If the international game was more highly regarded and of a higher standard rather than only 3 (well actually really only 2) teams competing for the honours, then I would agree. This is a long way off though so as it stands I would much rather see success for Wigan than England/GB.

You are probably right. RU has England, Wales, Ireland, Aus, NZ, France, SA, Argentina... all playing to a good standard. they also now have an extremely competative 7's comp.... they have built on this very well. We should be doing something similar in developing nations. There is no chance that a nation like France can match England over 80mins, 13v13.... but I think they could have a good wack against our younger players 9v9 to help develop them with shorter matches.

If Super League was as even + far as the pro salary cap people like to believe, then events like this should see all teams handicapped equally with the players contributing to both England + the Exiles coming from a variety of teams.

Whereas in reality it's going to be the case that 2 or 3 teams are severely handicapped and the rest have 0, 1 or at the very most 2 players missing.

Did you watch the 6 Nations? The standard of rugby was average at best. England, Ireland et al have no chance against the southern hemisphere clubs. The union public just get behind it - hell, they can fill Twickers for any mickey mouse friendly...

That's not strictly true, as some clubs might have particularly good players playing in the same positions. Someone's going to have to miss out.

team I voted for was:
1) webb
2) j.monaghan
3) soliola
4) carmont
5) richards
6) chase
7) sammut
8 : o meley
9) buderus
10) mason
11) hoffman
12) o donnell
13) fitzgibbon

it will be a strong side no matter who ends up picked, could see England on the wrong end of a right hammering if the exiles click.

Exactly, international RL can never thrive until the domestic game is embraced internationally. There are currently only 2 professional leagues on the whole planet, not enough to sustain a competitive international scene. For more countries to become more competitive then there needs to be, for example, a high standard league in France, and the game also needs to kick off in other regions such as USA, Canada and SA.

Currently we have an Irish team with no Irish league or even a professional Irish club, a Scottish team with no Scottish league or pro Scots club etc etc and with them largely being made up of players who are only eligible through family/citizenship and have only put their hand up for that country because they know they wont be picked for their parent country. The same problem arises on the other side of the globe with the Pacific island teams.

RL currently is not an internationally recognised sport and until it is then not much is going to change. People dont enjoy watching sport when they already know the outcome of games, which for the large part of intl. RL is the case. We are a long long way away from getting to a stage where we can hold intl. competitions which are anywhere near the size of the ones seen in football or even RU.

I am in favour of this "Exiles" system but it only highlights the state of the sport on the international front when the only way to give the current England team a worthwhile friendly without bringing players from the southern hemisphere is to play against oversees players who are based here.

i agree in part. i have picked 3 wigan players in my selections and i know if the game against cas goes ahead we will be low on numbers, but as a one off i would much rather see a dazzling display of top players having a good matchup as a spectacle than have some ty players thrown in due to fixing the votes.

the idea is to promote this game, not ridicule it and people should vote for who they would relish to see against england, not pick a team we could wollop with an u21's side as at the end of the day what kind of international practice is that going to be for the england boys? although i'd imagine it would be no friendly, it would be a well received match with mutual respect from both camps as you would have fellow team members playing alongside each other but [ialso against[/i other fellow team members! class!

if it took off like the SOO it would be amazing.

seriously though, how good would it be to see the likes of pat, buderus, monaghan etc playing against an england team. it would be a great spectacle IMO, but adding to what has been said before the RFL needs to get the pricing structures right to make it a success. at least for voting we get £5 off - maybe they've put the standard ticket price up by £5 on the sly?!

which is exactly the point, take the rest out of the equation. its as close to a competitive and useful friendly we'd get against the aussies / kiwis etc than we would get against france etc at the end of the day and if wigan lost 5 players and saints lost 3 and leeds lost 4 etc etc to a pointless england friendly against scotland or france etc then there would be a lot more fans in uproar. its an exciting development with potential to be a success plus it hasn't even happened yet - so give it a chance first

I imagine Tommy L would love to smash a couple of his teammates!

Don't forget Martin Johnson will be watching

You do realize that when you pick your team of 13 players the other 9 to make up the 22 man squad are picked by the coach and his assistant. (Bluey and Matterson) Therefore if no Wigan players are picked by you for the 13 they can pick them. At the end of the day the Exiles team starting 13 will be picked by the coach etc. So you could still have your quota of 3 Wigan exiles playing. Plus your English players.

Have you misread what I put? I am giving it a chance, I think it's a great idea. My main point was that outside of England, NZ and Aus, International RL is in a poor state and hence why the majority of fans will always be club before country and some fans dont even bother with the Eng/GB games.

Hopefully there will be a decent crowd at Headingley (not the ground I would have chosen btw) and it should be an excellent game played at a high intensity.

Exactly. I think regardless of any tactical voting that goes on by fans I would be very surprised if there aren't 3 wigan players in the final 22, especially with 7 to chose from.

Besides, the tactical voting will all negate itself.

It would probably have been an unviable option with it still being a regular SL weekend but I would have liked it to be on the Saturday and have the England Knights v France as a curtain raiser to the main game. Would obviously mean clubs have even more players missing and require postponing and rearranging of fixtures but it would be good for this new set up to get a game under their belt.

This game cannot be justified as helping International RL. It's one game and is not an International. If we were serious about strengthen in the International game we would help develop the French side by playing them with perhaps a slightly weaker English side and if fans were in uproar against that then they really do not have the interests of the International game at heart. We would just have to put up with it not being a particularly inspiring fixture right now as we tried to help the French. England doesn't need any help.

England are already an International force in the game. Yes we struggle at the moment but we can compete and a one off game mid season is not going to make much if any difference to how well England play. So from my point of view given this has IMO zilch to do with developing the International game I want no Wigan player anywhere near.

Is there a limit of Wigan players that can feature in the game before we get a week off? Because obviously we may have 3 in the exiles team and at least 3 in the England team (Lockers, Both Tomkins and Prescott off the top of my head are in the squads) and that would mean that most of our team are playing in another match when they should be playing for us. And lets be honest we ARE going to have at least 3 in that exiles team because 3 of them are convincingly winning (or second) in their positions on the current results. Tommy looks guaranteed to feature.

How would playing a weakened England team against a poor quality French team help us beat the Aussies and Kiwis and the end of the season?? Ridiculous suggestion! The French, along with every other developing RL nation has to help themselves surely. You are almost suggesting a handicap system where a team is picked based on the quality of opposition. So Wigan could help Crusaders develop by picking a weaker strength team to play against them and letting them think they are better than what they actually are could they?

From Andy Wilson www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... f-comments "[ithe clubs have agreed that the full round will go ahead regardless - i think that's one of the small benefits of the concept actually, will mean some really interesting team selections - you only have to look at the under-20s team wigan fielded v leeds at the weekend to see how exciting their selection could be even if they lose 3 to exiles plus another 4 or 5 to england - and bear in mind they could back up anyway, and on last year's evidence at wakefield maguire will be keen for them to do so.[/i"

From Andy Wilson www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... f-comments "[ithe clubs have agreed that the full round will go ahead regardless - i think that's one of the small benefits of the concept actually, will mean some really interesting team selections - you only have to look at the under-20s team wigan fielded v leeds at the weekend to see how exciting their selection could be even if they lose 3 to exiles plus another 4 or 5 to england - and bear in mind they could back up anyway, and on last year's evidence at wakefield maguire will be keen for them to do so.[/i"

I picked who I think should play regardless of club. I'm sick of England getting battered and if this helps us catch up then I'm all for it. I went for:

1 Kearney
2 Joel
3 King
4 Soliola
5 Richards
6 Chase
7 Leuluai
8 Puletua
9 Michael
10 O'Meley
11 Hoffman
12 Fitzgibbon
13 O'Donnell

Above Webb and Hodgson?

There may be an obvious answer to this but does anyone know why Michael Dobson isn't an option at scrum half? I know he's injured but will be fit before mid June.

He's not a registered player for any SL club

I'd delete that before it all starts again ha