There's been a few posts that suggest we give up on the current international structure of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and go back to a GB team.

So what would be the lineup of a GB team, notably which players from each country would make GB stronger than the current individual nations?

I don't care if there are no players from Wales Scotland Nthn Ireland at the moment, i live in Great Britain and my nationality on my passport is British, not England and English, so i think it should be Great Britain anyway and it should never have been ditched.

Plus it gives the opportunity for any future players from those places to play for Great Britain. Who's to say there won't be a few Welsh lads as good as any English lads in the next ten years from down in Merthyr Tydfil? Why shouldn't they get a chance to go on an end of season tour to Aus?

1 - Hardaker
2 - Manfredi
3 - Sarginson
4 - Percival
5 - McGilvary
6 - Williams
7 - Brough
8 - Graham
9 - McIllorum
10 - Hill
11 - S. Burgess
12 - Whitehead
13 - O'Loughlin

14 - Clarke
15 - Flower
16 - Cooper
17 - Currie

It depends if we're willing to play the lads who are turning out through Scotland, Wales, Ireland on ancestry grounds or not. If yes then there may be a couple involved but if not then it's pretty much a closed shop and it'll just be the England team (theres only really Brough and Flower I can think of that would have any sort of realistic chance other then the Aussies).

If we were willing to play the Scottish Australians then Linnett, Aitken and Douglas would be in with a shout going off this years four nations.

Coote would be full back. He's probably the only non-England player I'd pick.

Yeah, Coote is good, had a very good season with the Cowboys. Him and Brough the only ones in contention, I'd say.

Someone needs to learn the difference between a country and an island.



Stop being daft.

This post is full of so many inaccuracies it's unreal..

You support an all English team as long as they wear the GB shirt so why not just be happy with an all England team in an England shirt.

Seriously, an all English side wearing a GB shirt is not gonna make a single piece of difference.

Player wise, a GB team is just pointless as it would just be England.

Oh and just for the record. The GB side would be GB and Ireland. So you need to get rid of the rule Britannia rubbish.

The lads from Ireland are proud Irishmen and not British.

I personally couldn't care less if it's GB or England as long as we get Ashes series back on the menu.

We simply have to play them more often.

All of the replies seem to overlook that the Scottish, Irish and Welsh internationals have had a chance to play test matches and surely this is a motivator to up and coming players from those countries. Who probably would not have a realistic chance of making any GB team. I attended about a dozen games at the last world cup and believe me the so called lesser nations produced the better games to watch. Also the players selected for those countries gave everything they possibly could.
What we currently have isn't perfect but it is better overall for the game than a GB team.

I'd rather it remained as individual countries as it means that more players get the chance to earn international caps.

That said, to answer some of the confusion surrounding countries;

The British Isles are made up of two island countries - Great Britain and Ireland

The island of Great Britain is a country which is made of three countries - England, Scotland, and Wales

Ireland is made up of two countries - Ireland and Northern Ireland

The United Kingdom is another country which is made up of two countries; Great Britain (a country), and Northern Ireland (a country in the island country of Ireland)

Britain is a country made from the union of England and Wales

Did'nt the RFL have to drop the GB title to get Sport England Funding?

They did, later that money was stopped and we remained as England removing any pride in our international game. Absolute master stroke by the Union mob to ruin our game (goes away and puts tin foil hat on).

I'm not being [ithat[/i daft

England isn't [ireally[/i a country (although it was before 1707). The country we live in is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. "Great Britain" is in that name and "England" isn't. And my nationality [iis[/i British, not English.

The GB brand should be brought back for tours and ashes and should be the pinnacle. The home nations should sit underneath that and play international tests, against each other, the Pacific nations, mid-season internationals etc...
That way, rugby League regains one of its most iconic brands in the form of GB, but still allows individual countries to be represented and hopefully grow the international calendar. Players can still represent based on 'heritage' until the day comes when hopefully we don't have to rely so heavily on them.
So, whilst we might currently have a GB team that is made up of predominantly English players, there is a pathway. What I would do is make 'heritage' players ineligible for GB - which may be contradictory with my view on the national sides, but I don't think GB needs Australians with British heritage as much as say Scotland do. The GB brand and team would be strong enough to compete as is.

spot on

With the 'two tier' idea, which seems to work, if a player like Tyson Frizzell plays for Wales, does he qualify for GB? Or can he play for Australia?
There are a lot more Australian born players that could qualify for GB, problem is they only seem to want to play for Wales/Scotland/Ireland in World Cups. Heres a list of high quality players that could qualify for GB through the celtic nations.

Lachlan Coote (Scotland) Matty Russell (Scotland) Kane Linnett (Scotland) Euan Aitken (Scotland)
Peter Wallace (Scotland) (to be fair he was injured) Danny Brough (Scotland) Ben Flower (Wales) Rory Kostjasyn (Ireland) Luke Douglas (Scotland) Tyson Frizzell (Wales)
Adam Walker (Scotland) Rhys Evans (Wales)

The GB team would be exactly the same as the England team, but wearing different shirts and playing under a different name. Why some people think this would be good for the game is beyond me. It would be as much benefit as it was to London changing back to the Broncos and Salford becoming the Red Devils, pointless. Stick with England, the general public are more passionate about and used to following England in other sports.

The older generation remember when Great Britain was the best at everything and we ruled the Commonwealth and half of the planet.
Sadly, those days are long gone and apart from the emotional value attached to the "Lions" brand, we shouldn't go back.
Having said that a "Lions series" against the Aussies would sell, no mistake AND the BBC like stuff like that so, it would get decent exposure.

More like good riddance. Your horrible emipre collapsed after WW2..

And the best at everything.. please! That older generation have a warped version of history.

I don't think this would sell as well as an ENG v AUS series marketed as "the ashes", particularly for the London fixtures.

Think beyond this week.

Like I mentioned, what if RL really takes off in Merthyr and they produce players good enough to play for Great Britain?

If GB existed now we could easily have Frizzell playing for us, so it wouldn't be exactly the same. Two Welshmen were good enough to play in the Grand Final last month, its quite conceivable the next two Welsh lads to come through (wherever that is) could be good enough for GB.

Frizzell would still be choosing the green & gold over GB.

Get real!