https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... ad-8380768 Including 7 from one club! I know some of these are legit but to say this is disappointing is an understatement. The only real chance this sport has to grow is the international game yet it is treated with such contempt by a large number of clubs.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... ad-8380768 Including 7 from one club! I know some of these are legit but to say this is disappointing is an understatement. The only real chance this sport has to grow is the international game yet it is treated with such contempt by a large number of clubs.

Saints withdrawing players from England duty? What next? Pope revealed to be Catholic?

Article in a few months time 'RL just isnt growing and maybe another new league structure might sort it?' SL club owner

Not enough people take the international game seriously, but a friendly against a championship level side is hardly going to help England based players overcome their own limitations, not improve the poor coach in charge.

Awful article and more Saints baiting on here too. Saints had 9 of their starting 17 players out against Warrington and yet still face this blatant trolling? How about they write articles baiting other clubs, that have just pulled their players for the sake of it?

Pointless game anyway

#crowdwillbeabout4000
#playtheaussiesinstead

They are all banned due to the RFL vendetta against the mighty St Helens club

But that's because International RL has dragged itself into the gutter with a lack of games, players withdrawing etc. France also never making a step forward doesn't help matters either.

Union can make some very dubious matchups sell, England RL.should he selling out 25k stadiums with ease in the heartlands.

Anyone that’s pulled out of this game shouldn’t be in contention for the series against Tonga.

We’ll lose that anyway due to the bad attitude of the superleague superstars so it’s worth it to throw it away for the longer term gain of giving them a reality check.

In fact hanging’s too good for them

France really are one of the biggest frustrations in RL, almost 20 years of Catalan in SL and two teams in SL last year, how are they not even slightly better?

Holds the international game back as due to geography England don't have any other mid season opponents

The international game makes me feel bad for complaining about the competitive imbalance of Super League.

With the upcoming retirement of James Roby, there’ll be no active England/GB players who have beaten Australia in a game.

And this. And Shaun Wane… and just the general Wigan of it all.

It's asking too much for an international team to be competitive with only 1 pro club. The number of French players playing professionally has increased hugely in the past couple of decades, but it's still nothing compared to the other major nations.

It’s an imperfect comparison and almost, but not quite, tongue in cheek - New Zealand

How many of NZ's first 17 play for the Warriors?

Do England need to look at playing a southern hemisphere side in the middle east or Hong Kong instead? Cuts down the travelling time and travel aint cheap but doubt the RFL have made much today off an 8k crowd anyway

If we picked all of the England team from Hull FC, and Bradford bulls, players that have now left these clubs and signed for another team in super League and a few more from the championship, how competitive would they be against Australia or New Zealand?

Or maybe just stop flogging a dead horse?

But to me that kind of reinforces my point rather than undermining it.

ateod, France is France and New Zealand is New Zealand.

Anyway, it just isn’t clear to me who or what the game today was for. feels like make-work.

Some hull fan complained that Catalans have been In SLfor 20 years and in that time the French national team has not improved.

In that same space of time the English national rugby league team also hasn’t improved despite having ten times as many teams in SL lol

#xenophobia?

It’s not baiting or trolling in any way shape or form. St Helens will naturally draw attention due to the sheer number of withdrawn players coupled with the fact they have form for it.

What’s more of a headline, club withdraws 8 players or club withdraws 2?

My criticism is aimed at all clubs who withdrew players unnecessarily. Some are without doubt justified and the right thing to do. Others aren’t. It’s no wonder our sport is viewed as a joke when internationals which should be the pinnacle of the game are treated with such contempt.

The thing was most of the players should never have been picked in the first place why pick and injured or suspended player.

Tommy Makinson, Mark Percival and Alex Walmsley are injured,

Morgan Knowles is suspended

while Matty Lees, Lewis Dodd and Jonny Lomax have now also been pulled out.

The rumour on redvee is that both Lees and Dodd did not train for Saints this week either so the only player withdrawn was Lomax the rest were all injured or suspended

Yeah, Dodd, Lomax, Walmsley, Lees and Makinson all looked really injured last night

He picks the 'squad' for a get together to talk about plans for the future and not just that one game. All of those players will be in his plans for Tonga at the end of the year.

They did. Makinson made a cover tackle early on and struggled to get back up from that. He looked to be struggling throughout the game. Dodd and Lomax were both fit, but apparently didn't train and it's arguable you wouldn't pick either for England on form anyway.

Walmsley was coming back from a long absence with injury so again excusable. Lees is the one really you can identify as having been 'pulled' but he was released by England after discussions with Saints because of his workload due to all the injuries at Saints and him being fatigued.