I'd class playing for your country a little higher than a friendly game.

I quite like the series, gives the new viewer something to root for when its England v Australia.

Judging from Twitter its already converting some people over from non heartland areas and surely that's the goal.

It's been good. Our game wasn't the best quality but nobody could accuse the players of playing them like friendlies. The crowds have been good and the passion on show has been admirable.

Good luck tonight by the way. I think you've got a real chance! They're a top side but you're full of confidence and unlike us last night, have a good bit of size to try and combat what they'll throw at you (good side I suppose with the Burgess twins trundling it up and guys the size of Inglis in the backs).

Exactly.

Put it out as friendlies and warm ups or saying the cup match is the only match worth anything is not exactly a sales mans dream. He can't sell that to anyone outside of RL. Hell even most RL fans don't turn up for friendlies.

But selling it as a series between SL and the NRL ie England v Austrailia, that's something the marketing men can sell outside of the game. Which will attract more corporate money to the game.

People bemoan SL not having any money, not being able to keep hold of the talent, but then in the next breath will call it all a waste of time and a friendly.

Sell it as a series of games between SL and the NRL and get the casual watcher to turn in, just like the casual watcher will take in a football game, a Cricket 20/20 or test match or a RU game.

More casual watchers is what the game needs. This series will then get people looking for the next big match, maybe MW, maybe the CC final, the GF or an international game.

So far its been pretty good, hope the boys go out and show what they can do tonight and bring the bacon home for Saints/SL and the UK.

He's not on about that, he means when club sides used to play the rest of the touring Aussie squads midweek.

For nothing, other than pride.

But Wigan played a team that finished 8th in NRL that went out in round one play offs. They brought 18 players over. Wayne Bennett said pre match that he didn't care about the result. Wayne Bennett said post match that he didn't know it was a series comp and couidnt beleive played golden point!

St George finished 11th in the NRL and was in the world series!


The Aussies ain't took this serious. I bet half the Aussies didn't even watch it. If we are going to do something like this, let's do it proper and not just pick any team who want to come over to come. It's pretty laughable really.

It may help if we also had officials who knew the rules. Just had a "tweet" from an aussie journo friend of mine. Extra time golden point is 10 minutes (5 minutes each way). So Wigan should have had the advantage of pinning Brisbane back in that second half of extra time.

Come on! remember the Aussie season has not even started, have you forgot even what Saints looked like in the first few games? but now with some real match time under their belts it is a different ball game.

And they still beat our top teams! That makes it worse that two poor NRL teams who ain't played any rugby can fly half way around the world and beat us in a game they don't really care about!

That's all lovely in make believe fairy dust land, back in the real world we had to work with what was available - and that was Brisbane, St George and Souths.

This is effectively a "proof of concept" series. It's far from perfect but it will prove that these games can be hosted, the fans will turn out, Sky will build them up, they will make money and they are close games.

Having watched the first two (and attended the Wigan game) I can safely say I very much hope we build on this, although I admit it's easier to "do a Bennett", talk everything down and don't even try.

I'm not trying to make direct comparisons but its important to remember State of Origin was a failure nobody cared about for a few years.

We should give this a good few years to grow as it clearly engages casual supporters.

We weren't playing NRL rules. Stop moaning.