"The RFL says it WILL look at move the International Origin match to a stand a lone fixture.
It's after ALL the sides who had many players in the game on Friday night failed to win their super league encounters at the weekend.
Warrington had SEVEN players in the England Exiles game on Friday night - SIX of those played again in the clash against Salford - a game they lost 18-16.
It was a similar state of affairs for St Helens and Wigan who drew their games whilst Huddersfield lost to Wakefield.
Now the RFL says it's looking at holding the international as a standalone fixture to give clubs and players more time to prepare and are now in talks with bosses."

(from Wire fm news page)

Magic Weekend has surely now run it's course.

An even fixture calendar of all fourteen teams playing each other home and away, with no "extra" game causing an imbalance, and a mid season international on the spare weekend. Potentially you could have an England A/Knights/whatever fixture V France on the same weekend then too, or possibly France V Wales once (or if) Crusaders and/or South Wales Scorpions start to produce home grown players - before anyone starts, I fully appreciate that won't happen overnight, but it's a long term idea.

If they cannot "isolate" the fixture, then they should instruct all sides to play on Friday night the week before, and play the Origin game the following Wednesday evening. Then back that up by ensuring all remaining weekly fixtures are then played on that Sunday.

that will never happen and the reason why is because its a very sensible suggestion

I would rather drop a regular season game than the Magic Weekend. It is a brilliant event for the fans, that I love going to. Much more so than the Exiles game.

Or better still Bank Holiday Monday.

I would also prefer to drop the Magic weekend and replace it with a mid-season stand alone international weekend. Reebok Stadium (or similar) - England Schoolboys v Aussie Schoolboys, followed by England A v Championship 13, followed by Wales v France folllowed by England v Exiles.

Totally agree. I really enjoy the Magic Weekend, and even though England obviously need testing against the Exiles, the game never really excited me. In the lead up to the game, I was more bothered about none of our players getting injured than England actually winning.

If we can get 25-30k to go somewhere to watch SL, why can't we get them to watch 3 internationals? Be a great advert.

I think Sky might have something to say about that.

Personally couldnt careless for internationals in any form, im only interested in club rugby but if we have to have them then some of suggestions on here are good im in the camp of drop the magic weekend and slot in the exile game instead of current format

drop 2 league games 12 home and away games and the magic weekend, use the 2 spare weeks for 2 england vs exiles games with the knights taking on france 1 week and then wales the other

i was discussing this the other day, my dad and i came up with and idea that would have 3 games over the afternoon/evening.
game 1 : League 1 state of origin match, lancs v yorks
game 2 : championship SOO match
game 3 : International Origin match

I thought this was a top idea, every speccy could have an interest in each match as you dont have to know any of the players in the match to support your county/area.

I'd prefer to drop this than the Magic Weekend. A festival weekend of rugby is a great concept and one I'd hate to lose... Saying that I like the Exiles idea too. It's not ideal, but Wednesday nights would probably be best for the clubs & players but not necessarily the fans.
Maybe this is an argument for getting rid of a couple of teams from the league? That would create a couple of free weekends and it's quite clear from the squad selections in this years game, and a lot of the results so far this year that the talent is not evenly spread among the clubs. Who to get rid of is a tough call, but I don't think we have the strength in depth in this country to support a 14 team league.

Maybe next season the Magic weekend should be excluded and replaced by a day of International RL? The RFL could showpiece two games (as Ian Millward has often hinted at), inc the England v Exiles at a decent Northern stadium - maybe in Manchester or Liverpool. Advertise it as much as possible particularly within the chosen city, ensuring it doesn't clash with the Premier League football season, and you could end up attracting a very healthy crowd. Playing it on a Saturday would be my choice too.

And as people have pointed out, it needs to be a stand alone fixture, of which it will be, should it replace Magic.

I'd question whether a mid-season International is beneficial at all.

I'd much rather see England play two warm-up games on the two weekends prior to the Four Nations (opponents dependent on where the tournament is held).

It was clear how dis-jointed England were last Friday night and they'll gain zero momentum from it when they next get together in the autumn.

I always ask whether I can see an innovation like the Exiles game still being around in five years time; this is one I categorise as extremely doubtful.

If McNamara has to justify the full-time position he could practice pronouncing his tees.
For example, qual-a-eh.
(I know this doesn't have an effect on team performance but I feel better for having a whinge about it.)

Good idea.