I play hockey on astro turf, and grazes from that can cause infections which take ages to heal, during which time you can't perform at your best.
That happens when you fall over, but RL players spend a lot more time on the floor.
There is also the chance that they could suffer injury caused by their studs catching, or going over on their ankles.
And as for the Exiles, I don't want to see a Wigan player anywhere near that game. Club over country all day long for me I'm afraid. Losing Tommy last year cost us silverware.

I'm on the fence in the club v country arguement, but am 100% club when it's the exiles game. If it was a real test match then I'd want the best 17 England had.

No point in Tomkins playing in the exiles game as his place is nailed down but guys like Charnley and Faz probably need to go out and impress.

I hope we pull out Tomkins, Richards and Hansen but the rest would be ok to play IMO. I'm guessing Lockers won't make it anyway.

Firstly, widnes don't play on AstroTurf. Second, if we don't do something to grow our sport the decline will continue. Perhaps if the Exiles experiment grows to a full blooded 3 game series we just might expand RL in this country in terms of public awareness. Yesterday's SOO was beamed to 90 countries in its 34th series, a perfect example of realising a dream through perseverance. Of course we'll never get to that position but I do think it possible to get terrestrial tv interested eventually in an Exiles series. At least it's worth a try. So, whilst the risk of losing players is real my opinion is that it is worth it for the greater good of the game. Plus I'd hopefully get 3 top quality games to watch which would make a change to the usual fare served in SL.

Apologies for going o/t.

Please, stop comparing Exiles to SoO. They are completely different and no matter what they will never be as big or have the same intensity.

I actuqlly made a post on the VR sayibg i hope no Wigan players are involved in it and got bagged by the first few replies for sour grapes. I explained i meant for this season and risk v reward and some people agreed. Why would you want you top players playing an extra long full contact training session at this stage?

If Wane is being savvy, good on him, if it just a list of real injuries, credit to him for playing his youth and offering no excuses.

I feel safe saying no matter the result injuries wont be blamed by Wane.

its crazy having the exiles game mid season....ok, its a warm up for England...for something that takes place in 5 months time?

how about we move it to the back end of the season and use it as a proper warm up for WC, Ashes, whatever.
Pick it when the play off teams are known and select a skeleton squad of players not involved. Add to it as teams are eliminated and build up to an exiles game the week before the Grand final on a weekend when both finalists players get a rest, obviously these players are excempt from selection. Then have another Exiles game the weekend after the Grand final, and bring in players from clubs who played in final.
That way we lead straight into post season internationals.
And before anyone jumps in with their size 12s and bangs on about the season being too long..bear in mind, without the mid season Exile games , the season finishes 2 weeksearlier..and NO DISRUPTION of the regular season...simples

STOP IT NOW... You know that common sense is forbidden on a forum...

I think someone alluded to this earlier in the thread and I know it's taking it OT, but, a few seasons ago people were moaning that England had no real test in the northern hemisphere. A solution was mentioned and it seems the RFL have taken it onboard and are running with it. All of a sudden it's a bad idea because Tommy got injured??

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Some people will really never be pleased. RL fans are the biggest moaners in sport. These same people will continue to moan and be bitter about Union being the biggest code of rugby.

I think it was more that people thought games against France were rather pointless... Which they were.

that RU is bigger, and it always was, is that it gets more coverage in the media, and thats because the people who control in the media, at the top, don't come from RL backgrounds. RU is a knocking bet for them, several "International" matches a year, even tho they are in the main bore-fests, which can hyped up to the max as if they are relevant.

Says who? You? How will we ever know or get the opportunity to at least try and get it somewhere near it with all the negativity surrounding it now. 25/30 years ago people didn't think the State of origin concept would work. It's the biggest game of RL in the world now.

People moan about the RFL not being pro-active and when they try a new concept and people moan.

Correct but it's not feasible to have NZ or Australia popping over for a mid season friendly to give our lads a real test so the Exiles is the next best thing. Either that or we have England v England in a trial game. I'm sure that will be moaned about too.

So play it at the end of the season when relevant, not mid season as it shows us nothing...

Maybe so, but do the players not need their rest then in the lead up to a World Cup? Also i think it would be in danger of being seen as an end of season knockabout and maybe taken less seriously than it already is unless it was built up as a genuine international trial game with everyone playing for their place.

Agreed, should be as a part of a build up. I know the Aussies have gotten the SOO to be an enormous event, but i just don't see it happening here. Cue all those saying "Well if you don't try, you never know". RL is/was already a much bigger sport in the Aussie mind when it started. RL is down the list in the public consciousness here.

Think about it, they are played for completely different reasons.

Also due to the SC changes how strong will an Exiles squad be in three or five years time? Imports are going to dwindle both in numbers and quality thats a pretty much given so how will the concept grow?

I like the idea for the end of the season as a friendly for a FULL England team, but making it out to be our version of Origin is just ridiculous.

I should think the way the game is going in Britain, there soon won't be enough decent 'exiles' to make up a team.

Maybe then we can have a good standard of 'War of the Roses'.

War of the Roses style would admittedly be closer to the Origin idea.

I dont see it happening though. I would hope that in a few years France and Wales will have improved to the point they provide more than an adequate test for England so that when the Exiles doesnt work we can do that instead.

I would much prefer Lancs v Yorks but they need to come out with eligibility rules to start and then state that if players don't play then they don't get picked for England otherwise we end up with 2 reserve sides. Lancs would have a decentish side

Tomkins
Charnley
Goulding
Ratchford
Riley
Sinfield
Myler
Morley
Roby
Hill
Farrell
Hock
O'Loughlin

I'm sure I missed a few out but not a bad 13 imo.

I know he was born in Oldham but it would seem so strange Kevin representing Lancashire as he's with synonymous with Leeds.

maybe a qualification rule could be "number of seasons played east or west of pennines?"

It should be based on origin, so that the current strong sides don't dominate it. This was a problem they had in Aus with the early days of origin when it was based on where you currently played, and since Sydney has a lot of teams and Queensland had very few, NSW were dominant. They changed it to "Origin" and it took off from there, really.

Isn't it based on where you first played first grade RL?

As much as Sinfield is a Leeds legend I'm sure he'd want to represent Lancashire. It would be crazy if he didn't.

If the Australian rugby league had anything about it, and wanted the world game to grow they'd release the English lads for any origin match. That would add huge interest to the games but they couldn't give a dam.

Example of 2 sides including those lads-

Lancs-

Tomkins, Charnley, Watkins, Ratchford, Riley, Sinfield, Myler, Graham, Roby, Mossop, Farrell, Hock, O'Loughlin.

Subs- Hill, Morley, Currie, Lomax.

Yorks- Hardaker, Briscoe, Cudjoe, Reed, Hall, Widdop, Chase, Crabtree, McIlorum, S Burgess, Ellis, Westwood, JJB.

Subs- G Burgess, Bailey, Ferres, Burrow.

Two very good sides there.

Thankful that we scraped home last night. Our points difference is so huge now that a 1pt victory with a very inexperienced side is probably more valuable than an 80 point thumping like was given to HKR.

Now, here's hoping that our injured first teamers are sufficiently recovered in time for the Wire game - and not a moment sooner.

I'd be more than happy to see no Wigan players involved next weekend.