I can't wait until England play Wales or Ireland in a mid season international and suddenly an extra 30,000 fans turn up to the next round of SL fixtures off the back of England's 50 point win in front of 8,000 fans.

1. England arent playing Wales or Ireland. 2. More than 8k will watch, and more than 20k watched last time we played Ireland 3. We didnt, and wouldnt win by 50points. 4. Nobody has suggest an extra 30k would turn up the next week.

Other than those irrelevancies and your lack of coherence and cogency its a good argument. Well done.

Its almost as if you don't realise it's just a like for like retort to your previous post which had me down for several things you exaggerated.

You said [iSL really can't afford to take its best players out[/i, they will do so.
You said that NRL would release players to play mid-season, They will do so.
You said people wouldnt want to watch, sponsor or broadcast England v 2nd tier nation, they will do so.

You can watch and wallow in your wrongness. The rest of us will get to enjoy quality international RL.

Did I say SL would collapse by May? No so just like I said you exaggerated a point, I did likewise in reply. Did I say NO ONE would turn up? No I said crowds wouldn't be big, etc.

You said [iSL really can't afford to take its best players out[/i. What [iSL really can't afford to happen[/i is happening.

One would assume the effects of something[i you really can't afford to happen[/i, happening, would be pretty dire would they not?

So you've just taken a point and exaggerated it to the worst case scenario.

Saying SL can't afford to lose it best players for periods of time >>>>>>> it collapsing by May after one international......is not a natural jump.

You have argued that mid-season internationals cant get crowds, it has been proven to you that they can.
You have argued that internationals against tier 2 nations cannot get good attendances, it has been proven to you they can.
You have argued that the NRL won't release players for mid-season internationals, it has been proven to you they will, and do.
You have argued that SL [ireally can't afford to take its best players out[/i, it has been shown to you that it can, and will.

Your complaint here that i took your exaggeration at face value, is not a strong one.

You've proven nothing despite constantly thinking you have.



Really so if England play a home international mid season you think we'll see James Graham, Burgess brothers, Josh Hodgson fly over? I seriously doubt it.



It will? Really must've missed the news that we've arranged several mid season internationals.

Do you need the figures again? Its ok, they are easy to find.
Attendances against tier 2 nationsReally so if England play a home international mid season you think we'll see James Graham, Burgess brothers, Josh Hodgson fly over? I seriously doubt it.'"

Smokey tournaments aside where are these "recent" fixtures that prove your point?
Also wrt NRL releasing their players how many England players were released for games v France or the Exiles experiment?.

A mid season international, as in one. The argument is about having several England games.

A half assed one off v france, nor the exiles debacle are examples of what i am talking about.

As for the release of players, this is exactly the problem central contracts would solve at SL level, allowing us secure the release of more players for lesser nations.

It doesnt solve the issue of NRL releases (it was never meant to) but we can, and are doing other things to get around that, building a world wide rep-window or series of rep windows is not only possible but happening. Without making too much of a change, there are 4 obvious windows around the Anzac test and SoO already there.

So what won't happen in one game, that would prove disastrous in 3, or 4?

You can only develop international teams where the game is played to a certain concentration. RL is only played in any numbers in Australia, New Zealand, UK, France and SSI - even RU and Cricket have double that in terms of countries that participate in reasonable numbers.

If England RU only played Australia and NZ every year the international game and got beat or played Japan every year and won by a huge margin the international would stagnate. England playing France/Wales in the middle of the season is a waste of time. Playing a one off game mid season against a southern hemisphere side is impractical - no other sport does that.

If we could compete with the clubs in the NRL than a 8 team WCC would be a unique spectacle - we have seen 40k attendances for these games in the past. The key is to strengthen the club game both financially and playing standards wise and then you have a product to sell.