I'd rather England and France - if it worked. But despite having a presence in SL for 20 years the French remain an international walk over. This isn't about what's good for French RL, it's about giving England the best possible chance of pushing Australia. And by the way, I think you are under playing the rivalry. I believe we still play Roses games at both amateur and academy level so it's not like it's something that's dead to the sporting culture. Just check out the attendances for the T Twenty cricket matches if you think it can't be sold to folk. Anyway, it looks like it's going to happen, so I guess we won't have to wait too long to gauge its appeal.

Exactly. The Roses matches in the cricket are still the biggest domestic games in cricket outside of India. Anyway, even if the rivalry may not be as strong as we want it to be, then perhaps we should create it? Look at boxing as an example, and how they build their biggest fights as an example, build the 'hatred' between the players during SL games and in the media.

Are the T Twenty Cricket matches stand alone fixtures/fixture or are they part of a wider league structure?

I’m not totally against the idea, I’m far from convinced it will help England beat Australia, I really don’t think the intensity would even match a regular SL game, and in the short term it would probably be a Lancashire walkover. Is Wane just wanting a one off game?

I can't agree on the intensity. I would expect that if the players knew that their performance in the match would be a factor in playing any series of test matches that would be the pinnacle of their involvement in the sport, you'd get some real commitment and desire to win. Also, it gives our players a chance to test themselves in a scenario where the key positions in the team aren't filled by exiled NRL players. That gives English players from less fashionable sides a chance to represent themselves in an environment outside of the sometimes humdrum, less than intense grind of weekly SL matches. Whether it prepares us to win against Australia is another matter, but what I do know that when it was played on a regular basis (mid eighties/early noughties) we were getting test wins against the Aussies on a fairly frequent basis. You can dismiss that as coincidence I suppose, but I'm totally confident it's a more meaningful fixture in every sense than a mid season stroll against France.

I’d suggest the reason we we winning a few games against Aussies in those periods was because we were actually playing them regularly and nothing to do with a poorly attended mud week game

Wasn’t the last time we played Australia 2018? It’s pretty hard to best them when you play them so infrequently

I guess seeing is believing. The England head coach wants it. IMG want it. Let's see what they can bring to the table in terms of repackaging and selling it.

Hopefully do a decent length series. As long as players and clubs buy in and it's not mid week it could work. Would prefer a 4 team championship between Yorkshire Lancashire France and Wales though.

What was the crowd attendance please?

Just over 16k.

Thank you.

This argument over Yorks vs Lancs and games versus France has been going on for at least 40 years.

Games versus France have always been a tough sell. I can recall two wins by France in the last 40 years IIRC. That shouldn’t mean we shouldn’t play them (to ignore them would make us like the Aussies ignoring us!) but we shouldn’t expect that the fixture is ever going to be an Origin level preparation. It’s one of those games that will at a push attract 6 or 7k fans and see England win by 40+. Unless France can really push us then the public won’t pay to see it.

The Roses match has never taken off for a couple of reasons. First – Lancashire doesn’t resonate with RL people on the other side of the Pennines – it’s different in cricket. Can something be manufactured? I don’t know – who’s going to pay for the marketing required? Can a Lancashire player repeat Arthur Beetson’s punch on a team mate Mick Cronin that ignited Origin back in 1983? That’s probably what it needs – a proper incident of ill feeling between two club team mates to set the tone and make the game matter.

The second reason is that players and clubs always knew that performance or selection in the county game didn’t really impact on the international selection. Our player pool is too small. That means clubs will withdraw any player with a slight injury. Players will “go through the motions” a bit or at least Lancashire used to do that so it never becomes the contest we need it to be. Can we make some rules to increase the importance of the fixture? I doubt it.

Lastly the “exiles” game shouldn’t even be considered. Any game needs to have two sides that represent something that fans can get behind. Not so long ago we had enough Kiwis to have a potential game versus a good NZ side – that would’ve been better – not do-able now though.

I like the idea of Yorks v Lancs but it will need time and funding to bed in properly. Also make it financially rewarding for the players is key so they put their heart and souls into it... we need to do something.

Need a big sponsor to pull a good Roses series. Hadn't considered the wages factor but that is key. Big match fee and prize money would certainly help.