I agree we should blood in some of the younger talent and see if anyone pops up for the world cup. Time to be daring methinks!!

Those players won't be anywhere near the team when Graham, Burgess (two of them) and maybe Ellis are available. With O'Loughlin guaranteed at 13, Westwood a certainty despite his form and Hock a definite for the bench if he stays out of trouble there aren't many forward spots available in a fully-fit World Cup squad. Would like to see form players like Farrell and Ferres tried in the exiles game to see how they cope with it.

Are you joking? Farrell is an absolute shoe in for the back row for England. Nobody is stupid enough to ignore him for the role. He is by far and away the best back rower in the country at the moment, and as years ahead of him. I will be surprised already if he doesn't end up with man of steel this year.

Sorry to disappoint but your detector may need fixing. Mouth-frothing is usually reserved for my respondents. I say "usually" because according to my detector, you're probably not one inclined to froth at the mouth in response to anyone's posts.


I care a lot about the game and the direction in which it is heading. I care not a jot about some tacky and inconsequential Exiles concept dreamed up by clueless morons. Those same clueless morons can stick it alongside their other tacky and inconsequential "spreading the gospel" SL-era products like Millennium/Murrayfield/oh, hang on... Manchester Tragic... and selectively licensed 14 club, top 8 mediocrity bull.

Last season's failures ought to have signalled the end of this ludicrously inept Exiles experiment. Instead, we may have to wait until the Exiles squad is composed of the likes of Mitch Achurch, Joe Vickery and several other reserve graders from down under. Shouldn't be too long a wait now.

Here's a thought.

Doesn't a certain Brett Delaney now have the three year residence qualification to play for England? Could explain his exclusion from the Exiles squad.

Just saying.

It can only be a few years before that happens.

Stevie Ward seems to agree (on Twittter, obviously)

I'd be surprised though, and a bit disappointed. I don't like this whole 3 year residence qualification malarkey personally. Born or developed (as a youth) in this country should be the only eligibility for the national team IMO.

Oh old Leaguefreak pops his head up again

He's been outstanding so far this domestic season. But he's far from a "shoe in" for the England World Cup back row because he has to get past conventional thinking (aka Mcnamara thinking) that our best international back row is Westwood, Ellis, O'Loughlin (sub Hock).

However if you're right and he's a "shoe in" then you don't need to worry about Wilkin or Tickle being involved as that's one more place sewn up.

Don't take this as too much of a compliment, but I'd rather read your missives than those of Leaguefreak.

I think if you picked the team now he'd be hard to overlook. If he keeps up this form through the season and is fit in the Autumn, I can't see him being left out, even with the traditional GB/England penchant for the status quo.

I was tempted to put JP as our best forward last year.
But if I am not mistaken didn`t most people think JP was dead and burried for a large part of the season only to come back to life at the business end?
I think we might have to agree to disagree about Delaney as we see it very differently.
As far as the Exiles game goes.
I am still firmly of the opinion this game should be between the probables against the possibles as a sort of trial game.
Morley and Carvell are not the answer to our proping option.Sam and George Burgess along with Graham and Hill will do nicely.

the RFL real ned to pull their fingers out and fix the international/representative game, as it'd one of the main sticks Union has to beat us with. A couple of ideas.

1. A Proper 5 Nations tournament

One of the reasons eligible players don't pick smaller nations is because they reckon they'll get sod all chance to play regularly at the highest level. That could be fixed by instituting an annual five nations tournament between England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales & France. To be played in the middle of the summer when there's no RU on.

2. Fix international eligibility

Don't allow the constant swapping between sides that's been encouraged since the abolition of GB, and actively search out players for the smaller nations. Ireland of Platt, Blanch, Gleeson, Bridge, Richards, Grix, Grix, Amor, McIlorum, Prescott, McCarthy, Harrison & O'Loughlin will be good enough to give England a game. Pressure the aussies to the same, which would massively strengthen Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, PNG & the Cook Islands.

3. Bring back GB

A 3-test tour, either down under or up here every 2 years on alternate years with the world cup. All players for representative sides eligible to play. Yes, this would mean Pat Richards being a GB player. I'm fine with that.

4. Give games a stage that suggests they deserve to be watched

I'm sorry, but when we play games on an industrial estate outside Manchester we do nothing but suggest it's small and . At the very least play at the bigger grounds (KC, DW, Headingley). But far better, a permanent home for international games at Wembley/appropriate national stadium. As the 6N shows, match weekends become holidays for away supporters. When we're playing in Warrington on a Friday night, nobody will come.

5. Replace the exiles with a Yorkshire v Lancashire v Cumbria tournament

No-one cares about the exiles. A 'heartlands' series would be a representative chance for the best players not in England/GB, and for Cumbrian rugby to get some coverage which it desperately needs.

I don't want to seem like I'm singling you out this afternoon, but some of this is a bit odd.

I'm not sure it can be solely in the RFL's gift to fix the international game. Surely the other components in a "proper" 5 Nations would need to have their own governing bodies and federations.

It's a bit much to suggest that fans of Ireland, Scotland and Wales would use the trip to London as a holiday. What few there are will barely turn up to home games. How many people will actually watch Ireland v Scotland? How many free ticketed Welsh fans will pay to travel to away fixtures against the smaller nations when they can't get a decent turn out in Wrexham? We've tried parachuting an "eligible" team into these places for World Cups and the like before. It didn't work in terms of creating sustainable growth and didn't really create any interest outside celtic ex-pat populations in Australia.

We can't credibly (or financially) use Wembley as a home for international games until somebody can be fairly confident of a crowd there. Having failed to fill smaller venues in the heartlands in the autumn last year, you'd have to be a total nutcase to book England v Wales into Wembley. I'd love to see test matches back at Wembley at some point but there are some systemic problems to fix first.