'm english before im british too......


also RLi want nothing to do with GB......the RLi want ireland to be a stand alone test nation....if the WRL & SRL don't want the same for wales & scotland then they should'nt be running the game in wales or scotland imo

Doesn't stop thousands of Welsh RU fans turning out for the British Lions RU tours. I was actually under the impression that the original plan was to retain GB in some form to tour Down Under in a non-Four Nations/World Cup year?

In many ways, I mourn the loss of the Great Britain team. The Kangaroo tours of 1986, 1990 and 1994 provided me with some of the best moments of my life as Rugby League fan (OK, we didn’t win a series but the whole tour and the test matches were superb) and my biggest regret is that the Lions tours down under have now ceased before I had enough cash to go and follow the team. I am sure I will follow England down under for a World Cup or 4 Nations one day but I think a tour would be a better experience with mid week games etc

But, having said that, the fact that the Northern and Southern hemisphere seasons are now chronologically aligned means that the tours are probably a thing of the past. While I miss them, the opportunity must be for the tournaments (whatever format they be i.e. Home Nations, European Cup, World Cup, 4 Nations etc) to help drive the wider identity of England RL but also Wales, Scotland, Ireland etc

I used to be a passionate Great Britain Rugby league fan and now I am an equally passionate England Rugby League fan – as I am proudly British and English

The net effect of having the home nations can be incredibly positive if we support and build the game in the right way

I'm not sure anyone is reading the original post.

If I understand correctly he is saying
1) GB team plays every two years against big guns
2) home nations play in the opposite two years as England, Wales...etc

That way we have the best of both.
GB play Tri nations and no weaker team
Wales can develop as mentioned above.
Gives home nations players something to aim for.
Gives a fair game against France

Aus and NZ can use the off season to play Fiji, PNG etc to deveop them too.

Hit the nail on the head here. Wales are improving by having a Super League and Championship 1 clubs and play internationals every year. Perhaps in 10 years they will be at a stage where they stand a chance of beating England and their best young players will no longer be faced with this dilemma, thats not going to happen by stopping Wales playing internationals and going back to GB.

Stick with the home nations IMO.

It needs time. How many genuine Scottish/Irish/Welsh players are actually in their squads at the moment? There aren't many.

Welsh RL has made big steps forward in the past five years or so, Ireland has recently set up their own domestic competition, as with Scotland. Both Hull & Rovers I believe have signed genuine Scottish youngsters in the past year.

Give it time for the youngsters to come through, for the team to become more established & keep them competing regularly.


GB could always form as a touring side like RU's Lions. Forming every few years as purely a touring side playing around 6 games (3 club/provincial sides & a 3-match test against that country).

Ideally the International calendar every four years would be:

Year 1: World Cup
Year 2: 4 Nations / Pacific Cup / European Shield
Year 3: Tours
Year 4: 4 Nations / Pacific Cup / European Shield

Go back to the GB format for the four nations. By having separate home nations it actually reduces the pool of players for Wales and Ireland (and scotland to a lesser extent). it would also stop the 'nation changing'.

Until the WHOLE RL structure in this country is reorganised into a coherant, logical structure run by independant of the clubs people, it really will not make a jot of difference what the international teams from these shores are called, they will NOT win any major international tournament.

Lets sign another 30 year old plus overseas crock instead of developing and trying to produce our own. That's a major problem boys and girls.