Quote: Wellsy13 "So you would think it would be a good idea for someone like say Italy to play regularly against the likes of Australia, New Zealand and England?'"
Yes, i think the international game should consist of international teams playing against each other.
Quote: Wellsy13 "At the end of the day, there aren't enough tier 1 nations at this time for everyone to have regular games against them. There are barely enough for them to have regular games against each other. And there is barely enough room in the international calendar to fit in the odd game against other nations when they are at full strength (no tier 2 nation will ever be full strength mid-season due to lack of player depth and clubs not releasing players).'"
So why waste one of the very few international dates we have, not playing international rugby?
Quote: Wellsy13 "Headhunter is suggesting that England Knights is a bad idea because we are encouraging players to not play for the Celtic nations due to "false hope" that they may play for England. Basically, without it, their only way to play representative rugby would be for another nation that they qualify for or wait a long time and risk not being in the shop window of international rugby league (which could be limiting to their career).'"
And they dont have the chances choosing to playing for the Celtic nations. A players options are chose a celtic nation and play in secondary international tournaments and never have an opportunity to play in the primary ones or the play against the tier one nations, or chose to play for the Knights and play in the same tournaments and have the opportunity to play against tier one nations. It does incentivise players to chose England to the detriment of the celtic nations. Which is a bad thing. In isolation there is nothing wrong with a Knights side. When added to everything else there is.
Quote: Wellsy13 "Not everyone gets the same opportunity in life. It's a terrible idea to give all nations that are essentially at completely different levels the same opportunity. Players in Scotland, Ireland, anywhere in mainland Europe outside France, etc. don't have the same opportunities as those with SL clubs near them. They have to move to make a career, or they can stay at their club and hope it builds to something. It is very similar (not the same) with international RL. You cannot expect Kenya RL to have the same opportunity as NZRL. That's life. Not everyone gets the same opportunities because of how well developed the game is in certain areas, and having them play games against England, New Zealand and Australia regularly (and get stuffed) isn't going to improve the situation. In fact, I'd go as far as saying it would be MORE damaging. Players want to be playing competitively. Playing a team that is way out of your league constantly will not encourage anybody. It will just drain morale.'"
They dont compete at different levels, they compete at the same level. There is only one International Level. Competition will dictate largely that the better teams will play each other more often because the latter stages of competitions will only include these sides. But we dont have that. Kenya RL dont have the opportunity to earn their chance to test themselves. One northern hemisphere side every 4 years gets that chance. Its a less than token effort.