Quote headhunter="headhunter"By who, idiotic fans? People need to get out of this mindset that international RL consists of simply NZ, Australia and England, and that everything else is worthless or a waste of time. Has the RLWC taught you nothing?'" www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/25081735 Tomkins "we need more tough tests, we are only going to get better that way" "The Aussies and Kiwis are playing each other mid season, whereas we have a year off when we are playing Wales and the like and it doesn't help." The group stages of the WC were great, but because the groups were set up in a certain way. Once the quarters started the ones involving Aus/NZ/Eng had an aggregate score of 136-10. Whilst you can look at what USA and Scotland did, what kind of tournaments would they have had if they'd of been in Group A instead of Ireland? What the WC has shown is that one big tournament involving all the other teams barring the big 3 would be a good and tight contest. But the gap between the 3 and the rest is still too big.

Quote headhunter="headhunter"By who, idiotic fans? People need to get out of this mindset that international RL consists of simply NZ, Australia and England, and that everything else is worthless or a waste of time. Has the RLWC taught you nothing?'" www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/25081735 Tomkins "we need more tough tests, we are only going to get better that way" "The Aussies and Kiwis are playing each other mid season, whereas we have a year off when we are playing Wales and the like and it doesn't help." The group stages of the WC were great, but because the groups were set up in a certain way. Once the quarters started the ones involving Aus/NZ/Eng had an aggregate score of 136-10. Whilst you can look at what USA and Scotland did, what kind of tournaments would they have had if they'd of been in Group A instead of Ireland? What the WC has shown is that one big tournament involving all the other teams barring the big 3 would be a good and tight contest. But the gap between the 3 and the rest is still too big.

After Saturday I'm more convinced than ever that YvL should never return, scrap the Exiles game too.



We need a mid season close down on both sides of the hemisphere simultaneously for 3 to 4 weeks and fill that slot with international games.

World Cup every two years - alternating between northern and southern hemispheres. Surely 8 years is too long to wait before we have a RLWC back in this country?



Would be good for England, good for the global game (qualifying competition in the alternate years), would attract many more players to RL (eg many more from Wales where there are loads of players with inherant rugby skills).



Try it. Nothing to lose. If after five or ten years it's decided it's too much, just revert to having the World Cup every 4 years.

A series against the Celts would be quite good. Not individually but combined. Best of Wales, Ireland and Scotland would give us the tests at a better standard than they could do individually.



Oh, and reducing SL and keeping it smaller. More intense games in the league program would prep the players better.

The other long shot possibility would depend on the Aussies having a mid season break in club matches and playing playing the three State of Origin matches on consecutive weekends. Then Yorkshire v Lancashire could be played in Aus as curtain raisers with the winner of the three match Yorks v Lancs series playing the SOO winners.

Anyone.



International RL is the end, it isnt a means to an end.



England beating Wales, France, Fiji, Samoa, whoever is the point of England playing Wales, France, Fiji, Samoa, not as part of a learning progression to beat Australia and NZ>

We need the 3 Nations comp, 4 games and a final, or an ashes series every year

All great but Who?



New Zealand will not travel half way round the world in mid season

NRL clubs will almost certainly not release NZ players to play in the match either.

Exiles is a dead concept that will get less and less competitive as the years go by

France are no challenge

A combined Celtic team is more convoluted than the Exiles and probably offer less challenge than France



I think a Roses clash backed by strict selection and availability rules is the best concept and the only one completely in our own control

Maybe we need to make a decision over whether we are prepared to make the sacrifices needed to build our international team. Maybe we go to them.



If Aus put in place their 3 week break for Origin then there is a three week opportunity for us to go out there. Play Fiji, Samoa and NZ.



Again, the reason for playing France is to play France, it isn’t our preparation for Australia. We need to stop treating other nations so disrespectfully.



What about the players who aren’t from either Yorkshire or Lancashire? What about those from Oxford, or Cumbria or Cheshire or Wales?

Exactly. Can we just stop being such a small-minded little sport, just this once? We need big Internationals ... between countries, naturally

... and we need a big international club competition too - not a little end or start of season jamboree, but a competition that gets into the fibre of the sport, like the Champions League. Every ounce of effort from the UK game should be spent on making those two things happen, not on contrived rubbish to make up for our failure to put in place what the game really needs. The biggest barrier? No doubt the NRL. If they can't be a***ed, and/or can't see the value in helping the broader sport, then it's up to us to change that, and work our backsides off to make competitions that are lucrative and attractive to all. Lots of heads to bang together and lots of objections to overcome, some legitimate, some daft, some just self-serving, but that is precisely why we need excellent and dynamic leadership. Wood et al? Well, there's no denying the RLWC was much better than I (for one, but I think most) expected, but I'm still not at all convinced they're the best we can realistically get to lead the sport.

Maybe we do, maybe we should if finances and SL clubs allow it.



I think that would be a great idea as long as we treat it like a full blooded tour and everyone buys into it 100%



No disrespect to France or the other Nations, my post is written from an England preparations and development slant not one looking at how we develop France which is another subject



I'd love to incorporate Cumbria and I'd love to see them with SL representation but I'd start with a Roses concept. The SoO hasn't been hindered by it being confined to just Queensland and NSW.

In my opinion most of the improvement will come from the fact players are spending time with each other, training with each other, putting in place the sets, the game plans etc. A one-off or 2 game series will help us measure that improvement, it wont really be the cause for it.



There needs to be internationals throughout the year to build the international game. Clubs are going to have to make the sacrifice for that. They can choose not to but the result of that is a struggling international game.



SoO is a quirk. It isn’t something that can be reinvented over here and even if it was, there is a limit to its usefulness.